MAZDA MX-5
It’s amazing how buying a relatively straightforward modern house, which shouldn’t have been much of a project, has turned into a large task. That and having a 20-monthold son have really impacted on the time I can get out and enjoy my two-seater. I should have made the effort earlier, but the MX-5 hasn’t left the garage much in the eight months since we moved in.
I’d planned for the car to go to Pete Young Motors last summer – his place is on the edge of Salisbury Plain and it’s always a good drive out there – to have some work done on the driver’s-side sill and rear arch. That’s still top of the to-do list.
There has been some tinkering, though. After sorting the headlights, I found that the ashtray bulb was shot, so part of the dash has been off to upgrade it to an LED. Hopefully it’s a job I won’t have to do again.
I know the car doesn’t like being ignored and left standing, so with a day off plugged into the diary, no DIY jobs desperate to be attended to and the forecast set fair (plus son with the childminder…), I ran to the garage with two hours to kill.
With tyre pressures, oil and levels checked in record time, I headed out with no route in mind. Where we live in Hampshire we’re surrounded by decent, flowing A- and B-roads right from the house, and after a few sweepers I was reminded of how sweetly this thing drives. With such little inertia it changes direction so fluently, talking to you through the thin, original Momo wheel. I should have made the effort earlier.
With the engine warm, this things loves revving out; it’s the polar opposite of most of the moderns I drive. Refreshingly, it thrives on being thrashed and reminds me of my old ’bike days, constantly changing up in the Mazda at 6500-7000rpm using one of the finest short-throw gearchanges. Heel-and-toeing the tightly spaced pedals into bends reminded me why I bought this simple thing: it gets the basics so right. Rustproofing wasn’t one of them, but that’s for another time…
I was expecting some kind of problem, such as the usual sticking caliper, but nothing detracted from the drive. It’s only a 1.6 (the sweeter of the two engines in my opinion, with sharper handling thanks to the featherweight build), but within those relative terms the engine felt strong and just encouraged more.
How long can I stretch the drives to the DIY store? At least 60 to 70 miles… With my partner Carla knowing how awful my memory is, I can ‘forget’ some critical part of the current project and have to repeat the trip. Just don’t tell her.