Mazda Eunos Roadster
What could go wrong with taking a Mazda to the coast? Plenty, as David discovered
1990 MAZDA EUNOS ROADSTER
The voice on the other end of the phone sounded vaguely exasperated. It was that of editor-at-large and serial ‘Farina fetishist Nick Larkin, who’d just learned that my long-suffering Mazda would be
CCW’s entry onto the London to Brighton Classic Car Run.
‘It’s good to hear that you’re taking the Mazda along’, he deadpanned. ‘But I did hear that they’re taking entries for classic cars as well…’
So it’s no bad thing that H521 was well out of earshot when Nick learned the news – it might’ve hurt the poor Eunos’ feelings – but I’d nominated it for the 70-mile trek simply because I was itching to take it on a proper adventure. The MGB’s had all the fun recently, whereas the Mazda’s covered a piffling 1100 miles since its single malt shopping trip in the Scottish Highlands
( CCW, 4 October, 2017). Mostly on supermarket runs and odd outings to the office, I’m sad to admit.
But one thing definitely needed sorting before it went ventured anywhere near the capital. A patch of peeling lacquer on the driver’s door had worsened over its winter lay-up, and no amount of clumsily applied touch-up was going to mask it. With tail firmly between legs I surrendered the Eunos to Peterborough-based bodywork specialists Paul and Oliver Ince.
Two days later it emerged from its cosmetic surgery with a shiny, even finish across the top of the affected door, and to top things off Oliver had even sorted out a tiny-but-frustrating dent in the car’s offside front wing. There are, as the father-and-son team rightly pointed out, plenty of other little blemishes to sort out once the funds allow, but for now their efforts had paid off. The Mazda was ready to go south.
I needn’t have worried about the Mazda being the odd one out at the run’s starting point in Greenwich Park, because it was one of five MkIs taking part, all of which I had cast-iron confidence would make it to Madeira Drive without so much as a whimper of complaint. In fact, I was so certain of my car’s abilities that on the dual carriageways south of the capital, I began zipping past the older entrants.
But then my luck changed. The Tulip Rally-style directions took wife Natalie and I onto Ditchling Beacon, a perilously steep and narrow stretch of road threading over the top of the South Downs, which meant having to crawl the entire way up the hill behind a group of cyclists. After a completely slick attempt to ease the Mazda past them – or at least that’s what I thought the cyclists shouted – I realised the 3mph uphill crawl in the baking summer heat had sent the Eunos’ coolant gauge soaring towards the red. It’s never run that warm before, and while the rest of the Mazda’s mechanicals behaved impeccably it became worryingly clear that something’s amiss with H521’s cooling system.
Clearly it’s going to need some attention, but I put all that and the prospect of a tense trip home around the M25 to the back of my mind as we finally made it onto Brighton’s seafront. I’m not sure that Nick, who’d travelled to the seafront to report on the run’s finale, could see the brave face I’d put on as the poorly – but still breakdown-free – Mazda limped past the Madeira Drive crowds to a hero’s welcome.
His response, when I revealed the painfully slow climb over Ditchling Beacon and the subsequent hot running, was: ‘Oh, that happens to classic cars as well that, David…’