The very first MX5 was a pearler. Had the poms kept making sportscars in the old tradition then I reckon the MX5 would have been what would have evolved. The japs really got it right with that one.
Lost some direction with heavy things like electric windows, aircon etc. Still a good car though imho.
Does anyone else get bugged by that mazda ad. where the hikers are on a curvey road and one hiker puts his ear to the ground and (amongst other things) says "sportscar".... geez that pisses me off.
Too many "young heads" in the designer game now. They wrongly use "sportscar" in the same wrong way the footballers get called "hero's" give me a break.
Sure it might perform well, but just about any new car with up to date technology will do that. I think Mazda is insulting their own MX5 and first RX7's by useing the "sportscar" term to describe a,, well I don't know exactly what it's supposed to be.
Once was a time when car makers actually made specific "sportcars" which looked nothing at all like the family car and commercial vehicles. Maybe some crossover stuff like switches and lights, or a much modified design of a basic core motor, but totally different body and chassis from anything else they sold.. THEY were sportscars and had performance and handling far in excess of the family line of vehicles from the same companies.
You cannot call say a Holden SS or it's ford equivelent a sportscar when (had you the money and inclination) you could start with a base model and just fit all the other gear to make it look and perform the same as the others.
you cannot take any other Mazda to make it look like an MX5 and that's the way it was with all the "real" sportscars" of another era.
Mychael
But out of what I've driven the 1.6's are always more fun.