This discovery has left me with a dilemma. The beauty and the tragedy of my MX-5 was that it was wonderfully cheap, and replacing the thermostat housing requires taking off the head gasket – not the cheapest job and one that I’m too mechanically inept to do myself.
Strangely, I haven’t missed driving my laid-up MX-5 too much. I think I’m just worried that something else will go wrong with the car the moment I sort it.
I feel a ‘spares or repairs’ post is coming for MX-5 Facebook groups.
30 April 2025: The Mazda moves on
The mighty Mazda MX-5 1.8 S has left the stable. I managed to get it up and running with fairly little outlay thanks to some driveway bodging, but I decided to sell it immediately after taking it for a drive.
They say you always want what you can’t have, and I think that’s how I deal with cars. Far too often I enjoy the thought of driving my own cars more than the act itself. As an Autocar photographer, I’m a busy person and life really does get in the way – and that’s before you factor in fuel costs, suicidal deer and octogenarians refusing to go above 20mph.
Not to say that the MX-5 was a bad car to drive. Quite the opposite, in fact: it was excellent. Revvy and superbly balanced, with steering so much greater than that of most cars of today. If you’ll excuse the cliché, it’s driving pleasure in its simplest form. Plus, with that limited-slip differential and some of the worst tyres I’ve ever used adorning the rear wheels, it was genuinely exciting at times (by which I mean I was convinced I was going to die every time I drove it in the wet).
Mk2 MX-5s are currently – and rightly – in demand, and despite its flaws it was gone less than a day after being listed for sale. I am sort of missing it, but I think that’s just the aforementioned desire to be driving more than anything else. What’s next? Not sure, but a quick search tells me that Twin Spark Alfa Romeo GTVs aren’t a lot of money at the moment…
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