Brass monkeys take MX-5 to the top

The cold is a killer. It is also unpleasant, and in the wonderful Mazda MX-5, a car that offers the best of both worlds, it is unnecessary.

This simple fact is lost on the otherwise venerable MX-5 Car Club of NSW, which is coalescing around us at 5am, roadside, in Eastern Creek. The 2024 Brass Monkey Charity Run is about to begin, and it is a crisp three degrees, and the members of the MX-5 Club of NSW appear to be mostly mad.

 

 

“Is this event crazy? Oh, yes!” says Andrew Lord, a member of the club who is filling in for event organiser and former Club Captain Mike Soulos, who’s at home in bed with Covid, or possibly just a strong case of sanity.

“It’s all about the spirit of adventure,” says Andrew. “You know, getting up early, having the roof down at minus -1°C – it’s really fun. There’s something about being in convoy, heading west, all in the same vehicles, seeing the looks from other drivers. It’s like walking to the football in a group, all in your supporter jerseys.

“We love the camaraderie.”

 

 

Engines running, tops come down - an event tradition - and we roll out. Scores of MX-5s strung along the Great Western Highway, beaded with chill water and iridescent below streetlights. Ski wear is advisedly popular.

We are headed to Bathurst, where you can count the degrees in the BOM’s predicted maximum daily temperature on one hand, even if you’ve done a Brass Monkey before and lost a digit to frostbite.

 

 

We’ll cross the Blue Mountains on the way, where it is so cold that there is black ice, and birds are falling frozen from the sky, shattering on the road like wine glasses, and anyone leaving the house for any reason knows how Captain Oates felt when he told Scott of the Antarctic that he was just stepping outside and might be some time.

As the world’s best-selling roadster, ever, the MX-5’s success is based on more than one thing. And it’s not just the drop top. Its rear-wheel punchiness and inherent fun-factor is built for bends, but it’s also a surprisingly fine grand tourer.

 

 

Andrew was right. As we scrape the ceiling and purr towards the plains, our Aero Grey Metallic MX-5 GT RS does indeed attract attention from other drivers.

Many of them are club members. Pleading ignorance, we’d begun the run by ignoring the Brass Monkey’s roof-down credo.

There is probably a German word to describe the feeling of peer pressure from people we don’t know, but if our non-compliance irritated fellow MX-fivers, it was at least hard to tell. Other participants’ faces were typically frozen, maybe literally, into the rictus of a smile; the driver of one attractive, young, and very tall couple, Ben and Hannah, was wearing a full bright orange balaclava.

“For half the run I just had my hat on, and my ears were freezing,” Ben told us later. “Then I remembered I had this in the glove box.”

Organisers stress that the Brass Money is not a cannonball run; speed is not the point. Whether this began as a frigid concession to black ice and non-compatibility of gear sticks and Gore-Tex mittens is a mystery, but it suits the roads, which are highway smooth rather than twisty.

We did not crack and pull over to put the top down in solidarity until the sun rose, an hour from the finish. “No judgement!” Andrew would tell us, smiling (unconvincingly).

This drew some ribbing as we stopped for a hot breakfast, taken at the Bathurst RSL.

The contrast between our cosseted relative comfort, and that of Mal, parked beside us in his roll-bar-fitted, non-air-conditioned MX-5 track car, was extreme.

“I think that’s a $300 fine!” he laughed, waggling a jovial finger as the icicles in his eyebrows clinked merrily, like windchimes. “But we’ll forgive you. We’re a forgiving bunch! Just don’t do it again.”

Forgiving, and numerous.

There was Grant, who was preparing for the Northern Territory Bash in his custom modded ‘MX-5 Safari’ - featuring a significant lift job, a dust-snorkel atop the A-pillar, four affixed Max-Trax 4WD recovery boards, and knobbly off-road tyres.

 

 

Then there was Keith, who fell in love with the brand as a youth, and whose entire family now drives Mazdas – including his jet-fighter pilot sons, whom he texts as we head over to cruise the famous Mount Panorama circuit at legal speeds.

There was Lyn, who wore her MX-5 club name badge on the forehead flap of her trapper hat, and dapper gents in mustard-toned sartorial outfits, and couples, and old friends, and new acquaintances, and sons in airmen’s goggles.

 

 

Four generations of the world’s finest top-optional driver’s car have developed a fanbase that’s as passionate as it is diverse. But passion is easily mistaken for madness.

At 5am, in the dark, while stamping one’s feet like a Siberian watch house guard, the Brass Monkey seems objectively mad. It’s not. Or not entirely mad, anyway. But seat heaters help. As does the warm afterglow of arrival.

 

 

“Mike missed this one,” says Andrew. “He’ll be grateful for a warm bed and a hot drink this morning. But you bet he’ll be back next year.”

The cold is a killer. The MX-5 is an icon. They’re both great at bringing people together.

 

 

For more information of the MX-5 Club of NSW, the iconic Brass Monkey Run and upcoming club events, visit https://nsw.mx5.com.au/about-us.