18 Sep 06
After 17 years of not bothering, Mazda has finally decided to endow its iconic MX-5 with a folding roof, to create the MX-5 Roadster Coupe. However, instead of using metal, it's decided to go for plastic, which limits the weight increase of the whole roof mechanism.
While other flip-tops fold their roofs away into the boot which not only eats up valuable luggage space but has also produced cars with seriously out of proportion rear ends (hello Colt CZC and Megane CC), Mazda has gone for the common sense approach and folds the roof away behind the rear seats. Okay, so you lose a couple of cubby holes in the cabin, but at least the 150litres of bootspace that there is in the MX-5 goes untouched.
To accommodate the roof mechanism, the bootlid has been raised up a marginal 40mm nearest the rear window and 20mm where it meets the rear lights, which, truth be told, is only noticeable if you happen to park up next to another MX-5. The Roadster Coupe is also a whole centimetre taller than the regular MX-5 because of the extra curvature of the roof, but what's 10mm between friends?
Mazda has kept the inevitable weight increase down to an absolute minimum - this is, after all, a company where a man who shaved 84g off the weight of the rear view mirror is held in high esteem. In all, it weighs an extra 36.5kg - which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Four electric motors do their origami magic on the roof in just 12 seconds, which is positively rapid compared to the 20-plus seconds some rivals take to fold away. From the driver's seat it's just a matter of releasing the central catch and holding down the open or close button - the only proviso being is you have to be absolutely stationary with the car in neutral for it to work. Mazda cites safety as being the reason why it can't operate on the move - as a driver you should be giving the road your full concentration, not a piddly button on the dashboard. When you put it like that, it makes a lot of sense.
