Convertibles always felt faster than closed cars to me, at the same speed; like taking a turn at 40 mph in a go-kart vs. regular car. i used to ride in my buddy's miata, and almost felt like we were riding in a motorcycle on 4 wheels. sometimes i felt even more in danger as we were so low and dwarfed by all the SUVs and trucks around us. when you're riding a motorcycle you're basically as high as you would be when standing up.

AMAZING ........ that back in the day (late 60's), I drove a 50 HP VW beetle over the Bavarian, Austrian, Italian, French and Swiss Alps and didn't NEED any more horsepower. I even survived the autobahns, with Mercedes, Porches and the like, flying bye in excess of 100 MPH.

;)


humfrz

Two schools of thoughts Miata and 86
 

This car handles like a dream fun to see the big and fast v8s slow down for turns when i just ease through them

What?

just in case you need to shit yourself from the scary roads..they are prepared

Actually, they are "underwear changing stations" ........... :D


humfrz - late again

Simple. It's because of the lack of midrange torque.

Take a look at these cars:

- Fiat 500 Abarth
- Fiesta ST
- Mini Cooper S

People don't complain nearly as much about those cars being slow. But in actuality they're all slower than the FR-S/BRZ.

What's the one thing they have in common? They're all turbocharged and make a lot more midrange torque.

It was the same with the S2000. Felt slower than its specs indicated. High-revving, low-displacement NA cars feel slow unless you wind them out (S2000, BRZ/FR-S, RX-8) or they are ultra-light relative to their displacement/torque (ND Miata 2.0L). Or a mix of the two (Elise).

Moral of the story: If you care what others think, get a turbocharged car.

Or stay away from looking at pretty graphs, dyno sheets and track times by different drivers on different days and on different tracks! Contrary to popular belief these only tell part of the story and can mean very little in actually driving a car. They are great tools for the bench racers though.

So your saying the answer to this car feeling slow is to drive it faster?

Would never have guessed :bonk:

:burnrubber: :burnrubber: :burnrubber:

Exactly. The car feels slower than it actually is because of the mid range torque dip.

That plus the fact that for a lot of people this may be their first manual car, or first car at all and they don't have the experience to really nail those redline upshifts. Then they get smoked by a minivan and they're like WTFFF

But once you're experienced with a manual transmission and you're using the recommended 93 octane, there is no way a minivan can smoke you.

And you don't even need to do a 4000 RPM clutch dump. You can give it semi-aggressive clutch slip at like 2500 RPM to get it moving off the line fairly quickly. Just let out the clutch enough where the tires are just about the squeal or maybe just chirp ever so slightly. Of course for someone just starting to learn manual, getting that sweet spot will probably be impossible.

those numbers are like the engineers measuring which car has the longest dip stick

totally irrelevant to the streets

I think I interpreted the Op's question a little differently.


Why does it seem the car enthusiast community in general, sneers at the twins due to the under powered perception while the Miata has a near reverent status as a small light sports car?

There have been over a million Miatas sold across the various generations. That's one long ass line of Miata apologists ;)

Because the Miata IS smaller and lighter than a twin ........and it's a roadster ...... ;)


humfrz