The 2015 Mazda Miata!

According to Autoweek, Mazda is about to show its 2015 Miata at the New York Auto Show next month! It has been a quarter of a century since the original Miata, and it makes sense that Mazda would want to release the Miata on its 25th anniversary.

Autoweek's prediction of the design of the new Miata and Miata-based alfa

This new Miata will be significant for multiple reasons. The first being that Mazda has said that this new Miata will weigh around 2200 pounds, which is insanely light for a modern car. The original Miata weighed about that much, but that was before emissions laws, passenger safety laws, etc. became so stringent. To put this into perspective, a Lotus Elise S weighs about 2000 lbs, but costs twice as much. And if Mazda continues to follow its new design language, the Miata should look a lot more aggressive than the outgoing model.
Another aspect of the huge weight savings, is that the Miata will now be legitimate competition for the Toyobaru twins. Until now, the Miata seemed underpowered when stacked up against the similarly-massed Toyobaru twins, but if the new Miata does have 170 hp and weighs 2200 lbs, that should make it significantly more performance oriented. With Mazda's skyactiv technology, it could be more efficient than the Toyobaru twins, and with the added bonus of being a convertible.
If Mazda does everything the rumors suggest, this car could be just as innovative as the first Miata, and in the meantime, I'm going to start saving for one of these in manual transmission and all white.