AUTOMOTIVE
Compiled by John O'Dell, Times staff writer
Designing People: The fact that the Mazda Miata roadster was designed in Irvine has become part of automotive lore.
But the designers toiling in the concrete tilt-up building on Redhill Avenue have done a few more cars since the two-seater was introduced in 1989. Most recently, the 1995 Mazda Protege and the top-of-the-line Mazda Millenia were penned in Irvine.
The Millenia is the same car that Mazda was going to use to launch its quasi-independent U.S. luxury nameplate, Amati, until economic troubles in Japan canceled the project.
