Quartet of MX-5s become the first cars to drive from Land’s End to John O’ Groats using sustainable fuel [Photo Gallery]

To celebrate 35 years of the Mazda MX-5, four Mazda MX-5s – one of each generation – drove a 1,000-mile route from Land’s End to John O’ Groats using sustainable fuel. Powered entirely by a 100 per cent biofuel from SUSTAIN, the world’s best-selling two-seater sports car became the first car to complete the end-to-end drive across the UK using sustainable fuel.

Launched at the 1989 Chicago Motor Show, the Mazda MX-5 has always been the benchmark pure lightweight sports car with driver engagement at the centre of its appeal. To date more than 1.2-million MX-5s have been produced at Mazda’s Ujina plant in Hiroshima, with over 135,000 of these being sold in the UK. The four cars completing the 1,000-mile drive were from the Mazda UK Heritage Fleet – a 1990 1.6-litre Mk1 from the car’s launch year in the UK, a 10^th Anniversary Mk2, a 25^th Anniversary Mk3 and a 30^th Anniversary Mk4 – each one representing a key landmark in the MX-5’s history.

Each generation Mazda MX-5 completed the journey using SUSTAIN 100 RON E5, which is a second-generation biofuel from Coryton that contains zero fossil fuel and is manufactured from agricultural waste and by-products from crops which can’t be used for consumption. With no modifications to the cars required, the drop-in fuel utilises carbon that already exists in the atmosphere, which the plants absorb as they grow, recycling it, rather than releasing additional CO₂, as fossil fuels do.

The 1,000-mile journey travelled to four pioneering organisations showcasing the power of sustainable technologies (see Editor’s notes). While the 100 per cent biofuel used is not currently publicly available to buy, other SUSTAIN fuels are, demonstrating the role sustainable fuels can play in de-carbonising both modern and classic cars, and further highlighting how sustainable fuels could complement Mazda’s Multi-Solution approach to achieving climate neutrality.

The Land’s End to John O’ Groats drive is just one example of Mazda’s commitment to demonstrate the role sustainable fuel can play in de-carbonising motoring. Since June 2023, the Mazda UK Heritage Fleet has been fuelled by SUSTAIN Classic 80 sustainable fuel, which is commercially available to the public. While in 2022, the Mazda MX-5 was the first-ever vehicle to drive 1,000 miles across the UK and lap a circuit in each home nation powered by sustainable fuel.

Commenting on Mazda’s latest sustainable fuel achievement, Jeremy Thomson, Managing Director at Mazda Motors UK, said: “the MX-5 is Mazda’s brand icon and it embodies all that is great about our products. Mazda’s unceasing commitment to refining the vehicle over its 35-year history has always focused on its core mission of delivering driver engagement and fun from behind the wheel. It’s great that it was a quartet of MX-5s that became the first cars to drive this famous route using sustainable fuel, as it’s always been a sports car that delivers efficiency through its lightweight and compact design. Furthermore, it’s highly appropriate that a car famous for driver fun has highlighted the part sustainable fuel can have in de-carboninsing classic motoring in the future”.

He continues, “Mazda is committed to reducing CO₂ emissions from every car and believes that all options available must be used to achieve climate neutrality. In the future through Mazda’s SKYACTIV Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture, continued electrification will go hand in hand with the development of advanced internal combustion engine technology. While, with the wide use of Mazda M Hybrid mild-hybrid, the all-electric Mazda MX-30, the unique Mazda MX-30 R-EV parallel hybrid, the self-charging hybrid Mazda2 Hybrid and the plug-in hybrid Mazda CX-60 PHEV, across Mazda’s current range this multi-solution approach is already clear to see”.

Adding, “in many regions of the world Mazda is investing in different projects and partnerships to promote the development and use of renewable fuels in cars. In Japan, Mazda is involved in several joint research projects and studies as part of an ongoing industry-academia-government collaboration to promote the wide-spread adoption of biofuels from microalgae growth and bio-diesel from used cooking oil, while in Europe, Mazda was the first OEM to join the eFuel Alliance”.

David Richardson, Director at SUSTAIN, said: “Achieving the first-ever drive from Land’s End to John O’ Groats on 100% sustainable biofuel is something we’re extremely proud of.  It’s particularly poignant to be teaming up with Mazda on the MX-5s 35th birthday. Sustainable fuel is a genuine way we can keep vehicles such as these on the road for many years to come, whilst reducing their environmental impact. Over the 1000-mile trip, we calculated that around 981kg of CO₂ was saved by using SUSTAIN in the four MX-5s to replace fossil fuels. Imagine the difference we could make if more motorists followed suit.

Adding, “Electric vehicles are increasing in numbers, but there are many millions of combustion engine cars on our roads – it surely makes sense to reduce the emissions from those vehicles if we can. Yet many people don’t realise it’s an option or know how sustainable fuel works. There are a lot of misunderstandings. We need support from those in power to enable sustainable fuel production to be scaled up, which could happen relatively quickly. There is no silver bullet solution to tackle the environmental impact of the automotive sector – we should be using all the available technologies to give us the best chance to make a real difference.”

The four classic Mazda MX-5s that drove from Land’s End to John O’ Groat’s will join six other MX-5s at CarFest 2024 as part of the event’s track show, where they will again be powered by sustainable fuel from SUSTAIN.