Mazda MX-5 RF

REPORT 6 £ 27,795 OTR/£28,815 as tested/£290 WHY I T ’S HERE Do a hard-top roof and big buttresses add to the MX-5 experience? DRI V ER Ollie Kew

THE MX-5 RF HAS COME TO LIVE AT THE TOPGEAR OFFICE FOR A LITTLE while longer, now Jason’s all heart-eye emojied up over his handsome new Peugeot. And here’s the thing. While it lived out in rural Hertfordshire, the MX-5 was in its traditional happy place. Its comfort zone. Within a minute or so of Jason leaving his driveway, the RF would be scampering along sweeping A-roads, zingy 2.0-litre motor rasping away, the cabin swirling with birdsong and fresh air. Roadster nirvana.

So, how’s it going to stack up now? A minute or so after leaving the

TopGear underground car park, the MX-5 will be… ooh, about three hundred yards from where it started. At a red light, presumably. It’ll have traipsed over a range of speed bumps, dodged some kidults on electric scooters and flitted between lanes to escape being squished under a Crossrail construction lorry like a bluebottle dodging a rhinoceros.

City life. Bah. Driving a car in London is a mug’s game, of course. The RF’s roof will be staying firmly shut to keep out the fumes, and its delightful gearbox will live exclusively shifting between first and second gear.

And yet... I’ve buzzed through a few commutes in the RF and it’s becoming a delight. It’s so tiny and the extremities are so well-sighted it squeezes through gaps I wouldn’t dare try in a Fiesta. That typically lollopy MX-5 ride oozes over speed bumps, and the modest wheels don’t clang and clatter over every drain cover, pothole and recumbent cycling hipster.

And because it’s an unusual shape – a mini-supercar with a friendly grinning face in a sea of crossovers and SUVs, I swear I’m being given way to more often. Stephen Dobie found the same thing when he ran a Fiat 124 Spider in London back in 2017. So there you go. Drive a little sports car, and even city folk will think you are nice.