Back in August of 2017, Mazda announced it would start a factory restoration program for its famous MX-5 roadster. Despite the restorations only being open to cars located in Japan, Mazda received over 600 applications by the end of last year. Here is its first finished product. It's a stunner.

The car is a 1992 V-Special edition model finished in British Racing Green over tan leather, owned by a retired tomato farmer named Keiji Nishimoto. He's owned the car since new, enjoying it on road trips all over Japan with his wife for 26 years straight. He was already planning on having the car restored, but when he learned about Mazda's factory restoration program, he applied.

The car has been brought back to brand new factory specs, and looks like it just rolled off the assembly line in the early 1990s. The car is equipped with a color-matching hardtop, a Nardi wood steering wheel, a front strut tower bar, and a limited-slip differential. Being a 1992 model, it sports the smaller 1.6-liter inline-four. Of course, because it was sold new in Japan, it has a right-hand drive layout.

Nishimoto taking a look inside his newly restored car for the first time. Mazda

The restoration team was nice enough to give Nishimoto a tour of his new car, as well as their facilities. When asked what he plans on doing with the newly restored MX-5, his answer was simple.

“I plan to drive it for another 25 years," Nishimoto said.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Mazda

For now, it seems the program is still only available for cars in Japan. But considering the amount of original Miatas still on the road everywhere else in the world, I hope Mazda will consider opening its restoration program to the rest of us. (And no, this isn't because I recently bought a Miata that desperately needs a restoration. I swear.)

This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io