The "Sports Car Forum 2010" was held at Mazda R&D Centre Yokohama on September 26, 2010. Sports car enthusiasts gathered and talked about sports cars at this event.
The event received support from MIKI PRESS inc., the Enthu-Car-Guide, and Grand Prix Publishing, and through the cooperation of the Cosmo Sports Owners' club and Roadster Four. Three ex-Mazda sports car chief engineers were invited as speakers; Mr. Hirai, ex-chief engineer of the first generation MX-5, Mr. Kobayakawa, ex-chief engineer of the RX-7, and Mr. Kijima, ex-chief engineer of the second and third-generation MX-5 and RX-7s.
Participants registered for the event via the website and all 160 seats were fully booked within just a few days of registration. Mr. Kobayashi, CEO of MIKI PRESS inc., the event promoter and a sports car enthusiast said, "I'd considered setting an opportunity to enable a discussion about sports car among sports car engineers, sports car enthusiasts and users. That's why I set up this event. Nowadays, mass-produced sports car manufacturers are on the decline. However, Mazda produces and sells two sports cars, the MX-5 and RX-8, and has mass-produced sports cars continuously since the past. Therefore, I felt that Mazda engineers were the most suitable for this event." he commented.
At the forum there were many interesting stories about sports car development and a range of valuable old pictures shown by the speakers. The event finished well past its scheduled time.