By Dylan Campbell · Photos by Alastair Brook

The sixty-something lady looks amused to see a Mazda MX-5 pull into the motel carpark – the roof down, the temperature about nine degrees. Around Tasmania’s West Coast in winter, you almost need a four-wheel-drive with a brooding bull bar, by law. “You brought that, at this time of year, to here?” She chuckles. I’m dressed like I’m supposed to be joining Shackleton to Antarctica, but took a wrong turn. I mumble something about driving roads and she gestures towards the sky, a shade of cheerless with some dabs of bleak. “Well, welcome to the ‘Wet’ Coast.”

It’s the first of many such interactions with bemused locals in the drizzled badlands of Australia’s island state. But for those who love driving, this is god’s country. With an MX-5 Roadster GT RS, I’ve come on the first day of winter in the hope of having some of the West Coast’s many beguiling roads all to myself.

Crossing Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania

The Spirit of Tasmania makes it easy to escape on a shotgun driving trip overnight from Melbourne, and after arriving in Devonport, the plan is to skirt the northern coast west to Burnie, then turn south and put myself in the epicentre of Aussie driving nirvana. My Snowflake White Roadster’s fabric roof should offer all the defence needed against the elements, but I expect it to be mostly stowed.

The GT RS’s Bilstein dampers and Brembo brakes give a sense that I’m coming prepared, while the 2.0-litre naturally aspirated engine, and six-speed manual gearbox, should hopefully appease the driving gods. (To bring an EV could invite smite.)

Roof down on the Bass Highway to Burnie

It’s a frosty early morning in Devonport, and my road trip starts as the MX-5’s front tyres dip off the ferry’s metal offloading ramp, kissing Tassie bitumen for the first time. I immediately head west up the Bass Highway, Bass Strait shimmering like a mirrorball under the rising winter sun.

Can you drive an MX-5 with the roof down in winter?

The MX-5 works perfectly with the top down even in single-digit temperatures – with the windows up, the interior is protected from most of the wind even at 100km/h, while the air vents are right where your hands go on the steering wheel. The seat heaters, I can report, are hotter than a Trumpian temper.

Discover another winter MX-5 adventure: Brass monkeys take MX-5 to the top

Hellyer Gorge: a Targa Tasmania warm-up

Turning south at Burnie for the island’s interior, it’s not long before coastal civilisation gives way to a landscape of damp eucalypt woodland, and the road starts bunching up in the best possible way. The first driving road of the trip is Hellyer Gorge, about 19km of winding road descending to the Hellyer River before wriggling back up and out again. It’s the perfect warm-up for the MX-5, with lots of second-to-third-back-to-second-gear corner sequences, tipping in gently on wet roads, carving through dense undergrowth.

What is Targa Tasmania?

Many readers will know Hellyer Gorge from Targa Tasmania, the self-titled “ultimate tarmac rally” inaugurated in 1992. Inspired by the legendary Targa Florio road race that took part in Sicily last century, today Targa Tasmania spans more than 2000km across 35 closed sections of road – including this one. And today I feel like I have it all to myself.

The A10 to Queenstown: a bitumen rollercoaster (Tullah, Rosebery)

After Hellyer Gorge the road straightens back out but if you love driving, you are now in a great hub with spokes of driving bliss emanating in almost every direction. Panning across this area on Google Maps is guaranteed to overwhelm.

I push on towards Queenstown, the West Coast’s southernmost centre about an hour further. After you pass Tullah, the map might tell you to turn right on the B28, but stay on the A10 for the ensuing 33km through Rosebery, undulating up and down and left and right, like a great bitumen rollercoaster. Even though the roads are doused in Tasmanian sky, I’m sure the MX-5 would be grinning widely if it could. At just 1735mm wide, the little Mazda is narrow enough that you can carve a shallow racing line through most corners, still well within your lane. At 1036kg (the GT RS is actually the lightest 2.0-litre ND, owing partly to the forged BBS wheels) the MX-5 feels featherlight over even the biggest mid-corner bumps, while the Bilstein dampers add another degree of control.

Queenstown and the 99 Bends

The MX-5’s final destination is Queenstown and much has been written about the all-encompassing desolation of the surrounding hillside.  

Why are Queenstown's hills bare?

If you’re not familiar, in the 1800s, most of the vegetation was fed into furnaces for copper smelting, then the largest local industry. The smelters billowed vast quantities of toxic gas into the local ecosystem and, after acid rain and erosion, 100 years or more later, most of the woodland can’t grow back.

Out of Queenstown winds the 99 Bends, perhaps the best-known Targa Tasmania road. Rising up out of the town and cut into the disfigured rocky landscape, when I arrive, the driving gods have been merciful, and it’s dry. The MX-5 feels made for this, the 2.0-litre racing to its 7500rpm redline, again and again, with a peppy four-cylinder engine note. The gearbox is as satisfyingly mechanical as ever, the Brembos have great bite and I’m not sure I’ve ever driven a car that’s easier to heel-toe.

Track Mode, and a drenched drive home

For experienced drivers, Track Mode is also a boon. The 135kW 2.0-litre MX-5 has just enough power (and a mechanical limited-slip differential) to tweak the rear axle out of tighter corners even in the dry. And there are plenty of opportunities for that on this road, even if there aren’t actually 99 corners on the 99 Bends. Not unless you turn around at each end a few times, which, if you’ve come all this way, you may as well – it’s what its namers must have intended.

The next day, I have a two-hour drive back to Devonport for the return voyage to Melbourne. Suddenly it starts to pitter patter, and then there’s a deluge like the sea has conspired with the heavens to invade the land. While you can drive an MX-5 for a surprising while with the roof down in moderate rain, without getting too wet, this time in the 10 seconds or so it takes to find somewhere safe to pull over, I’m drenched. But after the last day or so, I couldn’t care less. Welcome to the Wet Coast.

More from Tasmania: read the eyes have it for Tassie scallop fiesta in Mazda CX-5.

Ready to feel the thrill of pure driving for yourself? Book a test drive in the Mazda MX-5 and find your nearest dealer.

Frequently Asked Questions