Mazda Miata’s new color is a departure from the green you know

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 concluded. They probably tested hundreds of shades of green to perfect the quintessential BRG for the NA Miata, Jiro Dreams of Sushi-style.

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 light, 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. 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.