ASH8

...From WHEELS Magazine, September 2006 Issue...

WHEELS Automotive Design Awards 2006

"Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but form and function lie at the very heart of fine design. The WHEELS Automotive Design Awards, now in their second year, roll 15 contenders before the 12 judges....."

How The Design Awards Work...

Eligibility..
The Design Award program is open to all cars available on the Australian market
during the current year. Cars must be in production; concept vehicles are not
eligible. Each marque may nominate up to three vehicles.

Categories..
The Awards recognise excellence in automotive design across two main categories: Interior Design and Exterior Design. If, in the opinion of the judges, a particular vehicle represents excellence in both areas, it will be recognised with the premier award in the program: the Gold Award for Outstanding Automotive Design.

Assessment Criteria..
Here's the criteria used by the judges in their evaluation of the entries:

. Innovation
. Intelligence of design
. Visual impact and form
. Functionality
. Originality
. Quality and design of manufacture
. Ergonomics and semantics
. Safety
. Environmental considerations

The Contenders...

Audi A8
Audi A6 Avant
BMW M6
Chrysler 300C SRT8
Ford Territory Turbo (Australian Made SUV)
Honda Civic
Jaguar XK Convertible
Lexus IS250
Nissan 350Z
Nissan Murano
Mazda MX-5/Miata
Peugeot 407 Coupe
Land Rover Discovery TDV6 SE
Renault Megane Scenic
Porsche Cayman S
.................................................. .................................................. ...............................
WINNERS......

INTERIOR DESIGN...
Renault Megane

EXTERIOR DESIGN
Porsche Cayman S

BEST OVERALL WINNER
MAZDA MX-5/MIATA
.................................................. .................................................. ..............................

ASH8

What some of the judges thought on the MX-5....

THIS MAY be as good as it gets: on the heels of WHEELS Car Of The Year award, victory As Best Overall in the WHEELS Automotive Design Awards 2006 marks the MX-5 as an outstanding achievement in form, as well as function. It doesn't necessarily follow that good design begets good execution - witness the 2005 Automotive Design Award winning Citroen C4's early elimination from Car Of The Year - but the world's most popular roadster has brought it all home.

With the emphasis on engineering design, rather than performance, the Automotive Design Awards is not a COTY, as WHEELS Editor Ged Bulmer, a judge on both WHEELS awards, is keen to point out. "You find yourself looking at panel gaps, running your hands along edges, looking for things like aperture operation, safety of openings, things like that", explained Bulmer. "In COTY, you just don't have time, because of the dynamic focus, thinking more about the mechanical package. For me, this is about the visual coming-together, but also how things feel.....It's quite a different process."

Unusual among Japanese car makers, Mazda had found itself in the privilege, but prickly, position of having to update an icon. Having taken the safe route a generation earlier, it bravely used this opportunity to introduce a change in direction.

Mazda dropped the big hint at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, in a concept named Ibuki - the name itself meaning 're-energising' or 'adding vigour'. While the oval-themed body contained the very essence of the MX-5 - a sweeping, freehand sketch of the original 1989 model - it was resolutely rooted to the road with wheels it could barely contain.

The word often used for the MX-5's exterior is 'masculine', most obviously due to the bulge, outlined wheel-arches. Those aside, however, the shape is pure, soft and rounded. It's a little pill", said Sally Dominguez. A "jellybean", said John Brown.

Peter Robinson" It's all that it should be. It retains the MX-5's character in a more contemporary form. It's so easy to live with - the roof is in a class of its own, in terms of operation."

Paul Cockburn was relatively unmoved, marking the MX-5 relatively low on innovation and visual aspects, higher on functional points. There was little that actually stood out or advanced the MX-5's cause, he said, comparing it with the mercurial Porsche. "The Porsche....has moments of brilliance that I just love, and I'm prepared to forgive the other things for those moments of brilliance. For me, the Mazda was more an absence of vice."

Richard Ferlazzo differed, praising the Mazda's exterior design detail and execution. "The MX-5's headlamps and tail-lamps are much better worked-on; the Cayman's are boring, just old thinking." He added, "The MX-5 and the Discovery are the two best cars out there, for what they respectively do".

Cockburn's "absence of vice" referred to cool and consistent scoring that carries through to the MX-5's interior. Graham Paver, unable to sit in the Lexus IS250, grinned from behind the MX-5's height-adjustable steering wheel. "Clever repackaging has resulted in a car with obvious parentage, but increased interior space," he noted, though he found the upper windscreen frame still a tad close for comfort. Its seats promise more than they deliver, Paver felt, and that some of the plastic surfaces within its cabin could have been "more refined".

Ultimately, no fewer than eight of the 10 judges gave the nod to the MX-5 as Best
Overall, the next-nearest being the Renault Megane Scenic with two votes.

SO we were left looking at a little red Mazda MX-5 roadster, pure of thought, affordable to buy, and easy to own. Our minds went back to 1989, when we were looking at another little red Mazda MX-5 roadster. The one now before us was some 50mm longer, its windscreen 20mm taller, its body wider by 50mm and tracks wider by 80mm, its drag co-efficient 0.04 better, 125kg heavier, but its cabin vastly roomier and safer.

But it was still a little red Mazda MX-5.

From WHEELS Magazine, September 2006.

ASH8

Not only is the MX-5 WHEELS current Car Of The Year, but, now it has also just won the WHEELS Automotive Design Award for 2006....

IMO the MX-5 is and will go down in history as one of the greatest motoring Icons in the Automotive world...as well as the greatest selling (units) roadster in Automotive history.....


ONYA MAZDA!