Experiencing the fourth generation Mazda MX-5

The Mazda MX-5 RF 2.0 160 is the perfect car for those who need a few flying buttresses on their car.

We Brits love convertibles almost as much as we love sheltering behind a wind-break that is half keeping off the howling wind and driving rain on the beach. A flask of tea and a scotch egg – ooh, lovely. However, every now and then we have a kind of caution to go with our summer madness. Which is why 80% of the previous generation of MX-5 were sold with a folding hard-top.

This fourth-generation model should represent a near-perfect combination of wind (and rain) in your hair, with the added confidence that when summer does its usual thing you can put up a top made of steel, aluminium and plastic faster than you can say ‘Oh how disappointing’.

The Retractable Fastback does offer a neat compromise, but it comes at the cost of some definite weight. In a lightweight car, adding about 45kg, high up in the body as well, is hardly the perfect idea.

Mazda has done what it can to balance that extra weight with beefed-up suspension and sharper steering, and they’ve succeeded to a surprising degree. Compared to a fabric soft-top, the RF’s stiffer suspension more than compensates for the weight gain while the sharper steering engenders even more confidence. We’d take this, in handling terms, over a stock car.

That extra weight doesn’t really seem to have done the performance any harm either. We just love the way you can cane this car and get out to its outer limits without seriously terrifying yourself or risking death for you or at least your licence. In the 0-62mph dash, the 2.0-litre RF can do it in 7.4sec, thanks to its snickety six-speed manual box. That’s down just a tenth on the soft-top and not something you’re really going to worry about.

But there is something that is going to worry you. It’s odd really, but Mazda seems to have not really managed to get to grips with the whole issue of airflow. While those flying buttresses look quite grand, they set up a really rather unpleasant droning noise at speed. Enough to curtail conversation, certainly. So you stop since you can only put up the roof at up to 6mph and set off again.

And then you discover that the roof makes a fair bit of racket itself as you get back up to speed. It’s the roof seal that seems to be the problem, but again you’re aware of all that wind and you just shouldn’t in a sorted convertible.

As a practical sports car the MX-5 still excels. It’s a whole heap of fun and those flying buttresses add a degree of sophistication to the fun. But in refinement terms, this is almost a step backwards. The only solution is to kick back, and be happy to cruise rather than race around or simply do your fast work down slower back roads. Do that and you couldn’t be happier than in the new MX-5 RF.

2016 Mazda MX-5 RF 2.0 160

Price £23,095
Engine 4 cyls, 1998cc, petrol
Power 158bhp at 6000rpm
Torque 148lb ft at 4600rpm
Gearbox 6-spd manual
Kerb weight 1120kg
Top speed 134mph; 0-62mph 7.4sec;
Economy 40.9mpg (combined)
CO2/tax band 161g/km, 29%;
Rivals Toyota GT86, Audi TT Roadster

Graham Scott is a writer for AutoCar.