Millionth Mazda MX-5 visits Down Under

Melbourne's Sandown Racecourse played host over the weekend to the millionth example of the Mazda MX-5, which arrived during a Fan Fest appreciation day that helped celebrate the legacy of the famous sportscar.

The more than 1000 registered visitors in attendance were permitted to personally sign the milestone roadster, which was joined at the event by another 676 customer-owned MX-5s.

Mazda's MX-5 is officially recognised as the world's number one-selling two-seater roadster and will be shortly joined in the local line-up by the hardtop RF version, which was also present during the Fan Fest.

Other appreciation day activities included a show and shine, parade lap, hot laps in the Global MX-5 Cup Car, and talks with well-known New Zealand drifter 'Mad' Mike Whiddett and second- and third-generation MX-5 program manager Takao Kikima.

Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak said Saturday's Fan Fest was the largest Australian MX-5 event yet and had received plenty of positive feedback.

“We had a great turnout and ended up with almost 500 cars doing the parade lap, which was three times bigger than any previous MX-5 event in Australia,” he said. “We were just blown away by the support it got, we had people bring their cars down from interstate and clubs drive down from Sydney, so it was a great event.

“They are some of our most passionate and loyal customers, our MX-5 customers. Over the years we’ve always given them support for their meets and all sorts of things, but this was something much, much bigger than we’ve ever done before and, what can we say, we’ve been absolutely delighted with the response and the numbers we got there on Saturday, it was just fantastic.”

Mr Doak said the milestone millionth MX-5 inspired Mazda Australia to collaborate with Aussie MX-5 clubs to organise the Fan Fest appreciation day.

The millionth MX-5 was only in Australia for a single day.

“We worked very closely with all the MX-5 clubs to make it happen and obviously they were organising their members to come along and we blasted out to our database as well and let people know it was happening,” he said.

“It was kind of a joint venture between us and the clubs to do this event. It was really the one millionth car and bringing that to Australia which kicked the whole conversation off. People could sign the car, which has happened around the world, so that was the big drawcard.”

The millionth MX-5 was only in Australia for a single day in Melbourne at Mazda's event with Mr Doak revealing it had since returned overseas, but he suggested Fan Fest's reception could lead to similar events in the future for those that missed out.

“We haven’t got any firm plans at this point, but I guess with the success of this one, I imagine we would certainly have a good think about it and see what we can do down the track,” he said.

Debuting with the first-generation NA model in 1989, the iconic Mazda MX-5 has now been in production for 28 straight years.

The second-generation NB MX-5 arrived in 1998, with the third model arriving in 2005 before the well-received current-generation ND landed in 2015.

Where does the Mazda MX-5 sit in your list of the most iconic sportscars of all time? Let us know in the comments below.