Mazda MX-5 Icon driven 828 miles around the Ring of Iceland

The excuse, lest you feel we need one, is the MX-5 Icon special edition. It would be easy to dismiss it with the wave of a hand – to all intents and purposes it is ‘special’ in the lightest sense: a well-kitted, well-priced 1.5 SE-L Nav bedecked in striking paintwork on its door mirrors, rear spoiler and front skirt and with some stickers down the side. But it is also the latest in the line of Icon-badged MX-5s, lending the launch a hint of history and giving Mazda’s marketeers another opportunity to keep sales rolling along. This time, just 600 Icons will be sold in the UK, complete with numbered plaque in the cabin. If you’re a collector or fan and counting, that’s fewer Icons than ever before; 750 were launched in 2000, 1563 in 2005 and 1250 in 2007. While MX-5s have never been especially tenacious at holding onto their value, there’s a kudos – and kit list, including parking aids, leather seats and automatic headlights and wipers – that some will covet.

Not that it really matters as we turn the key in Reykjavik for the start of our road trip, which is punctuated by a night’s sleep in Egilsstaðir, on the east coast of the island. The familiar qualities of the latest MX-5 stand out once again: a seating position and seat that flatter drivers of every shape and size, perfect pedal spacing (good old-fashioned heel-and-toeing is alive and well here) and controls that have been placed with thought and which are well weighted. Spend too long in the MX-5 and you will take these things for granted, but that would be a huge mistake, because so many car manufacturers get them wrong. They don’t just make the MX-5 better to drive; they also make it more habitable. Let me remind you that I’m writing this after spending about 22 of the past 36 hours in the car. I may not be the freshest of daisies, but I owe what reserves I have to the hours of toil engineers put into perfecting that seating position and cabin.

Out on the road, it’s impossible not to marvel at the sights and sounds of Icelandic life, which can be as seductive as the car itself. Our route takes us along the western edge of the island, before looping back up north and around in a clockwise direction. Stare again at the map and give your vocal chords a chance to stretch out by attempting to pronounce Skagafjörður, or perhaps Fjarðabyggð. Take a moment to pity the world’s newsreaders who were faced with having to explain the ash cloud crisis in 2010, sparked as it was by a volcano named Eyjafjallajökull. These unpronounceable place names do a neat job of encapsulating the quirky and brutal yet enchanting look and feel of a country of terrifying natural beauty, from its snow-lined volcanoes to steaming geysers, deep blue lakes and multicoloured natural night-time cinema courtesy of the aurora borealis.

But the real beauty of this trip is that not even zealous policing via the medium of a blanket 90km/h (56mph) speed limit and a liberal deployment of radar guns could ruin it. While that limit doesn’t sound a lot – nor does it sometimes feel it when you haven’t seen a car coming towards you for an hour, as often happens – it’s just fine in the MX-5.

Here is a car that provides thrills even on the ‘wrong’ road, so precise are its controls and so modest are its power output and top speed. Given the choice of burbling along in a Ferrari or stroking the MX-5, I’d choose the latter. And when – as happens regularly – there’s the chance to go harder on some of the natural twists and turns of this glacier-carved country, there’s every opportunity to turn up the wick guiltfree. Can a 129bhp 1.5-litre engine with 111lb ft ever be enough to set a keen driver’s trousers on fire? If you need to ponder that question, you haven’t driven the latest MX-5 on a twisting road.

There is something just so sweet about driving this car hard. Its not-so-secret ingredients? The sub-1100kg weight, for starters, but also the light clutch, alert throttle and short, tight gearshift that puts a smile on your face every single time you slot it into position. Then there’s the steering, which lets you know exactly what the front wheels are doing and gives confidence on any type of road. And I write that not as an expert helmsmen; there’s an enticingly unintimidating angle to be appreciated about this car, too, if, like me, the thought of 3.0sec 0-60mph sprints and tail-out cornering leave you a bit sweaty-browed. Its precision breeds confidence, its pace thrills without blurring any lines.

Here is an engine that might not have anything approaching what you’d truly describe as poke but which reminds you why the advances of turbocharged engines aren’t entirely to our advantage. Blessed with the linear delivery that only a naturally aspirated engine can deliver, it sings its way up to the 7000rpm redline. And while it is undoubtedly at its best spinning around in the mid-range, it’s also true to say that this is a car you can take 100% from more often than not, earning a sense of achievement for your efforts. We recommend the 2.0-litre version for good reason, but there’s an element of accessibility about the 1.5 that is beguiling if you’re prepared to work for it. Some want more from a sports car, of course, but personally I’d rather have the sensation of getting close to the edges of a car’s capabilities than thanking God that I didn’t overstep the mark and bin it. For people like me, it’s an absolute gem.

The highlight comes on a twisting road between Akureyri and Mývatn. Well and truly settled into the car and landscape, what could be an intriguing high-speed road is turned into a enthralling one by the MX-5’s merits. In some cars, it would be too fast for the faint of heart. In the MX-5, you can throw caution to the wind, pushing hard while knowing that the speed limit is a target to aim at rather than be feared, and that even the slippery, twisting roads can be attacked. If you overstep the limits of traction, it’s telegraphed well in advance. If the back end does go – and it takes severe provocation for it to do so – the MX-5 will oversteer, progressively and entirely controllably.