Winter is doing the car a huge favour so far. It ’s constantly caked in mud, which hides the paint well. I love filthy cars and will fill these pages in the coming months with the dirtiest MX-5 you may ever see.
Other notes? This car is small. Really small. Shorter than the Mk1 MX-5 even. The first few times I parallel-parked it on my street, I actually had to try again, such was my brain’s inability to measure quite how petite it was.
The boot is pretty deep and useful for a car of this size, but the interior space is virtually non-existent. I recently took it to see my parents and my wife had to stash a lot of our cargo (presents, bags etc) in the front with her. I think she took it remarkably well.
So far I’ve been on only a few other trips in the MX-5, most of them on the motorway. And I’ve been truly dumbfounded by how at home it has felt there. An easy 40-plus MPG in the fast lane for one thing. Sixth gear is pretty long and it ’s only really pulling around 3000rpm. This is especially important to me, as my last long-termer, an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, averaged 23.5mpg.
It’s the comfort that has surprised me most, though. It really is a pleasant place to be. When you read Bilstein dampers on the spec sheet, you think lowered and racy. But there’s a proper amount of squidge I wasn’t expecting, especially on such thin rubber. It’s not a quiet car at speed, mind you. With the Bose stereo cranked up to a volume where you can actually hear it, your passenger is fully drowned out.
Is this the culmination of 36 years of MX-5 production? If it comes anywhere close, I’m in for a treat – even during the depths of winter.
Update 2
I was invited along by Mazda to the world’s first ‘night-time track day’ in Anglesey. Yep, North Wales, in the winter. At night.
The drop-top Mazda was perfect for the task; I couldn’t think of anything better to do it in. It waltzed me effortlessly from London to Wales in comfort and with surprisingly good 40mpg-plus fuel economy.