Back in the days of print magazines, there was a Road & Track column in which the prolific British roadster fan Peter Egan searched desperately for the proper shade of British Racing Green to paint his restoration project (we can’t recall what the car was, maybe an Austin-Healey or Morgan). He went to a British car show and looked at all the restored cars there. None of them looked right, until one perfect BRG car stopped him in his tracks. Egan asked the owner what paint he used. Somewhat embarrassed, the owner whispered, “It’s a Mazda Miata color.”
“Of course!” Egan thought to himself. The Japanese always pay attention to the details, he wrote. They probably tested hundreds of shades of green, Jiro Dreams of Sushi-style, to get the quintessential BRG for the NA Miata.
Last weekend at the Karuizawa Meeting in Japan, one of largest gathering of Mazda Roadster owners in the world, Mazda quietly released the Roadster’s latest color. Like most modern Mazda colors, Zinc Green is a complex paint that looks wildly different depending on the light. In some, it looks more green while in others, it can look more gray, almost matte. Additionally, its black interior and gray top are a departure from the saddle upholstery typically paired with dark greens.
While some may decry the lack of a proper BRG, Zinc Green feels appropriate to Mazda today. It’s been 37 years since the Miata’s debut, and frequent comparisons to roadsters of yore no longer feel justified. The Miata is very much its own thing now. In Egan’s day the Mazda was seen as an Asian adaptation of the British roadster, just more refined.
Today, it’s a purely modern sports car and the only affordable open-top two-seater in the world, engineered with a ruthless focus on mechanical purity and volumes of driver-centric movement studies. Even its styling has evolved, an assertive shape that somehow still retains the Miata essence. The Miata need not be fettered to old world motorcars, nor do its colors.
We still go “oof” every time we see a Soul Red Crystal Metallic Miata gleaming in the sun. With it Mazda redefined a color as old as time and distanced itself from the “Classic Red” that’s been used on everything from Fieros to Ferraris.
Mazda says Zinc Green was concocted to feel as proper on the Miata as it does on an SUV, so expect it to propagate across the Mazda portfolio. Announcements on US availability will come later this year.
Uh Oh. I think my BRZ’s days are numbered.
I just hope it’s available on the Club trim level.
I’m fortunate to own a SRCM RF and just last night I was out driving as the sun was setting and the reflection off the hood was perfectly placed and was mesmerizing.
It’s sad that the state of the automotive world is so conservative that most cars offer no interesting colors. Though it’s true colors are starting to appear on certain cars again.
The 80s and 90s were a great time color-wise. Exteriors and interiors (though interior colors went away in the mid-90s when everything went gray or beige).
I specifically wanted a 2021 Miata to get the one year only optional white seats. Who wants to leave their convertible open while they go into a store only to come out and get a 3rd degree burn on their bottom? White seats make so much sense!
Anyway, I’ll have to see this color in person. The last few new colors have been interesting choices but nothing I’d pick for my own car. So far, this is what I’m expecting of this “green.”
I think this color would look great on my 7th gen Celica.
It’s very reminiscent of a green used by Aston Martin.
You make a good point that Mazda is not heavily relying on its past success to leverage towards its future (think Nissan Z, Ford Mustang), and this confidence is especially uncommon for a smaller car company. The green is sophisticated, but I guess it goes with today’s Mazda image as well. The Miata isn’t “cute” anymore, and BRG just wouldn’t work, nor would Mariner Blue, or Sunburst Yellow.
It seems like most automotive car companies have shifted from “fun / simple / lively” to upscale, and therefore the simple colors don’t work anymore. Maybe BMW / Lambo can charge you $2k and put that radioactive neon green on their cars as an attention-getter, but a nice green Mazda 323 ES or Mazda 2 won’t carry over to today’s Miata, for better or worse. Yet another reason a JNC is worth holding onto.