The Roadster Revival

The Mazda MX-5 maintains its position as the world record holder for the best-selling convertible two-seater sports car. Since its inception and initial production in 1988, the MX-5 has accrued a cult-like status among gearheads. The staple sports car set a new standard for convertible cruising, offering both affordable and exhilarating driving experience – but what exactly brought about the MX-5 to be the most prevalent roadster across the globe?

Mazda MX-5

The History

In 1976 Bob Hall, a US automotive journalist specialised in Japanese motors, met with the Research and Development team of Mazda. He pitched an idea to head of R&D, Kenichi Yamamoto, for the resurrection of the traditional British roadster – an ode to the two-seater sports cars employing a balance of compact style and comfort.

Initially Mazda passed over the idea, but 5 years later Kenichi Yamamoto - now the new chairman of the company, recalled Bob Hall’s passionate love letter to the Great British roadsters and revived the idea. Yamamoto pushed forward with Offline Project 55 – pitting their North American design team with Bob Hall leading the charge against the Japanese design team, revolutionising the production process of bringing concept design out of the page and into the real world through intercontinental competition.

By 1984 the two teams pitched their concepts, with the North American’s codename Duo 101 design firmly rooted in the traditional British engineering eventually winning the contest. Their design incorporated a front mid-engine, rear wheel-drive layout in a compact two door car, with ideal weight distribution.

The Process

Jinbi ittai (人馬一体)was the design credo applied to the future of The Duo 101 concept, translated roughly to read ‘rider and horse as one body’, where the two work seamlessly together. The car would be lightweight, compact and comfortable – a philosophy which formed the core tenets for the future of the project; Mazda Experiment-5.

Side view

The first generation of the MX-5 hit the market in 1989 and ran rampant across the motoring world through to its fourth generation, birthed in 2015, with mass production of the MX-5’s taking place all along the way.

The Kaizen (改善) business strategy of continuous improvement is implemented throughout Japanese business culture, with the philosophy flowing through both the management and manufacturing of Mazda as seen by the many successful iterations of the MX-5. The car is built to be intuitive, robust and almost modular in design, allowing simple but effective upgrades to be installed without too much interference with the rest of the engineering framework.

The Experience

During interviews with MX-5 owners, what stood out the most was the skewed perception of the car. Many didn’t originally care for the Mazda before ownership, originally associating the compact two-door as more of a “girls car” or a “poor man’s sports car” – this changed dramatically after taking one out for a spin, and unable to find anything to match the sheer joy and freedom found behind the wheel.

By Jeremy Ainsworth