Mazda’s cheerful little two-seat sports car celebrates a big birthday with a bright and shiny new paint job
- Mazda unveils its latest MX-5 Anniversary model at Daytona International Speedway
- Only 230 examples of the 35th Anniversary Edition will be made available in Canada
- The weekend at Daytona also saw the kick-off of the 2025 Mazda MX-5 Cup racing season
Well, hello and felicitations, you bright and shiny automotive gem. Mazda is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its iconic and perpetually cheerful MX-5 (nee Miata) roadster with the launch of a special limited-edition model that will delight both collectors and those who are suckers for eye-catching red sports cars.
That said, it might prove disheartening to the most passionate of the Miata faithful, who eagerly — and with some impatience — await the arrival of a fifth-generation NE model. After all, it’s been 10 years since the fourth-gen ND debuted. And under the hood, it’s the same-old same-old, the 35th Anniversary Edition retaining the Skyactiv-G 2.0-litre engine, still generating 181 horsepower and 151 lb-ft of torque. No increase in displacement or power, no turbo, no rotary engine, no hybrid powertrain, as certain prognosticators have imagined on the web.
Disappointing? Maybe a titch, but not enough to dampen enthusiasm for the world’s best-selling convertible — some 1.1 million sold over four generations, and counting. (In the interest of full disclosure, I am not just an admirer; I have a deep-blue 2008 MX-5 GS soft-top tucked away in my garage, awaiting an early spring.)
And let’s give the car its due. The company did it up right with the 35-year commemoration of the MX-5, choosing Daytona International Speedway in Florida as its venue, all part of a weekend-long Miata cheer-fest worked into the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s season-opener.
The MX-5, Mazda will proclaim, is the lifeblood of the company. “Its DNA runs through everything we do and brings so many people to our brand through its joyful mission.” Not only twisty back roads, but motorsports as well. The MX-5 is the most-raced car in the world, Mazda touting the sports car’s durability, simplicity in design, excellent balance and handling, not to mention affordability. Even more reason to be at Daytona for the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin, the car’s signature and highly entertaining spec racing series, also kicking off the 2025 season.
The vroom-vroom Zoom-Zoom festivities were not just about the MX-5 35thAnniversary Edition, but, as Mazda communications manager Chuck Reimer put it, “how 35 years of the MX-5 brings together owners, enthusiasts, and racers, through their collective love and appreciation for the greatest little sports car on the planet.”
The Car
First, though, let’s give the top-trim Anniversary Edition its turn in the spotlight, unveiled before several hundred curious, interested, passionate race fans, with past anniversary models also on display. The limited-edition version looks especially snazzy in its bespoke Artisan Red Metallic paint, a deeper, richer shade than the company’s signature Soul Red. It is Mazda’s fourth addition to its bespoke Takuminuri paint process, used to produce that three-layer finish. The red hue is paired with a beige soft top and bright-finish 17-inch wheels. Additional exterior tells for the 35th Anniversary include an available colour-matched rear spoiler and serialized badging on the front fender.
The 35th Anniversary sports a classic interior with matching tan carpeting and floor mats, along with tan Nappa leather seating, complete with the 35th Anniversary logo o the head rests. The interior trim around the A/C vents and upper door panel is colour-matched to the exterior.
Mirroring the level of equipment found on the GT trim, standard features include heated seats, Bose audio system, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, Alexa built-in, and a navigation system paired to an 8.8-inch Mazda Connect infotainment display. The fun stuff includes an asymmetric limited-slip differential, shock tower bracing, and sport-tuned Bilstein dampers.
Solely available in soft-top form and with a six-speed manual transmission only, the anniversary model is priced at $43,700. Order yours now, as just 230 examples will be available in Canada.
The Mazda MX-5 Cup
As for the Mazda MX-5 Cup season opener, no fewer than 36 cars were on hand to contest the two 40-minute races, one run on the Friday night in cold, miserable, rainy conditions; the second on a cool yet sunshine-y Saturday morning.
And lest you think three dozen MX-5s charging around Daytona sounding like an angry swarm of hopping-mad hornets might have been a good time to hit the concession stands, think again. The MX-5s might not be as fast as a NASCAR race car, but the tactics and happenings are just as eventful. Nose-to-butt drafting at speeds exceeding 225 km/h, nerfing, hard charging, and in the best tradition of the Daytona 500, a 17-car chain reaction on the Saturday race’s first lap that took half the field out of contention were all to witness. Lots of bent sheet metal, no injuries.
The MX-5 Cup, says Jonathan Applegate, senior manager of Mazda Motorsport, is “the most cost-effective professional race series in the world.” This makes the series the perfect proving ground for young up-and-comers — as young as 15, if the driver has a current IMSA Driver Membership or License, and IMSA (the International Motorsports Association) can reduce the minimum age to 14 for drivers “with a lot of experience in formal, organized competitions.”
Indeed, the Series is chock-full of fresh faces; just one the four drivers I chatted with after the Saturday race was not a teenager — Ashlyn Speed (18), Heather Hadley (22), Nathan Nicholson (18), and Toronto-born Noah Harmon (19) might be young but, in addition to being fast, they are articulate and candid.
And ambitious; all aspire to higher levels of professional racing. (The average age among this year’s crop of Mazda Cup racers is in the mid-20s, and just five drivers are over the age of 40.) However, kids will be kids, and after discussing the first-lap dust-up — which took out Hadley — the conversation took a funny turn when they asked each other if they had ever peed in their race suit, all denying they took relief from bursting bladders while racing.
Later, Sally Mott, a 19-year-old Texan, took me on a hot lap of Daytona Speedway in the MX-5 Cup pace car, barely waiting for me to hook up my shoulder belts before blasting off, foot to the floor, clearly enjoying another chance to drive the circuit. Braking hard for the turns, riding the curbs, up on the banking, she calmly explained the racing line and the brake points, albeit sounding a little disappointed when I said riding the high bank was about what I expected (it was my first time at Daytona, yes, but not first time on a banked circuit.)
A Cup car is an MX-5 at its fiercest, less cute and cuddly, more street-fighter. What starts off as a box-stock ND model is sent to engineering development partner Flis Performance in Daytona Beach, where it is converted into a race car. The car is completely disassembled, and the tub is cleaned of seam-sealer and sound-deadening material.
An IMSA-, IndyCar-, and SCCA-approved roll cage is TIG-welded in – the cage containing complete NASCAR-style door bars on both sides of the car – and is tied together across the firewall through the interior of the dash, leaving a neat-appearing and fully functional dash. After roll-cage completion, the cage and tub of the car are painted.
After cage installation and paint, the car is then assembled with more than 250 race-specific parts, most notably a six-speed sequential gearbox instead of the regular six-speed manual. The parts, notes Flis Performance, provide handling, endurance, safety and power enhancement specifically designed for the car after hundreds of hours and thousands of kilometres of both on-track and lab testing by automotive mechanical engineers and professional race drivers.
Other components of the car, including the 2.0L engine, are sealed to ensure even competition. (In case you’re wondering, these cars are not street-legal.) Race weight, including fluids and driver, is about 2,500 pounds.
The old adage “Speed costs—how fast do you want to go?” applies even when running in “the most cost-effective race series.” The financial commitment, Applegate allows, starts with the US$106,000 price tag of a Cup race car.
Credit where due, though, the MX-5 Cup series, in its support of young talent, offers more than US$1 million in prize money and scholarships a year. Of the latter, Noah Harmon won the Mazda MX-5 Cup Scholarship Shootout’s US$150,000 top prize last year — a fully funded ride for the 2025 season. (Running a car for a full season — 14 races — can cost a team anywhere between US$150,000 to US$250K.)
And Ashlyn Speed, who won the 2024 Mazda Women in Motorsport Initiative Scholarship, received US$100,000 towards this year’s Series. Indeed, Mazda Motorsport is making a concerted effort to involve more women in the Series, in a sport that has long been male-dominated.
Rounds nine and 10 of the MX-5 Cup will be run July 11 to 13 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
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