Mazda MX-5 RF 2.0 Homura

The giant-killer of eCoty 2024 joins the Fast Fleet for an extended test

- James Taylor (@evojamest)

YOU MIGHT REMEMBER THAT IN 2024's evo Car of the Year test (issue 329), Mazda's plucky little two-seater put in an astonishing performance. Nearly ten years after first going on sale, the latest development of the ND-generation MX-5 came within 0.2 points of winning the whole damn thing. On a podium of £200k+ supercars, it was the people's champion.

So we're excited to welcome a near-identically specced car to Fast Fleet, to see what it's like to live with over a full six months. This isn't our first long-term ND-gen MX-5; aside from Peter Tomalin's subtly modded 2016 example that also graces these pages, we last ran a soft-top 2.0 GT Sport Tech model between issues 303 and 317. What separates this new car, and what took it so close to overall eCoty victory, is a set of small, subtle updates that have added up to a greater whole.