Still good fun after seven years
To questions from readers about what exactly driving pleasure is, we always answer with the tip to drive a Mazda MX-5. It’s high time to do it yourself again. Reason enough: the recent edition has been adjusted for 2022 and we had not previously had it in a test with the 1.5 engine. Almost at the end of the year, looking back at the nicest cars of 2022, it is reason to also post this test that was in the magazine in October online. Extra reason: for model year 2023 there is an update so that the current generation can be enjoyed even longer.
Especially if the top is still on, you have to make some effort to get into the cramped interior. Then set the sitting position. For an MX-5 it should be: as low as possible, steer far towards you. Then you press the start button to the right of the steering column. Fumbling enthusiastically, the 1.5-liter four-cylinder comes to life, with, when the power source in the relatively long nose is still cold, a remarkably high speed. Immediately all that character, huh! Then you put the bin in one. You actually already know for 50 percent how fun the ride will be again, because such an MX-5 shifts with a wonderful feeling. A nice click, you feel exactly what you want to feel, so how the gears mesh, but without the shifting action generating too much resistance. Even the basic version offers fun in this way without having driven a single meter!
Well, you’re already driving about five kilometers when the first nice corner appears. A minimal steering movement is sufficient, and wonderfully quickly you feel the butt of the car set. You notice a certain amount of lightness on the side of the outer rear wheel. When things go really fast, the brake on the rear wheel on the inside of the bend also intervenes since model year 2022, causing a form of torque vectoring to occur. The MX-5 searches through that loose butt with its nose even more eagerly for the inside, while the rear wants to go out even faster.
Would you then turn off the ESP and think that you could let the rear fan out nicely at the command of the accelerator pedal, then the 1.5 might be a bit disappointing; its 132 horsepower are not enough to achieve a nice drift. But just the swinging feeling that the car gives you is very nice. The light-footedness with which he dances from bend to bend. You prefer to do that with the roof open, which is already possible when it is about sixteen degrees. So it does not have to be very fast to realize that the car also likes to drive on winding dikes and other roads. If you want more, there is always the 184 hp 2.0 petrol engine. That’s when you really have fun.
Mazda MX-5 weighs less than 1,000 kilograms
Yet the 1.5 engine is really not disappointing. Like any Mazda SkyActiv-G petrol engine, this block is not overflowing with torque at the bottom, but because the MX-5 weighs only 971 kilograms, you don’t always have to downshift when the rpm drops below 2,000. Of course you do, because shifting gears in this Mazda is so much fun. If you get it through the first time, it will surprise you with a nice swipe above 6,000 rpm. Extending all the way to 7,500 rpm yields noticeable power gains. Nice, because it is a value that you rarely see on tachometers in 2022. Only in the upper echelons of sports car land are there still a few naturally aspirated horsepower monsters that can rev more. The measurements confirm that the 132 hp engine does what it should do: we clear the 0-100 sprint a tenth of a second faster than how long it should take according to the manufacturer. A time of 8.2 seconds is of course no longer fast by today’s standards, because almost every EV makes it whistling. But man, you have to work hard in this roadster, and it’s fun!
You can easily get 1 in 18
Top steering, super playful chassis and the engine of the entry-level version is also great. Now the serious part. Will you drink for sure? No, not at all, we easily get 1 in 18 when revving, with half the kilometers with the hood down. Partly because you can easily open the hood by hand and therefore no electric motors have to be involved, Can the car stay that light? You unlock the hood with a large lever and with a single arm movement you move it behind the front seats. Then you still have to press the folded hood to lower it completely. Can drive! It saves a lot of space when the roof is open, because we had almost forgotten how small an MX-5 is – it can almost feel claustrophobic. Yet they have managed to make good use of every square centimeter at Mazda. Behind the seats you will find two storage compartments, which you can only reach properly if you put the backrests forward. You can put the removable cup holders in it if you don’t need them. In between is another larger compartment. You can’t put much stuff in the butt.
Daily use? You have to adjust a bit
Open driving is also good on the highway. There is a small windshield between the headrests. You can easily click that piece of plastic out if desired. With the hood closed, sounds from the outside penetrate very emphatically into the interior. When the hood is open, you can see quite large gaps between the body and the folded hood; on more expensive roadsters there is often a cover plate above. Anyway, the MX-5 has had a certain form of minimalism for over thirty years. On the other hand, you have a neatly finished interior, with a still not outdated multimedia system.
The screen is not large, but something like that would also be a bit out of place. The operation with the console placed centrally on the dashboard remains top. This model has been around for eight years, but does not seem very outdated yet. On the highway you will notice that the damping is a bit firm. The suspension, on the other hand, is quite supple and that also contributes to the happy dance that the MX-5 seems to do on fun roads. Thresholds are no problem. If you can live with the difficult entry and the small space, then such an open Mazdaa is well suited for daily use. The cruise control is one of the classic kind and there are no driving assistants that interfere with you. Lane Departure Warning can be switched off, and once you have touched the button that deactivates it, it will always remain off. You often see that cars reset themselves on a restart and activate such systems again, but the MX-5 remembers that as an enthusiastic driver you are not waiting for any interference. That too, dear reader, is one hundred percent driving pleasure.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl