Mazda MX-5 at 30

It’s 30 years since the Mazda MX-5 reinvigorated the market for small open-top two-seater sports cars. We look back on the story behind this al fresco champion of pure driving entertainment

Celebrating three decades of the sports car big seller

‘Suddenly, sports cars are here again. Not trumped-up shopping trolleys, super fast coupés or chop-top saloons, but real, follicle-wrenching ragtops to succeed the MGB, the Triumph TRs, the Elan and the Spiders from Fiat and Alfa. Rorty, soft-roof two-seaters with their low-set, legs-ahead driving stance, ultra-quick steering and that bundle of compromises familiar to anyone who’s spent a week of winter behind the wheel of an MGB.’ Quite a shopping list then, and not our words; but those of our sister mag CAR, when it first put Mazda’s MX-5 up against its sports car rivals. The problem was, there weren’t exactly many to choose from – Lotus’ new Elan was an obvious contender, but then it went up against TVR’s rather more specialised S2 and the BMW Z1, which cost more than twice the £14,219 the Mazda did when it hit our shores. The MX-5 – first launched almost exactly three decades ago, at 1989’s Chicago Auto Show – wasn’t the only two-seater roadster on offer but it was the one that best resembled the simple, mass market sports cars typified by the Midget and Spitfire. It might not have won CAR’s initial test (whisper it quietly, but they went for the Elan) but it did win the world’s wallets because it was painless to own and a revelation to drive. Here’s the story of how it was launched, told through development shots, early ads and contemporary reviews – and over the page you can find out why we at CCW rate it so highly.

a least at s. scars show h sport sketc l ingof initia think Hall’s awasMazd r,asBob earlie e decad led to this proposal, which The US-led final tweaks the final production version. went on to be used for Britain’s IAD design studio was heavily involved in the MX-5, with boss John Shute joining Mazda Technical Research director, Ituso Ishida, for a test drive in this prototype. Wonder how it compared with the X1/9 behind it?

CCW’s sister title CAR put an early Miata up against a Lotus Elan M100, TVR S2 and BMW Z1 – the latter of which was more than the twice the MX-5’s price.