Rocketeer creates the MX-5 that Mazda never made. In two different 1990s models it had the ingredients. It had the brilliant MX-5, the most popular roadster the world has ever seen, and in 1991 it released the MX-3, a 2+2 sports car with a little V6 in the front.
At no point did they put two and two together.
Enter Rocketeer. Instead of using the world’s smallest mass-produced V6, the buzzy 130bhp 1.8-litre found in the MX-3, Rocketeer lean on the all-aluminium Duratec-based Jaguar-tweaked and Basset Down Balancing refined AJ30 V6. Three chunky litres give the MX-5 something it’s never had before, a wide powerband and plenty of torque, but without adding any extra weight – thus maintaining the original cars’ benchmark handling characteristics.
Add a new subframe, exhaust and soundtrack, lightweight flywheel, machined throttle bodies and more come together for a critically acclaimed restomod, available as a Mk1, Mk2 or Mk3 MX-5.
The firm was founded in 2013 by Bruce Southey, offering conversion kits from a one-off idea that was too good not to develop further. Within a decade Bruce had gone all in, a base was created and more than 150 Rocketeer MX-V6s are in the wild around the world.
Hagerty’s Henry Catchpole labelled the car something of a sweet spot, and every bit as good as you think it is – see why at the Scramble as part of the Reboots & Restomods display at the sold-out Scramble on Sunday 5 October.