It’s funny to see how our beloved cars were reviewed when new. In the present we think of the Miata as standing heads and shoulders above rival sport compacts of the era. Cars like the EP Honda Civic Si, Ford Focus SVT, and Dodge Neon SRT-4 are barely an afterthought. But in 2004 Mazda was trying to toughen up the Miata’s cutesy image and put down solid dyno figures to compete, so the put a turbo on the NB.
Motorweek‘s review of the Mazdaspeed MX-5 captured the zeitgeist perfectly. The Miata singlehandedly resurrected the traditional sports car — two seats, rear-wheel-drive, open top — when it came out in 1989. But since then a new generation had been raised on front-wheel-drive performance cars and tuning them for big horsepower numbers.
Like it or not, a lot of car buyers base their decisions on spec sheets alone, so Mazda had to come up with some impressive digits for the Miata. Turning to the Mazdaspeed (RIP) brand, they developed a turbocharged Miata putting out 178 horsepower and 166 lb-ft of torque with the help of an intercooler and 7.5 pounds of boost. As John Davis notes, that’s 25 percent more power and one-third more torque.
Mazda also dropped the ride height by 7 mm, retuned the suspension with siffer springs and thicker sway bars. The Mazdaspeed MX-5 also got a thin spoiler and red stitching throughout the interior to distinguish it visually.Best of all are some of the era-specific upgrades, like smoked headlights. These days ever performance trim boasts about Rays or BBS wheels, but in 2004 Mazda went with 17-inchers made by Racing Hart.
The resulting car still weighed in at a feathery 2529 pounds and hit 60 mph from a standstill in 7.1 seconds in Motorweek testing. They also praised its handling and brakes, which were described as having minimal pedal travel yet not touchy and easy to modulate.
At $26,020 the Mazdaspeed MX-5 cost $3,600 more than a regular NB, but Motorweek points out that it was still over $8,000 les than a BMW Z4 2.5i with comparable performance. In the end they concluded that although many cars are technically faster, few are more fun. The Mazdaspeed MX-5 should’ve sold like hotcakes, but they’re relatively rare in the present. Why didn’t we listen?
Might it just be the introduction of it towards the tail end of NB cycle not creating enough interest? Also, I know the Evo and WRX were in the limelight at that time. I was wrapping up grad school in 2005 and saw a mazdaspeed at the local dealer; the salesman was beyond bored and let me go on a decent test drive. The car absolutely ripped and was so easy to tail out; I definitely notice 178 horsepower vs my NA’s 133hp.
Another thing could be that the Miata unfortunately carried the stereotype of “gay” among ignorant people. Sure, there were many people who knew the car for its best kept secrets, but it just didn’t hv that overall popularity like the Civics and Integras. I know I had a few ignorant coworkers share their opinion when I first bought mine.
Probably a blessing in disguise, as it’s great to hv exclusivity.
You write about “a lot of car buyers base their decisions on spec sheets alone”, but even when confronted with questions, most people seem to not understand what we are on about when we talk about “Fun”
“I drive a miata! It is great!”
“That’s a hairdresser’s car, even my Forester sPoRt is faster!”
“Yeah but is it fun?”
“No… But it’s faster har har har!”
My nostalgic car pushed 57 ponies when new, it must be so much less now that I want to try racing a kid on a moped. But even then, I drive it hard all the time and it is a blast!