by Vijay Pattni

Buying a birthday gift for a 20-year old is easy – a bottle of booze, a bib and the number for a cab.

Mazda decided to play it differently however by revealing this topless beauty: the Mazda MX-5 Superlight concept.

Celebrating 20 years since the original MX-5 was launched and looking like a budget SLR Stirling Moss edition, Mazda wanted to strip back the MX-5’s (small) excesses to create “a pure, uncompromising two-seat sportscar designed to be affordable to just about anyone”.

Gallery: click below to view images of the Mazda MX-5 Superlight at Frankfurt

The MX-5 Superlight at Frankfurt is the world’s only version – it’s fully drivable but Mazda says there are no plans to put it into volume production.

Which is a shame because here at Frankfurt it looks fantastic – showgoers looked mighty impressed from where we were standing.

The Superlight packs a 1.8-litre “cultivated and frugal” petrol engine developing just over 120bhp and 123lb/ft of pulling power.

While the power output might not send the heart racing, the Superlight concept’s slim-fast physique of just 995kgs means a 0-62mph time of 8.9 seconds – while still returning 44.8mpg on the combined cycle.

Mazda reckons the MX-5 Superlight concept is the purest driving machine by removing stuff “which is not vital to driving”. So out go the windscreen, door handles and side windows.

The designers stuck with this ‘driving purity’ theme inside too, by fitting two lightweight carbon-fibre racing seats and a lightweight plastic/fibreglass dashboard.

Oh, and there’s no air-conditioning and only very small fans – Mazda reckons the air circulation when accelerating is more than enough to keep you cool.

Elsewhere, you get 17-inch alloy wheels, monster 300mm ventilated brakes and Bilstein dampers.

While it won’t ever see the light of day, we’re happy Mazda has got its thinking cap firmly back on again – and can’t wait to see what they’ll do with the next-gen MX-5…

Want an MX-5 with some more glass and a roof? We've got more than 1,500 used Mazda MX-5s

Video: Mazda has a habit of building bonkers concepts - including the Mazda Furai