The demise of the affordable sports car has been lamented too early. Here are the best routes to fun on a budget
Anyone with a £50,000 budget to spend on something in which they just want to enjoy themselves would be remiss in the extreme to overlook one of the most direct and glaringly obvious solutions to their brief: the utterly brilliantThis lightweight two-seater is part motorbike, part car, part tubular curio. Clearly it’s not a car with any real practical use whatsoever. But while demanding plenty of commitment from its driver, it’s superbly involving and characterful.
But huge pace and almost unrivalled excitement are this car’s crowning glories. The former comes from the car’s turbochargedfour-cylinder engine, which can be turned up as far as 350bhp in a car weighing little more than 600kg. But the latter isn’t just about superbike-baiting acceleration.
The GR86 is a slightly firmer, grippier car than the one it replaces, but for the most part it handles in much the same way: with a beautifully balanced rear-wheel-drive attitude that can be exploited at any speed on track, if a little less accessibly on the road than in the GT86. Yes, the engorged engine delivers more pace, but not much more.Elsewhere, the GR86 looks smarter than before, while the interior is classier without sacrificing its predecessor's surprising practicality.
More minor tweaks have been executed since, the latest being for the 2023 model year. As part of it, Mazda UK changed the standard soft-top car’s model name convention from MX-5 Convertible to MX-5 Roadster; renamed its derivative trim levels ; and added a Zircon Sand paint option.Mechanically, no changes were made, so the 1.5-litre MX-5 still develops 130bhp, while the 2.
Whichever you choose, rear-driven chassis poise and lots of driver involvement is guaranteed. That’s because the MX-5 is still every inch the same zesty and inimitable car that it always has been. Its character hasn't really changed at all in three decades, and nothing on this list offers a better pounds-per-smile rating.
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