Mazda celebrates 10 years of the MX-5 ND
Last Sunday, August 10, Mazda invited MX-5 owners and Miata Club members, along with select media to Rico’s Cafe at the posh Sta Elena Golf Club enclave to celebrate 10 years of the MX-5 Miata ND in the country.
The MX-5 is one of, if not the most ubiquitous modern sports car in the country with 1,563 units sold to date since 2015. Mazda Philippines foresees 2025 to be another banner year in terms of sales. In 2023 alone, Mazda had its best year ever with 205 units sold.
Conceived to be a back-to-basics sports car, the MX-5 holds the very essence of the Jinba Ittai philosophy of iMazda: the feeling of oneness driving the tiny little sportscar is an abject lesson on driving pleasure, one which many cars costing even hundreds of times more fail to match. The MX-5 truly feels like an extension of one’s limbs.
Mazda Philippines, in an effort to keep interest strong and continually keep the passion burning from enthusiasts, has previously launched a bevy of special and limited-edition models of the MX-5 through the decade such as the 30th, 35th, and 100th Anniversary Editions.
Recognizing and engaging with local creatives and artists, two unique special editions have been crafted for the market: the MCP (Miata Club of the Philippines) 25th Anniversary Edition and the Miata Cup 23rd Anniversary Edition. Thus it’s not uncommon to meet an MX-5 owner who has more than one!
The MX-5 also happens to be the most affordable means of becoming part of the prestigious Manila Sports Car Club, where a MX-5 owner can rub shoulders with many other sports car enthusiasts of different brands, united by a passion for driving snd owning highly emotional cars.
As Mazda Philippines head and Miata fanatic Steven Tan himself said during the gathering, in the whole of Asia, the Philippines has the largest active MX-5 community outside of Japan. This distinction has also provided the Philippines with the longest standing single make racing series with the Miata Cup and today, the MX-5 Spec Series, both supported by Mazda Philippines and the latter held in conjunction with the Manila Sports Car Club.
The 2024 model year ND brought in a host of upgrades to the MX-5 further enhancing its driving dynamics with track-focused technologies such as Kinematic Posture Control (KPC), Dynamic
Stability Control with Track Mode (DSC-Track) and Asymmetric Limited Slip Differential (A-LSD). These further build up on a core consisting of a perfect front-to-rear weight distribution, and of course, the high-revving yet very flexible 181hp 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine mated to either a 6-speed manual, arguably the best shifter in the automotive realm, or smooth shifting 6-speed automatic that delivers the punch when you’re really attacking your favorite B-road or mountain pass. The manual is one of the key touch points of the MX-5 that delivers so much pleasure, it should be the only transmission available to experience the full sensation of driving one.
As for me? I’ve borrowed the MX-5 multiple times in the past and although getting in and out is a real effort for me because of my girth, driving it has always been a most pleasurable experience. I’ve been lucky to experience memories closely associated with the MX-5 and Mazdas in general such as driving the prototype MX-5 RF at Mazda’s Mine Circuit, attending the 30th Anniversary of the MX-5 in Miyoshi and most recently, the Mazda Fan Festa at Fuji Speedway in 2024 where Mazda unveiled a 35th Anniversary MX-5 with unique trim, colors and parts. The MX-5 passion is universal as I’ve proven during our many trips to Mazda’s Hiroshima HQ where I had the opportunity to speak with numerous Mazda personnel, from interns, trainees, factory workers, supervisors and even their top executives. Many of them own a MX-5 (known as the Eunos Roadster in Japan). The younger ones daily-drive them too especially those based in Hiroshima.
The MX-5 is the perfect example of the less is more philosophy: focus on tactility, involvement, responsiveness and overall driving pleasure means you won’t need a million horsepower with a top speed that is very much illegal and academic in real world conditions.
Drive one today and discover why the MX-5 is the world’s best selling roadster / open-top sportscar, with well over a million made and sold worldwide.
