It seems illogical, but less is more with the Superlight. Removing the windshield puts the driver front and center, with no barrier at all, to the racecourse rapidly diminishing under the low hood. While the Superlight is just a concept, that doesn’t mean it’s some cobbled-together showcar. Mazda has a research and development center for European operations in Germany, and it was actually those engineers who took an actual MX-5 and put it under the knife. What emerged is the neo-retro creation you see here. Cut out is everything that doesn’t help the Superlight perform better, so forget about a heater or soundproofing—when you don’t have a roof or side windows at all, you certainly don’t need those. What is included is Mazda’s excellent and proven 1.8-liter four, making 125 horsepower in this application—and with just 2,200 lbs. to motivate, that’s plenty of grunt to have an obscenely good time. The engine makes the kind of go-fast noises that, when paired with the absence of an enclosed cabin, evoke the glory days of racing. When you add it all up, it’s a bare-bones Mazda that’s more fun than the sum of its missing parts.
