Mazda MX-5: Driving Mazda’s most famous roadster on road and track

The Mazda MX-5 is an icon of the motoring world. Throughout its series of generations, it has become synonymous with lightweight, value-for-money motoring. The latest incarnation of the two-seater drop-top has been designed to offer something for the keener driver, while also being accessible to those who rather taking a more sedate pace out on the road.

We headed out to Silverstone’s Stowe Circuit to see just how the little roadster copes on track – another area where the MX-5 has been praised.

Mazda has designed the MX-5 as a road car first, and hasn’t been directly geared towards track driving. Many enthusiasts love the MX-5 for circuit use, however; its relatively light weight, low cost and decent balance make them pretty capable around a track. The Stowe Circuit, with its series of sharp twists and bends is an ideal place for the MX-5 to thrive – we can imagine that the little car could get a little breathless in terms of performance were we to take on the larger GP circuit.

The MX-5 has an impressive amount of inherent balance and, though somewhat a little too softly-sprung for use on a track, it corners with plenty of keenness. A light amount of rain at the beginning of the session reduced the amount of grip out on the circuit, but this only added to the excitement. There’s oversteer if you want it – a sharp jab of the throttle will get the tail of the car stepping out quickly, but it’s progressive and easy to manage. That said, the MX-5 is a car that can be driven neatly too; be calm with the throttle and smooth with the steering, and it’ll happily lace its way through corners.

The track soon dried up, and with that the grip levels increased. You can still turn the MX-5 into a little hooligan but again there’s a lot of joy to be found in driving it in a tidy fashion, while the 2.0-litre engine fitted to our cars provided more than enough performance to get the car up to a brisk pace in little time.

We managed plenty of laps around the track, but there was another test awaiting both us and the car – an Autotest.

The idea behind these short, snappy timed sprints is to concentrate on car control and precision driving. With a variety of cones laid out across a large, empty tarmacked area, we’d have to park the MX-5, donut around a cone and navigate a tight slalom – all while racing against the clock.

We started off all guns blazing – trying to tackle the course as quickly as possible. Cones went flying, and the times returned weren’t nearly as low as we expected while hammering around the circuit.

It soon became clear that the smooth, accurate driving is rewarded with quick times – and the whole process was incredibly addictive. We ended up charging around the course time and time again. The MX-5 feels particularly at home in this environment, where its relatively quick steering and decent throttle responds combine with its compact size to really help you out while scything through the coned areas.

We were relatively happy with our results, and had to push niggles of quicker times to the back of our minds to save spending the entire day and night lapping the coned route. As we walked back to the clubhouse at the side of Stowe Circuit, we saw there was one more event for the day.

Three classic MX-5s were lined up in front of the building. We’ve got NA, NB and NC generations here (for non-Mazda aficionados these are cars built from 1990, 1998 and 2005). Sat next to one another, it’s clear to see how the design has progressed while keeping certain features the same. We’d argue that the pop-up headlights of the original should have stuck around for longer, but that wasn’t to be.

We headed out first of all in the third generation car. After driving the most recent MX-5 for most of the morning it feels recognisable, yet clearly older. The good driving position remains, however.

It felt brisk enough for the country roads we drive down, and that inherent balance was still very much there. It felt even more present when we swap over to the second-generation car.

This one felt completely different to the newer version. It’s lighter, that’s for sure, and the gearshift doesn’t feel quite as precise as the third-gen car, but you can still tell it’s an MX-5. We’d argue that it’s not the sharpest one here, but it’s still a lot of fun, with the well-sorted suspension making for a comfortable and supple ride over the crests and bumps you find on the roads surrounding Silverstone.

Finally, there’s the first-generation to try. It felt noticeably lighter than the other two cars, and the pop-up headlights never fail to impress. All cars should have them, right? It was a hot day, and the lack of air-conditioning does mean that, despite the drop-top the cabin was a warm place to be. If anything, it makes you drive just a little bit quicker to get the air rushing past.

A full-on day with the Mazda MX-5 is never a bad thing. On road, track and via three generations, it’s clear to see just why it’s become so popular. A combination of value, day-to-day usability and genuine driver involvement has made it one of the most successful roadsters of all time – and going off the way the latest model handles during a variety of different occasions, we can’t see its popularity waning any time soon.