Mazda MX-5 E-Book

Antony Ingram

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 266

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

At over 900,000 cars produced - and counting - the Mazda MX-5 holds the Guinness World Record as the best-selling two-seater sports car ever produced. And while mere numbers should not be the only barometer of success, it has taken a car of the MX-5's talent to capture the imagination of both enthusiasts and the general motoring public alike. Mazda MX-5 - The Complete Story examines the design, development and production of this innovative sports car. Topics covered include: Details of the engine and drivetrain technology that gave the MX-5 its sharp handling and performance; Chronicles the stories of the engineers and designers behind the MX-5's success; Looks at the closest contemporary rivals to the car, and why the MX-5 was far and away the most successful; Covers all special editions and the racing story; Includes a detailed buyer's guide for each generation, specification tables and owner's experiences. A concise, detailed guide to this groundbreaking and innovative sports car. Superbly illustrated with 200 colour photographs. Antony Ingram is a freelance motoring writer and is passionate about classic cars and modern performance vehicles.

Leseprobe

Mazda MX-5

THE COMPLETE STORY

OTHER TITLES IN THE CROWOOD AUTOCLASSICS SERIES

AC Cobra

Brian Laban

Alfa Romeo 916 GTV and Spider

Robert Foskett

Alfa Romeo Spider

John Tipler

Aston Martin DB4, DB5 & DB6

Jonathan Wood

Aston Martin DB7

Andrew Noakes

Aston Martin V8

William Presland

Audi quattro

Laurence Meredith

Austin Healey

Graham Robson

BMW 3 Series

James Taylor

BMW 5 Series

James Taylor

Citroen DS Series

John Pressnell

Ford Capri

Graham Robson

Ford Escort RS

Graham Robson

Jaguar E-Type

Jonathan Wood

Jaguar XJ-S

Graham Robson

Jaguar XK8

Graham Robson

Jensen Interceptor

John Tipler

Jowett Javelin and Jupiter

Geoff McAuley & Edmund Nankivell

Lamborghini Countach

Peter Dron

Lancia integrale

Peter Collins

Lancia Sporting Coupes

Brian Long

Land Rover Defender, 90 and 110 Range

James Taylor

Lotus & Caterham Seven

John Tipler

Lotus Elan

Matthew Vale

Lotus Elise

John Tipler

MGA

David G. Styles

MGB

Brian Laban

MGF and TF

David Knowles

MG T-Series

Graham Robson

Maserati Road Cars

John Price-Williams

Mercedes-Benz Cars of the 1990s

James Taylor

Mercedes SL Series

Andrew Noakes

Morgan 4–4

Michael Palmer

Morgan Three-wheeler

Peter Miller

Rover P5 & P5B

James Taylor

Saab 99 & 900

Lance Cole

Subaru Impreza WRX and WRX STI

James Taylor

Sunbeam Alpine and Tiger

Graham Robson

Triumph Spitfire & GT6

James Taylor

Triumph TR7

David Knowles

Volkswagen Transporter

Laurence Meredith

Volkswagen Golf GTI

James Richardson

Volvo P1800

David G. Styles

Mazda MX-5

THE COMPLETE STORY

ANTONY INGRAM

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2013 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2013

© Antony Ingram 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 635 2

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the assistance, time, enthusiasm and kindness of the following people: Martin Dooner, proprietor MX5 City, Doncaster; Phil Marks and the team at Milcars Mazda, Watford; all at Elstree Aerodrome, Radlett; Alison Terry at Mazda Motors UK; and Pete Kent, Kendra Evans, Caroline Bennett and Kurt Ernst for sharing their MX-5-related thoughts. Apologies to those who I’ve missed – I guarantee your help has been appreciated. Further thanks go to all my friends, family and colleagues for their support and patience. This book goes out to those who only put the hood up when it rains!

CONTENTS

Introduction

Mazda MX-5 Timeline

1 – Mazda Before the MX-5

2 – Conception

3 – Mazda MX-5 Mk1 (NA)

4 – Driving a Mk1 MX-5 Today

5 – Mazda MX-5 Mk2 (NB)

6 – Driving a Mk2 MX-5 Today

7 – Mazda MX-5 Mk3 (NC)

8 – Driving a Mk3 MX-5 Today

9 – Production and Sales

10 – Limited Editions

11 – Concept Cars and Prototypes

12 – The MX-5, Rebodied

13 – MX-5 Mk1 Buying Guide

14 – MX-5 Mk2 Buying Guide

15 – MX-5 Mk3 Buying Guide

16 – MX-5 in Motorsport

17 – What Does the Future Hold?

Index

INTRODUCTION

Cars like the Mazda MX-5 don’t come around very often. Not sports cars specifically, of which there are plenty and always have been to some extent. One might argue, in fact, that the concept of an open-topped two-seater is as old as the car itself, even if much has changed since the late 1800s.

Nor is the MX-5 a rare car in numbers. Quite the opposite; many an owner will regale you with the MX-5’s inclusion into the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s best-selling roadster. As open-topped cars go, they are prolific.

No, the MX-5’s rarity is in combining such talents that it becomes more than just a device for moving between A and B, though it is undoubtedly as competent as any other vehicle for doing just that – which makes it even more of a rare object. Thousands upon thousands of drivers use their MX-5s on a daily basis, in all weathers and for all purposes. That it can do this, as well as serving as a car to be driven solely for fun, while retaining such a reputation for reliability, makes Mazda’s diminutive sports car very special indeed. That it is merely one sports car among many, or that its popularity has risen above that of any other sports car ever produced, are simply sidelines to a story of a car designed by genuine enthusiasts but appreciated by everyone. Some sports cars have very limited appeal, but the MX-5 works because it attracts all manner of owners – enthusiasts, racers, older buyers wishing to rekindle memories of MGs and Triumphs from their youth, and younger buyers looking for their first taste of fun motoring. Or none of the above – buyers who might simply wish for a stylish, reliable runaround – and the MX-5 covers all these bases.

Proof that this formula works is easy to find. The MX-5 is almost a household name and, at the very least, one of the more recognisable shapes on the road. The earliest models, over two decades old, have become modern classics, while the later models are still as usable as the average hatchback, yet all share the same distinctive silhouette, and are distinctive as being from the same line.

The following pages will cover the story of the Mazda’s history, through the first, vestigial ideas, to production and beyond. Building an icon isn’t easy, but it is rewarding and the MX-5, known as the Miata in the Americas, an old German word for ‘reward’, is a reward we can all share.

The 1989 Mazda Eunos Roadster – the Japanese market MX-5. MAZDA (BOTH)

MAZDA MX-5 TIMELINE

1979, February: Journalist Bob Hall talks with Mazda’s Kenichi Yamamoto about developing a classic ‘bugs in the teeth’ sports car

1981, May: Mazda opens US research and development facility in Irvine, California

1983, January: Bob Hall and designers Fukuda and Yagi, start initial design sketches for the new roadster project

1984, January: Design teams in Japan and the US start working on three competing design, front-drive, rear drive and mid-engined

1984, August: American design – front engine, rear drive – is chosen

1984, September: Development work begins in Hiroshima

1985, September: IAD tests development prototypes tested at MIRA in the UK

1986, April: Masaaki Watanabe and design team begin to sketch final proposals for the MX-5

1986, August: Final technical decisions made, rotary engine discounted

1987, April: Plastic-bodied prototype previewed to public

1987, September: Final MX-5 design approved

1988, April: US journalists drive a prototype in Japan

1989, February: Production begins, car shown at Chicago Auto Show

1989, September: First deliveries of both base model and Special Package Eunos Roadsters are made in Japan

1990, March:Automatic transmission option added to the Eunos Roadster range

1990, May: First European customers receive MX-5s

1990: Brodie Brittain Racing develops turbocharged MX-5

1991, June: Mazda wins Le Mans 24 hours, releases special edition orange and green MX-5 in celebration

1992, November: 250,000th MX-5 produced

1993, December: 300,000th MX-5 produced

1994, March: MX-5 gains 1.8-litre engine and chassis tweaks

1995: Reduced-output 1.6 MX-5 re-introduced as a budget option

1998, March: Second-generation MX-5 unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show

1999, January: Mazda celebrates MX-5’s 10th anniversary with 7,500 of a special edition model. Sold worldwide, they are all blue, with blue interior detailing

1999, February: Half a million MX-5s produced. 500,000th car is a gold Mk2 with a tan roof

2000, May: 531,890 MX-5s produced, new Guinness World Record for open-top, two-seat roadsters

2000, December: 600,000th MX-5 produced

2001, January: MX-5 facelifted, known as ‘Mk2.5’

2003, October: Mazda launches fixed-roof coupé MX-5 in Japan; never sold overseas, and only built to order

2005, March: MX-5 Mk3 goes on sale

2005, April: 700,000th MX-5 produced

2005, November: Mazda Roadster voted 2005-2006 Japan Car of the Year – first victory for Mazda in 23 years

2006, July: MX-5 Roadster Coupé launched, first MX-5 with retractable hard top

2007, January: 800,000th MX-5 produced

2009, May: MX-5 Mk3 receives facelift, known as ‘Mk3.5’

2009, July: 20th anniversary of MX-5 celebrated in Japan with special edition

2010, February: 875,000th MX-5 produced

2010: 20th anniversary of MX-5 sales in the UK celebrated with special model, based on 1.8-litre car

2011, February: 900,000th MX-5 produced

CHAPTER 1 MAZDA BEFORE THE MX-5

The company now known as Mazda was established as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. Ltd in 1920, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Its name was changed to Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd in 1927, before manufacturing of machine tools began in 1927. A new factory was opened in Hiroshima during 1930, before production of the company’s first vehicle, a three-wheel utility truck called Mazdago, began in October 1931.

Toyo Kogyo began exporting these trucks to China early the following year. It continued producing tools and vehicles for the next decade and a half, until Hiroshima was devastated by the American atomic bomb attack in 1945, which brought about the end of the Second World War. Toyo Kogyo avoided the blast and the Hiroshima prefecture office used its facilities until July 1946. Exports restarted in 1949, when the company began sending its three-wheel trucks to India.

From 1960 Toyo Kogyo produced more and more vehicles, beginning with its first passenger vehicle, the Mazda R360 Coupé. The sporty R360 was a four-seat coupé powered by a 356cc air-cooled engine developing 16hp. More than 4,000 units had been sold by the end of 1960, the car’s low price bringing car buying within reach of the average worker.

The very first Mazda – a three-wheel delivery trike. MAZDA

Mazda’s R360 Coupé became the first in a long line of sporting vehicles from the company. MAZDA

The Mazda Cosmo 110S became a highly respected sports car in Japan. It marked the starting point of Mazda’s affinity with the rotary engine. MAZDA

The RX-7 nametag is associated with one of Mazda’s most famous lines. Lightweight and nimble handling made the original a match for the contemporary Porsche 924. MAZDA

The company made another important move in 1961, joining forces with German auto maker NSU on development of rotary engines, a type of engine that became synonymous with Mazda over the following decades, even as interest from other manufacturers – notably Citroen and NSU – waned. The French company dropped the concept after making only a small number of production rotary-engined models, while NSU was hit by warranty claims for failing engines and was eventually absorbed into Audi. Meanwhile, four-door passenger vehicles followed the R360 and as Mazda passed its first million sales, it started the Familia line of family cars.

The company’s interest in rotary-engined vehicles finally produced a car in 1967, with launch of the Mazda Cosmo Sports 110S. The Cosmo developed 110hp from its twin-rotor engine, easily breaking the 100mph (161km/h) barrier and racing down the quarter mile in just 16.3 seconds. Developments the following year gave the car 128hp and a top speed of 200km/h (124mph), with even greater acceleration. The pretty and futuristic 110S became a company milestone, and set a tone for sports car development at Mazda that continues to the present day.

From here, the company developed rapidly. US exports began in 1970, and over the next few years Mazda released a line of other rotary-powered vehicles, carrying the now familiar ‘RX’ tag. The first RX-7 hit the market in 1978, beginning a line of rotary sports cars that continued well into the 2000s. Produced until 1985, the first-generation RX-7, known as the FB in enthusiast circles, used a 12A, twin-573cc rotor engine developing 128hp at 7,000rpm. The car benchmarked the recently launched Porsche 924, but with a rotary engine and acres of velour and vinyl covering its interior, it could only be Japanese in origin.

Ford Association

Mazda entered into a financial tie-up with the Ford Motor Company in 1979, before officially becoming the Mazda Motor Corporation in 1984. The second-generation RX-7 sports car arrived in 1985, with power increased to 146bhp and offering more torque from its larger twin-rotor engine. Now mimicking the Porsche 944 in style, but again treading its own path in driving experience, the new car meant that Mazda could now be taken seriously as a producer of sports cars.

Mazda won the 24 Hours at Le Mans in 1991 with the 787B. MAZDA

By the time the third generation RX-7 – the beautiful and curvaceous ‘FD’ – arrived in 1991, the MX-5 was already becoming a global sales success. The FD is consistently rated highly by enthusiasts and critics alike, and was one of a handful of Japanese sports cars that shocked the West out of its complacency towards Far-Eastern cars. Both Japan, and particularly Mazda, had arrived on the sports car big time.

Mazda’s sporting line-up continued to grow throughout the 1990s, aided by its historic victory in the 24 Heures du Mans, using the rotary-powered 787B. To this day, the 787B’s Le Mans win is both Mazda and Japan’s only victory in the 24-hour event, and the only victory for a rotary-powered car.

Mazda launched the MX-3 coupé in 1991, featuring one of the world’s smallest production V6 engines, and the larger MX-6 in 1987, developed in conjunction with Ford, to join the MX-5 and RX-7. Japan’s home market was gifted the tiny AZ-1 kei-class sports car in 1992 to compete in Japan’s smallest car class, and with these models and others, Mazda became renowned for its sporting models and unique engineering. It is a reputation that continues and is proudly promoted by Mazda with its ‘Zoom-Zoom’ slogan, which is used worldwide. Reviews of Mazda’s more humdrum models regularly note that its cars seem infused with MX-5 DNA – yet another legacy of the MX-5’s development.

CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTION

The Sports Car Market

As Europe began to get back on its feet and prosperity improved following the Second World War, several European car manufacturers began developing simple, lightweight sports cars using mechanicals from their more mundane offerings. It became a market segment that endured for decades, since the average buyer on an average wage could happily find themselves behind the wheel of something far more fun and exciting than the usual saloon car offerings. This sports car buzz boomed in the 1960s, a period often considered the golden age of the sports car. Britain and Italy led the way, developing cars like the MGB, Triumph Spitfire, Alfa Romeo Duetto and Fiat 124 Spider, all of them simple to drive and maintain, and inexpensive to produce.

Then, in 1975, a team of engineers at Volkswagen developed a car that would change motoring completely. Just one year earlier, the German manufacturer, better known for its rear-engined Beetle, had shocked the market with the front-engined, front-wheel driven Golf hatchback. But 1975’s Golf GTI took the concept further.

Here was a car that demanded no compromises from its user. One could walk into a Volkswagen dealership and purchase one of the most practical cars on the market, but also one that would shame many a sports car in the all-important traffic light Grand Prix, further humiliating them in the corners. It went, steered and stopped like a sports car, but the roof didn’t admit a drop of water in a downpour, and the boot could hold a week’s worth of shopping. With fuel injection, it even started every morning. And for the teams tasked with designing a performance car that people could use every day, putting a large engine into a platform that had already been developed and paid for many times over, made far more financial sense than developing an expensive, rear-drive sports car entirely from scratch.

Kenichi Yamamoto, father of the rotary engine and instrumental figure in the MX-5’s conception. MAZDA

These were characteristics that the humble sports car could not hope to offer. The sports cars of the time were being further compromised by burgeoning emissions and safety regulations, making them slower and heavier, and compromising their styling with large, impact-absorbing bumpers. Had the Golf GTI remained the sole ‘hot hatchback’ on the market, then this may not have been such a problem for the few remaining sports cars, but soon other car manufacturers caught on to the concept of selling souped-up shopping cars and over the next decade these affordable, fun and practical vehicles decimated what was left of an increasingly struggling sports car industry.

It is ironic, then, that less than a year later than the Golf GTI’s debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the seeds were being sewn for a motoring revolution of a different kind, and one whose fruits would not be seen for another thirteen years.

The Seeds are Sown

In early 1979, Bob Hall, a motoring journalist at American magazine Motor Trend, had a meeting with Kenichi Yamamo-to and Gai Arai, head of research and development at Mazda. Before he left, Hall mentioned to Yamamoto that he thought Mazda should be producing a lightweight sports car. A big fan of 1960s’ British sports cars, but irritated by their quality issues, Hall became enthusiastic about a modern version. The company already had the rotary-powered RX-7 on its books, but Hall was looking for something simpler, lighter and cheaper.

While the concept went down well with Yamamoto, Mazda’s top brass would need more persuading to enter a market that seemed to be moving further and further away from lightweight roadsters. The project began to gain momentum in the early 1980s, when Hall met with some of the RX-7 development team at the famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, held in Monterey, California. Mazda lead designer Shunji Tanaka happened to mention words that would come to embody the concept throughout its development – ‘lightweight sports car’. Provided the car remained light, it would influence the entire driving experience. This was backed up in a study by Mazda North America Operations, which stipulated that a suitable sports car would need to be light, seat only two people, have exciting styling and use a front-engined, rear-drive layout.

Bob Hall – The journalist who conceived the MX-5

‘Any greatness and longevity the MX-5 has is based primarily in the car’s purity and simplicity of concept.’

Without Bob Hall, there would likely be no Mazda MX-5. Not only that, but the 1990s’ small sports car boom may also never have happened, and the concept of a cheap performance car would be very different today. It was Hall’s desire for a sports car that rekindled the spirit of the 1950s and 1960s, without resurrecting their foibles, which led to the world’s greatest-selling roadster.

Back in 1996, American motoring journalist Hall was writing for Motor Trend magazine, and it was his meeting with Kenichi Yamamoto and Gai Arai that kicked off the MX-5’s development. Speaking to Don Sherman at Automobile Magazine, he recounted his first conversations with the Japanese engineers.

‘I shifted into overdrive. I babbled at 70mph (in a trans-Pacific hodgepodge of English and Japanese) how the RX-7 is a neat car, an A-plus sports car, but the simple, bugs-in-the-teeth, wind-in-the-hair, classically British sports car doesn’t exist anymore. I told Mr Yamamoto that somebody should build one…’

The rest, as they say, is history. In 1981, Hall joined Mazda as part of the team that would develop the MX-5, eventually launched in 1989. Hall has now moved on from Mazda, living and working out in Malaysia for Proton, as head of product planning and programme engineering.

Although no development was done, Hall had planted a seed that would steadily grow over the decade. In 1983, a meeting with Mazda designer Shigenori Fukuda allowed Hall to reiterate his desire for a simple sports car, leading Fukuda to set up the unusually-titled ‘Off-line, Go Go’ project. This encouraged Mazda’s design and engineering staff to create a new small sports car. Hall was taken with the project and joined Mazda’s North American product planning and research division. Yamamoto was then promoted as President of Mazda Motor Corporation and finally able to give the concept the backing it needed. Along with designers Tom Matano and Mark Jordan, Hall and Fukuda worked on early proposals for a new sports car – the beginning of the project to create ‘Mazda eXperimental-5’.

Several designs were proposed as part of the ‘P729’ programme, a code for the roadster project. To this end, a selection of various clay models was produced. A competition was held within Mazda, to test the water for potential sports car concepts. Three teams worked on different drivetrain layouts – one a traditional front-engined, rear-drive sports car, the next a simple, front-engine, front-wheel drive layout and the final proposal a more radical mid-engine design. Front-drive was becoming popular, since it was simpler to engineer and build, improved cabin space and allowed for plenty of flexibility in terms of engine choice.

The mid-engined design was also strongly considered, since the front-drive engine and drivetrain could easily be adapted. While both front-drive and mid-engine options would allow Mazda to reduce the amount of bespoke engineering required, it became increasingly clear that to develop a sports car that stayed true to their original vision, a front-engine, rear-drive layout was required. This concept, developed by the team at the Mazda North America base in Irvine, California, became the basis of the project.

The team also worked on different body proposals, even debating whether the new car should be a traditional convertible, or a fixed-roof coupé. The car’s design was the subject of much heated debate within Mazda, and several designs were initially suggested. Gradually, the MX-5’s now-familiar shape was formed, refined and tweaked with each new model. The engineers had even coined a phrase to describe the car’s ethos, the now oft-repeated ‘Jinba Ittai’ – ‘oneness between horse and rider’. The term stemmed from old Japanese culture and accurately described the level of connection that drivers would feel behind the wheel of the new car. Even by this stage in the model’s development however, Mazda was still unsure on whether to push forward with further design and research. It was still in doubt as to the car’s potential market, given the changing tastes of the time’s consumers.

Early MX-5 development sketches, with obvious 1980s’ styling cues. MAZDA

The interior design shows a more conventional layout than the production version. MAZDA

This interior is close to the final production version. MAZDA

This sketch includes some of the MX-5’s well known smoother lines. MAZDA

Here the gear lever has a Ferrari-style open gate. Sadly, it’s something that didn’t make production. MAZDA

One of the early Californian prototypes. The styling has a little way to go before it arrives at the production configuration. MAZDA

By April 1987, Mazda had built a full-scale plastic-bodied prototype of one of the design proposals. It presented it to 220 members of the US public, to gauge their reaction. The reception was positive, with fifty-seven participants going as far as to say they ‘would definitely buy it if it hit the market’. This reaction to the car in the world’s biggest automotive market reassured Mazda that such a project was viable. Five months later, the design was finalised.

By this point, engineering evaluation work had begun at International Automotive Design (IAD) in Worthing, Sussex. The concept car and prototyping specialists had been tasked with replicating the feel of an old British sport cars, with everything from the chassis and steering to the exhaust note, taking inspiration from those classic British vehicles. Meanwhile, personnel changes at Mazda had delayed the project a little, before Shunji Takana, Mazda’s senior designer in Japan, was transferred to Irvine, California. Takana’s eventual redesign actually brought the prototype’s looks much closer to the original version created by Hall, Matano, Jordan and Fukuda.

As the design was finally signed off, work began on the suspension and drivetrain. Mazda had selected a four-cylinder 1,597cc unit from the contemporary Mazda 323 GTX, a turbocharged hatchback with which Mazda was having some success in Group A rallying. To the iron block, Mazda fitted a new aluminium cylinder head with double overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder. This allowed the car to rev smoothly to high engine speeds, so a 7,200rpm electronic limiter was installed. Shorn of forced induction, the strong unit was re-tuned for better throttle response and a classic exhaust note, the latter being one reason for ditching the turbocharger – Mazda felt it would mute the classic sports car noises. Multipoint fuel injection was also fitted for optimum combustion and better fuel consumption, and new camshafts were fitted to improve top-end power.

It was attached to a five-speed manual gearbox lifted from the Mazda 929, the feel of which was again tuned to evoke a classic sports car experience – the engineers called for a shift that could be operated by the mere flick of a wrist. Mazda also worked on what it termed the ‘Power Plant Frame’, a structure that rigidly connects the transmission and differential, preventing torque from the rear wheels twisting the chassis, and improving both the feel and response of the drivetrain.

Kenichi Yamamoto – Head of Research and Development at Mazda, 1979

‘I really would like the next generation to be unafraid of making mistakes and to maintain a spirit of challenge.’

As with Bob Hall, without Kenichi Yamamoto and his colleague Gai Arai, there would be no MX-5. Perhaps equally significant for Mazda, there would also be no rotary-engined Mazdas, for Yamamoto-san had been with Mazda since the early days and played a part in every rotary-engined model that ever left the Hiroshima factory.

Born in Kumamoto, Yamamoto-san graduated from Tokyo University in 1944, after majoring in machinery. During the war he manufactured aircraft and joined the Toyo Kogyo company after the war ended.

During his work with Toyo Kogyo, the company which preceded Mazda, he began work in the rotary engine (RE) research department, the team set up to develop Mazda’s version of Felix Wankel’s rotary engine. Initially, Yamamoto wasn’t taken by the idea. ‘No way!’ he recalled, in a 1998 interview with the Chugoku Shimbun, a Hiroshima newspaper. ‘Reciprocating engines have a history of almost 100 years, and it is not easy to develop a new engine.’

Despite this, and concerns that a small company like Mazda should not be attempting something that large companies such as General Motors and Ford had not, the project went ahead. In 1967, the team produced the Mazda Cosmo 110S, a rotary sports car. Other rotary models followed, and 1978 marked the launch of the first RX-7. Since then, Mazda has been synonymous with Wankel rotary-engined cars, and has achieved success that their original proponents, NSU and Citroen, could only dream of.

And then, in February 1979, Yamamoto-san and Gai Arai talked with Bob Hall about the sort of cars Mazda should be producing. As Yamamoto-san rose up Mazda’s ranks to eventually become president, he was able to help make Hall’s vision happen. That car is the MX-5, and its legacy has arguably even outlasted Mazda’s rotary efforts.

Mazda designed a special double overhead cam cylinder head for its 1.6-litre engine. ANTONY INGRAM

The clean, elegant lines of the early Mk1 MX-5 look as good today as they ever did.PETE KENT // @NOTPOSHPETE

The suspension was far more sophisticated than anything else at this level in the market, since RX-7 engineer Takao Kijima had insisted on an unequal-length double-wishbone set up, front and rear. While the suspension was advanced, the interior was simple, the work of interior designer Kenji Matsuo. The engineers’ ethos of Jinba Ittai was applied throughout the car’s development, reducing weight and complexity wherever possible. The long bonnet was to be of aluminium to reduce weight and improve the front-to-rear balance and even unseen components, like the exhaust, were carefully considered, stainless steel eventually used to improve gas flow. The roof was yet another concession to Jinba Ittai. A powered roof was initially considered, but rejected on the grounds of weight and complexity. A manually operated soft top was ultimately chosen, one which drivers could raise and lower from their seat in a matter of seconds.

With safety an increasing factor in many markets, the team also used the relatively young technique of computer analysis to develop a body that was as strong as it was light, without the compromises on styling that had afflicted its 1970s and early 1980s predecessors.

By 1988, Mazda already had twelve prototypes up and running. In July of that year, the American press was let loose in the car to gauge opinion. Their verdict, unsurprising to those who have driven the MX-5 in the years since, was ‘build it!’

Not without reason, news of the MX-5’s development was starting to attract the attention of the motoring press. A 1988 issue of Autocar & Motor carried the headline ‘Sports Car War!’, with Mazda taking the fight to rival sports cars from Lotus – the M100 Elan – and Ford, with a ‘new Capri’ that ultimately disappeared, never to be seen again.

Mazda’s position was also unusual as the only manufacturer pursuing a rear-wheel drive layout. The Lotus Elan was the first front-drive Lotus sports car in the company’s history and Ford’s stillborn Capri would also have been front-wheel drive. It didn’t take long for the press and the car industry to realise Mazda’s retro intentions. Quotes from industry observers noted that Mazda had bought examples of old British sports cars, like the MGB, Triumph Spitfire and Lotus Elan, pulling them apart and examining their smallest details in an effort to recreate them in a more modern form. It would also allow Mazda to iron out any shortcomings found in the classics, while retaining their appeal.

Magazines noted the MX-5’s Elan-like styling – ironic, given the totally new direction taken with the contemporary Elan. The 21 December 1988 issue of Autocar & Motor carried spy photographs of the car, shortly before its Chicago show debut. ‘Our photographs show a little car with undeniable good looks… the car uses lots of soft contours and rounded lines in a subtle revamp of the old Coke bottle style.’

The writing was on the wall for other makers, there being little doubt in the eyes of critics that Mazda had taken the right route with its reinvention of the classics.

CHAPTER 3 MAZDA MX-5 MK1 (NA)

MARKET LAUNCH

When the MX-5 finally hit the Mazda stand at the Chicago Auto Show on 10 February 1989, Mazda was prepared to find out if all those years of planning and development had been worthwhile – and the press would find out whether sports cars still had a place in the world.

The MX-5 certainly had all the correct ingredients. The rounded 1960s’ profile and delicate details were in stark contrast to most 1980s’ cars; few manufacturers had started to introduce the curvy shapes that would dominate for the next decade. The size and proportions too were from another era, and the car must have looked tiny next to the Chicago show’s other stars that year, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 and Dodge Viper concept.