Happy 30th Mazda MX-5
It has been 30 years since the world’s best-selling sports car made its public debut – the Mazda MX-5 was first revealed to the world at the Chicago motor show on February 10, 1989, and went on sale in the United States in May that same year.
By 1989 the small two-door roadster was essentially dead. The MGB, Triumph TR 7, Triumph Spitfire and Fiat Spider had all been killed off by safety and emission regulations (or sheer incompetence) a decade earlier and only the utterly ancient Alfa Romeo Spider was still in production, and had been for 23 years by that time.
The public didn’t seem to be interested in small, fun-to-drive convertibles any more, so the car industry wasn’t willing to risk spending the money on developing one. But two men thought otherwise.
Back in 1976, American (and later honorary Australian) motoring journalist Bob Hall met Kenichi Yamamoto, head of research and development at Mazda. During their meeting, Yamamoto asked Hall what kind of car Mazda should make in the future.
Hall was a big fan of small ‘‘classically British’’ sports cars and lamented the fact that they were all dead or well on the way to dying by that time, and what he would love to see more than anything else was a small, fun, roadster built by a Japanese company.
Yamamoto agreed, but struggled to get anyone else at Mazda excited about the idea of a niche car that probably wouldn’t make any money.
But in 1984, Yamamoto was made chairman of Mazda and, by chance, Hall had left journalism in 1981 and was working for Mazda USA in product planning. Yamamoto and Hall met again and Yamamoto remembered their conversation.
The following year Hall was given the go-ahead to investigate the idea further and, based in Mazda’s new Southern California design studio, he hired designer Mark Jordan to help him formulate a ‘‘lightweight sports concept’’, while a competing team in the company’s Tokyo studio also worked on it.
Where Hall and Jordan favoured a front engine/rear drive layout like the British roadsters that inspired it, their Japanese counterparts were convinced either FWD or a mid-engined RWD layout were superior.
However, Hall and Jordan’s ‘‘Duo 101’’ concept eventually won out in 1984 and the template for a small RWD Mazda roadster was set.
As a very niche model in what seemed to be a dying segment, the budget for developing the MX-5 was very limited, so it was very much a parts bin special, with the bulk of the money sunk into developing the RWD platform.
As such, the MX-5’s B6ZE(RS) 1.6-litre engine was developed from the Familia’s engine, while the five-speed transmission was derived from the unit used in the RWD Mazda 929/Luce, with particular attention paid to the shift action (as anyone who has ever driven an MX-5 will undoubtedly realise).
When it went on sale in the US and Canada in 1989 it was an instant success, with demand vastly outstripping supply, and single-handedly reinvigorated the roadster market, with rival manufacturers rushing to release competing models in the following years. None, however, would ever match the MX-5’s popularity.
Mazda sold more than 400,000 units of the first generation car, with the MX-5 being certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s best-selling sports car when it hit 531,890 units in 2000.
By April 2016 it hit the 1 million unit mark, with the millionth model rolling off the production line and immediately setting off on a world tour where fans could sign it.
And, yes, it visited New Zealand, putting in an appearance at the Leadfoot Festival on its last stop before it headed back to Japan.
In the 30 years since it launched three more generations of MX-5 have been released, with the NB replacing the original NA in 1997, while the NC replaced the NB in 2005.
In an almost delightfully ironic move, Mazda co-developed the ND
MX-5 (that replaced the NC in
2015) with Fiat Chrysler, with the intention for the American/ Italian company to base a new version of the Alfa Romeo Spider on the platform – the only roadster that was on sale when the MX-5 originally revived the segment back in 1989.
However, Fiat Chrysler backed away from the idea to make it an Alfa, saying that Alfa Romeos should only be built in Italy (like that is a good thing . . . ) and instead used it to revive the Fiat
124 Spider.
While it might not be the huge seller it was in its early days, the
MX-5 continues to sell well enough to justify its existence, even in a market that has largely moved away from convertibles again.
Will it make another 30 years? That might seem unlikely, but then so did its original success.
Put it this way: We wouldn’t bet against it.