How about a quick history lesson, shall we? The first Roadster (designated as NA) debuted in 1989 under the name, Eunos Roadster. which of course, Eunos is one of the brands from Mazda aside from Efini and Autozam back then. Sold worldwide as the MX-5 Miata, the Eunos Roadster was hugely popular among enthusiasts because of such lightweight chassis. The Eunos Roadster is powered with either a B6-ZE 1597cc 4-cylinder DOHC engine that produces 120ps/6500rpm of power or the BP-ZE 1839cc 4-cylinder DOHC engine that produces 130ps/6500rpm of power. There are so many special editions of the NA Roadster, including the S-Special, V-Special, or the J Limited.
The latest Roadster (designated as ND) still retains the same Roadster legacy while gaining its new look and new features. The ND is a hundred kilograms lighter than the previous NC model and it is powered by a SKYACTIV-G 1.5L petrol engine developing a reasonable 131PS of power and 150Nm of torque while mated with either a Toyota-derived 6-speed automatic or a newly-developed SKYACTIV-MT 6-speed gearbox developed specifically for the new Roadster.
Now that we know about the first and the latest Roadsters, how about a little experiment at Tsukuba Circuit, the venue of a popular one-make race series for Mazda Roadsters?
By taking the past and the present Roadsters for a spin round Tsukuba, you can really feel how much the Roadster recipe has improved over the past three decades. The NA Roadster is all about being a driver-focused sportscar with a no-nonsense point of view that lets drivers do the talking rather than the car itself. The ND Roadster, meanwhile, may be more poshed-up compared to the first one but despite having luxury stuff onto it, it still feels like a Roadster. It just is.
To see how much the Roadster has improved from the NA to the ND, it's time for a quick lap attack round Tsukuba.
After a quick lap round Tsukuba, here are the lap times;
NA - 1:16.703
ND - 1:13.344
So, three decades of Roadster history, it took about three seconds to improve the recipe, which is rather obvious but I'll take it into consideration.
For three decades, the Mazda Roadster has been the prime example of what a proper sportscar should be; focusing solely on dynamics rather than the performance itself and while it is not as fast and powerful as today's sportscars, its fun-to-drive character can't be beaten out cold and let's hope the Mazda Roadster will continue to soldier on for several years even though in this ever changing world where sportscars are continue to rule out in favor of bigger ones that don't do dirty things.
Never change, please.
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