By Michael Booth
Specifications
Would suit:
Everyone in the Ministry of Transport should be given one.
Price:
R275 390 in SA.
Performance:
130mph, 0-100km/h 7.9sec.
General fuel consumption:
7.73 lites/100km.
Not to scaremonger or anything but in the future, when our cars are remote-controlled by civil servants, their engines immobilised when we so much as think of speeding, and a prison hulk in the Thames Estuary awaits those caught double-parked outside the newsagent on a Sunday, the concept of going for a drive, just for the fun of it, will be but a faint memory. Like winter.
The hard-top convertible version was launched in South Africa late in 2006.
We should all be driving a Mazda MX-5 while we still have the chance. It's a detour-along-the-windy-hilltop-road kind of car, is the MX-5. Precise controls, an urgent engine, exceptional poise - the MX-5 ticks all the boxes. You don't just sit in it, you plug yourself in.
Despite this, I wasn't so keen on the idea of an MX-5 with a folding hard top because one of the great things about the original was its simplicity. You could fold the roof back yourself in far less time than a bunch of heavy, slow motors ever could.
Really, the only luxuries you need in a car are:
1) Windows.
2) Some carpeting.
Then again, air-conditioning is nice, isn't it? And heatable seats for winter and you may as well throw in those massage-and-fan chairs you get in big Mercs; column-mounted stereo controls are a good safety feature; I was quite taken by the adaptable mood lighting in the new Mini; TV screens in the back are a no-brainer if you have kids, as is an armrest humidor like the one in the old Aston DB7 Dunhill; and the little folding shopping trolley you get in the back of a Citroën Picasso is a boon for picnics. Where was I...?
So, now the MX-5 comes in folding hard top flavour, you can leave it on the street at night without worrying whether some cretinous little haemorrhoid is going to slash the roof and dump on your upholstery. It's the fastest folder in the world, they say, at only 12 seconds, although the canvas roof version (at around £1700 less, although the CC comes with £560 air-con as standard) still beats it at about 11 seconds.
'Not proper'
Usually, fitting a folding hard top to a convertible is like making Julie Christie carry a fridge around - she's not going to move half as fast or look half as good (though she'd still make Sienna Miller look like a fame-grasping Sloane).
But that of the MX-5 adds only 37kg and takes up no more space in the boot. MGB drivers will splutter into their real ale that it's "not a proper sports car" before returning to the small print in their divorce papers but, for anybody with a semblance of intelligence, a folding hard top only makes one of the most joyful sports cars that teensy bit more practical.
If I have one beef about the MX-5, it's the noise it makes, which is a little too "white goods". The obvious thing would be to engineer in a sexy exhaust note but what if cars had theme tunes? Wouldn't that make the world a better place?
No challenges left
The MX-5's should be something perky, of course. If it weren't carcinogenic, I'd suggest the theme tune to "The Archers" but the chase music from Benny Hill gets my nod.
Back when it was launched in 1989, the MX-5 was the only cheap roadster on the market. Now, with the MG TF, Smart Roadster and Toyota MR2 all gone, it has only the diddy little Daihatsu Copen left to challenge it.
No contest: the original is still the best but it just got that little bit better. - The Independent, London