Here’s an observation for you, and I’d be interested to learn if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
My wife always used to say that I drove too close to the vehicle in front. In all honesty, she was probably quite correct, although having driven that way for over 40 years without an accident, I was probably not too concerned about changing at my age.
Anyway, when we got our first MX-5, I noticed that driving with the lid off did actually make me hang back a bit further. The reason ? I got fed up with inhaling exhaust fumes from smelly, dirty diesels in front of me ! Now, even with the top on, I do still leave plenty of room to the vehicle in front - no matter what it is.
Another thing that was proved correct - I told my wife when she got her first MX-5 as a company car back in 2011, that driving it would slow her down. The reason ? Again, with the lid off, wind buffeting over about 60 mph can be quite noisy and uncomfortable. Actually, the same is probably true of any open-topped car. OK, so with the side windows up, and the wind deflector between the seats deployed, this buffeting is lessened somewhat, but personally, with the lid off, I do prefer to have the windows down too - but that’s just a personal thing.
OK then, has anyone else had a similar experience in an MX-5 that has made them a safer driver ?
Interesting that. People driving too close to me is something that really winds me up, and yes I expect many people are like you were, quite oblivious to the fact they were driving too close.
What the 5 has taught me is that small low cars that have the same colour scheme as the grass verges are not very visible to a number of motorists. I now drive more defensively and assume everyone is gonig to either pull out in front of me, or start an overtake while I’m coming the other way. I am told by friend who ride a bike that this is the norm for them.
I also find I am less prone to getting irritated by other drivers, probably because I’m having more fun.
However when I do, I find myself treating them as another person, not just a hunk of metal with wheels. Being more exposed can do that… conversely that works both ways. I find other drivers respond to me, rather than the car, because I’m more visible.
Whilst I like a spirited drive (not insanely fast) I am conscious of the weak point (imho) of my MK1 - the brakes. So I tend to leave plenty of stopping room.
Also because my daily driver is front wheel drive I sort out my speed, cornering line before the corner and power through.Whereas in the MX I have more confidence that the car will stick through the corner as long as I am not too aggressive with the load pedal.
Finally, I am aware the car is 24 years old so I don’t rag it.
I am sure these views differ from others but I’m comfortable with how I drive.
P.S. The only thing that makes me really nervous is passing a high sided foreign lorry on a motorway. I do hang back, pick my moment and accelerate past as quickly as I can.
This visibility issue concerned me too Rikk, especially as my latest steed is Galaxy grey - not the most conspicuous of colours. I had several near-misses in the first month of owning this car - all because I wasn’t seen by other drivers. I now drive with my headlights on all the time !
“If I drive it, the roof is down” - well yes, the same applies here too. The MX-5 is our ‘second car’, our ‘fun car’ - so if the weather isn’t good enough to have the lid off, we take the wife’s VW Scirocco company car, and let her pay the fuel bill !
Feeling more VULNERABLE than before is the main difference I’ve noticed, which in turn makes me drive more defensively. The mere fact that the “5” being small and low, especially with the hood down, is below the eye level of the drivers many other vehicles, there is the very real risk that they will “overlook” you, somewhat akin to the problem cyclists and motorcyclists encounter. But on the plus side it is more FUN to drive than my previous cars, and that you don’t need to break the speed limits to experience that fun!
I suppose you don’t really have the option of driving with headlights all the time with an NA do you ? You have to rely on sidelights only, otherwise the pop-ups will be up all the time, and you’ll be losing the smooth, clean, Lotus Elan-style lines of the body.
How bright can you have the sidelights, anyway Rikk ?
My mother was complaining about me racing up the gearbox when driving her Mazda6 the other day. Hazard of having such a peppy engine in the five. I’ve had to stop myself doing that in the Punto too because I run out of puff. Oh and the other thing was getting too used to having a sixth gear and trying to put the Punto into reverse at 70.
I echo the sentiments above…an MX5 brings home to you just how vulnerable you are - a bit like a 4-wheeled motorbike, where you no longer have the feeling of isolation from your surroundings afforded by an all-enveloping (all-insulating) tin box around you.
It’s an interesting comparison to try to judge your speed without looking at the speedo in your MX5 compared to your everyday hack, especially if it’s modern smooth family car… I bet you tend to over-estimate your speed in the MX5, and/or underestimate it in the typical Mondeo/Insignia/whatever. I know I do. Anything feels fast when your backside is only 8 inches off the ground! But FUN…!!!
And, as above, I’ve gone for 6th in a 5-speed box in an MX5, much to the chagrin of its owner…! Ouch! Sorry!
The subject of vulnerability has cropped up a couple of times in this thread, and I suppose, despite all the modern airbags and whatever, one is bound to feel more vulnerable in a lightly-built, open-topped car like and MX-5.
A few years ago, when the only car we had was my wife’s MX-5 company car, she borrowed her boss’s 5 series Beamer to take her dolls-house friends to a show in Lyndhurst in the New Forest one day. I was roped in as chauffeur, so we loaded up with old ladies, and off we set. The first thing that struck me was how insulated and isolated we felt inside that huge tank of a car. My immediate thoughts were, well, if you’re going to have an accident - better have it in something like this ! We all felt so totally protected from almost anything that might happen. The downside was of course, that compared to our MX-5, there was little or no feel of the road, or what the car was doing whatsoever - it seemed like we could have run over a small animal and we wouldn’t have known it !
But of course, the feel of the car on the road, and with the lid off, the oneness we feel with the countryside - its sights, its sounds its smells (!) - is the main reason we drive MX-5s and their like ! We just have to drive accordingly.
Mine (an 11 year old 330D, M sport) has very stiff suspension; to “coin” an old saying “If you run over a sixpence you would know if it was heads or tails”. It drives like it’s on rails, too.
It does drive very differently to my 1998 MX-5 Mk2 though; the car’s unladen weight is much higher.
I totally agree. 70 in my BMW feels like 45 in my Mk1, I do feel vulnerable in the Mazda in poor weather and very heavy traffic, also get tailgated which I never do in my 330
If I remember correctly (well, it was about three years ago, and you know what they say about old goats), it was a 535 - great big thing it was, and looking at it, compared to an MX-5, it appeared enormous - almost like an crossover (but it wasn’t I don’t think).
I hated it. It went like the proverbial brown stuff off a shovel, but there was just no ‘feel’ to it at all.
It’s all down to personal tastes though isn’t it ? Different strokes etc. (Hey, remember that show ?).
I drive with headlights on always…had to do this in Sweden years ago, lost the habit in the UK…but since owning an MX5 I’ve resurrected the habit. Just wish they came on permanently with the ignition.
I find others tailgate me (like almost inside my boot) and like to show off by zooming past me ASAP. As if they’re saying excitedly ‘I must overtake, I must… Ooh, I’ve overtaken a sports car’ A badge of honour perhaps. Occasionally I’ll drive defensively and make it difficult. Oops!
I do feel more vulnerable on motorways alongside lorries and often wonder if they can see me. I give them a wide berth or pass quckly if possible.
Best bit of driving an MX5 is not having to drive fast…it’s just great fun!
The all-round visibility is so much better in the MX5 (top down of course), and with the instant throttle response and not needing to lose so much speed on good visibility corners it seems to give me a lot more thinking time ahead to make decisions in, a bit like when on a decent bike.
So I find I tend to nip through and cut things a bit finer than when driving the family balloon. At the back of my mind I sometimes hear this little voice saying, ‘take more care, you don’t want to pick up any bonus points’.
This is a very good thread, and many points raised I would agree with.
To the point of not being seen by other motorists, I have bought some very bright led bulbs for the sidelights which will act like daylight driving lights.
The subject of vulnerability has cropped up a couple of times in this thread, and I suppose, despite all the modern airbags and whatever, one is bound to feel more vulnerable in a lightly-built, open-topped car like and MX-5.
A few years ago, when the only car we had was my wife’s MX-5 company car, she borrowed her boss’s 5 series Beamer to take her dolls-house friends to a show in Lyndhurst in the New Forest one day. I was roped in as chauffeur, so we loaded up with old ladies, and off we set. The first thing that struck me was how insulated and isolated we felt inside that huge tank of a car. My immediate thoughts were, well, if you’re going to have an accident - better have it in something like this ! We all felt so totally protected from almost anything that might happen. The downside was of course, that compared to our MX-5, there was little or no feel of the road, or what the car was doing whatsoever - it seemed like we could have run over a small animal and we wouldn’t have known it !
But of course, the feel of the car on the road, and with the lid off, the oneness we feel with the countryside - its sights, its sounds its smells (!) - is the main reason we drive MX-5s and their like ! We just have to drive accordingly.
[/quote. I have both, a 5 series BMW and an mx5 and to my surprise I drive them both differently, in my BMW I tend to drive slow and don’t overtake hardly at all, weather that’s because it’s bigger and less nimble might be the case, but in my five I overtake eveyone especially with the roof down, My conclusion is I’m more aware of my surroundings in my five and get into smalller gaps in the traffic,
