My favourite driver’s cars tend to be small, light and rear-driven, with a charismatic engine and a manual gearbox.
With its blueprinted quad-cam V6 and lightly breathed on suspension, Rocketeer’s Mk1 MX-5 was well up my street on paper, but I did have a slight sense of trepidation before driving it.
It’s fundamentally a 30-year-old Mazda convertible. Was I going to fit? Would it feel quite floppy? Would the suspension be up to it?
It turned out to be absolutely delightful. The engine gives off BMW M3 CSL vibes with its raspy sound and zingy response.
I love the character of a big engine in a small, rear-drive car. It seems like there’s no inertia when accelerating, and you end up speeding up, upshifting, then slowing down and heel-toe downshifting for the hell of it.
You can be out of Rocketeer’s door with a nice turnkey build for less than £50,000.
Not an insignificant amount of money, but this is a rare restomod that’s actually quite attainable. And because it’s not as shouty and look-at-me as most sporty cars, I could see myself driving it a ton.
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