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Mazda MX-5 2.0 Sport
Our
Thoughts
How will the third generation of Mazda's record breaking open-top sports car stack up?
We travel to Portugal for the European
press launch to try it out and give you the low down.
| | | | | | | Background
Let’s start with some history, the MX-5 is the best selling 2-seater sports car period. The Guinness Book of Records confirms this. In fact over 725,000 MX-5’s have been produced globally since it was introduced. Europe is the second largest market behind North America and has contributed 28% of those sales (202k cars). Within Europe the car has sold most in Germany (84k or 42%) and then the UK (67k or 33%). This is all impressive stuff and, in turn, a lot for the new car to live up to. However, Mazda Europe is so confident in the new car that the goal for 2006 is to sell 21k MX-5s.
The car has been through two generations so far with the new car making it three. The first generation car was introduced 16 years ago in 1989 and proved an instant success. So much so that it wasn’t until 1998 that it was replaced by the second generation car. Within that time 432k first generation cars were produced. The second generation car also proved a hit and went on to sell a further 290k cars. This leads us to the new car, the third generation of the MX-5, which goes on sale in the UK in November 2005.
What can I quickly tell you about the new MX-5? Well it’s bigger; it’s been watching the pounds and has been designed with driver enjoyment as the primary focus. In fact the mantra for the new car was ‘Jinba Ittai’, which roughly translated this means ‘Rider and Horse as one’. The origins of this ideal stems from a Japanese ritual called ‘Yabusme’. In this ritual an archer shoots an arrow at a target while riding a horse. To hit the bulls eye, the rider and horse have to act as one – otherwise the arrow will miss the its mark.
Bigger
The third generation car has grown in almost every dimension, all of which benefit the driver:
20mm longer (wheelbase 65mm longer, 10mm more legroom, slide of seats 50mm longer)
40mm wider (front track 75mm wider and rear track 55mm wider)
20mm higher (17mm more headroom)
Watching the pounds
Actually the car underwent a ‘gram strategy’ whereby the designers of the second generation car revisited each of the components and looked how they could shed weight. During this exercise 573 ideas were compiled. The combined savings of all these ideas would have actually resulted in the new car being 43.5kg lighter than the outgoing model. However after long-term durability and safety considerations were considered the result of this programme was that the new car is only 10kg heavier than its predecessor. Still impressive given that it is larger, stiffer and carrying more standard specification.
The weight savings were achieved by using high-strength steel and aluminium. The later being used for the bonnet, boot lid, powerplant frame, front suspension control arms, rear hub carriers, rear brake carriers and rear suspension spring seats.
The use of high strength steel has resulted in the car being 47% stiffer in terms of tensional rigidity (or twisting) and 22% stiffer in terms of flexural rigidity (bending). Both of which benefit the driver, it has also had the effect of lowering the car’s centre of gravity.
Plastic is also employed in this gram strategy. For example the intake manifold and cylinder head cover are both now made of plastic. The result of this is a 2.4kg and 1.3kg saving over the existing components.
A final example of the gram strategy is the rear view mirror which thanks to a simpler design is 84g lighter.
Driver enjoyment
The primary design goal for the car was driver enjoyment and as a result most of the new cars components can in someway be attributed to assisting this. However here are a few examples.
At the beginning of the design process Mazda assembled 42 design chiefs and let them play in a variety of cars that are considered to be fun to drive. This list consisted of everything from the Mini to Boxter. From this exercise they came up with six principles that needed to be met in order to produce a worthy successor to the current MX-5. These were: Touching, Cornering, Driving, Styling, Listening and Braking. 180 development leaders were identified and tasked with meeting the needs.
About this time 320 design sketches were considered, these designs were drawn up from all over the globe. The styling goal was to maintain the traditional at the same time as modernising. From the 320 designs, 7 quarter scale models were constructed and from those a final shortlist of 3 designs were selected and made into full scale models. The final designs originated from California, Frankfurt and Hiroshima. At first the Californian design was favoured but as it exceeded the size parameters originally specified it was the Japanese (exterior) and European (interior) design that was finally adopted.
In order to maintain the all important 50:50 weight distribution Mazda moved the engine 135mm rearwards and the petrol tank was also moved forwards.
Fanatical development
To give some impression of how seriously Mazda has taken the responsibility of replacing the MX-5. Nobuhiro Yamamoto, Mazda MX-5 Deputy Program Manager described some of testing that was done:
97 changes were made to the new engine during bench testing,
59 exhaust silencers were tested to get the right sound,
960 tyres were used during testing,
473 dampers were used during testing.
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In keeping with the Japanese reputation for using high tech, Mazda created a driving simulator into which they fed 6 distinct driving scenarios that they thought the car needed to excel in. In turn they utilised a system that linked a real driver to an array of 42 sensors to measure the actual cars performance against the criteria. Sensors included head and waist G sensors.
Further to this the car underwent substantial testing in each of the core markets including in the US, Germany – Nurburgring Nordschleife (where it lapped 15 seconds quicker than the last car), the Eifel mountains region, and in the UK at Silverstone.
| | | Exterior Styling |
| | First impressions of the car in the flesh are good. There is no mistaking it is an MX-5 so part one of the design brief is successful. Part of the criteria for the design was that it would be instantly identifiable from 100m.
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| More muscle, flared arches, conservative rear |
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The front looks like the first MX-5 with flared wheel arches – the effect is to make the car more masculine. There are also genetic cues with the RX-8. Small budge on the bonnet also enhances the sporty looks. The lip spoiler lowers the car – making it more planted.
From the side the most prominent feature is the front and rear arches. The shape again is undeniably MX-5 but with clever styling cues like the way the rear edge of the door swoops down and forward. The lack of front and rear overhangs is also very evident, so much so that I think that this may actually be the cars best side(s).
From the rear I think Mazda may have been a little too conservative with the styling. Here, the car looks very similar to the existing models. In some ways the looks are more first generation than second. It suits the car but I can’t help thinking some more adventurous lights would have made the car far more attractive from the rear. The twin pipes and neatly style rear scallop add some more aggressive styling cues.
Overall I like the shape; it’s easier to adjust to than the second generation car which looked a lot bigger than the cute first generation car.
The following colours are available:
Metallic: Sunlight Silver and Velocity Red (* special launch edition)
Solid: True Red and Brilliant Black
Mica: Galaxy Grey and Winning Blue
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Interior Styling
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Initial impressions of the interior are very good; it’s simple, stylish and well made. The use of the vertical facia makes the car look more
classy and substantial. In the car we tested this was in a black shiny material. The dash itself has design cues to link the car to the RX8 and
again looks well built and pleasing to the eye. It contains five dials: fuel, revs, oil temp, speed and engine temp.
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| Clean, simple and stylish interior |
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The three-spoke steering wheel also benefits from the new levels of trim and has the same shiny black material in its centre. The centre also houses a Mazda logo and thanks to the shiny surround you can now see your reflection too. This can be fun as well as slightly distracting, depending on how narcissistic you are. The three spokes are in the same silver detailing and the left one contains controls for the stereo.
We like the clean, simple and stylish doors, which are black apart from the top of the cylindrical pull-handle and the door handle which are in silver. They are neat and don’t take up unnecessary space. The arm rests in the doors and on the centre console are in a corrugated rubber and are comfortable to rest on.
The centre console is more substantial than in the previous model and also benefits from a simpler straight design. The corrugated centre slides back to reveal two drinks holders. In front of that are the electric window switches, automatic for the driver. Alongside is the handbrake – which will also be positioned on the passenger side in the right hand drive version. Ahead of both is the short stubby leather clad gearstick surrounded by a silver ring.
The central dash consists of, from top to bottom, the hazard warning switch, stereo (a multi-CD front loading Bose in the case of the test car) and below that the automatic air conditioning controls. Finally, in a recess, is the cigarette lighter (or capped power point) and heated seat switches.
Mazda have spent time thinking about the vents and in addition to the four found within the shiny black facia, they have included two additional air vents in the foot wells and on both side of the centre console. These direct cold and warm air directly at the most weather-sensitive parts of the body and effectively increases the top-down usage of the car from 15-25 c to 10-30 c.
In addition to the two central cup holders Mazda has included two door-mounted ones. And to be honest this represented the only downside I found with the new interior. A downside that actually only affects the left hand drive version of the car. For me, my left leg kept banging into the door mounted drinks holder, this was mildly annoying on most journeys but started to hurt my leg after a while on the twisty mountain roads.
The cars soft-top roof is greatly improved and now has a single catch in place of the two in the previous generation.
To open the roof you press a flush release button. This opens the catch and allows you to pull the roof back without much effort and let it fall naturally behind the seats. Here it clicks down into a position which is flush to the body work. A neat feature as this means there is no need for a tonneau cover. The action is said to take 6 seconds, in practice this is probably less.
To close the hood there is again another flush release button between the seats. Pressing the button pops up the front edge of the roof slightly. This provides enough room to allow you to put your hand underneath and get hold of one of the two handles. The pulling action which was something of a wrist breaker in the last model is far less of an issue. Once the roof is up, you position it close to the top of the windscreen and close the central catch to secure it into position.
The advantages the manual roof has over the automatic roof are speed, cost, weight and packaging (the boot space is not compromised when the roof is down). I applaud Mazda, who rather than follow the trend for automatic roofs and complicated hardtop system, have worked on perfecting the simpler, lighter and cheaper manual option.
With the roof up the MX-5 is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor. There is now more head room. Gone is the claustrophobic feel of its predecessor. At six foot one my head used to touch the roof of the last car, now there is a gap between my head and the roof. Not only is this more comfortable, it must surely be safer.
Noise levels are also better with the roof up. The roof feels more substantial, whilst appearing no more bulky. In fact things sound great with the roof up thanks to the engine noise, which is almost better than with the roof down, as you can hear it clearer thanks to less wind and road noise.
Legroom is improved more than the 10mm increase implies. Not that I ever found the old car too small, but the new car certainly feels more accommodating.
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Ride, Handling & Steering
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| Maintains exemplary handling and improves ride | |
Of all the sections of this review the key one for the MX-5 is this. The previous MX-5 has been praised almost universally as a great drive. Two years ago it took the title of best drivers car in an Autocar group test beating the 911 GT3 into second place.
The new car does not disappoint and is great fun on twisty roads, serving up predictable handling, which is progressive and gives good warning when the cars limits are reached.
The new car feels a lot stiffer than the old car and is more planted with less roll. Not that this is in place of the ride quality that is excellent even on some of the poorer roads in Portugal where we drove the car.
Such was Mazda’s confidence in the cars ability that they booked a local go-karting track during the European press launch to give us a place to play safely with the car, although things would not have been terribly forgiving with the mass of tyres surrounding the track. But predictably the car proved incredibly easy to navigate around the track. Initially I drove with the traction control enabled; this kept things safe but pushed the car out wide in the corners as the excess power was reigned in at the rear. Lifting off the throttle brought the front back in and meant virtually anyone could get around the track. The real fun starts when the traction control is disabled. With the system off the cars natural balance is more obvious. Keep the throttle sensible and the car’s 50:50 balance shines through. Push things harder and the rear can be pushed out progressively and held as required.
Conditions throughout the test were good and so we only witnessed dry weather handling. In the dry I felt the traction control was not really necessary. The fact is the car handles more neutrally and predictably with the system off.
Another aspect of the cars handling is high speed stability and whilst we didn’t get the opportunity to go mad, I was able to drive the car at speeds up to 180 Kmh (112mph). At these speeds the car felt well planted and very comfortable. In addition things were still pretty bearable inside the cabin with the roof down and almost serene with it up.
The steering is well-weighted and is not overly direct. That is not instant (go-kart like), but slightly slower. In practice this works well on the move, either with both hands on the wheel or for those who prefer to drive one-handed.
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Engine, Gearbox and Performance |
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The 2.0-litre sport MX-5 we tested comes with a 1999cc MZR 4-cylinder engine producing 158bhp at 6,700 rpm and 139lb ft at 5,000rpm. Importantly at least 125lb ft (90%) of the torque is available between 2,500 and 6,700 rpm, this ensures good pickup throughout the rev range. The car can sprint from 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds (in both the 5-speed and 6-speed) and go onto a top speed of 130mph.
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| New engine - more power, more torque and less fuel |
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The 1.8-litre MX-5 features a 1798cc MZR 4-cylinder engine producing 124bhp at 6,500rpm and 123lb ft at 4,500rpm. 0-60mph is in 9.2 seconds and the top speed is 122mph.
In practice I felt there was no real need to rev the 2.0-litre equipped sport model I drove over 6k rpm. The delivery being relatively linear thanks to that wide spread torque. The MX-5 is not the fastest car in a straight line but as a package great fun in spite of it.
I drove two examples of the 2.0-litre and initially thought the engine sounded quite coarse. However the second example of the car was far sweeter sounding.
It’s interesting to see that the published figures for the 5-speed and 6-speed 2.0-litre are identical to 62pm (7.9secs). As they have different ratios and therefore different characteristics. We tested the 6-speed. We felt that the short, stubby gearlever was very good, and had both a short throw and nice slotting action. On the roads that we tested the gearing seemed to match the twisty mountain roads with second and third being useful depending on the extent of the corner. On the straight roads the taller gears worked well
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Practicality
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Compared to the outgoing car the new MX-5 improves on both cabin dimension and storage space. As discussed earlier virtually every dimension is improved for the benefit of the driver.
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| More space for you and your stuff |
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Storage wise the car has:
Glove compartment
quite big (7.3 litres),
Central – 2 cup holders,
Doors – 2 cup holders,
Lockable centre cubbyhole
between the seats,
Two hidden storage compartments
1 behind each seat,
Larger 150ltr boot
(6 ltr bigger than predecessor).
Economy figures for the existing flagship MX-5 and the three new engines:
Emissions:
| Car | Emissions (k/gm) |
| 1.8i (gen2) | 215 |
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| 1.8i (gen3) | 174 |
| 2.0i (gen3) | 185 |
| 2.0i sport (gen3) | 193 |
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Conclusion
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We are delighted with what Mazda have done to the MX-5. They have modernised their classic and also upped the quality levels and practicality.
With the demise of the MG TF, the Mazda only rival is the Toyota MR2. Like the Mazda the MR2 is a well respected car and rewards the driver. However in our book the MX-5 was always a better drive and the new car just re-establishes the benchmark.
After that cars like Peugeot’s 207 CC and Vauxhall’s Tigra offer cheap open top fun but can hardly be compared to the MX-5 in terms of rewarding the driver.
More expensive cars like BMW’s Z4 (which starts at just under £23k), Mercedes SLK (from £27.5k), Nissan’s 350Z (£26k) offer closer comparison but they obviously come at a price.
A final alternative is the more hardcore cars like Vauxhall’s VX220 (£26.5k) and Lotus’s Elise (from £23k) but essentially they are more narrow in their appeal and focus.
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Neil
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(23.7)
(39.2)
(348.70)
(48.7)
