Mazda's Twin‑Pronged Heritage Comes To Goodwood

In curating its collection, two features had to remain central to Mazda's ambition. Mention the Japanese brand and people think of either the million-selling Mazda MX-5 or the marque's development of rotary technology. Indeed the latter has a near-fanatical worldwide following - in some corners of the globe rotary, and especially Mazda rotary, is almost a religion.

Bringing together a history of two of the world's automotive icons is a no-brainer. Therefore Mazda's heritage fleet centres heavily on the MX-5 and the RX series: a small sportscar and the world's finest rotary cars. The very essence, in other words, of Mazda.

To launch the new fleet, Mazda chose the Goodwood Motor Circuit (where else?) and the build up to 'our best week of the year' according to Mazda's Owen Mildenhall - the Festival of Speed.

This year Mazda will celebrate the building of the millionth MX-5, a model we drove to Breakfast Club earlier this year, and one that remains so loved that, even after 15 per cent of those million cars have been registered on British roads, it can still turn heads in 2016, 27 years after it debuted.

Sampling Mazda's pristine white mk1 we can tell why the model became so iconic, and so incredibly popular in the UK. Small and light, rear-wheel-drive, and two seats, it's everything that a British sportscar should be. Behind the wheel it's a delight too, the skinny wheel a delight to hold and fire the perfect chassis through the bends. It may not have the most power in the world, but that engine became the perfect base for thousands of simple and easy modifications - the birth of an entire scene in the motoring world that had never been imagined before.

Mazda's other icons are the screaming rotaries, developed to make Mazda stand out and proven on track with Mazda remaining the only Japanese manufacturer ever to triumph at Le Mans (the stunning 787B deafened Goodwood crowds at FOS last year). Mazda's heritage fleet holds the history of the RX name, which has carried the off-the-wall convention ever since Mazda set out on its left-field adventure with the R100.

The RX-7 and RX-8 on show are the perfect explanation of why Mazda rotary became so popular: they're loud and stunningly high-revving but at the same time packaged into useable everyday cars. The RX-7's near supercar pace for its time is matched by the latter 8, which picked up an extra two seats but lost none of the fun.

This week Mazda rotary will again light up the hillclimb, indeed Mad Mike's presence has become one of the most requested appearance at any Goodwood event and images of last year's central feature display have filled half of the hard drives on the internet. But even once the bales have gone and the sheep have returned to the Goodwood Estate, Mazda's icons will be stored and cherished forevermore in the heritage fleet.