Unsurprisingly, this barchetta-style Miata is the work of an engineer (David Galliano) and an Italian car journalist (Omar Abu Eideh). Even in Europe Miata is always the answer. The genesis of this particular vehicle, also unsuprisingly, seems to have started over drinks: The result of a long brainstorming is the “NM concept”: it’s a Naked Monoposto (italian for single-seater) made from a restored NA. It has a modified chassis and improved components. A light and powerful little “barchetta” (in Italy this name defines a sports car without the windshield), faithful to the original mechanical architecture – made of a four-cylinder front engine, manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive – and designed to enhance the pure analogue driving pleasure.
The door sills have been raised halfway up the vehicle to add more structural rigidity and better crash protection. The windshield is gone, as is the passenger compartment, and instead there’s a single opening for the (presumably) helmeted driver. The little pod behind the driver features an integrated roll bar, since this is something you’d definitely be encouraged to drive to the track. As with all things Miata, the shorter you are the better everything will work. If there’s one detail I’m glad they didn’t change is the nose. Other than the addition of a black splitter, the large opening and pop-up headlights are more-or-less where you expect them.
Inside, gauges are borrowed from the ND Miata and the driver is given the bare minimum of what’s needed: A MOMO steering wheel, a shifter, an e-brake, an ignition button and not much else. What’s the point of the ND gauges? Besides being modern, they pair well with the ND-supplied 2.0-liter Mazda four-banger. The engine is seemingly stock and produces 181 horsepower in stock form, or 225 horsepower with the optional power kit. The original NA Miata had 116 horsepower, so this is a nice upgrade, especially when you consider the option for a sub-2,000-pound curb weight.
This isn’t just a one-off, either, as Gorgona Cars wants to build a few of these things for interested parties at a cost of approximately €70,000, which is approximately $70,000 depending on when you check. A limited-run, handbuilt-in-Italy Miata might seem like a ridiculous notion when used ones are still fairly cheap, but I find this oddly alluring and extremely thoughtful.
Plus, the wait’s gotta be shorter than for a Singer. To this day she still owns that exact car. It has 138k on it now and she’s put a lot of blood sweat and tears into keeping it in nice shape. It’s also the car I learned to drive stick on, and I still go out to visit and drive it with her a few times a year. It’s a magical car and the NA driving experience holds up to this day. …so I am certainly the type of person this would appeal to, but for 70k? It ain’t THAT cool. For that much I’d rather have a 718 Boxster…I’ll bet a manual S that’s almost new is our there for that kind of scratch. I love this, but part of what makes the Miata so great is the fact that it’s the working class sports car…and there ain’t nothing working class about 70 grand. That puts this firmly in the “rich people toy” category, where the Miata should never be. It’s also not quite what I want out of a Miata. To me, one of the greatest things about Miatas is how accessible and usable they are. You get two seats, so a friend can come along. You get a roof, so you can use it in the rain. You get a trunk that’s just big enough that you can use the car on a daily basis. And they’re cheap, so anyone can have one. This car is none of those things. That’s fine, there’s a fine old tradition of taking Miatas and turning them into whatever suits your vision, but it doesn’t work for me. I don’t think it’s pretty, and I wouldn’t want to own it. I’ll stick with my still-mostly-stock 96M. I just finished that clutch job an hour ago, so it’s time to get some driving in before the snow hits! Now, this does remind me of another one-off yellow NA that I absolutely adore. We can’t post pictures, but do yourself a favor and Google “Mazda MX-5 M Coupe Concept,” then come back here and tell me you don’t want to live in a world where that thing got put into production. I personally think the NB suits the coupe body better than the NA anyway. Legally importable without show-and-display in 2028. But someone with more knowledge than I – does the NA code stand for something? Always wondered. (and don’t judge me! I once convinced a girlfriend to buy one, and then promptly drove it way more than she ever did. And no, I did NOT love it more than her, despite what she’d claim…) I actually did wonder if it stood for “North America” (that’s what the N in SN95 Mustang stands for), but recalled the Miata was sold in both Japan and Europe (Miata > Eunos though…Ford figured out a long time ago that alliteration is a great thing in the car biz) originally so I wasn’t sure. One of the things I like about old Triumphs and MGs is how easy it is to remove the windshield which is lovely at 30mph or less and makes a 60mph trip to the store an memorable adventure. A kit to do this to my own NA would get my money. Love the MOMO wheel, though. I had a similar one in my NA Miata. It now lives in the MG. But regardless, I’d love to hoon the hell out of either of them. Personally, I’d like to see the Miata turned into a streamlined coupe with a Cd in the low 0.2X range(or less), with a Miata Italia front end, round tail lights like a classic Ferrari, no stylized vents and other crap but instead a shape that’s clean to the airflow with just enough cooling air going where it needs to(and no more, and via NACA ducts that minimize drag), and then shove a modern 3L Skyactive inline-6 in it. With optimized gearing, such a thing could be a 200+ mph car that gets 50+ mpg highway when driven normally, and it wouldn’t cost appreciably more to build than the current Miata that is made. For $70k, I could have the above custom built for me out of an NA or NB Miata. Maybe even make it a diesel with the 3.3L Skyactive D tuned to roughly the same power as the gas variant. The NA body style is too stubby for the streamliner treatment, it just looks tacked on. The head fairing execution is particularly amateurish. The doors are a useless gimmick. With an ND engine, I am sure it screams but an Exocet https://exomotive.com/exocet/ is much cheaper for the same or better performance. I applaud the effort but its a hard pass on the execution. The absolute joy of my 2021 ND Miata is that it can be very fun “point A to point B” car if I plan carefully. But a $70K “point A to point A” car just doesn’t fit into my life in any meaningful way. If I ever get into taking a car to the track, I’d probably not want this either. I’d look into an old ratty track car to abuse.
