Mazda MX-5: 25 years ago the original MX-5 saved the sports car.

A Quarter of A century ago, Mazda rescued the sports car from irrelevance. We hadn’t grown out of love with the idea of an aff ordable rear-drive twoseater, after all, only the dated, unreliable British-built reality. Twenty-five years, and almost one million units later, we’re in Barcelona to drive the latest MX-5, a ground-up, clean-sheet refresh, against a backdrop of sales badly wounded by the recession and shifting tastes. In the late-1970s we ditched sports cars for then new-fangled hot hatches. This time it’s pseudo-sporty SUVs. Can the MX-5 save the genus a second time?

There’s promise in Mazda’s insistence that this fourth generation car owes more to the first than the last. Despite accommodating a quarter century of advances in technology and comfort and the expectation of both the new MX-5 is, at 3915mm long, actually shorter than the 1989 original. The even better news is that it’s very nearly as light. A quoted kerb weight of 1000kg is simply mindblowing, even if, as is almost certain, it turns out to be nearer 1050kg. This isn’t some stripped trackday machine, or carbon-bodied millionaire’s toy. It’s a mostly-steel sports car in full street trim. And, at around £19,000, it costs less than a midspec Kia Ceed. In fact, in real terms it costs less than the original 1989 MX-5. That was priced at £14,249 at launch, cash the Bank of England’s historic infl ation calculator says equates to almost thirty grand today.

If the style of that original car channelled the 1960s Lotus Elan, this new one seems to take cues from BMW’s current Z4, though chief designer Masashi Nakayama denies it. The lines are more gentle, but the long-nose, shortdeck proportions, the pronounced hips, and that dip in the waistline designed specifically to accommodate a draped elbow, are certainly similar. Slicing off the corners helps visually shrink the already tiny overhangs, and we can thank LED light technology and a pop-up bonnet for a nose so low, Mazda claims no production car’s snout hangs closer to the tarmac.

Those dramatically sloping front wings are aluminium this time around, to match the doors and bootlid fashioned from the same material for the third generation in 2005. The front suspension uprights are aluminium now too, as are the bumper reinforcements, and by moving the engine 15mm rearwards to place it fully behind the axle line, and the occupants closer together, Mazda has centralised as much mass as possible.

It’s a proper sports car, not a shopping car in a superhero suit

Beneath the skin, it’s proper sports car stuff , not a shopping car in a superhero suit. You get double wishbones up front, multi-link suspension at the back, and a choice of two naturally aspirated engines (whose cam covers, after a generation in the plastic wilderness, have reverted to looking just like a ’60s Elan’s) driving the rear wheels, with a ladder shaped brace solidly linking the 7kg lighter gearbox and diff.

To underline the sense that this fourth car is a direct continuation of the first generation, rather than the third, Mazda throws me the keys to a Mk1, then throws me into the lion’s den that is Barcelona morning rush hour traffic. It’s 20 years since I drove one of these. Back then it was one of the first 1.8s, brand spanking new and belonging to a friend named Steve, whose plastic packaging magnate dad had bought an identical pair for him and his twin sister on their 21st birthdays. To hell with that running-in nonsense. With Steve’s blessing from the passenger seat, I popped my oversteer cherry while the ink was still drying on his V5, mercifully managing not to crash. He wasn’t so lucky: within two years he’d written off his car, then written off his sister’s for good measure.

I can’t profess to remember everything about that experience, but I know that 20 years on, this Mk1 feels good in the way fondly recalled old cars often don’t: sweet steering, delicious snick-snick gearshift, and pedals so perfectly positioned, you can’t resist rolling onto the brutally sharp throttle with every down change. Above all, it feels light and flickable, reminding just why the MK1 is lauded as the best MX-5 of the lot. Until now, that is. Sorry, old timer, but the game’s up. MX-5 v4.0 is a belter.

The full press launch isn’t for months this is just a brief taster, so we won’t get the chance to try the hotter of the two available engines. That’s a 2.0 with 155bhp, down from the 168bhp of the previous 2.0, but more than compensated for by that 100kg weight reduction, so reckon on 7.5sec to 62mph, and a 140mph top whack.

Project manager Nobuhiro Yamamoto is quick to kill any sense of disappointment that we’ve only got the base 1.5 to play with: ‘For me, this is the ultimate expression of the MX-5; 1.5 engine, 16in wheels, and limited-slip diff erential. This is my favourite.’ And when a man responsible for the rotary engine that powered Japan’s only Le Mans winner, Mazda’s legendary 787B, talks, you tend to listen.

All our expectations are geared towards the drive, but there’s plenty to praise before you’ve turned a wheel in anger. MX-5 obsessives know all about the foamectomy, a Sunday afternoon job that involves hacking down the seat squab to give something resembling the true sports car driving position the old cars always lacked. But this time, there’s no need. The seats are great: supportive, low-slung and built with webbing instead of metal backs for lightness.

There’s still no reach adjustment for the steering too heavy

There’s still no reach adjustment for the steering column though. Some of the engineers liked the idea but it was dismissed on account of the weight penalty. So you sit a fraction closer to the pedals than you might otherwise prefer, but everything else is so right, it’s quickly forgotten. The interior quality historically a Mazda weakness is dramatically better than before, and handsome too. Topspec cars get a tablet-style dash top display, operated with a sensible blend of touch and an iDrive-like controller that’s mounted on the tunnel, just behind a proper old fashioned handbrake. The tops of the door panels are painted in body colour to emphasise the roof-down experience, a nice touch, and one likely to have smart repair specialists rubbing their hands together. Ahead lies a large rev counter, the centrepiece of a three-clock gauge pack, and beyond that, a view of the road uninterrupted by A-pillars. They’ve been shifted 70mm rearwards, a move that’s also made the roof shorter, so it’s easier, both to package, and for you to pull up and down. As handsome up as it is down, it’s manually operated of course, but a cinch to use. One latch in the centre of the header rail releases the top, which then folds behind and clicks neatly into the rear deck. Pull the catch on the rear bulkhead to send it back the other way and the mechanism is so light, it almost lifts itself over your head, while the seats are shaped to make it easy to twist your body to reach. Though Mazda won’t confirm it, given the more than 50 per cent share the old one had, a folding hardtop Roadster Coupe version will likely follow, its neat vertically storing hood tucking behind the seats without stealing boot space, but making life 80kg harder for the little 1.5-litre engine.

The 7500prm redline clues you in on the 1.5’s demeanour before you’ve even pushed the starter button (if we’re talking sports car purity, a key does it for me). It’s based on the 113bhp direct injection Skyactiv lump in the Mazda 3, but retuned with equal length exhaust manifold pipes, a new cylinder head and fi tted with a strong forged steel crank to withstand the absolute fl ogging it’s destined to receive in its new role. Post-makeover, it still only makes 129bhp, but don’t forget that kerb weight, or that MX-5s have never been about straight-line speed.

And anyway, it’s not exactly slow. Mazda hasn’t released fi gures, but mid-8s to 62mph seems like a good guesstimate, and despite its 111lb ft sounding insuffi cient to pull a sapling from powdery topsoil, there’s actually enough torque to let you bimble in traffi c if you must. But inevitably, you fi nd yourself throwing extra gearshifts in at every opportunity, because you can, and because the satisfaction of working a lever-and-pedal setup this good is worth so much more than a tenth saved by a modern dual-clutch ‘box. There will be an auto option for some markets, but it’s not coming to the UK, to save you making a catastrophic error of judgement.

The 1.5 makes 129bhp, but don’t forget that low kerb weight

Mazda’s guys worked so hard to make this engine sound right, that they even agreed to add 50g of extra material on to the diff carrier, which helped generate the right frequencies. Just imagine the self flagellation that accompanied a decision like that from a team who has spent years shaving anything from everything. You’d never call the soundtrack soulful, but it’s got a pleasingly hard edge to it, and it’s all real. No hi-fi speaker fakery going on here. And no need for heavy hybrid clobber to deliver decent economy either. If the MX-5 meets its 139g/km CO2 target, it should be good for close to 50mpg.

They’re not the only sums Mazda’s engineers got right. It takes all of half a corner to realise that this chassis is a very special bit of kit. The spec sheet quotes a dreamy 50:50 weight distribution, and you can feel it in the way the nose dives into each corner, the entire car revolving around you. There’s a little body roll, maybe a touch too much when you’re really pushing hard, but this MX-5 is better balanced than a scrapyard Escort teetering three cars high.

The steering is quick quicker than the 2.5-turns between locks suggests, because one of the great joys of rearwheel drive is having the turning circle of a black cab and powered by an electric motor mounted below the rack. Like Porsche’s first attempts at electric, it’s possibly a little too refined for some tastes, but it’s linearity is a real ally, its lightness lending the car a properly flickable feel, and whether it’s a cats eye or a kerb, you can pick your spot, and know you’ll clip it perfectly.

On cold tyres, or a damp or greasy road, there’s even the chance to rotate around those spots, that perfect chassis balance and quick-witted steering making this the ultimate learner-friendly oversteer machine, especially with this car’s limited-slip diff, something base cars won’t have. But most style-conscious buyers will probably plump for 17in rubber, and even the modest-looking 195/50 16 tyres on our test cars offered more dry traction than the 1.5 could defeat. Perhaps the 2.0, with its 148lb ft, will have more luck. We won’t know until the summer, but as much as I appreciate that the MX-5 has never been about outright speed, I can’t help but wonder if the 2.0 might be more entertaining, if only because the chassis is clearly capable of handling so much more.

For most buyers, though, the 1.5 is going to be all the MX-5 they’ll ever need. This car’s unenviable remit, remember, is to keep housewives as happy as your trackday lovers. And with that in mind, Mazda has got this car pretty much bang on. Entertaining, practical and affordable, this entry-level MX-5 is a very smart car. Smarter than it ever needed to be given that there is no other proper rear-wheel drive open-top sports car available for less than £20,000 that doesn’t arrive at your house in crates.

This latest MX-5 is to sports cars what the original Focus was to small family hatchbacks 15 years ago. Those with only a superficial interest in cars but a fancy for something sporty will buy it because it looks nice, and because it’s the default choice in a class of one. But for the likes of us, who care a little more, both from a technical and dynamic standpoint, it’s so much more than that.

Price : £19,50
Engine : 1496cc 16v 4cyl, 129bhp @ 7000rpm, 111lb ft @ 4800rpm
Gearbox : Six-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Performance : 8.7sec 0-62mph, 125mph, 47mpg, 139g/km (all est)
Weight/made from : 1000kg/steel, aluminium
On Sale : Summer 2015