The Mazda MX-5 – More Fun Than Football

It’s coming home. Football that is, apparently. With legions of cars sporting those peculiar little England flags and millions of people staying in to watch The Beautiful Game. But while they’re doing that, we’ve come to the blissfully empty roads of Exmoor to answer a simple question: Are modern cars rubbish?

That’s the perceived wisdom among many enthusiasts. And it’s hard to disagree at times, with talk of the internal combustion engine’s demise, rising traffic volumes and spiralling kerb weights. Those cars that do offer a glimmer of hope are often priced well beyond the means of ordinary enthusiasts or packed with so much power that using them in the real world becomes a test of self-restraint as much as anything else.

Fortunately, there’s one car that bucks this trend. Weighing in at 986kg in its lightest form, you can actually order a brand new MX-5 that’s lighter than the iconic first-generation model was in 1.8-litre spec. Not only that, but its naturally aspirated twin cam engine revs to a joyous 7,500rpm.

This back-to-basics ethos can trace its roots to the very birth of the MX-5. The story goes that American motoring journalist Bob Hall was invited to Mazda’s headquarters in Hiroshima in April 1979 where he met the firm’s R&D chief Kenichi Yamamoto.

Having grown up with a succession of MGs, Triumphs and Austin Healeys, Hall was concerned that emissions legislation and safety concerns were killing off lightweight sports cars. Mazda had gone down its own path with small, rotary-engined coupés like the RX-3 and RX-7; but with the front-engined rear-wheel drive mechanics from the 323 hatchback, Hall suggested that the company had a platform that it could use to build its own interpretation of those classic British sports cars.

During this conversation, Hall sketched a small two-seater sports car on Yamamoto’s chalkboard. The Japanese engineer was so taken with the idea that he later arranged to borrow a Triumph Spitfire and took it out on the winding mountain roads around Hakone, south of Tokyo.

It would be another five years before the origins of the MX-5 started to take shape. This came in the form of the OGG design study carried out by Mazda’s North American development centre in Santa Barbara, California. But it was Yamamoto – by that point, the president of Mazda – who gave the green light to the project, leading to the launch of the Mk1 MX-5 in 1989.

And so we find ourselves in the heart of the English countryside, driving the latest incarnation of a modern Japanese sports car that was inspired by classic British designs and developed largely in America.

This 2.0 GT Sport Tech model produces 181bhp – a healthy amount for a 2-litre naturally aspirated engine, but still 16bhp down on the Ford Fiesta ST, which marks the first serious rung on the hot hatch ladder these days. In its favour, the MX-5 weighs just 1,030kg making it one of the lightest mainstream sports cars that you can buy (though you’ll have to opt for the 1.5-litre version if you want a Mk1-rivalling sub-1,000kg kerb weight).

MX-5 – Hidden depths

Winding our way along the tree-lined roads that skirt the edge of Exmoor, the fourth-generation MX-5 is in its element. There’s a mellow burble to the exhaust that’s not dissimilar to a Mk1, and probably as close to a Triumph Spitfire as modern noise regulations will allow.

The throttle response is crisp and there’s a reasonable amount of torque right through the rev range, but it’s what happens at higher engine speeds that sets the MX-5 apart. Keep your foot down and the little twin cam takes on a whole extra sense of urgency at around 5,500rpm – round about the point that most of its turbocharged counterparts are running out of puff.

It then pulls hard, past peak power at 7,000rpm and right on to the limiter. It’s not quite the full 8,000rpm VTEC experience, but I’m struggling to think of any affordable engine on sale today that revs more freely or responds more keenly.

In another car, this buzzy charge to the red line could grow tiring, but the MX-5 has one of the best manual gearboxes on sale. Its short, weighty throw and perfectly-spaced ratios mean it’s easy to keep things on the boil, while the engine’s peppy responses and the well-placed pedals allow even the most hamfisted among us to heel and toe. 

It may be a sunny evening in the middle of tourist season, but the Great British public clearly has other priorities tonight. The traffic has thinned to non-existence by the time we pass through the village of Simonsbath. It’s then up onto the bare moorland where what’s quite possibly the best driving road in the south of England snakes between the heather.

Here too, you have to lean on the MX-5 quite hard to get the best out of it. There’s a loose-limbed feel to the ride that effortlessly soaks up the worst of the B-road bumps, where some performance cars would start to hop and skip. But even with the sports suspension fitted to this model there’s an initial softness that robs it of a little precision on turn-in. That’s a trait that’s been present ever since the first MX-5, and one that’s easily remedied with coilovers. Another familiar characteristic is that the steering isn’t overly communicative, but this latest model offers as much feedback as any of its predecessors, which is something of a victory when you consider that it’s the first to use electrically-assisted power steering.

Trail the brakes into a corner or allow a moment for the suspension to settle, and it becomes a far more focused machine. That’s especially true with the low-profile tyres and lightweight BBS alloys fitted to this top-spec example. The front end keys into the surface with impressive grip and composure. Then, if you’re committed, it’s possible to steer it with the throttle. And this being an MX-5 you’re still not doing huge speeds or taking up a great deal of space on the road.

True – despite being up to 100kg lighter than the Mk3 it replaced – the Mk4 still doesn’t feel quite as light on its feet as the Mk1. But it also doesn’t feel anything like as flimsy. There’s a very palpable increase in structural stiffness, which makes both the ride and handling feel more precise. If anything, it comes across as a more serious sports car as a result.

All this, of course, is relative. Spend another £20,000 on an Alpine A110 or a Porsche Boxster and you’ll get a two-seat sports car that takes things onto a whole other level again – at least where performance is concerned. But the beauty of the MX-5 is that it’s so much more accessible, not just in terms of financial outlay, but also in the speeds at which it delivers its thrills. 

Sitting in a layby giving the Mazda a chance to cool off, I reflect on the fact that I haven’t seen another car in either direction for a good 10 minutes. That’s partly due to a well-chosen time and place, but it proves that pure driving experiences like this still exist in the modern world, even if you sometimes have to go out and find them. Fortunately, with the MX-5 we’ve got just the car to do that.

I prod the starter button, slot the gearbox into first and head back over the moor just as the referee calls full-time. Threading my way through the lanes with the sunshine on my back and the engine buzzing happily away, I can’t help thinking this must be pretty close to what Hall and Yamamoto had in mind. With the recent revisions to the 2-litre engine, this MX-5 might just be the best one yet. And it’s proof that the affordable sports car is still very much alive.