The Mazda Miata RF Is a Mini Porsche 911 Targa

From Road & Track

Thanks to the success of the NC-generation Miata's power hardtop, Mazda had no choice but to introduce a retractable hardtop for the lovely, excellent, great, and wonderful ND-generation car. But instead of just making a small hardtop that looks exactly the same as the soft top, the team at Mazda decided to go a little coo coo bananas instead.

The car is called the RF for "retractable fastback," which means this is as close as we're going to get to a coupe-version of the new Miata. In fact, at first glance, it might be hard to tell how the top goes down, since there seem to be a lot of moving parts and weight to shift.

It actually works very similarly to the way the 911 Targa works. It lifts up the entire rear deck and then pops the top below. When it's done, you're left with a Miata that isn't a coupe but also isn't quite a convertible. It's a targa. Targas are great. This is a good thing.

Here's an illustration of how the whole act goes down:

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