Car Auto Magazine

What red-blooded American automotive journalists would admit in the pages of a car magazine that they drove to the beginning of one of the most spectacular roads in these United States, saw the 35-mph speed limit, and found it didn't bother them?

Call me a girl, which only means I'll be brave enough to write that gentle motoring has a place in our hectic world, that it can even be alluring. Depending, of course, on the transport. And, of course, on the locale.

We've come all the way to the Big Island of Hawaii (4038 square miles) to stare into the ocean's depths at dawn and ride at dusk to the top of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet), lifted up into a heaven packed with more stars than we've ever seen in our lives. In between, we'll fling the top back on the planet's most popular roadster and drive through a goodly number of the eleven microclimates on the island. By the time we get to that perfect road, Highway 250 north out of Waimea to Hawi, we're packing some major aloha-that's "love" to you haoles-and feeling as if our groove has come all the way back from the flatline we've been feeling after a long, rainy month on the mainland.

No, the all-new Mazda MX-5 is nothing like the ass-kicking Porsche Boxster S. Yes, it does have a lot more horsepower than it had, though not an overabundance of same-170 with the five- and six-speed manuals and 166 with the six-speed automatic transmission, up from 142 last year. It has slightly more room for longer torsos, thanks to a 0.6-inch-taller windshield header, a seatback with another degree of rearward travel, and a new tilt steering column. There's 2.2 inches more hip room, as well as enough extra cargo space for another grocery bag or two (plastic, not paper). The body feels tighter, thehandling nimbler, the chassis sturdier, and the steering more responsive. It looks fresher, a bit edgier from the sidewalk, more luxurious and more richly appointed from behind the wheel.

Not so much as a nut, a bolt, or a switch has carried over from the second-generation Miata-not even the name. And yet the most important element has not changed-that would be, simply, driving fun.

The perfectly executed two-seater that began the revolution in late 1989, spawning the Mercedes-Benz SLK, the Porsche Boxster, the BMW Z cars, and now the Pontiac Solstice, remains true to its roots. "Jinba ittai," they say in Hiroshima. The synergy of rider and horse moving as one. Manly automotive journalists don't go around talking about jinba ittai, no matter how perfectly it expresses the very soul of the Miata. It might be easier to embrace a more freewheeling interpretation, delivered in the quaint syntax of our Japanese friends at Mazda as the "lots of fun concept." Who can't appreciate lots of fun?

MX-5 program manager Takao Kijima, who has spent more than a third of his life on the Miata, explains that the engineering focus was not on direct measures such as performance and quality achievements but rather on "intangible virtues such as pleasure, beauty, and emotional attachment." Instead of 0-to-60-mph acceleration statistics, the Miata engineers felt it was more important to understand "how the car feels through the driver's sense of touch, how it sounds at speed, how it looks with the top folded, and what pleasant scents can be enjoyed during a spring drive."

Despite the fact that I've pushed the idea of the simple, lightweight roadster to the wall with my very own lusty 178-hp, turbo-charged 2005 Mazdaspeed version of the Miata, Big Island driving makes it easy to embrace the lots of fun concept. Only a handful of roads circle and straddle this still wild, volcanic paradise. One is more heavily pa-trolled than the next by a zero-tolerance police force lurking in their own personal cars and trucks behind the 25- and 35-mph speed-limit signs found on every single road of note. None fast, all fun. A flick of the steering-wheel-mounted cruise-control switch preserves our driving record-for now.

Do you have the patience to hear about one more SUV? How about one of those annoyingly nebulous SUV/crossover/whatever vehicles? At the risk of having you turn the page right now, we'll tell you that the new Mazda CX-7 is an SUV-like thing that tries to be sporty. We know, you've heard that before, with the BMW X5 and X3, the Infiniti FX45, the Porsche Cayenne, the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, and some lesser lights as well.

Look past the obvious-the RX-8 wannabe front fenders, the hop-up windowline, and the bulging rear wheel arches-and you notice that, unlike every other entry in this overcrowded field (save perhaps the FX45), the CX-7 has not a single flat plane anywhere on its body. The front end is radically swept back, the windshield sports the fastest rake in its class, the roofline takes a dive aft of the B-pillars, and even the greenhouse features some major tumblehome and tapers in toward the rear. This thing isn't just styled, it's shaped.

The CX-7's engine is equally radical. Borrowing the Mazdaspeed 6's direct-injection, 2.3-liter turbo four-a high-strung engine with an all-or-nothing, turbo-dependent power delivery-and pairing it with a manu-matic transmission sounds like an absurd choice for SUV duty. After driving the CX-7, we'd say it's merely unusual. In this application, the engine has traded away 30 hp and 22 lb-ft for improved driveability, yet it's still able to push the CX-7 along with verve while returning semirespectable economy ratings of 18/24 mpg (with all-wheel drive). But the throttle response is hardly linear, and the engine note will never be mistaken for the smooth spin of a good V-6.

The CX-7's sporty chassis tuning suffers no such downside. Its most immediately endearing quality is the steering response, which is direct, linear, and nicely weighted. SUVs that don't heel over in corners are no longer a novelty, but even in those vehicles you're keenly aware that a lot of weight is riding way up high. The CX-7 is a bit lower and lighter (under two tons, anyway), and it manages to escape that high 'n' heavy feeling.

Naturally, the CX-7 isn't quite as roomy as some of the boxier entries, even though it's longer and wider than the Mazda Tribute, and there's no third-row seat. (That's coming in the CX-9, which was recently unveiled at the New York auto show.) The CX-7's below-the-windowline cargo space is reasonable, but its tapered greenhouse and sloping roofline cut into maximum capacity. If hauling stuff is your priority, you have a herd of more suitable SUVs to pick from. The CX-7 instead makes a case for itself as a tall, sporty wagon-and, for less than $30,000 (exercising a modicum of options restraint), it's notably cheaper than the other sporty crossovers at the auto mall. That's how you wedge your way into an overcrowded field.