Thursday 13th November 2014

Mazda Eunos Roadster: PH Fleet

As thoughts stir of moving the Mazda on Dan goes for a drive; swiftly changes mind

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There comes a point in the ownership of every car where you have that 'I'm really not getting my money's worth out of this, it's probably time to move it on...' moment. And here's yet another benefit of running a car whose value wouldn't score you a sat nav upgrade on a typical exec saloon. You have to go a long, long way down that road before it becomes a serious consideration.

Hibernation would be a shame, right?

Having optimistically backed the Eunos onto blocks so I could get the jack under it and work on that sticking rear brake the weather broke, incentive to sit on wet tarmac in the freezing rain somewhat took the wind out of my spannering sails and the Mazda languished on the driveway looking a bit sorry for itself. And I wondered if the time was approaching.

Then came my race in the Birkett Six Hour Relay in one of Jota Sport's NC MX-5s and two consecutive days of driving up to Silverstone. Never a chore, my hour-ish back road route to the track one is of my favourite local drives and now finely honed to miss out the few bottlenecks and 30 limits. The Mazda hadn't been out for a bit, it was just me going up on the Friday practice day and it seemed appropriate to turn up on-brand and so I charged the battery and set forth on a blustery and rainy autumnal morning, roof optimistically stowed.

And had one of the best drives I've ever had on that route, one that's added at least a year to the Mazda's 'life' in my hands, if not more. Looking back, in the previous few weeks I'd done that same drive in a Ferrari 458 Spider, a lovely old Porsche, Matt's SEAT and that rather surprising Polestar Volvo to name but a few. And the Eunos put the biggest grin on my face by a fair stretch despite being the slowest by a significant margin.

Back among friends for the Birkett Six Hours

I know, the last thing PH needs is some more doe-eyed Mazda evangelising from me. But tough. I think the winning formula with this car is performance not measured in quantity but how appropriate it is for the roads and conditions. I can confidently say I drove that car literally as fast as it would go for a significant proportion of that journey and yet remained within sensible sight of the posted limit. I made an awful lot of noise. I changed gear probably far more than was strictly necessary. I hammed up unnecessary double-declutched downshifts at every opportunity. Did a couple of little skids. And just had an absolute whale of a time.

Then it tanked it down while I was on track and, with the roof up, not a drop of water leaked into the car. And as darkness fell and the skies cleared the roof went back down and I had one of those utterly blissful night time convertible drives along deserted B-roads that just makes utter sense of owning a car like this.

And, like a stuck record, I just come back to how little money it cost me.

Bloody fantastic it is.

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Fact sheet:
Car: 1993 Eunos Roadster (JDM import model)
Run by: Dan Trent
Bought: January 2011
Purchase price: £1,250
Last month at a glance: Roof down in the rain? Don't mind if I do!

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Previous reports:
Has Dan killed his Eunos?
The Eunos returns to Scotland for another road trip
Look, I was kidding about the downforce, right?
Why have one wedding car when four will do?
Dan's Eunos loses its horn
Just how many wheels for your wagon?
Wheel refurb goes a bit ... colourful
Dan gets back on track with his Eunos
The answer to everything?
More exhaust noise? Don't mind if I do...
Skidfoolery at Silverstone on the eco tyres
Er, more skidfoolery at Silverstone on the eco tyres!
Hibernation? Not for this Eunos!

[muckyman]

Damn you Dan!
I've just about talked myself into selling my little 5 due to lack of use (same as yours but with a few massive PH smiley stickers) and this article comes along and makes me doubt my decision :-/
Will have to rethink now.