At first I thought it was impossible, then I found out about Honda's VFR1200... a 1.2L V4 that claims 172 at the crank:

http://driving.ca/honda/vfr1200/revi...onda-vfr1200-2

I have a hunch the specific output will drop once tuned to meet emissions but they should be able to hit your benchmark rather easily if they don't constrain the displacement and are willing to demand the owner take care of the car.

But they haven't done a full up sporting chassis in well over a decade.

Honda/Mazda collaboration to produce a VX-4 would be ridiculous and great regardless of outcome.

Why they cant produce a sport car and put a damn skyactive engine on it?
I tought mazda will continue the legacy, they gave hope when
the mazda furai was a concept

they did

Well a motorcycle makes a ton of power because they can have high rev limits, cats that might as well not be there, and mufflers that don't do much either.

I believe the key to high power these days (other than having a good engine itself) is being able to chuck the precats and use retarded ignition to heat the cat. Having proper performance headers does a lot for extracting that last 10%. Mazda seems to have figured out how to do this successfully with the Skyactiv engines with 2014 emissions standards, so we can only hope that they decide to capitalize on this with a high revver.

Subaru can get 200hp from 2L with a compromised header so 270hp is not out of the question at all. Actually, Porsche can get over 430hp out of their 3.8L, 115hp/L!

You seem to be confusing my post about a hypothetical V4 sports car with reality.

Hm? I meant to point out that the Skyactiv engines have long headers.

Ducati can get 205 hp from 1.2L with a warranty and pass emissions. Vw (who owns ducati)wants to put the engine in a car.
The 1.4l hayabusa engine from the early 2000s has routinely been pushed past 450whp with a small turbo. Also put into small cars. Rotary is dead sadly.

Motorcycle emissions regulations and passanger vehicle emission regulations are different.

Because there are 20x more passanger vehicles on the road than motorcycles. Thus, motorcycles have less restrictions on emissions.

Put one of those engines in a passenger vehicle, and suddenly it won't pass regulations.

True, didn't think of that. Though they are changing rapidly.

They didn't. It is a roadster, not a coupé. Until the MX-5 doesn't have a Coupé variant - not heavy hard-top Roadster - it'll never be considered as a sports car (at least by me).

That's pretty ignorant considering it's modeled after the Lotus Elan, which is pretty much the very definition of a classic sports car.

Miatas may be slow, but they're definitely sports cars.

Considering how many are winning in autox and how popular the miata spec class was I'd say it's a sports car.

Whoa.. I thought I had seen it all but someone says the Miata isn't a sports car? Uh.. it's kind of the sports car. The answer to 9 out of 10 questions is Miata isn't it?

Rhetorical because the answer to that question is: Miata.