The Chicago Auto Show isn’t one renowned for monumental global debuts, but on this day 35 years ago that’s exactly what it got. Media day ahead of the first paying customers saw the global reveal of the Light Weight Sports Mazda had spent the '80s developing: the MX-5.
All this for a car that nearly didn’t happen. There isn’t the time here to do the full deep dive history, but it’s impossible to conceive of the MX-5 legend without Bob Hall. Originally a car journalist, he began consulting for Mazda in the '80s; his fondness for classic British sports cars, his ability to speak Japanese and his awareness of Mazda’s willingness to take risks is what got the Light Weight Sports project off the ground.
Which means that, just like those old Lotuses and Alfas, numbers have dwindled. Authentic old-school rust didn’t help, either. What were cheap and cheerful and plentiful are now scarce and prized. As with almost every Japanese car that responded well to modifying, it’s now the standard, unmolested examples that collectors are after.
Next year will mark 10 years of the fourth-generation MX-5, and it shows no signs of going anywhere just yet. Which is a testament, really, to how right Mazda got it back in 2015. Lighter, smaller and more stylish than the NC that went before it, the ND was the MX-5 back at its best in both soft top and Retractable Fastback forms. Though tweaked over the years - including one very recently - it’s notable that this era still looks broadly how it did all those years ago and none the worse for it.