Two schools of thoughts Miata and 86
 

Why is the Miata less powerful but every thinks is fast, cool quick fun spirited, great handling and the list goes on

Talk to anyone about the FRS or BRZ, THAT CAR IS TO SLOW. Why aren't fun cool fast quick, spirited great handling and the list goes on. We know we are but the consensus is SLOW and no one looks past it.

I've never thought the Miata was fast or quick, excluding the Mazda speed. I think its because when it came out it was fast and quick, but today you have to live up to pseudo race cars to be fast.

I still would like to drive one and if my wife gets her way I may lol. But having two impractical sportscars would suck if we didn't have a utility vehicle

The 86 is slow. The Miata (ND) is quicker. They're both good cars. The 86 has a fixed roof and a "back seat" with a transmission that doesn't blow up.

because miata owners/fans/enthusiast are usually mature adults...the 86 attracts dumb ass kids that think the ford mustang v6 their mommy&daddy bought is the best car in the world because it's so fast in a straight line ..."mine does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds...your car is slow as crap"

What he said... plus those dumb kids think going fast in a straight line is COOL. Not that you can take a corner at 30-40mph and it can break loose and that just passing and driving around this car makes you smile....


But not having driven a Miata... I am not sure why some would say that about a Miata(being fast or fun). Watch fresh off the boat.... :) Hopefully someone gets that. Anyway- I have gotten the same thing when I mention I bought a frs. Man that needs some more power... I said no not really for my purposes. I have handed my keys over to some Mercedes benz guys and had them take it for a spin, changes their minds after driving it around.

It is very different. I have an MR2 Spyder and have driven Miatas. They feel faster then they are imo. I can take most roads/turns at higher speeds in the FRS even thoigh it feels slower.

There is no way to duplicate lightness. Simple as that. It's what leaves me torn about keeping or selling the spyder

A mazdaspeed Miata is pretty slow too.... buuuttt they're the easiest to make fun. Flyin' Miata has kits to make 300+ WHP for reasonable prices.


A lot of the cars this forum dogs on for being "straight line" vehicles can take corners too.

I always love the argument our cars need 300+ horse power. People always chant on about how it needs that much. But it seems absurd to try and explain that something like that would no longer be a "cheap fun car" and instead make it an exotic fast and expensive car. It boggles my mind why people don't understand that. It's a $26k car for god sake!
Though I'd probably buy one with a factory turbo for $40k, but then it would be limited to those who would/ could buy it. And again, it wouldn't be competing with cars like the miata. It would be competing directly with something like the Porsche 718.

Why is the Miata less powerful but every thinks is fast, cool quick fun spirited, great handling and the list goes on


First of all, nobody thinks the Miata, at least any factory-stock Miata except the MSM, is fast or quick. They are cool in general because they are convertibles and for the motorheads they are cool because they are RWD two seater convertibles. And you can't deny they are fun; I can't even deny they are fun and I don't like convertibles. And the handling is great.


Having said that, the Twins are everything Miatas are except for the drop top.


I have a 10th Anniversary Model (1999) Miata and to me, they are equals in terms of driving fun/dynamics although the Twins are, of course, quieter and more rigid.

sometimes after i'm done taking a turn at the top of 2nd or 3rd or 4th, i think to myself that i would never get rid of this car for something faster. You drive faster cars harder and you are going like 10000000 kmph over the speed limit.

Well said sir. I am way past the 'FR-S / BRZ are slow' thing. It's just laughable to me. My previous car was quicker in the straights, but I don't care. Straight line speed has nothing to do with this platform, and I'm having STUPID amounts of fun just driving it.

Exactly. This car keeps things fun and helps you stay out of trouble at the same time.

I understand now how this forum got to 2.5 million posts. People just keep saying/discussing the same few things over and over again ;)

questions remain the same and so do the answers

The ND posts a quicker 0-60 because of its tires. On the same tires, the 86 would be just as quick if not a bit quicker.

In all honestly, these cars do need more power stock. At least 50whp MINIMUM.

i'd say more torque would be nice at a lower rpm rather than horsepower

That wouldn't be bad either. Tired of having to downshift constantly when I was N/A.

OP:

You need to stop tormenting yourself and just get a faster car.

It's okay. We'll forgive you.

Spend less time on the internet, or get better irl friends.

or better don't have any friends at all..all they do is ride your co-tails and leech off of you

Before my FR-S, I had a 2006 (NC) Miata and drove it for 8 years and 88,000 touring miles (mostly top down).

To me, the miata and FR-S drive about the same.

The Miata has the top down dimension, while the FR-S has more cargo space and is quieter (because coupe).

Even after 16,000 miles and 3 years, I cannot feel as "confident" driving the FR-S, as I did driving the Miata, on twisty mountain roads. Maybe that's because the Miata I had did not have TC or ESC nor a limited slip differential so when it started to "go off center", I knew exactly what to do and it did exactly what I expected.

Then again, maybe it's just because I'm older and mrs humfrz keeps commenting "I just know I'm going to die it this car someday" ...... :iono:

Be damned the gravel road and no guardrails, at 14,000 feet ........ my Miata was on rails ........ :happyanim:


humfrz

I always enjoy the common statement that "I want/it should have 300HP". It seems like such a precise number to chose. So many just look at that number and have no clue how that translates to the actual vehicle. Sure there are guys that may want that and understand the ramifications of almost doubling the actual HP of the car but I would bet the majority do not. At least weekly we read about somebody here losing the car with stock power and just the nanny turned off. A couple of times a month we read about people crashing their cars on stock power alone. I can not even begin to imagine the carnage that would result if these things came with much more HP than they do. We could probably surpass the Mustang as king of the crash meme!



Why? What do they "need" it for? I can see by the pic in your sig line that perhaps you could want more but why does the car in general "need" more? For every person that tracks or races one of these there are probably 1,000 that just drive it as a car and would be completely unable to deal with even an extra 50HP every time it rained or snowed.


Now, if these were AWD I would totally agree that they would "need" more but they are not and as a RWD there is plenty to get the job done for the majority of the driving public.

Two schools of thoughts Miata and 86
 

When will this my car needs more power or my car etc is not fast enough ever end. Just FYI the original AE86 had 112 HP and yet I never heard those guys complaining. Mods close this silly OP.


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I think part of the reason this car gets so much flack is due to the aggressive styling of the car. Up until the ND, the Miata has always been a cute car. Even the original AE86 was pretty tame looking.

The 86/BRZ look faster and more expensive than they really are. Sometimes I wish this car was less obvious.

that and Off Topic :bonk:

Even Tada-San has mentioned it so many times and yet spec sheet people never get it the car is suppose to be fun to drive, doesn't cost a fortune to maintain and can still be daily driven the heck out of it and the car gets it done. Drop mic


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that's the best part...we look fast so if we drive slow that shows people we have nothing to prove and we must be really fast but we are showing restraint haha

That. So much that.

Roads scary enough they need to put Portapotties in the middle of them apparently.

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?