Miata/ MX-5

NC's are the heaviest too, iirc, and engine power does not increase at all. It remains somewhere between pathetic and laughable.

I was just illustrating how, against all odds, that shitbox put a smile on my face. The Italian sun and lake Trasimene might've helped, but the car is great.

The more you try and hate it, the better it becomes.

Softtops leak, user, that's a fact of life. I was just summing up stuff that ought to make the ride bad or even miserable.

Owner is neglecting it quite a bit, yeah. Which is understandable, given his mechanic background and the classic cars he restores.

>Is he even carrying a spare wheel in the trunk or is there no place left?
He is carrying both. There's about enough space left for two small bags of groceries, although my box of new shoes didn't fit yesterday. Nobody cares though, it's his perfect third car to do his lonely commute in.

That's a plus

To add to this: A lot of petrol cars in Italy have been converted to Autogas. Petrol is about 1.45, Autogas is 0.55 euros. You're only paying ~100 euros more in tax and insurance, but you quickly recoup those costs. Same goes for the ~1000 euro installation.

The MX-5 is basically perfect for him. They've got three cars (an original Beetle for their 2 kids, a Punto for mom, and his Mazda) and four motorcycles. He only has to commute 40km's, and it's all on his own, so that thing is cheap to run, and a lot of fun. If they need groceries, you use the passenger seat, or grab any of the other cars.

I'll be running on LPG myself, it's LPG in a tiny Miata that I hear for the first time. LPG may be more common than gasoline here in Poland lol.

they're great but very slow without a decent money and time investment into a turbo or whatever

that said, get an NB and drop 5 grand on that flying miata 2 kit and you get 250whp with the bits to hand;e even more, and it's easy as fuck to install

someone will say they can do a junkyard turbo build for $1000 but that requires a lot of turbo knowledge and trial and error

NA have terrible suspension, there's literally no reason to buy a NA unless you're fag who likes faggy cars with happy faces and muh pop ups.

They are the lightest Miata chassis available though.

What's so bad about their suspension? Bad geometry, stock springs, swaybars? Can it be fixed?

The NA suspension is fine.You have a lot of options to upgrade from stock if you want to anyway. The chassis is the floppiest of the bunch tho.

this is objectively the least correct post in this thread

Beat me to it.

you are fucking retarded and never driven an NA in it's other way around

why the fuck do you think people claim they handle so well? protip: good suspension setup is one of the most important factor which decides how well the car handles

also, it's double wishbone on the front and back, you have to actually try to make it bad

>The chassis is the floppiest of the bunch tho.

easy to make it as stiff as s2k
adds about 70-80kg of weight though

...

...

Which will be lighter, a stiffened NA, or a stock NB, and which would be stiffest?

a stiffened NA would be stiffer and remain lighter

technically NB has the potential to end up even more rigid

however, too much stiffness is also bad
s2k is pretty much the golden standard which is easily attainable in both NA and NB

>assmad miata fangirls
what's even more funny is you thinking stock miatas handle well

it actually does
if you have any proof it doesn't go ahead
your opinion "it's shit" isn't a proof

>ND's break gesrboxes.
Have you tried not dumping the clutch at every stop light?

Once you've caged a car, the stiffness of the unibody is no longer relevant.

>Once you've added a lot of weight to a purposely lightweight car, it's no longer light, but it sure is stiff!
Ftfy

>Have you tried not dumping the clutch at every stop light?
Wait. You can do that?

My NC was the equivalent of $5900 which isn't expensive. 2.0 and folding hardtop.

NC 2.0 has the highest power to weight of all except NDs (obviously we're talking stock here)

>yfw automatic NDs are more reliable than manuels
purists BTFO

Are there actually people out there that believe the NA looks better than the NB? I mean, I hope you're at least talking about the NB1. Even base model NB2s are vastly superior in appearance.

Also for future reference, the NB has a stiffer chasis, better suspension and brake components, and so many more things.

The NC doesn't boast the highest power to weight ratio. The Mazdaspeed NB actually holds that title. While the Mazdaspeed has a few cons, the pros will outweigh it. Being an owner of an MSM I may be slightly prejudiced, but I'll list some pros and cons.

Pros:
>No need to upgrade suspension.
>No need for further chassis bracing unless you want to go full race car mode.
>6 speed manual transmission is stronger than the 5 speed
>Newer LSD
>Easily and cheaply upgraded for substantial HP gains (2K gets you the FMII Little Enchilada kit which will put you around 230 WHP)
>Improved steering dynamics to compensate for larger wheels (I'll touch on that later..)
>Interior much nicer than earlier models. Red trimmed seats, Bose sound system isn't all that bad.

Cons
>Wheels need to be upgraded almost immediately. Too heavy, too large. They increase the turning radius by a pretty big amount. Considering 15x8s will run you maybe $400-500 for a lightweight set, this isn't a big issue.
>Gearing which can be fixed, and depending on what you are doing is not a bad thing. 1st is a useless granny gear which can hardly be used in a parking lot.
>Very tedious power band. Power is only available in a VERY specific range because of limitations due to the ECU mostly and at most the turbo size. The ECU can be "tricked" with replaced sensors through the FM kit to basically allow for more torque and HP availability 500RPM sooner.

Anyways, it isn't a perfect car, but better than the NA? I haven't met anyone that says it isn't. I have NA drivers practically begging to drive mine, considering it is also somewhat a rarity.

Although the miatas arent fast like your typical muscle car they are a hell of alot of funner to mess around with. I say buy one, and if you really need more power later on just a slap a turbo on it

>Are there actually people out there that believe the NA looks better than the NB? I mean, I hope you're at least talking about the NB1. Even base model NB2s are vastly superior in appearance.

what a surprise, people like different things, would you believe that?
it's hard to say no to that happy face, meanwhile nb is just a run of the mill sport car and in my opinion looks way worse than cars like MR2

>6 speed manual transmission is stronger than the 5 speed
NA also had 6 speed

>Newer LSD
that's actually a con
luckily, NB also had older torsen available
super fuji lsd is shit and has documented instances of literally falling apart for no reason, meanwhile torsen is unbreakable

the rest is correct

>Anyways, it isn't a perfect car, but better than the NA? I haven't met anyone that says it isn't. I have NA drivers practically begging to drive mine, considering it is also somewhat a rarity.

I've driven quite a few NA that were faster and handled better than NBs, i also had a chance to drive the non turbo MS NB and it's nothing special, for a price of mazdaspeed version you could get basic NB and mod it to handle better than it.

ps. this is anecdotal evidence so it's fucking pointless. the thing is, so is yours.

>Are there actually people out there that believe the NA looks better than the NB?
Yes, because some people like the popups and the arguably simpler shapes of the NA. Of course, as far as performance goes the NB is miles ahead.

After today, however, I can say I even like the NB, which was always the ugly one IMO. From the driver seat, looks don't matter.

>the MSM isn't worth the premium

This is correct. Most MSM owners replace all the Mazdaspeed turbo parts with Flyin Miata or something else aftermarket. Or yeah, just get a cheap base model and turbo it.

I sold my NA because it became too small for my purposes and I didn't feel safe in it after I saw my friend wreck a much newer, safer car that still put him in the hospital.

People always make boosting a car seem so much easier than it is.

Assuming you find a vehicle in perfect mechanical condition, which isn't impossible or hard, you then order several thousand dollars of parts with the possibility of breaking things a long the way. Most people who have to ask whether they should turbo or not will not end up doing it because of the cost and risk involved.

I really wish it was "just slap a turbo on it and be done", but when you really start digging into the knowledge behind it, you find so many circumstances that can prevent or slow you down in the process if installation..

I'd say in the end, 9K for an MSM is cheaper than buying an NA for 4K with the sole intention of boosting it later.

>just slap a turbo on it and be done

with kits like FM it kinda is
of course that's really simplifying it, but if the engine is healthy pretty much all you need is a common sense and enough dedication to learn how to do it
...and the right tools of course
still, miata engines are almost prepared for it from the factory, they even have an oil outlet

you can get good condition NA for cheaper than 4k, but let's assume it cost this much
flyin miata kit costs ~5k which ups the price to 9k

sure it wouldn't look like a good deal if you could simply get the msm already turboed for 9k (i'm kinda doubting such unicorns are this cheap, but whatever)
However, with FMII turbo kit produces not only 180hp like msm, but at least 250hp and that's a considerable difference
and you also get a better ECU that doesn't fuck up with the power band