just curious.

mx-5 is more known as miata now. as i understand, rx-8 = rotary experiment 8, how come there is no nickname for rx-8 at all?

 

"Miata" isn't a nickname, that was the official name for the car in NA for a long time.

I don't know that any RX cars have had nicknames. Not many sports cars do. I can't even think of any off the top of my head besides Godzilla.

 

As far as I know the MX-5 was marketed primarily as the Mazda Miata in America and because it is a fairly distinctive car the name stuck even when Mazda went Mazda went and dropped the "Miata" if you talk to the average person today and you tell them that you drive an MX-5 they probably won't know what you're talking about. If you tell them you have a Miata they'll know what it is.

The RX-7 and RX-8 were marketed as RX-7s and RX-8s so that's just what everyone calls them. The 7s are sometimes referred to by the models (FC, FD) among the enthusiast crowd, probably the same way we're starting to refer to 8s as Series 1 and Series 2

 

xfz is correct. Let me add a little more. In Japan, the cars are named by letter & number combinations. The U.S. manufactures uses names for cars. When Japanese cars were imported to the North America, they renamed some of those cars to make them fit in more with the location. Hence the Miata/MX5. For some cars, the Japanese name is too foreign to N.A., so they give the car a letter/number combination name to make it more acceptable. Would you buy a Fairlady car (Nissan) or in Mazda's case, a Savanna (RX3/7)?
According to Mazda's present nomenclature, R= Rotary & X=Sport. The Miata is a MX, M=Piston & X=Sport.

 

now i see. thanks for the explanation

 

Wasn't that the nickname for Miatas that had a V-8 engine swap?

Many of our RX-8s have personal nicknames. There are at least a couple of threads on that.

Ken