It’s the new Mazda MX-5*!

Good news! We've been given the very first picture of the brand-new Mazda MX-5.

Bad news! It's only a picture of the chassis, so unless you are proficient in ChassisSpeak, we'll have to wait a bit to see the whole thing.

Unveiled at the New York Motor Show, Mazda has revealed this ‘Skyactiv-Chassis' for the first time, showcasing the next-gen MX-5's front-midship engine and rear-wheel-drive layout.

We're promised this new car will be a more compact configuration than the Mazda MX-5 before it, with the engine slotted in closer to the centre of the car, and the centre of gravity lower than ever before, too.

Mazda has been busy with the weight loss too, shedding some 100kg off the overall weight. So if we take today's MX-5 kerbweight at 1230kg, the new one will tip the scales at around 1130kg, which is really quite light. An MX-5 Superleggera, if you will.

"The original concept behind the MX-5 was so simple, to offer the pure joy of a lightweight sportscar that moves precisely as the driver intends," Mazda chief Takashi Yamanouchi said. "We have had to continually reinvent the MX-5 - far beyond simple evolution - in order to stay true to that original ideal."

To that end, Mazda is also showing off a 25th anniversary edition of the current sportscar, which gets the 2.0-litre, 156bhp engine, a set of Bilstein dampers, an exclusive ‘soul red' body colour, black roof, off-white leather upholstery and door trim, a hand-finished dashboard panel and 17in gunmetal grey alloy wheels.

Oh, and here's a fun fact for you to chew on: since its launch in 1989, the Mazda MX-5 holds the Guinness World Record for the best selling two-seater sportscar, with nearly one million units produced thus far. We'll see the all-new version at the Paris show this autumn...