Some Sundays back, as I was on my way to Batangas on the invitation of a friend, my wife and I made a stop at the Petron station just outside Dasmariñas Village to sort out a minor issue we had with our Autosweep RFID. This was at seven in the morning, so as expected, the station was filled with supercars of all makes and models, all preparing to go for their weekend breakfast drives. The parking at the petrol station was dominated by Porsches of all shapes and sizes, followed by Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, a sprinkling BMW M3s, and a Mercedes-Benz SLS.
What caught my attention was that among the sea of supercars, there stood a couple of Mazda MX-5s—specifically the fourth-generation ND model.
This sight of those cars immediately brought me back to the year 2017, the year I actually purchased my own MX-5 ND1. It was a white base-variant soft top with a six-speed manual gearbox, and I owned it for three years before selling it to a gentleman from Tacloban. I really loved that car and tried to preserve its brand-new condition as much as I could, so I used it sparingly, never drove it in the rain, and kept it under a cover for most of its life.
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But I did have my issues with the car. The biggest one was that I found it too light, and at speeds over 130kph, I felt it get very unstable. Plus, the wind noise and buffeting from the soft top was loud and bothersome.
Years later, I mentioned this to Miata Club president Eddie Salonga and was immediately schooled over breakfast that I simply did not understand the concept of the MX-5 or a sports car, for that matter. Eddie continued that sports cars are meant to be enjoyed no matter what speed, and if I wanted a car that can easily go over the legal speed limit and remain well planted, then I should be looking at a high-powered supercar—lesson learned, sir!
Driving away from the Petron that day, the scene kept me in amazement. Here you have a tiny sports car being sold for roughly one-tenth (or even less) the price of its peers, but somehow, it fits in perfectly. How could this be?
I got my answer a few weeks later when I managed to score an invite to the Mazda Center of Excellence in Laguna—Mazda-speak for its warehouse, after-sales offices, and pre-delivery inspection (PDI) center.
The facility tour given to me by Mazda Philippines president Steven Tan eventually ended in the PDI workshop area, where, just by sheer luck, the entire grid of MX-5 cup cars was being prepared for that upcoming weekend’s MSCC Miata Cup. Being somewhat of a motorsport enthusiast myself, I listened intently as I was told about the details of the cars and had great interest in how Mazda Philippines runs the series. What amazed me most, though, was not the cars themselves, but who actually owned and raced these cars—people I actually knew personally.
So I phoned a few of them to ask about this, and the answers were unanimous: It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow. The low-powered momentum-based vehicle allows drivers to explore the limits of both the car and their driving skills, providing a more rewarding driving experience. Then there’s also the part that if you do get it wrong, the damage is not too painful on the pocket.
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It’s a simple formula: lightweight, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-seat roadster equipped with a normally aspirated four-cylinder engine, a snappy gearbox, and independent suspension. Nothing earth-shattering—the Lotus Elan, the MGB, and the Triumph TR4 followed this simple formula in the ’60s. Frankly, the most impressive thing here is how the engineers managed to squeeze today’s mandatory emissions, safety, and comfort equipment into a tiny package that weighs just a bit over a ton. Designers of the MX-5 have not reinvented the sports car, nor have they discovered something revolutionary. They just remembered how to build a proper and affordable one.
By doing that, what Mazda has done is create a vehicle that manages to remind everyone about the simple pleasures of driving—one that also transcends social classes and breaks down barriers. Given the amount of negativity in the world we live in today, we sure could use more of this.
Car guys come about because of a passion for the automobile. Communities are built on the backbone of this shared passion, and we join clubs to be able share this with others. Anyone who bothers to get up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning to join friends (and be away from family!) for a drive obviously sees a car as more than just transportation, so they all deserve to be treated as equals, no matter what car they drive. The ladies and gentlemen at the Dasmariñas Village Petron Station that morning seem to have understood that.
