Mazda MX-5

The Complete Story

Antony Ingram

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781847976352
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Automotive Transportation & Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

At over 900, 000 cars produced - and counting - the Mazda MX-5 holds the Guinness World Record as the best-selling two-seater sports car ever produced. And while mere numbers should not be the only barometer of success, it has taken a car of the MX-5's talent to capture the imagination of both enthusiasts and the general motoring public alike. Mazda MX-5 - The Complete Story examines the design, development and production of this innovative sports car. Topics covered include: Details of the engine and drivetrain technology that gave the MX-5 its sharp handling and performance; Chronicles the stories of the engineers and designers behind the MX-5's success; Looks at the closest contemporary rivals to the car, and why the MX-5 was far and away the most successful; Covers all special editions and the racing story; Includes a detailed buyer's guide for each generation, specification tables and owner's experiences. A concise, detailed guide to this groundbreaking and innovative sports car. Superbly illustrated with 200 colour photographs. Antony Ingram is a freelance motoring writer and is passionate about classic cars and modern performance vehicles.

CHAPTER 1 MAZDA BEFORE THE MX-5

The company now known as Mazda was established as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co. Ltd in 1920, in the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Its name was changed to Toyo Kogyo Co. Ltd in 1927, before manufacturing of machine tools began in 1927. A new factory was opened in Hiroshima during 1930, before production of the company’s first vehicle, a three-wheel utility truck called Mazdago, began in October 1931.

Toyo Kogyo began exporting these trucks to China early the following year. It continued producing tools and vehicles for the next decade and a half, until Hiroshima was devastated by the American atomic bomb attack in 1945, which brought about the end of the Second World War. Toyo Kogyo avoided the blast and the Hiroshima prefecture office used its facilities until July 1946. Exports restarted in 1949, when the company began sending its three-wheel trucks to India.

From 1960 Toyo Kogyo produced more and more vehicles, beginning with its first passenger vehicle, the Mazda R360 Coupé. The sporty R360 was a four-seat coupé powered by a 356cc air-cooled engine developing 16hp. More than 4,000 units had been sold by the end of 1960, the car’s low price bringing car buying within reach of the average worker.

The very first Mazda – a three-wheel delivery trike. MAZDA

Mazda’s R360 Coupé became the first in a long line of sporting vehicles from the company. MAZDA

The Mazda Cosmo 110S became a highly respected sports car in Japan. It marked the starting point of Mazda’s affinity with the rotary engine. MAZDA

The RX-7 nametag is associated with one of Mazda’s most famous lines. Lightweight and nimble handling made the original a match for the contemporary Porsche 924. MAZDA

The company made another important move in 1961, joining forces with German auto maker NSU on development of rotary engines, a type of engine that became synonymous with Mazda over the following decades, even as interest from other manufacturers – notably Citroen and NSU – waned. The French company dropped the concept after making only a small number of production rotary-engined models, while NSU was hit by warranty claims for failing engines and was eventually absorbed into Audi. Meanwhile, four-door passenger vehicles followed the R360 and as Mazda passed its first million sales, it started the Familia line of family cars.

The company’s interest in rotary-engined vehicles finally produced a car in 1967, with launch of the Mazda Cosmo Sports 110S. The Cosmo developed 110hp from its twin-rotor engine, easily breaking the 100mph (161km/h) barrier and racing down the quarter mile in just 16.3 seconds. Developments the following year gave the car 128hp and a top speed of 200km/h (124mph), with even greater acceleration. The pretty and futuristic 110S became a company milestone, and set a tone for sports car development at Mazda that continues to the present day.

From here, the company developed rapidly. US exports began in 1970, and over the next few years Mazda released a line of other rotary-powered vehicles, carrying the now familiar ‘RX’ tag. The first RX-7 hit the market in 1978, beginning a line of rotary sports cars that continued well into the 2000s. Produced until 1985, the first-generation RX-7, known as the FB in enthusiast circles, used a 12A, twin-573cc rotor engine developing 128hp at 7,000rpm. The car benchmarked the recently launched Porsche 924, but with a rotary engine and acres of velour and vinyl covering its interior, it could only be Japanese in origin.

Ford Association

Mazda entered into a financial tie-up with the Ford Motor Company in 1979, before officially becoming the Mazda Motor Corporation in 1984. The second-generation RX-7 sports car arrived in 1985, with power increased to 146bhp and offering more torque from its larger twin-rotor engine. Now mimicking the Porsche 944 in style, but again treading its own path in driving experience, the new car meant that Mazda could now be taken seriously as a producer of sports cars.

Mazda won the 24 Hours at Le Mans in 1991 with the 787B. MAZDA

By the time the third generation RX-7 – the beautiful and curvaceous ‘FD’ – arrived in 1991, the MX-5 was already becoming a global sales success. The FD is consistently rated highly by enthusiasts and critics alike, and was one of a handful of Japanese sports cars that shocked the West out of its complacency towards Far-Eastern cars. Both Japan, and particularly Mazda, had arrived on the sports car big time.

Mazda’s sporting line-up continued to grow throughout the 1990s, aided by its historic victory in the 24 Heures du Mans, using the rotary-powered 787B. To this day, the 787B’s Le Mans win is both Mazda and Japan’s only victory in the 24-hour event, and the only victory for a rotary-powered car.

Mazda launched the MX-3 coupé in 1991, featuring one of the world’s smallest production V6 engines, and the larger MX-6 in 1987, developed in conjunction with Ford, to join the MX-5 and RX-7. Japan’s home market was gifted the tiny AZ-1 kei-class sports car in 1992 to compete in Japan’s smallest car class, and with these models and others, Mazda became renowned for its sporting models and unique engineering. It is a reputation that continues and is proudly promoted by Mazda with its ‘Zoom-Zoom’ slogan, which is used worldwide. Reviews of Mazda’s more humdrum models regularly note that its cars seem infused with MX-5 DNA – yet another legacy of the MX-5’s development.

CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTION

The Sports Car Market

As Europe began to get back on its feet and prosperity improved following the Second World War, several European car manufacturers began developing simple, lightweight sports cars using mechanicals from their more mundane offerings. It became a market segment that endured for decades, since the average buyer on an average wage could happily find themselves behind the wheel of something far more fun and exciting than the usual saloon car offerings. This sports car buzz boomed in the 1960s, a period often considered the golden age of the sports car. Britain and Italy led the way, developing cars like the MGB, Triumph Spitfire, Alfa Romeo Duetto and Fiat 124 Spider, all of them simple to drive and maintain, and inexpensive to produce.

Then, in 1975, a team of engineers at Volkswagen developed a car that would change motoring completely. Just one year earlier, the German manufacturer, better known for its rear-engined Beetle, had shocked the market with the front-engined, front-wheel driven Golf hatchback. But 1975’s Golf GTI took the concept further.

Here was a car that demanded no compromises from its user. One could walk into a Volkswagen dealership and purchase one of the most practical cars on the market, but also one that would shame many a sports car in the all-important traffic light Grand Prix, further humiliating them in the corners. It went, steered and stopped like a sports car, but the roof didn’t admit a drop of water in a downpour, and the boot could hold a week’s worth of shopping. With fuel injection, it even started every morning. And for the teams tasked with designing a performance car that people could use every day, putting a large engine into a platform that had already been developed and paid for many times over, made far more financial sense than developing an expensive, rear-drive sports car entirely from scratch.

Kenichi Yamamoto, father of the rotary engine and instrumental figure in the MX-5’s conception. MAZDA

These were characteristics that the humble sports car could not hope to offer. The sports cars of the time were being further compromised by burgeoning emissions and safety regulations, making them slower and heavier, and compromising their styling with large, impact-absorbing bumpers. Had the Golf GTI remained the sole ‘hot hatchback’ on the market, then this may not have been such a problem for the few remaining sports cars, but soon other car manufacturers caught on to the concept of selling souped-up shopping cars and over the next decade these affordable, fun and practical vehicles decimated what was left of an increasingly struggling sports car industry.

It is ironic, then, that less than a yea...