News: Mazda & Alfa sports car officially confirmed

We've known about this for a while now, the proposed link-up between Alfa Romeo and Mazda to co-develop replacements for the MX-5 and the Spider, but today, it's official. The contracts have been signed.

According to the statement released this morning, "The new Alfa Romeo roadster will be developed for the global market, and will be based on the architecture of the next generation Mazda MX-5. The agreement foresees for both Mazda and Fiat to develop two differentiated, distinctly styled, iconic and brand-specific roadsters featuring rear-wheel drive. The Mazda and Alfa Romeo variants will each be powered by specific proprietary engines unique to each brand."

Well that's all good news. We've been bleating for years that Alfa's Spider needs to move back to its simple, rear-drive, lightweight roots and being based on a next-gen MX-5 is a pretty good start.

And it's unlikely to be the only collaboration between Mazda and Fiat. Mazda, despite its global prominence, is a small company and needs to establish production and development programmes like this if it's going to prosper, long-term, while Fiat needs new platforms if it's to develop new, large, Alfa Romeo models. It seems to us that Mazda's excellent SkyActiv chassis (as tested this week under the impressive new 6 saloon and estate) would be a natural starting point for a new Alfa saloon...

Just sayin'.

News: Fiat and Mazda get a little closer

 

Mazda  boss Takashi Yamanouchi reckons that Fiat and Mazda will be snuggling up ever closer to one another soon.

Speaking to the press in the aftermath of the Paris Motor Show, Yamanouchi confirmed that the two companies are exploring ever-closer links.

“There’s nothing to announce yet, and nothing that’s certain to happen, but our engineers have been in each other’s plants looking for opportunities," he said. Yamanouchi is due to meet Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne in the next few days and more co-operation programmes may be announced then.

Earlier this year, Fiat and Mazda announced that they would collaborate to build the next-generations of both the MX-5 and Alfa Romeo Spider, with both cars to be made in Mazda's home factory in Hiroshima, based on a common chassis and potentially using the same SkyActiv 1.5-litre petrol engine that Mazda is currently working on.

Mazda certainly needs a new partner, with its relationship with Ford now very much on the back burner, it needs a new platform for the next-generation 2 and 3, and Fiat's versatile Panda and Giulietta chassis would fit the bill nicely there. Likewise, Fiat has always flopped at building larger saloons, but using Mazda's clever and light SkyActiv chassis from the new 6 could potentiallly fix all that. Equally, Mazda's excellent CX-5 crossover could be just the ticket for Alfa Romeo's long-awaited SUV.