Review: Mazda MX-5 PRHT

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the happy essence of motoring.

WORDS Marvin Tan PHOTOS Marvin Tan, Ken Tamayo, Niky Tamayo | 26 March 2009

One day I got out of bed and wished I could jump back in. Naturally, it was a weekday. Which meant I had to go to the office. Which was 11 kilometers of bumper-to-bumper traffic away from my house. I had breakfast, took a shower, grabbed the keys to the CR-V and went. I’ve been enduring this routine for so long that, truth to tell, all I cared about was that there was gas in my car, that the airconditioning was blowing cold and that there was a nice CD playing on my stereo. That was it. And that’s it for a lot of other people, too, I’m sure. Which probably means that I have relinquished the right to call myself an enthusiast. But hey, commuting is a part of life, and when you’re commuting in a place as jammed up as Manila, things like steering feel and naught-to-100 acceleration become academic. The next day there was a shiny red Mazda MX-5 in the garage. It looked absolutely tiny next to a CR-V. It was also a weekday. Which meant I still had to go to the office, 11 kilometers of bumper-to-bumper traffic away from my house. But wait. With a car like this, why go to the office? So naturally, I called to say I wasn’t coming in. Then I headed for the hills. And let her rip. With the top down – easily done with a simple push of a button. I snicked the shifter – simply one of the finest-feeling in the world – into second as the 2-liter engine roared past four, five, six, seven thousand rpm. Snick-snick into third. Then fourth… necessarily in rapid succession as the gearing is ultra-short. I was pushed back into the snug seat and the white needle of the speedometer swept past 120 kph, and then the mountain scenery blurred and the wind blew in great torrents around my hair as the angry rasp of the motor ahead steeled into a vociferous snarl as it unleashed 166 stampeding horses with which to take my little red sports car into warp speed. But then a sharp downhill left hander came up and I jammed on the brakes late as I twirled the meaty steering wheel. The rear tires sidestepped to the right slightly under trail-braking as I put in a touch of opposite lock before clicking the magnificent shifter into third and getting back on the gas past the apex. Whew. A series of esses loomed but they were no match for the MX-5’s decidedly firm and direct steering and the car just simply charged at them at some unholy velocity in third gear and by the time I straightened out the wheel exiting the last corner, I had a silly grin on my face and was thinking how I could possibly buy one of these toys. Breathtaking. There was gas in the tank. But the radio was off. And so was the airconditioning. But at that point, I didn’t care. I had God’s own airconditioning and the sound and the fury of the engine filled the air with music. What I did care about was that this MX-5 reminded me of why I loved cars and driving in the first place, for few things can match the giddy cocktail of thrill, vitality and sensory stimulation that driving a proper sports car on a proper driving road provides. And the Mazda MX-5 is a proper sports car. Front-engine, rear-wheel drive. Two seats. Infinite headroom. Impeccable balance. Only 1,168 kg. Close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox. Fast, ultra-responsive and pin-sharp steering. It’s difficult to describe a Honda Civic or a Ford Focus as fun to drive after having driven the MX-5. And then it was time to head back, just as the dark clouds that had been gathering opened wide. I knew I was back in civilization when the inevitable trifecta of tricycle, jeepney and bus appeared. Indeed, the Mazda MX-5 is a proper sports car. I knew this because suddenly, everything on the road just seemed to take on an epic scale. Kia Picantos are huge. A Toyota Fortuner sidled up beside me at a light and I was startled that the little MX-5’s roof appeared to be level with my neighbor’s bumper. Moments later I found myself with a bus on my left and a bus on my right, and from where I sat, I was guiding a rowboat through the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Alas, sports car fun comes with sports car vices, and when not peeling around switchbacks, the MX-5 becomes quite a handful. You’ll have to be a Miata die-hard to drive an MX-5 everyday. The ride is quite firm, with harsh and loud impacts. Road noise comes through in high-fidelity. The center tunnel gets warm. The clutch can feel heavy in traffic. There are large blind spots when the roof is up. There’s hardly any space for your legs and feet and elbows. Space for the passenger is even tighter than for the driver. Cargo space is close to zero. And of course, speed bumps suddenly become very intimidating, in a way they never are when you’re driving a CR-V. The gearing is too short for relaxed driving. This is a close-ratio six-speed box, and revs are well above 3000 rpm at 100 kph in sixth gear. Ouch. In traffic and in the city, you have to shift a whole lot, and it can get tiresome. At least the shifter feels fabulous. And the car costs two million bucks. For that price, you get the wonderful power hardtop, but not leather seats. The plastics inside are too hard and cheap-feeling for the figure on the price list too. But then again, if you’re going to buy an MX-5, I’m sure you’re going to have many other cars in your garage for daily driving. But there are two things that those other cars can’t give you. The first is the grin on your face as you charge up a twisting mountain road. The second, the deeply admiring ooohs and aaaahs of everyone – no matter the age – who sees your pretty little red sports car. Especially during the 12 seconds when the roof is folding itself. THE GOOD Great handling Terrific looks Impressive 12-second folding roof THE BAD Cramped, plasticky cabin No luggage space So-so fuel consumption THE LOWDOWN It's not an everyday car, but for grin-inducing motoring, nothing beats the MX-5 Second Take: Niky Tamayo The MX-5 is a conundrum for me. See, I’m a Mazda die-hard. And the original Miata is at or near the top of my list of things-that-don’t-need-improvement. In other words, it’s perfect. It’s just big enough to carry you, a passenger, the engine and a tankful of gasoline, while being just small enough to be nimble. It has just enough power to get to the next corner and just enough grip to go around... but not so much of either that they will make up for your lack of driving skill. It has just enough mechanical refinement to go quickly in a reliable manner, but not so much refinement as to isolate you from the process of going quickly. At least the new Miata has got one thing right. While wind noise is quite subdued, top-up or top-down, till you get past 100 km/h (and even at 160 km/h, the expected tornado force winds don’t penetrate the cabin as they do in convertibles of old), there’s still a lot of mechanical racket to enjoy... the chatter of the limited slip differential, gear whine, propshaft whine... and you can feel the wheels go pitter patter across the road through the seat of your pants and the soles of your shoes... staff photographer Ken likened it to his old S12 Silvia, and I understand what he means... The MX-5 was built as a spartan sportscar. Bits like the the thin plastic sun-visors (to save weight), for me, reinforce this purist focus rather than detract from it. Unfortunately, a touch of modernity invades the Miata experience with the new MX-5. An all-electronic engine (injection, ignition, throttle) gives an extremely flat and linear powerband... no hiccups, no surging... and the razor-sharp electric power-steering feels nowhere near as delicate or connected as the barely-assisted hydraulic steering on the old car, which was a bit easier to drive on the edge of oversteer. But the old car was never this quick. 100 km/h comes up in just 7.9 seconds. It’s very quick off the line at 3.5 seconds to 60 km/h, thanks to the built-in lightness and the limited-slip differential, but at high speeds, many modern executive sedans are faster. Still, the MX-5 wasn’t built to be a dragster. As such, one questions the need for six-gears, especially if 6th gear is lower than most compact cars’ 5th gear. Owners in the US seem to agree... the wider-gated 5-speed suits the MX-5 better than the 6-speed in the PRHT. Still, the suspension tuning is just about right. It’s very soft, but well-controlled. Which gives it relatively low but predictable handling limits (for a sports car). Not as low as the old car’s, especially considering the oversized 17” wheels, but it’s about as accessible and user-friendly as a modern sportscar can get. It’s not as complete a driving experience as the iconic original was... but then, nothing nowadays is. The new MX-5 is the closest you can get. And unlike other convertibles, there's no need for an umbrella. The top on this one actually works.

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