Phil Vaughan gets reacquainted with the nation’s favourite two-seater sports car and finds it the perfect antidote to modern, high-tech, motoring trends . . .

The Mazda MX-5 looks great in any setting

Imagine silent, box-shaped, driverless electric cars that are satellite-guided safely from A to B, with an army of petrol police scouring the nation’s sheds and garages for hidden hoards of extinct fossil fuels.

If your vision of the motoring future goes along these lines, then be reassured. For no matter how bleak your vision, there will always be the enduring, enigmatic Mazda MX-5 coupé tootling around somewhere on Britain’s highways and byways, cocking a snook at those wimpish, thrill-free wheels.

This loveable little car, so readily recognised, has been around now for 20 years, and you feel it should easily see this century out. In fact, it is already making a stand against gadget-soaked sports cars, even after its latest facelift, and remains the roadster enthusiast’s dream with the retention of rear-wheel drive.

The average techno-nut will break into a sweat at seeing just climate and cruise control plus powered windows and door mirrors on the bells-and-whistles list.

Just about the only two other auxiliary buttons to push in the world’s best-selling two-seater are for dropping the powered steel roof and resetting the odometer!

It certainly pushes all the right ones out on the open road. Some rolling, curling drives through the Wolds of Lincolnshire, the county’s gentle backdrop to miles of long dyke-side straights, proved perfect for the MX-5 Sport Tech 2.0i.

Free of the wind-buffeting and intimidating HGVs on motorways, the 1,999cc, 158bhp Mazda loved the freedom of sparsely-populated routes. It was a joy to rev sweetly up through the six manual gears, before changing down a notch or two to quickly cut through some sweeping corners without the MX-5 straying so much as a millimetre off its directed path.

It is really well-balanced – the suspension tuned to forgive minor potholes and provide a fully authentic roadster ride and the leather-clad seats shaped to support the occupants in true comfort.

This £21,195 Mazda tops the 2009 range, with a six-speed automatic costing a bit extra, and has perky performance figures of 0 to 62mph in 7.6 seconds, and a top speed of 131mph. The tank holds 50 litres of unleaded, about five litres more than the family hatchback average. And with this test’s overall return standing at a shade under 35mpg – official combined figure is 37.2mpg – that bit extra is appreciated.

The MX-5 boot holds just 150 litres, too – if two of you can get away on holiday with just one small suitcase, a handbag and a couple of toiletry bags as luggage, then off you go.

Drop the top when you can, too – that’s what the MX-5, the back-to-basics future of small sports cars, is really all about.

Finally, did you see pictures of the new MX-5 Superlight, shown at the recent Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany? Mazda says the Superlight is for exhibition purposes only – but don’t hold the firm to that, for the windscreen-less, lightweight, topless roadster, which came with a radical restyling job, could eventually find its way onto the streets.

And not just because of public demand for it: Lighter cars are the way ahead for motoring, and consequently a firm basis for calling the slimmer, trimmer, MX-5 Superlight into service.