Mazda MX-5
Kind-hearted Murray lets his girlfriend borrow his MX-5. It doesn’t go well…
1996 MAZDA MX-5
Picture the scene. It’s the evening of 26 May – the Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend. The sun is shining, birds are (probably) singing, and my girlfriend has just offered to drive me to the pub for dinner. Life is good. Better yet, she’s been using my beloved MX-5 to get her to work and back, so she can drive me in that. What could possibly go wrong?
Emily picks me up from CCW Towers here in Peterborough with the roof down, our destination the Fitzwilliam Arms in nearby Marholm. I hop in the Mazda and Emily informs me that she’s really enjoyed driving the MX-5.
I’d previously wondered what she’d make of her first rear-wheel drive experience, but she says that it didn’t really matter to her. A little more pushing elicits a more detailed verdict on the Mazda’s driving dynamics, in which she likens it to a go-kart, albeit one with heavy unassisted steering. She approves wholeheartedly of its convertible nature, too.
Anyway, back to the journey. We pull into the pub car park, and swing casually into a slot. Then – crunch. I watch from the passenger seat in disbelief as Emily drives the MX-5 straight into a wooden post.
The car slumps to a stop and a stunned silence envelops the cockpit like the aftermath of a runaway train that’s just smashed through a buffer stop. I speak first. ‘What on earth? Didn’t you see that?’ I can’t repeat Emily’s reply here. Nevertheless, the damage is done.
Stepping out of the car reveals the extent of the car’s injuries – amazingly, nothing worse than another scrape on an already scratched and generally grubby exterior. I haven’t brought myself to attempt a fix yet, and suspect that I’ll end up just leaving it. If anyone has any advice on how to get wood out of an MX-5 front bumper, though, please do write in.
Some classic owners often call the MX-5 boring, so spinning this minor setback into a positive, at least mine’s now unique – the only MX-5 Woodie I’ve ever come across.
I should probably apologise to the owners of the pub too, though I will say that no parking posts were damaged in the making of this report.
At least I got a free meal out of it.
’We pull into the pub car park and – crunch. The MX-5 hits a wooden post’