Mazda's Motorcycle Connection

MAZDA'S MOTORCYCLE CONNECTION

Lynne Cox

AT THE HEART OF EVERY Mazda Miata is a motorcycle-at least that's the way Ruben Archilla and Ken Saward see it. Archilla, a member of Mazda's product-development team, says that the Miata was designed to offer a driving experience akin to riding a motorcycle. Lead Designer Saward agrees. "You get the same sensory feedback riding a motorcycle as you do driving a Miata," he says.

Archilla and Saward would know. They literally grew up on motorcycles. Archilla manned the back of his grandfather's Harley-Davidson Sportster as a child, owned a Honda Z50 at age 6, raced motocross on a Kawasaki KX125 as a teenager, and rode a Suzuki GSX-R750 in college. Professionally, he's worked in the automotive industry for seven years, including a stint with Honda's motorcycle R&D department. Motorcycles have always been part of Saward's life, too. "When I was a kid, my father would take me for rides on the back of his NSU Super Max," he recalls. "It wasn't a big, fast bike, but the thrill was something I'll never forget. By the time I was a teenager, I was riding minibikes. Then, when I got my license, I rode my father's BMW R100S. The first bike that I purchased was a Honda VFR750." These days, Saward and Archilla own Ducatis. Saward has a 1992 750SS and Archilla rides a '95 916. Both were attracted to their bikes'

simplicity-elements of design that Saward said can immedi ately be seen in the Miata. "There's a simplicity of form and line on the Ducati that's genuine and purposeful," he says. "It's a very honest design vocabulary. The Miata is pure in its design statement, as well. It's a classic form, yet modern in its interpretation." i\'Iotorc) des influenced the N'Iiata~ functioii. too. Archilla sass. Part ot'our goal v~as to

make the engine feel responsive rather than simply powerful. I used my motorcycle as an exam ple: You can feel the quick re sponsiveness when you blip the throttle during a downshift, or begin to accelerate. It's the same quick responsiveness from small inputs to the throttle that is so re warding when you ride a motor cycle like the Ducati that we had to capture in the Miata." Emotionally, the Miata was designed to move its driver as a motorcycle does. Says Saward, "Like the Ducati, there's a pu rity' of design that goes beyond aesthetics. It s that feeling of being one with the ma chine and the world around you."