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Mazda MX-5: 25 years in pictures

The Mazda MX-5 is 25 and we’re looking back through the landmark production cars and concepts that helped make the MX-5 great.

by: Auto Express team

29 Aug 2014

The Mazda MX-5 is a modern motoring icon, a two-seater, open-topped sports car with an overriding focus on fun.

Through three generations and 25 years, the MX-5 has wormed its way into the hearts of millions, whether as an inexpensive route to rear-wheel-drive handling purity or as a simple, pretty roadster in the classic vein.

Now with its first 25 years up and a new fourth generation MX-5 arriving immenently, what better time to look back at the history of the MX-5, its concepts, special editions and landmark derivatives?

Click through the gallery for a history of the Mazda MX-5 in pictures...

More Mazda MX-5 25th anniversary stories...

The <a href="/mazda/mx-5">Mazda MX-5</a> is a modern motoring icon, a two-seater, open-topped sports car with an overriding focus on fun. Through three generations and 25 years, the MX-5 has wormed its way into the hearts
The original <a href="/mazda/mx-5">Mazda MX-5</a> launched in 1989 at the Chicago Motor Show before going on sale in North America and Japan later that year and arriving in Europe in 1990. Although the Mazda MX-5 is known as such on th
Mazda won at Le Mans in 1991 with the 787B prototype accompanied by a deafening sonic assault from its rotary engine. To celebrate, the marque built 25 Mazda MX-5 Le Mans special editions in the same green and orange livery as the race
The MX-5 was 10 in 1999 and that called for the first of many anniversary editions. The 10th Anniversary edition wasn’t just a mats and flaps job, it added a six-speed manual gearbox and Bilstein dampers to the standard pack
The second generation MX-5 was launched at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show with the tough task of improving on the original car’s 400,000 global sales. The pop-up headlamps bit the dust and the car grew slightly but the MX-5’s winning formul
The MX-5 Mono-Posto concept made its debut at the SEMA aftermarket tuning show in Las Vegas in 2000. With a single seat and a custom 187bhp turbocharged engine built by tuning specialists HKS, it was seen as the ultimate expression of
The Mazda Performance Series concept car of 2001 brought racing car technology developed by Mazdaspeed to the MX-5 including adjustable suspension, aluminium brake discs and a 1.9-litre 198bhp powerplant.  
The lightweight SkyActiv technology that’s gradually filtering out across today’s Mazda range and is set to feature on the <a href="https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/65579/mazda-mx-5-2015-release-date-price-and-pictures">fourth
The sculpted front end of the Mazda Roadster Coupe TS concept set pulses racing at the 2004 Tokyo Motor Show. The car was inspired by classic Aston Martins and the Abarth Clubman race series of the 1960s. A roll cage and a low seating
2005 brought the arrival of the third generation Mazda MX-5 a significant step forward from the mk2 car with multi-link rear suspension, traction control, stability control and a beautifully simple roof mechanism added. It was named as
Production MX-5s had always had folding soft-top roofs but in 2006 Mazda added an alternative. Equipped with a folding hard-top roof, the car was known as the ‘Power Retractable Hard Top’ in Japan but Europe went for the far catchier R
A comprehensive facelift for the MX-5 was debuted at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The car took on the sharper front-end look that was prevailing across Mazda’s model range at the time and benefited from a series of mechanical improvement
The MX-5 celebrated its 20th year in production in predictable style with another special edition. The MX-5 20th Anniversary Edition had Recaro bucket seats, 17” 10-spoke wheels and was a range of highly questiona
The MX-5 has had a lightweight philosophy engrained upon it from the word go but the Superlight concept that debuted at the <a href="/frankfurt-motor-show">Frankfurt Motor Show</a> in 2009 took things to extremes.  Using advanc
Despite endowing the car with a chassis that could clearly handle it, Mazda has always shied away from giving the MX-5 big headline-grabbing power outputs. The MX-5 Super20 changed all that. Built for the SEMA car show in the US, th
Mazda North America dreamed up a third way for the MX-5’s roof arrangement in 2011, fitting it to the MX-5 Spyder concept. The lower-profile canopy stretched over the car was supposed to give a more dynamic look. We just wonder how eas
The MX-5 special editions kept coming and the Kuro (black in Japanese) of 2012 proved to be one of the more memorable. It was inspired by the MX-5 GT4 race car and offered black exterior side stripes, mirrors and foglight surrounds as
Mazda’s entry into the GT4 race championships with the MX-5 also spawned the MX-5 GT concept that took Goodwood Festival of Speed by storm in 2012. The car got adjustable suspension and a turbocharged power boost to 202bhp. The reac
What’s the wildest Mazda MX-5 special? That’ll be the Super25 concept. This was basically a racing car built for the SEMA show in 2012. It featured a full roll cage, Sparco racing seat and a full race harness. Mazda also chucked a dazz
We’re encouraged to think of the MX-5 as a stripped back driver’s car by a lot of these special editions and concepts but Mazda’s roadster can get pretty luxurious too. The MX-5 Sport Graphite edition was a case in point with leather h
The last hurrah for the mk3 Mazda MX-5 was this, the 25th Anniversary Edition. Based around the Roadster Coupe model and its retractable hard-top roof the car features off-white leather seats embossed with a 25th Anniversary