Future legend!

This past weekend I got the pleasure to drive an old Mazda MX-5. It was my first driving experience in a low riding two-seater and it was an absolute joy. So I thought that I'd write about it. The car not my driving.

As you all know the Mazda MX-5, or Mazda Miata as it's known in the States, is one of the most if not the most iconic sports car of all time. It was introduced in 1989 and Mazda wanted it to have the feel of a British sports car but with Japanese reliability. A small light weight rear-wheel drive sports car with a 1.6 litre engine putting out a modest 115 hp was the recipe Mazda went with and not surprisingly it worked. It was fast, nimble, good looking and best of all - as in a British sports car - it was a convertible.

The one I drove was with the more powerful 1.8 litre engine that came along in 1994. It has 130 hp but the acceleration from 0-100 kph stays about the same as in the 1.6 litre version at 8.7 seconds. But when that engine came along the people at Mazda decided that the gap between the 1.6 and the 1.8 was to small so they detuned the 1.6 litre engine to only develope 90 hp. Which - as you may imagine - was not a success.

But all in all the Mazda MX-5 has been a success story. Mazda have made over 900 000 of the MX-5 and they haven't stopped yet. It has changed appearance somewhat over the years but the recipe is still the same.  The Mazda MX-5 Miata will go down to the car hall of fame, no question about it.

Oh, and keeping in the theme of future classics, this is certainly a car that belongs there. But the annual special editions or otherwise called M Editions are the ones to look for.

Yes, the roof down in just above freezing temperature

And it has the coolest things ever fitted on a car, pop-up headlights.

In the cockpit there's nothing to distract you from the road.

This example was not in the best of shapes, but still huge fun.

All the generations of the iconic Mazda MX-5 Miata.

Future classics ( in my mind) part I

Now it's time for me to write about something that I have been wanting to talk about for some time now. It's the topic of cars that are going to be future classics.

I'm not going to list obvious future classics like the Alfa Romeo 8C or other exotic cars like Mercedes Benz SLR. I'm going to list cars that are special, have stopped depreciating and cars you can buy today for a relatively small amount of money.

At first a car that has been overshadowed by cars from the same manufacturer: The Ford Mondeo ST200.
It has a 2.5 litre Duratec engine developing 205 horsepower. The V6 takes the car from 0-100 kph in 7.7 seconds. Those numbers don't seem so impressive but we have to keep in mind that not all legends are fire breathing monsters. The ST200 was made only two years (1999-2000) so it's still a fairly modern car which means that there are good ones around. The ST200 was given a colour which would make it differ from other Mondeo's, Imperial Blue. A white colour was also featured but only for police cars. So if you find a white one it's definitely the one to go for. Also, Recaro seats came as standard but the full leather seats were an optional extra. So a white Ford Mondeo ST200 with complete leather seats is the most rare ST200. But to be honest every ST200 in good nick will do nicely.

You can get it as an estate aswell.

If you don't have a dog you can get a liftback or a saloon.

In the cabin there is air-con, leather and blue dials.