Long-term report: Say hello to the wonderful Mazda MX-5 RF
James Batchelor needs no excuse to spend time with an MX-5. Here, he introduces his latest long-term test car.
“You must be mad”, came the reply from my colleague when I said I had an idea to live with a sports car for six months, four of which would be in deepest, darkest winter.
But this wasn’t just any two-seater. Mazda’s MX-5 has been on sale in Britain for 35 years now. And while there are certainly more powerful, flashier and imposing sports cars around, the dinky Mazda has always been there delivering thrills by the bucketload at a bargain price.
In a previous life on a car magazine, I lived with an MX-5 Roadster for six months and found the experience so utterly joyous that I’ve been trying to find an excuse to have another go in one.
Pitching the idea to Mazda elicited a similar response from my colleague, but the brand relented and chucked me the keys to one with a nicely bedded-in 5,000 miles on the clock with the proviso I had to hand it back when the clock ticked onto 12k.
