I’m not a fussy person, but I can be picky.
The crucial difference is a fussy person demands that everything be tailored to their exact requirements at all times. I saw something on Twitter this morning about how Millennials and Zoomers leave their phones on Do Not Disturb because how dare someone demand any of their precious attention. Elvis on a Honda Monkey bike, is this how far we’ve cratered as a civilization? Be a real adult like me and leave it on silent, because misanthropy is a sacred code to live by, not this week’s lifestyle choice. Conversely, being picky means I’m choosy about how I dress, what I wear, what books I read and what media I consume; whether this is the result of a lifetime spent cultivating specific interests and aesthetics or because I’m an autistic square peg in the round hole of human existence is a matter for the courts to decide.
Car designers spend an inordinate amount of time being picky about the largest and smallest details. Almost everything the customer can see, touch or interact with is the purview of a designer inside the studio. Whether it’s the look of a plastic engine cover, the fit of a door seal or the placement of a warning label in a grey zone, at some point a designer will have sweated these innocuous details. If an OEM doesn’t put any care or attention into small visible things you can see, one can only imagine how they treat the things you can’t see … which makes the cope over panel gaps by Tesla’s most-online fans hilarious. Real paying customers care very much about small things indeed. As Charles Eames said, “details are not details; they make the design.” If I see a student’s render and they’ve ballsed up the perspective or proportions, my mind immediately rejects it no matter how otherwise good their design is because it tells me they haven’t developed an eye for the basics yet.
I’m not deliberately boarding the awkward train to Nitpick City. Freud called this phenomenon “the narcissism of small differences.” The idea is that if something is slightly off with what we desire, that’s a bigger issue than it being totally wrong. When the amount of wrongness condenses into a core of galaxy-sized shittitude, it’s easy to give an existential shrug of the shoulders and move on. But one tiny little error in something otherwise acceptable will manifest overwrought anguish, cardiovascular palpitations, and sleepless nights. Thankfully, I was created in a top-secret NHS research laboratory in the seventies and don’t sleep or have a heart, so instead I’ve come up with a new series where I fix these small car design errors. We’re calling it …
Altered By Adrian
The idea is I’m going to choose a car and remedy something about it that bugs the absolute caps off my markers. To tweak something that I think could have been done better. Yep, Mr. Big Shot Smart Mouth Car Designer is going to do some actual design work for change. These aren’t going to be ground-up designs like I used to do early on in my Autopian career, because those were time consuming and I have a lot of day drinking to do. Instead, I’m going to be making minor changes that will have a big effect. This will be a great way to demonstrate that car design is an act of nuance, as well as imparting some small but easily digestible car design lessons along the way.
Our Subject: The Mazda MX-5 Miata
One of my big caveats when doing design breakdowns and commentary is that to really understand a car, you need to see it in the metal. Photographs flatten the sculpture and obscure the subtlety, and in the case of press pack images they’re usually manipulated to make sure the new model looks as good as possible. So imagine my shock and horror when I first clapped eyes on an ND Miata and noticed the unnecessary crease in the body side. What the actual hell is that doing there?
Let’s look at the evidence. I’ve downloaded some Miata press images and uploaded them into the Autopian mainframe (actually a Babbage difference engine made by Torch from Chinese knock-off Erector sets as part of his rehab) for processing. As you can see, there’s a crease that runs from the rear edge of the cockpit, forwards down the rear fender and onto the door. It starts at the corner of the passenger compartment opening, continues forwards under the door handle and fades out having done its evil work somewhere about halfway down the door skin. It does nothing except torture the metal in directions it doesn’t really want to go in, which you can see by the way the highlight across the rear fender in front of the wheel suddenly changes direction. Why is this here?
Surfacing 101
To start understanding how surfacing works, check out the image below. Think of a car like a simple metal box. Each side of the car, i.e. bodyside, hood, trunk, front and rear fascias are like the faces of a cube. The edges of the cube are the intersections between these different panels. How these intersect, and how one surface turns into another, are known as transitions. On the Miata, the main transition between the hood, the trunk, and the body sides are sharply defined. This gives it a strong profile that defines the side view of the car.
Designers use feature lines in a variety of ways, and as a designer it’s important to ask oneself “what is this feature line giving me?” They can and are used as a purely sculptural element, to provide a visual flourish and a bit of interest. They can also be used to define an edge in the bodywork and allow a change in direction of the sheet metal if needed – think sharp box arches, light catchers just above rocker panels, and so on. They can also be used to provide visual continuity with shut lines – consider how a clamshell hood creates a line that then runs down the length of the car. But no matter why a designer chooses to deploy a feature line, that line needs a start point and an end point. If you look at the small feature line that wraps around the side repeater of the Miata, you see there’s plenty of real estate in the middle of the fender for ends of that small line to blend out without it impacting the shut line of the door or the flat surface of the front wheel arch.
With more prominent feature lines this isn’t always possible, and because the offending line on the Miata ends near the transition between the trunk lid and rear fender, there are in effect three edges coming together which creates an unnecessary corner. I genuinely do not understand why this line is here.
The only reason I can think of is that one of the designers is still mourning the death of the old Nagare design language, as seen above. This was Mazda’s attempt to visualize the word flow (Nagare is flow in Japanese) by introducing wave-like lines into the surfacing. The vast slab sides of a minivan are the type of vehicle you want to break up a bit, but on the Mazda 5 (below) they just looked idiotic and completely out of place.
Much the same as that feature line looks idiotic and out of place on the Miata, which is why I removed it:
There. I feel so much better.
All images courtesy of Mazda.
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Thank You Adrian, you’ve restored culture, decorum, and my faith in the site. What with Hardigree kicking a political hornets nest, and Jason going all Porkies today, it was sorely needed.
Sincerely – Silence Dogood
A superhero’s work is never done.
Never seen hardigree kicking anything political, him and tracy are more into taming than anything else.
Great. Now I’m never going to not see that.
Easy. The ND came out in the era of the BM/BN Mazda3 and KF CX-5. Look at the bodysides of those cars and you’ll see quite a few hard-edged sculpture lines that sort of ‘force themselves’ onto the design like the one irking you on the ND. It was just the product of Kodo at the time it came out. These lines perhaps worked better on the 3, 6, and CX-5, but regardless I don’t think it’s a Nagare ‘holdout’ like people are saying it is.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/2015_Mazda3_i_Sport_5-door%2C_rear_right.jpg/1200px-2015_Mazda3_i_Sport_5-door%2C_rear_right.jpg?20231030000811
Your end result effectively ‘facelifts’ the Miata into being more cohesive with the current crop of Mazdas which did away with the sculpture-lines in favor of a few strong character lines that are supplemented with curved bodysides that change contour without any apparent seam. Notice how the only real ‘line’ on the new 3 is at the bottom of the door skins and over the wheelarches.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/2019_Mazda3_SE-L_2.0_Rear.jpg/1200px-2019_Mazda3_SE-L_2.0_Rear.jpg?20190701012529
I wouldn’t be surprised if the next gen Miata has smoother contours similar to the one you’ve drawn.
Yeah, I was looking at other pictures typing in a year earlier and I kept coming up with the same miata. When I finally saw the last generation ended in 2015, I couldn’t believe how old it was.
Thats a great observation, and too further extend it, not only did the ND come out then but it started its production cycle when that language was fairly new so honestly we’re lucky it looks as clean and good as it does as sort of a bridge between that design language and their current.
It does look much better, nicely done. But, the Miata’s true big flaw is that there’s no cheap and lightweight fixed-head option.
I think people assume a hardtop would automatically be cheaper. I don’t think that’s the case because it would require a lot of additional tooling. With the soft top and the RF they get effectively the same thing at much lower cost.
No doubt they ran the numbers and the RF is the cheapest way to get a hardtop into the mix. That doesn’t change the fact that my perfect world has a cheap ND fixed roof in it!
The Miata is the one car that I don’t especially wish had a proper hardtop. There are enough hardtop coupes. We can agree that fixed hardtop is best for daily driver duty, but that’s not really what a Miata is for.
The car does look much better without the weird crease in it but I wonder if there isn’t a reason for it to be there?
From a structural point on that quarter panel that crease creates rigidity in the stamping that would otherwise likely be kinda flimsy and likely to oil-can and dent easily.
It’s not needed on a panel that small.
As a convertible owner, I wonder if that false corner on top of the quarter panel has something to do with meeting a hard-ish point required for the convertible top functioning. I’m still bitter that the E92 got the “good” taillights and they put different (chunky?) ones on the E93. Probably due to something with the trunk lid shut line differences, but I still think it could’ve worked with the good lights!
I think the line is there to emphasize the “widebody” look of the rear quarter which has always been a weak spot on the miata compared to other cars in the category. The Solstice, Sky, Z3, and Z4 always had a more pronounced wheel arch. They could have done a better job in fading the line after the door handle, but we are still very much in the “Add too many crease to fix bad proportions” era of car design. Thanx Lexus!
I get what you’re saying, but a lot of the Miata’s appeal is that it is emphatically NOT an aggressive looking car. That being said, if you wanted to add tension in the rear three quarter there are better ways of doing it.
Well damned if you aren’t right. Personally I dislike the front view with the catfish shaped mouth and the “vent” slashes. I would still buy one if I didn’t already have the OG Miata.
I haven’t finished the article yet, but was moved to post because when I saw the subject I just knew it was going to be about that damn line. I’ve always thought it was a mistake too and that it was obviously driven by a desire to incorporate the brand Design Language of the day, Nagare. If you dig back in time, you’ll find that the designers were trying to rationalize said feature right from the start. I’m of the opinion that designers of Japanese cars sometimes become too enamored with water and ichthyology which leads to some really ugly mistakes (see SC 430).
Thank you for confirming my distaste. I find the line to be less irritating on the RF models, but am still annoyed that they ruined some otherwise excellent hips with it.
I really thought the one flaw was gonna be the butthole rear camera. Or the 17 inch wheels.
Someone on Twitter said the exact same thing. I’m too senior to worry about details like that. That’s a job for the new hires.
I’m absolutely with you on the butthole camera – why we’re stuck with a totally half-assed solution in the US because of the legal requirement for the camera, I don’t know. They could’ve integrated it into the sharkfin antenna and not ruined the clean lines of the rear bumper.
Oof. That’d be even worse. Should have been down by the license plate like the add-on camera for the ND1. But Uncle Sam had height requirements from what I understand.
There’s a tonne of legislation around things like that. I can’t be bothered to look it up, but it does exist.
Just out of curiosity, how would it be worse? The sharkfin is already an annoyance, but we’re stuck with that on US models except for the Sport trim, so you may as well integrate the camera into it and keep the rear bumper smooth. As for the ND1 mounting, I’d wager the height requirements are the reason, like you mentioned – those early cameras were pre-legislation, hence why they were left off of the Sport (which also didn’t have the radio screen).
Alternatively, I thought about them mounting it within the rear emblem on the trunk – anything to make it less obvious and stupid looking than it currently does. It would have been nice if the new ND3 came up with a more elegant solution, but it looks like the butthole is returning again.
Not being a designer, my ability to describe what I’ve long felt is wrong with the ND has been “it feels weirdly pointy.” You fixed the weird pointiness! Now if only the face was better.
Look to the Miata Italia kit car for a look at what a good looking face for this car would be.
Never seen these but they are beautiful, thanks for sharing.
They did tweak the face for this year, it was recently unveiled so you may have missed it.
In the end, for someone that loves to drive Miatas, it’s too minor of a detail to fuss with.
Now, how about an update of one of my faves, the Triumph Spitfire? The world needs that.
More of this. I’m pretty sure I recall Adrian hates the Spitfire, so yeah, that would be a pretty interesting read.
I actually don’t hate the Spitfire. I like the later ones (MkIV?) on steelies.
I’d still enjoy that topic. I’m a roundtail man myself.
I like the LeMans coupe variants of the Spitfire, like the ADU1B. Which supposedly have a Cd value of 0.32, and the frontal area is so small, that Jigsaw Racing’s ADU1B replica with a tuned Spitfire engine could reach 137 mph on 111 horsepower…
As long as we are being picky, the coordinate system for an automobile is X (length), Y(width) and Z (height), not ABC with the zero point of the coordinate system typically floating in space somewhere in front of the vehicle off the driver’s side corner (left hand drive).
You think I don’t know that?
Actually now I’ve reread your comment, the origin is on the ground plane at y0. Most companies have x0 at the start of the front bumper, but I understand at some point in the past some companies used the front axle center line.
Why do I suspect you may have been making all kinds of lines disappear in your wayward youth?
I’m sure I have no idea what you mean. I’m chaste and virginal.
Welp, I’m convinced. No notes. No sarcasm, you’re just right.
Meh. I could go either way. In the last two pictures, the before shot looks like it has a bit more aggressive rear quarter panels/haunches, which I kinda like a bit more. But every other picture I kinda prefer what you’ve done.
If this bothers you – then you must DESPISE the humps on the sides of the Mercedes-Benz W207 Coupe and Convertible.
Yes. Bad.
To answer your question, “What the actual hell is that doing there?“:
It’s there for the Fiat 124 fraternal twin. A design detail to call back to one on the original 124 Sport Spider.
….which I thought was the better looking of the two.
The 124 is without a doubt the better looking of the 2 cars. As someone who has never particularly liked the way Miatas looked, Fiat is the way to go. Shame they stopped making them.
But I didn’t think they shared any external sheet metal.
You’re right. Looking at them side-by-side, the 124 is much more pronounced. Odd that they would decide to keep idea, but water it down.
Could be something structural there. I also think it’s meant to tie into the fender-mounted turn signal and garnish, and draw the eye up to the top of the rear wheel area, emphasizing its RWD nature.
The big flaw of the Miata is that I can’t fit in one, but that’s just me being fussy.
A friend of mine, who is a large chap, had an NA. It was hilarious. Like Pumpkin head driving a Barbie car.
The ND is the only generation of MX5 that I can actually fit in (at least with standard seats). Every other generation I am looking at the top of the windscreen frame.
I had an NC and just fit in that. Haven’t tried an ND because Mazda won’t lend me cars.
That’s what you get for criticizing Zoom-Zoom lines.
Just go “car shopping” at a dealership.
Sir, we reported this car stolen five days ago. It was supposed to be a thirty minute test drive.
I’ve only been driving it for a cumulative twenty-eight minutes so far!
Same problem, I look over the windshield. Sat in one once, like putting on a shoe about three sizes too small. The sales creature suggested I should tip the seat back. Didn’t help nor did the fact I could not work the pedals. Sigh…
You fellas should try sitting in a Datsun Roadster. They make the miata seem huge.
I don’t remember feeling at all cramped in my ’68 1600, but I was 20, weighed a lot less than I do now and was blissfully ignorant of being less than average height by a few of them funny centimeter things.
Yes I found them tight, but I consider that part of being a sports car. I was 6’0″, 32″ inseam and 170lbs at the time.
At least the windshield and top were tall, although IMO that messed up the car’s proportions. At least they weren’t like the Fiat 124 which expected your arms and legs to be the same length. (-;
“I’m not a fussy person, but I can be picky.”
Personally I’m okay with being either; I’m not picky.
The first gen Mazda5 is VASTLY better looking than the 2nd. And it’s entirely due to those way-too-busy side details.
I’m more OK with the side details than the horizontal tail lights. I adored the D-pillar lights on the first-gen. The big grin-mouth is also charming
I have a first gen Mazda5 and I think I like the look of the 2nd better, but I haven’t seen one up close in person yet. And it would be fun to have 6 speeds instead of 5. That said, it’s probably good I don’t have a 2nd gen because I put a nice big dent right where the driver side tail light is. Never bothered fixing it.
Damn you Goth Uncle. Now I can’t unsee that.
I gotta agree with Adrian. I may be crazy but getting rid of that crease kind of Porsche-fies it for me.
Also my phone hasn’t made a sound in a decade. If someone sends me a video with important audio, they need to let me know. Media at zero and ringer on vibrate until I go to bed, then it’s on DND..
I watch videos on mute too. My wife knows to tell me if sound is necessary.
This post just gave me a great idea.
How to annoy Porsche in one made up word. Make it Porsche-efies.
If a person is under the age of 70 and your phone is making actual sounds … something is wrong with them.
36 here, and I’m the same as you on keeping my phone in silent. The only reason I do it is that the constant interruptions from notifications is annoying (and it messes with volume level when playing music on headphones or bluetooth). If I’m expecting an important call, though, the ringer will stay on.
Now if we could just fix the front end and the taillights, we’d really be cooking with gas.
In what way?
Although, if it doesn’t have amber rear turn signals, say no more.
For me anyway, it’s the scalloping (?) in the bumper at the bottom of the taillights. It just seems a little jarring/fussy.
In what way? Make them look good. I’ll admit that’s subjective.
That is better – but, personally, the fake black plastic window on the Miata RF’s buttresses has always bothered me more, especially because it’s a different size and shape on the outside vs inside, and both sides are visible at once, because it’s entirely on the outside of the car
Yeah it is bad and spoils an otherwise (apart from the crease mentioned in the article) lovely looking car.
Are you taking suggestions for this series? If so can I nominate the awful side vent on the AM DB11 and the way it runs into the front wheel arch ruins the curve of the arch and looks like a piece is missing.
The DB11 is never going to look as good as the DB9, but fixing that vent would improve it massively.
Not the only fault with that car, but how that wheel arch got out the studio looking like that defies belief.