The Modena racetrack is the setting for a new Guinness Word Record: the protagonist was the Mazda MX-5, an iconic car that has reached its fourth generation in over thirty years of production. On Sunday 18 September the racetrack located in the heart of the Italian Motor Valley hosted the largest MX-5 rally ever, welcoming as many as 707 Japanese roadsters who traveled the entire circuit, obtaining the record and officially beating the result obtained by the Dutch rally, which with a parade of 683 cars held the record for almost a decade.
The record announced at 18
The 707 MX-5s started arriving in Modena as early as the evening of Saturday 17 September, and at 2pm on Sunday the first cars were positioned on the track. Under the watchful eyes of the judge in charge of validating the enterprise, after a first test ride the MX-5 – or Miata, depending on the “school of thought” to which the fans belong – traveled the circuit side by side in four rows, maintaining a maximum distance of 8 meters between the bumpers. A little more than 2 kilometers traveled by the colored snake of cars, 200 the cars that in the end remained outside the track to allow the others to get the record by completing the lap.
An extremely complex undertaking, which has severely tested the driving skills of hundreds of collectors and enthusiasts from all over Italy and from various European countries, all united by the love for this Japanese roadster which, perhaps more than all the others, it embodies the “Jinba Ittai” philosophy, the fusion of horse and rider, or driver and car, on which Mazda is based.
The meeting of the “myatists” between talks and anecdotes
The rally was also an opportunity to celebrate the MX-5, a car that, as explained by the Japanese engineer Nobuhiro Yamamoto, program manager of the third and fourth generation of the Mazda MX-5, was born out of pure pleasure: ” We made a car that we liked – Yamamoto said with a smile during one of the talks dedicated to the iconic roadster – We could not know, when the first model was released, what the reaction would be, nor that it would continue to meet appreciation. of the public. Who owns an MX-5 can reside in different countries but they share the same spirit and the same passion, and today we have proof of that ”.
The record, which arrived in the late afternoon, was however only the culmination of a day full of events and aimed at bringing together the community of “myatists” from Italy (and beyond). Between stands and music, space was also found for in-depth talks about one of the cars that helped make Mazda famous all over the world. Among the guests was Andrea Mancini, president and founder of Miataland, which has 49 MX-5s in its private collection, and then Elisa Artioli, granddaughter of Romano Artioli, former patron of Lotus and a great fan of engines; Andrea Levy, president of the MI.Mo Milano Monza Motor Show; and the presidents of the MX-5 clubs of Emilia Romagna and Sicily, Florinda Maraschi and Valentina Grinzat.
Everyone shared an anecdote, a story or a memory related to the Japanese roadster, while the forecourt of the racetrack filled with hundreds of cars of all four generations. Sitting behind the wheel, enthusiastically honking the horn, exchanging opinions and advice and taking selfies, the members of a single, large and varied community arrived in Modena to make history.
