The 51st special edition Mazda MX-5 is a grey masterpiece | GRR
The trouble with being the world’s most popular sports car is that there are a lot of them and they all look alike… or would, had Mazda not been such great fan of the MX-5 special edition. A quick count shows almost 50 for the UK alone in the 30 years since the roadster first went on sale. Now, there’s 51…
Mazda’s gone grey for this latest special edition version of the already-special sportscar – the R-Sport – announced this week. Grey doesn’t sound inspiring but this is grey in a good way: a cool new paint colour called Polymetal Grey set against piano black mirrors and a grey fabric hood which we reckon looks very smart. Set off by 16-inch gunmetal alloy wheels and with a burgundy Nappa leather trimmed cabin, the R-Sport offers a classily subtle take on the otherwise familiar two-seater.
There are to be 150 of them and you can only get the R-Sport with the least powerful engine option, the 132PS (130bhp) 1.5-litre, although it is possible to spec-up the 2.0-litre with the same options, at a price. While any special edition’s features are never free as the car companies like to tell us, part of the appeal of a special is its all-in price. For the R-Sport that is £27,700, £1600 more than a standard (and already well equipped) MX-5 Sport on which the R version is based.
Mazda says UK deliveries will begin once the current retail restrictions come to an end. A good way to blow out of the post-coronavirus cobwebs? Has to be. But with the 30th anniversary MX-5 special edition and the 100th Mazda anniversary MX-5 special edition (announced only a few weeks ago), it is easy to wonder if Mazda sells any MX-5s that aren’t special…