You already know the new Mazda MX-5 is designed as a pure sports car to replace the company's aging Miata. You already know it has a new 170-hp, 2.0-liter aluminum four driving an all-new chassis with double-wishbone and multilink suspension, an aluminum powerplant frame and optional 17-inch aluminum wheels. And if you're a real geek, you already know Mazda claims the new MX-5 weighs only 22 pounds more than the car it replaces. This story isn't about what you already know. After all, the experience from behind the wheel is far more important than number crunching, bench racing and on-paper analysis combined. It is this subtle, brilliant, and difficult to design, but easy to recognize, driving experience that has defined the Miata for its first 16 years. The question, then, is can the new MX-5 improve on the best-selling two-seat sports car in history? Probably. And depending on how you quantify the intangibles, most definitely.
Without question, the new car is a very different experience from behind the wheel. Gone are the characteristic cowl shake and high-frequency jitters of the old car--replaced by a very S2000-like solidity that make us wonder if this is actually a replacement for the Miata or more a complete reversal of character in two-seat roadsterdom.
The new car, at speed, is anything but shaky. Even on the smoothest roads anywhere, in Hawaii, where we drove it for the first time, the difference in structural composure was substantial. We didn't know an inexpensive two-seater could feel quite like this, but it does. Mazda tells us bending rigidity has been increased 22 percent and torsional rigidity is up 47 percent.
Our time in the six-speed Sport Package car was limited to heavily patrolled 45-mph roads with no shoulder. So without the opportunity to attack at ten-tenths, we can only offer incomplete assessment of the MX-5's competencies here. But we know this is a lot more car than the previous Miata.
Reaching the limit of grip and balance in the new MX-5 is an exercise in balls--at least on the challenging roads we've driven it on so far. Near-the-limit behavior seems as predictable and communicative as ever. And driving quickly is easier than before without having to second-guess the previous car's limited rear suspension travel (the new car has 17mm more stroke out back).
Unfortunately, we can't tell you what it's like to slide or control beyond the limit of grip since we have yet to do so. And, since our favorite character trait of the old car was its ease of control approaching and beyond that limit, we feel incomplete leaving this most-fun experience out of any MX-5 driving impression. It'll have to wait until we get our hands on a car for testing.