Motoring: The Mazda MX-5 RF in Cumbria

I haven't driven a two-seater sportscar for any extended period since my twenties, so I leapt at the chance to try the new Mazda MX-5 RF for a few days while on holiday in The Lake District. Would the Mazda revive memories of blasting around country lanes in the seventies and eighties in an MG Midget and a Mk1 Austin Healey Sprite?

The MX-5 RF features a retractable hard-top giving you the best of hard and soft-top motoring. I tried the RF with a 2.0 litre petrol engine and manual six speed gearbox. With 160ps power on hand this is no blistering supercar, but to expect that would be to miss the point. The RF offers simple fun, responsive handling and more than adequate acceleration in a reasonably priced package. 

I drove it on the challenging roads of Cumbria; steep climbs, loose and potholed surfaces and winding roads between vision-restricting stone walls. Despite the conditions the ride is excellent and I enjoyed the way the car responded as it tackled the rolling roads with great agility. The Mazda philosophy is of "Jinba Ittai"; car and driver in harmony like a horse and rider, and this approach shows in the way it drives.

I've been driving an automatic car for a year and I thought I'd find the transition to manual a problem. I needn't have worried, the MX-5 RF is so easy to drive and the gear changes so natural and switch-like that I had no difficulty.

Inside the car was comfortable and, in the model I drove, leather heated seats, satnav, parking sensors and the usual modern driving aids, were a far cry from the basic sportscar motoring of my youth. 

Priced at around £24,000 the MX-5 RF offers value and fun. Mrs Grey Fox wanted to keep the car, as did I, but sadly it wouldn't fit Harry our labrador retriever. I relived the joys of open-top two-seater motoring; this is an MG Midget for the twenty-first century. The Mazda is a car to consider when you no longer need the SUV to carry family, luggage and shopping and you want to rediscover the real and simple pleasures of motoring. See Mazda UK.