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- Mazda created a showstopper that exuded the lightweight performance philosophy as well as impressed the hordes with this, the Superlight.
- Rewind four years and the concept was polished to within an inch of its life and gleaming on the Japanese marque's stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
- A minimalistic approach to the popular two-seater sports car saw most of its innards ripped out in an attempt to shave weight, yet retained a large dollop of futuristic styling.
- With regard to styling, the MX-5 Superlight takes a lot of inspiration from the vintage club racers from 1950s America, where enthusiasts would take classic British and European roadsters such as the Austin Healey and strip them back to bare metal to improve performance.
- Stripping it right back involved some serious gutting, with many creature comforts (most notably the windscreen) removed to relieve the standard MX-5 of around 250kg, meaning it tips the scales at just under 1,000kg.
- The project took a pair of designers around three months to sketch and build, with a selection of external contractors roped in to help with the engineering and sports fettling – the chassis, brakes and roll-cage were fitted by a racing specialist in Cologne.
- Surprisingly, the whole project 'only' cost the marque £100,000 which was, according to Birtwhistle, a snip considering the global press the eye-catching car mustered.
- "The trouble is that the next MX-5 is on the horizon so interest in this model will drop off and technology will have changed so much, our findings won't be so relevant."
- It seems a shame that such a striking model will never see the light of day but we could say that about many concepts and Skunkworks specials. We were just delighted we got to test the nimble Superlight concept on track.
- "The driving experience is a little hectic but I can assure you, it pulls, corners and stops better than the production model."