Total MX-5 – July 2019

Summer 2019 | TOTAL MX-5 |^25

[ INSIGHT ]

converted to look like classic
Abarths or even a baby Aston
Martin (whisper it, but the latter
actually works pretty well). In
the big picture, the real buzz of
owning a Roadster in Japan is
not just the way it drives – that
outstanding balance, feedback
and uncanny interaction
between pedals, wheel and
gearshift (jinba-ittai or ‘horse
and rider as one’, as Mazda
describes it) – but the ability to
take this brilliantly intuitive
sports car out to new and
interesting places.
Driving down to Suzuka for
the Formula One Japanese
Grand Prix, for example, or
exploring an extraordinarily
alluring set of mountain roads
and views amid the epically
named ‘Japanische Romantische
Straße’ (yes, really) between
Nagano and Nikko.
Mount Fuji, Kobe, Kyoto...the
list of great Japanese
destinations goes on. Or you
can just take off for the day and
head to the coast or the
mountains. My Roadster was a
brilliant, faithful companion on
such trips.
During 16 years and 53,120km
(33,014 miles) it broke down
only once when the clutch
hydraulics failed in the heat of

summer, leaving me stranded:

Mazda has since redesigned the

clutch slave cylinder. So it’s not

just Toyota that can boast about

100 per cent reliability...

Arguably the highlight of my

ownership was a magazine

commission to ‘take my

Roadster back home’. Yes, drive

from Tokyo all the way across

to Mazda’s Hiroshima HQ and

factory, a journey of 500 miles.

It took two days, involving a

stopover in Kyoto and an

excursion to some stellar roads

in the wilds of Okayama

Prefecture. Joy.

At Mazda, I visited the Ujina

factory where the Roadster was

made, watching spellbound as

the whole production process

came together. During the lunch

break I even lapped the factory

test track at Ujina, normally

closed and off-limits, of course.

Talking to top Mazda people,

including Takeo Kijima, then

chief engineer of the car, about

how the MX-5 project came

together and retained its

original focus, was fascinating.

At heart, Mazda wanted to

design ‘a friendly, classless

sports car that’s affordable’.

Caption

Not big power, extrovert style

or maximum G-force, but a

simple, lightweight, rear-drive

formula that puts pure driving

pleasure to the fore.

For the past 30 years it’s

remarkable how true Mazda has

stayed with that format. And

the consequence has been that

the MX-5 is the world’s best-

selling sports car.

Every week, Mazda sends a

ship full of cars from Hiroshima

to Tokyo, and when the PR team

offered to put my RS on the

next one, sparing me another

12-hour driving marathon, I

willingly accepted.

I regret making that decision

now because, after all, it’s not

every day you get to drive your

own Mazda Roadster to its

birthplace and then home again:

a missed opportunity...

Route of the nattily named Japanische Romantische Strasse between Nagaro and Nikko

At Yokohama docks before shipping home