Driving around Iceland in a Mazda MX-5

A road test with a difference – testing the new MX-5 Icon special edition for more than 800 miles in Iceland!

1/5

6 October 2016

Iceland isn’t the most obvious road-test location for a new two-seat sports car. It’s a place usually associated with giant-wheel’d off-roaders, or snow and sub-zero temperatures. But Mazda likes to do things differently – and so to acquaint us with the new 1.5 Icon special edition, it gave us two days to enjoy the car in a pretty iconic location.

The Icon is basically a 1.5 SE-L with some added extras: there are striking contrast-color door mirrors, rear spoiler and front skirt, some special edition stickers on the side and a limited-to-600 numbered plaque on the dash. Mazda also adds in leather seats, parking sensors, automatic headlights and wipers to further sweeten this collectable’s appeal.

Not that it needs much help: the MX-5 is hugely appealing whatever spec it comes in. The driving position is wonderful, with beautifully-positioned pedals and controls that feel delectable placed just so. It’s low, sporty and pretty much perfect – even, as we discovered, after 11 hours at the wheel.

That was hour after hour of sticking to sensible (and strictly monitored) speed limits as well. But even capped to 56mph, the wonderful MX-5 is tremendous fun. See, the speed limits are low but the roads are also jam-packed with twists, turns, undulations and other challenges that make for enormous fun when you’ve got a sports car this able.

It’s not at all about speed, or heroics, or drama: it’s about pure, innocent fun, making the best of the MX-5’s perfect body control, tremendous agility, clear controls and general friendliness. It’s light, nimble and pretty much perfect, even if the firm suspension will clearly telegraph all the damage done to the road by Iceland’s inhospitable climate.

With 1.5 litres to play with, there isn’t an excess of power, but there isn’t an excess of weight either, which means the balance is pretty much spot on. Add in a sharp throttle, brilliant gearchange and steering that’s flooded in feel and you have to wonder why other car makers can’t serve up good, clean, simple old-fashioned entertainment like this. And so never-ending is the revvability of the sweet little 1.5-litre, you actually rarely miss the extra power of the 2.0-litre alternative.

Iceland is a fascinating country that is always ready to present you with something new and surprising. Rather like the MX-5: it’s a car oozing talent but which is also unspoilt and untarnished – it’s about as back-to-basics as you can get in a modern sports car, and all the better for it.

You don’t need to go to Iceland to discover this for yourself, of course. It’s this perfect whatever the conditions. Mazda really has hit the nail on the head with the MX-5. If ever a car justified being called an Icon, it’s this.

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Driving around Iceland in a Mazda MX-5

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