Mazda MX-5 nips into top spot

The Mazda MX-5 has stormed home with our Convertible of the Year award.

Lighter, sharper and better engineered than the car it replaces, this fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 does everything right.

The MX-5 has rewritten the record books again and again for sports car sales and its recipe of light weight, driver focus and simple front engine and rear drive layout just has an inherent rightness about it that hasn’t dated.

This rejection of a “more is better” philosophy is a bit of a running theme throughout the MX-5. The car’s offered with either a 1.5-litre 131hp engine or a 2.0-litre 160hp unit. Mazda’s chassis engineers will steer you to the 1.5-litre powerplant, as they feel it’s the purest specification for the MX-5 and also the lightest, tipping the scales at around the tonne.

That makes this the lightest MX-5 since the original, first-generation car of the ’90s.

This fourth-generation design conforms to five key criteria that Mazda claims define the MX-5: rear drive with a front-mid engine layout, 50/50 weight distribution and an eagerness to change direction, plus a low kerb weight and an affordable price. All models get six-speed manual gearboxes.

The shape of the MX-5 hasn’t changed radically from generation to generation. This one’s no exception but there’s a bit more aggression about the detailing, the car looking like a shrunken Jaguar F-Type roadster from the rear three-quarter.

It’s full of clever touches, such as the seat cushions being supported on netting instead of the usual metal springs, allowing Mazda to reduce weight and seat the driver’s hip point closer to the road.

You can probably have more fun with 1.5 litres worth of MX-5 than you can with some supercars. Try it and you’ll see. If you measure your cars in terms of smiles per mile, the MX-5 has to be right near the top of your shortlist.

The fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 is the lightest since the original version and offers a lot of smiles per mile.