I’ve never had much time for Mazda MX-5s. That isn’t to say I don’t appreciate them: they serve the purpose of being an accessible sports car very well. But, out of the box, be it a first-generation NA, a later NB, or an NC, recurrent traits such as soft ‘n’ safe handling, nondescript four-cylinder engines, and the ever-present spectre of corrosion, curtail my personal interest in standard examples quicker than you can say Miata. Sure, they’re sweet compact roadsters, and I’ll still smile when I see one on the road, but I won’t start looking for one in the classifieds 10 minutes later.
Then came the modern ND, which made its debut in September 2014. It was smaller and lighter than its predecessor, a refreshing turn-up for the books all by itself, but the recipe remained otherwise much the same. A straightforward naturally aspirated engine in the nose, a gearbox in the middle, driven wheels at the back, and you know the rest. And, yes, it still left me cold. I vividly remember driving an early 1.5-litre example for the first time, after seeing the praise liberally ladled over it elsewhere, and thinking: ‘Is this it?’
My interest was revived, however, when Fiat unveiled its take on the latest MX-5 in November 2015. The new 124 Spider, retro styling aside, had one major difference that caught my attention: it did away with Mazda’s Skyactiv-G engine and instead employed Fiat’s venerable 1.4-litre MultiAir Turbo. In European specification, that meant 138bhp and 177lb ft, allowing the 1050kg roadster to get from 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds.
