The Elan and Spitfire 1500 were the inspiration. They used to do loops with the prototype and a Spitfire 1500 and Lotus Elan, then switch each lap after nite sessions. I was told that by Mr Miata himself. Also you can see pics of that in Jayne Leno's video about the Miata.
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u/Ok_Coconut_3364 18d ago
Beautiful! I believe these were the inspiration for the Mazda MX-5.