Most people accept that an MGB is a classic car.

So is an original-shape Lotus Elan. At what point, though, did they become so? They appeared in the classic-car press when as little as ten years old, on which basis a Mazda MX-5 Mk1 should be right at home in Octane now.

Gasp! Shudder! It’s too new, and it’s Japanese! But you need to factor in the fact that as we get older, time passes more quickly. The car you see here is 20 years old. To snare your interest further, it has 222bhp and will scorch to 60mph in under six seconds.

Even better, it’s a 20th-anniversary remake of something rather wonderful. Shortly after the MX-5 was launched, Mazda UK commissioned Brodie Brittain Racing to create a turbo kit easily fitted by dealers and gentle enough not to scupper the warranty. It had 150bhp, a useful increase on the 1.6-litre engine’s standard 115, and Mazda sold lots of them. Now BBR is doing it all over again.

Time moves on, however, especially with electronics. BBR still uses its own ‘Interceptor’ ECU to fool the standard item into delivering the fuel and ignition settings the turbo engine requires, but today’s version is much smaller and cleverer. The mechanical part has changed too, with a Garrett GT25 twin-scroll, ball-race turbocharger instead of the old T25, mounted on a new manifold with split downpipes. And the intercooler now sits ahead of the radiator, which involves the bumper-dismantling Mazda’s dealers wanted to avoid back in the day.

Result? Today’s kit can run higher boost – up to 0.6bar – while keeping the engine internals standard. The boost is more progressively delivered, so there’s a crisp build-up of torque instead of the pause-and-whoosh of the original BBR conversion. This time, the MX-5’s innate throttle crispness stays intact.

It’s fabulous fun. Full boost isn’t unleashed until 4000rpm, after which there is very little you can’t overtake. Third-gear wheelspin is yours if the road is slippery, and seldom was a car born to such easily-metered powerslides. It’s as if the MX-5 was always meant to be this way. You can have the kit fitted for £4995, buy it to fit yourself for £3995 or – best of all, perhaps – pay £7500 to BBR for a rust-free, refurbished, resprayed MX-5 complete with turbo conversion. That’s Elan Sprint entertainment at a third of the cost. Now, just watch those MX-5 Mk1 prices rise…