Hard to believe that the Mazda MX5 celebrates it’s 25 anniversary this year, but it’s enduring qualities are no accident the idea behind the MX5 was first discussed in 1976 by Motor Trend journalist Bob Hall and Mazda’s Research and development heads Kenichi Yamamoto and Gai Arai.

13 years later the lightweight sports car which took it’s styling queues from the 1960’s icon the Lotus Elan was launched and many accolades and three generations of MX5 later over 900,000 units have been sold to make the model the most successful sports car of all time.

Today’s featured first generation NA model, distinguished by the pop lights, was built in 1993. This car is powered by a 1.6 litre / 98 cui motor twin cam motor which produces 115 hp.

The owner of this car used to own a Mazda MX5 Le Mans Special which was painted in the Renown colours which were carried by the rotary powered Mazda 787B that won the 1991 Le Mans 24 hours.

Having bought a white car the new owner thought it would be cool to find a paint shop to put some Martini® stripes on it and when he eventually found someone to take on the job he was not disappointed, of course he now has extra kudos because Martini® have returned to Formula One™ with Williams Grand Prix Engineering after a 35 year absence.

The original NA MX5 could reach 60mph in 8.1 seconds and has a top speed of 126 mph, Japanese market NA MX5’s, known as Eunos Roadster’s were restricted to 112 mph by the Manufacturer.