Although Mazda has changed everything on the new MX-5, the idea is the car makes you feel magically happy in just the same way it always did. A good, pretty little roadster is one of the great, simple, unchanging pleasures of life, like a Sunday roast.

In the middle of a car industry that can't bear to stop fiddling, you've got to give a warm nod to the MX-5 team for its admirable focus. It didn't try to take the MX-5 into new engineering lands. No turbocharger, no folding hard top (not even a powered roof), no four-wheel drive or high-tech gubbins. The idea was just to modernise it where needed. And, of course, make it look slightly different so people will notice and buy another.

Snuggling down into the cockpit is easier than before. The seats are still simple little buckets, and the high centre tunnel still helps hug you securely when the cornering gets frenzied, but there's more room now: slightly more cockpit length and a deep breath's more width too. Your legs and arms are set straight ahead, the gearlever is just an arm's flick from the steering wheel. It's all perfectly laid out.

The engine fires to a deeper note now. It revs, cleanly as you like, to and beyond the 6,700rpm redline, flowering to 160bhp when you give it the full beans. It's not a torquey engine, but delivery is predictable, and flicking around the gearbox keeps it on the boil. Besides, that power is enough for just 1,120kg.

Demolishing that speed is all part of the fun. This car fits you like a well-worn trainer, all its controls matched in effort and travel, so it's a snap to flick down through the gears, heel-and-toeing while you tip deep into the braking force.

The middle pedal is short and snappy, but not so aggressive it'll bite your leg, and the ABS arrives with real finesse. The six-speed gearbox is standard on the top-spec version and comes from the RX-8. By almost any standard it snaps about the gate with ultra-short exactness. But not by one standard: the original five-speed is even better, and it's still available.