The 2025 Mazda MX-5 is all the sports car you need

One of the most dedicated motoring communities out there is that which surrounds the Mazda MX-5. They have it that the little Japanese roadster is and has always been, all the sports car you could ever need. But for the rest of us who are sometimes partial to cars with more than four cylinders, over 200bhp and a bit of structural rigidity, compelling though it’s always been, it’s never been the be-all and end-all.

Now, though, 35 years on from the MX-5’s debut, the latest car puts forward perhaps the most convincing case yet. Why? Well, in the first instance, absolutely on merit. The MX-5 has been nipped, tucked and fettled, as Japanese performance cars often are throughout their protracted lifespans. A new limited-slip diff and revised steering add to the Bilstein suspension, and Brembo brakes that make the latest MX-5 quite unlike an original from 2015. Still, there’s no escaping the fact that at its base, it is a ten-year-old car. When including it in the eCoty 2024 lineup, we had to be sure:

In evo podcast episode ten, Dickie Meaden said: ‘We touched on this in our Japanese car podcast way back when, but the latest MX-5 has all the hallmarks of a car that's properly been honed and tweaked, and it was all the little adjustments and quite costly little additions that all the engineers would have wanted to do. It just felt like it might be quite a special little car.

‘We did our diligence, we had the car for a bit before. Quite a few of us had driven it and it felt like it was really impressive, so it wasn't like we were just throwing it in and hoping for the best. Equally, when you put a car in like that against some of the top end stuff we had, it doesn't always end particularly well does it? For the underdog stuff.’

Indeed a valid concern ahead of the test, was whether it would be lost in the shadow of the big stuff. It didn't take us long to realise we needn’t have worried, because a huge part of the latest MX-5’s appeal is what hasn’t changed, as well as what has.

Consider the MX-5’s place in the mid-2020s performance car landscape. In a world of increasingly heavy, powerful, offputtingly performant yet eerily dull-to-the-touch performance cars, the MX-5 is as it ever was: a lightweight, interactive, feelsome driver’s car, whose modest performance numbers belie the superb experience of a car you can fully enjoy on the road. It’s a gloriously indulgent anomaly that in changing very little over four generations and three decades, has only gained distinction.

Dickie Meaden: ‘It was like having a character from cars in Car of the Year, wasn’t it? It was as much fun to watch it as it was to drive it – massively annoying too, if you were in something that should be tearing off down the road. It was a constant reminder that there's only so much performance you can use.’

John Barker: ‘I think we all got to that point with the MX-5 where you just get into the rhythm, into the flow of it, and totally trust it. It makes you feel like a good driver – you're actually reading the road so that you don't have to brake, you’re thinking ‘how much speed can I carry in?’. As you peel into a corner, if you’ve taken a little bit too much speed, you don't hit the brakes –  maybe steer a bit more or back off a little bit. It adjusts itself and on you go again.'

Henry Catchpole: ‘The steering is definitely better than the earlier ND and you’ve got the diff as well, that's just elevated the car.’ 

John Barker: ‘I think it's the best MX5 probably since the first one.’ 

Dickie Meaden: ‘It has all the good things doesn't it – it's a car with really good steering, really good balance, the right power and torque to weight and it's very small and it's very light and it's manual – a good manual as well. Now you maybe have cars with one or two of those things but very very few will have that blend.’

Okay, what about on track? Surely the MX-5 with its relatively poultry performance would be a Goldfish in a reservoir around Circuito de Navarra? Not a bit of it.

Dickie Meaden: ‘It’s brilliant – just as much fun. You'd think it would feel a bit swamped

wouldn't you, a bit gutless. But at higher speeds it's just as balanced and poised – you just throw it in in third gear, sort it out, carry on and do it again. It's remarkable really – great fun.’

Stuart Gallagher: ‘I think when the result came through there was sort of a cheer for the MX-5 because it wasn't a novelty car.’ 

Dickie Meaden: ‘If it had won I don't think anyone would have been ‘oh that's ridiculous’. The difference between them and the winning car is tiny isn't it, and the McLaren and the Mazda couldn't be split.’

Its only pitfall for now is the sound of its relatively mundane four-cylinder engine. But the fact it is so small, with relatively little power, adds to the accessibility of the MX-5’s brilliance.

In the end, the Mazda ended up scoring 92.6 points, tied with the McLaren Artura Spider for second place, the disparate pair of pop-tops ceding victory to the Porsche 911 S/T by just 0.2 of a point. A triumph for what was undoubtedly the minnow of the test, that not only escaped dismissal as a token, but was a car none would have turned their nose up at as a winner. The people’s champion – all the sports car you could ever need? Quite possibly. Certainly the most satisfying for the money.