A Mega-Rare Mazda MX-5 Coupe Is For Sale In The UK

Being an open-top roadster is kind of the Mazda MX-5’s whole deal. Even when we’ve had versions without fabric roofs – the third-gen RC, or fourth-gen RF – they’ve still had folding metal tops.

Supposedly, though, the original MX-5 designer Tom Matano always envisioned a proper fixed-roof coupe to sit alongside the roadster, but for whatever reason, it never happened. Except for that time when it briefly did.

Yep, after a couple of very pretty concept versions based on the original NA, the NB MX-5 did get turned into a coupe, although in very limited numbers. Built by Mazda’s Engineering and Technology department, which specialised in such limited-production things, the process involved pinching a regular MX-5 roadster from the production line and fitting it with a new roof structure and rear panels.

It was always envisioned as a very limited thing, with only around 200 planned to be built, but it ended up being even rarer than that: due to a fire that broke out at the factory where the MX-5 was built in late 2004, it’s thought that only 179 MX-5 Coupes were built.

All of these were destined for the Japanese domestic market, so it’s very rare to find one that’s made it overseas – but that’s what we have here. Bought at a Japanese auction in 2023, it was imported to the UK by way of Hong Kong, and is now up for auction with Car and Classic.

You might be wondering why the front end looks like… well, that. The MX-5 Coupe was available in three different versions: the boggo Type S, sports-oriented Type A, and luxury-minded Type E. This is the third of those, which means it has that, erm, unusual front end as well as, sadly, a four-speed automatic gearbox. Still, you got leather seats, so that’s something.

It’s otherwise as you’d expect with a normal 1.8-litre NB MX-5 – it gets a throaty nat-asp engine making 146bhp and 124lb ft, all of which goes to the rear wheels.

This particular car’s also sitting on lowered suspension and wider aftermarket Autostar wheels, although we can’t imagine it’d take much to return it to standard if you wished. It’s covered around 22,800 miles from new, and as we write this, the auction’s only in the pre-bid phase. We have frankly no idea how much it could end up going for, but we reckon quite a bit more than your average NB.