Tuesday 4 February 2014

Mazda MX-5 Sport Venture

Sport Venture is the first special edition MX-5 for 2014. It's the third car to use the Venture name and introduces two new colours to bring the car into line with Mazda's latest models. Sport Venture also brings a new navigation system by Alpine, some silver exterior trim, and stone coloured door panel inserts & heated leather seats. There are three models in the range, the 1.8 soft top, 1.8 coupe, and the 2.0 coupe.


The two new colours are a shade of grey/brown called Titanium Flash and a very dark blue called Deep Crystal Blue, both are mica paints which look great in the sunlight. These new colours are combined with silver door mirrors, silver roll bar covers, and bright silver 17" alloy wheels in the same design as 2005's 3rd Generation Ltd (note the title image is fitted with regular Sport Tech alloys, I suspect this is an oversight in Mazda's art dept).

The interior features a new satellite navigation system by Alpine. This unit has a 6.1" touchscreen which is slightly larger than the earlier Sanyo unit, it also includes maps for 46 countries, Bluetooth functionality, and can be used as a DVD player as well as playing music. All models get stone coloured heated leather seats and "Sport Venture Edition" exterior badges.


The equipment list for Sport Venture is quite generous, all models get 17" alloys, climate control air conditioning, alloy pedal covers, front suspension strut brace, front foglights, stainless scuff plates, 6 speakers and the Alpine unit. The 2.0 coupe version is based on the Sport Tech grade so also features a 6-speed gearbox, Bilstein suspension, and limited slip differential.

Let's take a look at the brochure and see the full details.


The German version of this car was called "Sendo" and was available in Brilliant Black as standard with the optional colours of Titanium Flash, Dark Crystal Blue, and Crystal White Pearl available at extra cost. The spec was mostly the same except that all Sendo models had branded carpet mats and cruise control, a feature which was lacking from the Sport Venture 1.8 soft top.

In France and Belgium the Sport Venture was released as a 25th Anniversary special edition. It was available as either the soft top or coupe, both with the 1.8 engine. The only colour option was the new Titanium Flash. Small badges featuring a stylised Japanese Torii gate with sun background on the front wings and a numbered badge on the dashboard identified it as a special edition. In the Netherlands the car is known as the MX-5 Silver Edition.