Mazda MX-5 Roadster Coupé
2.0i Sport review
by David Finlay (24 November 2006)
Now that the Roadster Coupé has been introduced, it seems odd that Mazda brought the current-generation MX-5 to market in any other form. There are so many coupé-convertibles on the market these days that the idea of making a sports car available with a folding hardtop seems quite conventional. But it has taken a year for this to happen, and suddenly the fabric roof of the standard car feels anachronistic.
I'll leave it up to you to decide whether the Roadster Coupé looks better than the soft top, though personally I think it does. I'm more definite in my view that it is also a better car, especially for those of us who are over six feet tall.
If that applies to you too, one thing you'll notice about the standard MX-5 is that your head is at constant risk of colliding with the transverse metal bar which supports the fabric roof when it's being used. This is one of my very few gripes about that car, and it fades away to nothing in the Roadster Coupé because the metal bar isn't there. The plastic composite roof doesn't need it, so its underside present a flat surface which won't damage the top of your skull the way the bar does.
Once you've released the central catch and pressed a button on the centre console, the roof whirrs out of sight in just 12 seconds. That's about half as long as the same process takes in a hatchback-based coupé-convertible, which is about right since their roofs are much larger and require more complex folding to stow them away.
Those cars also store their roofs in the boot, which inevitably leads to a compromise in luggage capacity. Not so with the MX-5. Its solid roof folds into the storage area immediately behind the rear seats, just as the soft top does, so either way you still have 150 litres of space in which to keep a modest amount of travelling equipment.
To make room for the roof, the interior storage compartment is 45mm wider and 82mm longer than that of the soft top models. This brings us to one of several adjustments Mazda has had to make in order to maintain the MX-5's handling balance - reinforcements in this area, necessary to maintain bodyshell stiffness, account for 820 grams of the 37kg weight difference between the Roadster Coupé and the soft top, the rest of it being due to the roof itself and various related modifications.
In a car of this size, 37kg can make quite a difference to the handling, especially when most of it is so high up in the structure. Mazda's engineers have adjusted the suspension in an attempt, as the company puts it, "to keep the difference in perceived handling feel as minimal as possible".
The job has been well done. The Roadster Coupé certainly doesn't feel any less sporty than the standard car. In fact, it may actually be slightly better. The test car was the 2.0i Sport, which has slightly more power than I think an MX-5 needs, along with a limited slip differential which I still believe is totally unnecessary.
Give me the 1.8-litre engine and the standard rear axle any day . . . but am I imagining this, or is the heavier, more compromised Roadster Coupé Sport actually more precise, more fun to drive than its soft top equivalent? I'm not sure, but it could be.
In one very important respect the two cars are identical. They're good fun to drive very fast, and they stay that way as the speeds come down, to the point where you can even derive satisfaction from the way they react to the steering as you're doing a three-point turn in a tight street. As much as anything, this is why the MX-5 is one of the most appealing sports cars any manufacturer has ever built.
I was slightly concerned before driving the Roadster Coupé that the roof would restrict rear vision, but in fact there isn't a problem with this when you're looking across at the passenger side. It's a lot more obtrusive on the right, so you have to make quite sure of the situation if you intend to overtake anyone, but no more so than is the case with the soft top.
With the roof up, the interior noise levels are lower than they are in the standard car. Mazda has put a figure on this, claiming that there is 8dB less sound at 75mph. All the same, I was surprised at the level of wind rush from the upper rear of the cockpit at speeds above about 60mph. Maybe everything that could be done has been done, but I must say I was expecting a quieter ride than the Roadster Coupé provides.
But this is a minor niggle. The MX-5 is a brilliant car, as it always has been, and the solid folding roof makes it even better. The 2.0 Sport might not be my own first choice from the range, but the Roadster Coupé in general is right at the top of the list of cars I would like to own.
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