FIVE MINUTES WITH TOM MATANO

DAVID SIMISTER: Do you wish anything could have been done differently with the original MX-5?

TOM MATANO: No – it was the best we could do with the technology of the time. For instance, I look back and wish we hadn’t done it with pop-up headlights, because the motors weigh a lot and have an effect on the weight distribution, but it was the only way we could have done it with the technology and legislation at the time. We changed the rear end, too – the Japanese liked the original treatment but the US test clinics didn’t, so we softened the styling to make it more similar to the front end.

DS: Why did Mazda develop the MX-5 when everyone else had dropped their sports cars?

TM: The convertible market was dying at the time and European companies weren’t doing anything to develop their cars. The rubber bumpers on the MGB were a bit of a joke – I remember a guy from MG telling me that they’d wanted to develop new sports cars for years, but management never gave them the go-ahead. We were lucky that we had the right people at the right time, and a company that had vision in the idea. I don’t think that there was a confi dence even then that we would sell that many – the US price was $13,700, which was too low. They could have put it at $15,500 and still had a hit.

DS: That the Lotus Elan provided inspiration for the MX-5 is well documented – was it just this car that came to mind, or did cars like the MGB, ‘Frogeye’ Sprite and Spitfire provide inspiration, too?

TM: It was all of these cars, and more, including the specials that were so popular in the Fifties and Sixties. We tried to get that simple design and the joy of day-to-day driving into the MX-5 – Colin Chapman had a real belief in the benefits of light weight and I admire how Alec Issigonis focused on efficiency with the Mini, but too many car makers had forgotten about this in the Eighties, and were making cars by committee decisions and market clinics. We wanted to bring that simple fun back, so while the Elan was a benchmark in terms of handling, a lot of the convertible design is inspired by MG in particular, too.

DS: Plenty of classics have had their petrol engines taken out and replaced with electric motors – do you think this would spoil the MX-5’s character?

TM: Weight distribution is all important – a sports car with a big, heavy battery just doesn’t work, so while you might gain in acceleration you’d lose the whole character of the car if you lost its cornering ability. How the car feels is really important.