MAZDA’S GEM OF A ROADSTER
A bigger 2.0-litre engine and automatic gearbox is on the way, but this basic 1.5-litre unit and manual shifter make the new MX-5 an absolute purist
Here’s a “sneak peek” and quick drive of the fourthgeneration Mazda MX-5, some seven months before it becomes available in Thailand. There could be any number of reasons we’re invited to drive such an early car. Usually they’re cynical reasons: a carmaker wants to build customer anticipation, garner feedback, or try to steal some headlines from a rival product.
But I don’t think any of those applies here. The impression I get is that simply every engineer, designer, manager and administrator who has been involved in the development of the new MX-5 is so unbearably excited that they simply couldn’t keep it to themselves any longer. Like the owners of a new puppy, they just wanted to show it off.
You can see why. For one, it’s small: shorter than any MX-5 before. And it’s light. Talk is of a tonne. That, as you’ll know, is precious little for a car that has a longitudinally mounted front engine and is rear driven. Especially when you consider that the MX-5 isn’t minuscule like a Suzuki Cappuccino or stripped-out like a Caterham Seven.
A couple of engineers name-checked the Seven during their presentations. These are the kind of people we’re dealing with.
So there’s extensive use of aluminium and the base engine, a 1.5-litre unit (there’ll be a 2.0-litre too, but more on that another time), plus its new six-speed gearbox, are smaller than the old power trains.
That allows them to be set 13mm lower and 15mm further back than on the previous car. In turn that means the bonnet and overhang to be the lowest and shortest, Mazda claims, of any production car.
Inside a slightly unfinished but otherwise pleasing interior, the seat cushions are supported on netting rather than metal springs, making the seats more compact so the driver can sit lower.
That also means the windscreen can be moved backwards by 70mm without eating headroom, which allows the hood — an utter doddle to raise or lower one-handed — to be smaller, so when it’s folded it occupies less room and the wheelbase can accordingly be shortened.
And so the virtuous circle goes on: like for like, a new MX-5 might weigh 100kg less than the car it replaces, so only needs 16-inch wheels with 195/50 tyres. Two words: happy days.
Here is a car that is agile, not just because of the overall weight, but because so many kilos have been removed at the ends. Front and rear crash structures, the bonnet, bootlid and front wings are aluminium, focusing weight around the centre of the car and reducing the polar moment of inertia.
The MX-5 shows real enthusiasm, then, for turning. The steering, middlingly quick at 2.5 turns between locks has the right kind of weight, and its electrical assistance gives it good feel around straight ahead.
On lock, it’s supremely linear and accurate and consistent. Mazda likens it to being able to reach out and “feel the tyre”. I’d say it’s the best electrically-assisted set-up this side of a Renault Megane Trophy R.
The Renault, of course, suffers torque steer: not an issue in a car whose rear wheels are driven. But even if the MX-5 was front-drive, I’m not sure its wheels would be particularly perturbed by the 130hp of the 1.5-litre engine. This is developed from the 1.5-litre unit in the Japanese-spec Mazda 3. But given its development has been so comprehensive, you might as well think of it as a new unit.
It revs to 7,500rpm, and Mazda’s engineers encourage us to take it there. If you want to make the kind of progress a modern sports car will have you accustomed to, you’ll need to. Swift progress can be had at lower revs — 90% of torque is on tap from 2,000rpm to 6,000rpm — but blistering this car is not.
To that extent, it feels not unlike a Caterham Seven 160, though with the advantage that the Mazda’s 1.5-litre unit is happier to spin. The six-speed gearbox has pleasingly close ratios too, while its shift is a thing of pure joy; short, relatively light and positive, sucking the gear lever home once you’re part-way into the shift. Few do it better.
It’s backed by throttle, brake and clutch pedal weights that are expertly judged for this type of car: a sports car to be enjoyed by purists who’ll love the positivity; and moderate enthusiasts who’ll not just know why they find it easy. Ditto a ride that’s compliant, with just a little shimmy from the body over bad surfaces to indicate that this is not as stiff as a coupe would be. The relative compliance of the suspension, though, means notable body movements under braking and cornering.
Not that body control is loose, mind. Merely, what weight transfer serves to do is telegraph precisely what’s going on during cornering.
You’re aware you’re leaning on a front outside tyre on turn-in, you’re aware that force has been transferred to the outer rear wheel on corner exit, and you know precisely how much your right foot is subjecting it to an ordeal. Not overly, is the most likely answer in the dry, where — again like the Caterham Seven 160 — the Mazda has a surfeit of grip over handling.
If you think you’ll like it, you probably will. Mazda was reluctant to mention the 2.0-litre (or the optional automatic gearbox) because it thinks that this 1.5 is the mechanical specification that shows the MX-5 at its absolute purest. I can understand that, and love it for what it is.
The 2.0-litre engine’s extra weight will compromise some of the values, I don’t doubt, albeit it will still be a lightweight car with 50:50 weight distribution. And who knows, its throttle adjustability might even make it preferable.
But be in no doubt, this 1.5-litre version is a gem; the MX-5 ideal followed to its conclusion.