The Cure: Mazda MX-5 (2009)

Call it a quirk of fortune, or an occasion of un-serendipity, if you will. The Mazda MX-5 was ours for a long weekend, in the middle of summer. Unfortunately, due to global warming, red matter, or the impending approach of 2012, those three days had the highest rainfall recorded for the year.

If this were a conventional convertible, then we would have kept the car safely tucked in the garage until the wrath of Yahweh subsided. This, however, is the MX-5 with a built-in hardhat stored inside its trunk. With the push of a button and the twist of a lever, it enables conversion from wind (and rain) in your hair motoring to the locked-down security of a hardtop coupe.

The mantra of the MX-5 is to have only the essentials for motoring; nothing more. A hardtop seems anathema to this mission, but then all its competitors have started to sprout retractable tin roofs. Back in the ‘90s, when we were watching David Hasselhoff turn KITT into a roadster, it was the stuff of fantasy, but now every respectable car company has a CC (coupe-convertible) in its lineup. In a way, the circle is coming to its completion, as the MX-5 was itself responsible for the renaissance of the roadster with its first generation.

For about a decade, sports cars from Japan were getting more powerful, but also heavier and too complex for their own good. Mazda took its inspiration from lightweight classics, specifically the Lotus Elan and added reliability and impeccable build quality to the formula. Simple without being Spartan, and responsive without being uncomfortable, the MX-5 brought the sports car back to its roots, and in doing so, attained the title of the best-selling sports car in history.

With seven hundred thousand units already sold, the MX-5 still follows the successful formula. The car is compact, barely enough for two seats, a couple of overnight bags, and an engine. Wriggling into the driver’s seat is like slipping on a handmade Italian loafer; the seat fits snugly around thighs and torso. There’s not much wriggle room as the doors, center console, and steering wheel are always within brushing distance. Still, there’s no knee-banging or elbow-knocking here. Everything is mounted apparently in compliance with an ergonomics textbook.

A leather steering wheel, sans the previous Momo branding but looking and feeling just as substantial, is mounted vertically, in front of two no-nonsense gauges. The glossy black trim adorning the dashboard and center console belong on a concert Steinway, but in a car, they’re just a magnet for grubby fingerprints.

A drop of a hand away from the steering wheel is a short, stubby gearlever. The shifter alone promises a gratifying drive, as it enables gearshifts with a flick of the wrist. The best way to hold it is to close the center console lid (no drinks, please), plant your elbow on the cover and grasp the lever firmly. From there, any gear change requires merely a single precise movement of the hand. Put the MX-5 in a comic book, and Wolverine’s “snikt” sound effect would be in each panel.

But before we shift, first we start her up. The engine starts the old-fashioned way, with the twist of the key. It fires to life with an eager burble from the exhaust. The two-liter inline-4 may have “only” 166 bhp, but due to its eagerness to rev and the snappy response of the pedal, head-snapping thrust is just a dip of the foot away. Still, if there was a weak point to the MX-5, it would have to be the engine. It does its job perfectly well, but what we were left wishing for was more character as it spins toward the 7000-rpm redline.

The MX-5 may look as cute as a button, but underneath the cuddliness are the chassis and mechanicals of a hardcore sports car. The two-liter inline-4 engine delivers all the power to the rear wheels, enabling a purity of steering response and a lightweight, tossable feel that few sedans can match, no matter how powerful they may be. The car’s weight is evenly distributed between the front and rear axles, such that tackling a tight U-turn slot, instead of being a tiresome chore, becomes an instance of delight.

Driving the MX-5 in torrential rain was not the handling nightmare that we thought it would be. The car has plenty of grip even through highways covered with a slick film of summertime rain water. On dry tarmac, it stays firmly planted on the driver’s intended course. There’s a bit of body flexing on nasty highway joints, but the body-and-top combination is otherwise solid.

We’re aware that there’s a huge aftermarket parts catalog for the MX-5, particularly with its popularity in US amateur racing. Still, this MX-5 doesn’t seem like it’s the ideal platform to drop in an extra 200 bhp or stiffen the suspension by 50%. To us, the MX-5 is the perfect stock sports car, with little satisfaction to be gained from tweaking it to death. We didn’t get the sense that there was a huge reserve built in to the design, unlike say in a Subaru WRX or Nissan Z. Mazda

The first MX-5 was renowned for the simplicity and reliability of its fabric soft-top, capable of one-hand operation. The hardtop does that one better, allowing for push-button operation. Except for the latch that clamps the top to the windshield header, the retractable hardtop is fully-automatic. It’s quick, too, converting from fully sealed to fully open in 12 seconds; it snaps up just as quickly.

Until now, the MX-5 resisted an automatic top as it added weight, this car’s mortal enemy. The engineers thus took care to pare even the weight of the hardtop down to 36 kg. What is even better, the hardtop is designed to separate into three pieces that nest into each other. The parts swivel into a compartment just ahead of the trunk, not encroaching on the already-limited space. Just as important, the roadster still cuts a decent profile with its top up.

The trunk space is enough for a couple of handcarry-sized luggage, or a week’s worth of groceries for a pair of supermodels. One caveat is that the trunk heats up quickly, thanks to the exhaust that’s just under the floor. Good for pizzas, bad for ice cream.

On the safety front, the MX-5 has front and side airbags, ABS, traction and stability control to help keep in pointed right side up. Should even those fail, the windshield frame is reinforced and there are a pair of roll hoops behind the headrests.

We have driven the MX-5 clear across Metro Manila, from Marikina to Alabang, and back, with the top down, and we came to one conclusion: open-air touring is simply not advisable in this city. It’s fascinating to see the skyline from a different perspective, but Manila’s environmental elements are simply not friendly. Driving at night or early morning is enough to escape the heat, but there’s no escape the fumes left belched out by our infernal buses and jeeps. Taking the car to the countryside, in the mountains or seaside, should be an ideal solution.

Is there any practical purpose to the MX-5? It’s one of the most affordable performance cars around, and judging by its history, it should be as reliable as a Swiss army knife. Its two-liter engine, mated to the six-speed manual, doesn’t guzzle fuel like large-displacement heavy sedans or sports cars. The best justification for having an MX-5 is taking a passenger for a drive, top down. To the park, to the drive-thru, to nowhere in particular. Just to see her beaming at seeing the sky and having the wind in her face. During those moments, it does seem that the Mazda can cure a rainy day.