Erin Baker – Is The Mazda MX‑5 RF One Of The Most Important Cars At FOS?

You can understand it – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the 911 – one of a few models to have truly earned the badge 'iconic' – is most certainly not broke.

And so we move on to possibly the only other two-seater sports car to have earned its 'iconic' stripes (and here I can positively hear you reaching for the quills in disagreement: bring it on). Yes, I give you the Mazda MX-5. Here’s a model that is so not-broke, that the millionth car has just rolled off the production line and will make its well-deserved glorious appearance at this year’s Festival of Speed.

So permanently posted in the firmament is the MX-5, shining in an automotive Valhalla that it shows no sign of being ousted from, that it not only holds the Guinness World Record for the best-selling two-seater sports car, but every time Mazda reaches another 10,000 or so sold, they simply ring up the Guinness bloke and update the record. No one else is within touching distance.

So what the hell does Mazda do next? It could tread the 911 boards and simply tweak the design now and again (I’m not sure turbos will ever be on the agenda – those little petrol SkyActiv engines are a slice of magic and are never happier than when revving to 7,000rpm). Or, they could produce a couple of spin-off concepts, and here we have the Speedster and Spyder variants which will also be gracing the Goodwood lawns at the end of this month. Good-looking developments, both.

Or – and this is where things get decidedly tasty – they could produce a Targa-style retractable hardtop. And lo, they did build such a joy: the RF (Retractable Fastback), which you’ll thankfully be able to see in its first UK airing at the Festival of Speed.

What’s the big deal? How can a slightly different roof be anything other than another minor tweak? It changes the car, is how, and I speak as a former MX-5 owner. You take away a slice of glass from the top, while keeping the rear pillars and window, and it just changes the way this car feels, what this car says about itself. It becomes a fastback coupe, and somehow – don’t ask me how – gives the MX-5 a more masculine nature (a poke in the eye for the idiots who say this is a hairdresser’s car). It’s also a very clever, very stylish, very neat, very cool piece of engineering – the entire middle section of the roof stows itself into the boot in a fully automated manoeuvre. Or, you can lower the rear glass but keep the roof in place.

The result is a completely different, very muscular rear end with those flying buttresses acting like vanguards for the boot. Yes, there’s a weight penalty with all this, but I’d take it in a heartbeat for those looks.

Interestingly, then, the RF in some ways takes away the core tenet of the MX-5: its mechanical and styled simplicity. But somehow, the added intricacy of the targa roof is a featherlight touch that doesn’t bog down this four-wheeled piece of liberty.

For that alone, this car has to go down in the textbooks of every automotive student as the perfect case study in how to build, market and sell cars.