[DarkSunrise]

Couple of interesting comments from David Coleman (Mazda's engineering manager responsible for the 2016 US-spec Miata) about suspension tuning on Elise/BRZ vs. ND Miata. Good summary of the philosophical differences:

What makes these roads important?

DC: There are just hundreds and hundreds of miles of the most dynamic twisty roads up here [north of Los Angeles]. But these are incredibly good test roads because they are not only twisty, they're bumpy and uneven and upset the car, and there are all sorts of complicated transitions. You have to have a car dialed-in really well for it to do well on roads this complex.

This is a really good second- or third-gear car. That's the magic of it. You can have a lot of fun without going that fast. This road we're on now [Little Tujunga Canyon Road] was really to secure this car's position as a Miata. This is the kind of road where Miatas have always been good.

Where else did you go?

DC: We also went over to Angeles Crest Highway, which is a much higher-speed, flowing road, and that's where we tested a Lotus Elise and Subaru BRZ that we were benchmarking. Those cars don't do well on these supertight roads, but they really come into their own on those higher-speed sweepers, and that's where the older Miatas would kind of fall apart. We kept bouncing back and forth on those roads, trying to get this car to stay true to itself on tight stuff but play with those guys on the fast stuff.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...at-sports-car/