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.
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| Yes, the roof down in just above freezing temperature |
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| And it has the coolest things ever fitted on a car, pop-up headlights. |
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| In the cockpit there's nothing to distract you from the road. |
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| This example was not in the best of shapes, but still huge fun. |
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| All the generations of the iconic Mazda MX-5 Miata. |
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