Are Miatas Cool? | Miscellaneous Blog at Super Street Online Magazine

Are Miatas Cool?

Posted October 27 2008 05:05 PM by ChuckTee
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Associate Editor, Charles Trieu

Are Miatas too girly, or are they underestimated cars with great handling? Why do so many people dislike them?
Would you buy one?

Share This

Reader Comments:

(page 1, 2 )

1. no they straight up suck
one of my buddies has one and he put about 10 g's into it and it is only at 160 hp and about 95 lbs/tq

biggboss - Posted October 28 2008 05:49 AM

2. I do believe they are one of the most underestimated cars out there, and one of the best handling as well. Just about all those I have known who disliked them had little to no first hand experience with the car, or even performance driving. After one drive on a winding road or autocross track with the car, this usually changes.
I would and actually did when I was at a dealer who had a GTI I was interested in, but after test driving a miata they had out of curiosity, I bought it instead. I think the best part about the car is how it enables you to improve your driving ability, while offering an endless amount of upgrades as your ability improves.

"no they straight up suck
one of my buddies has one and he put about 10 g's into it and it is only at 160 hp and about 95 lbs/tq"

Assuming "10 g's" actually went into the car, I would expect most of that went to upgrading handling components since a supercharger kit for the miata, one of the more expensive upgrades, doesn't usually go above half that and gives a much bigger power boost. Despite this, however, a car as light and agile as the miata with 160hp would be an exceptional performer, depending on the driver of course.

arje - Posted October 29 2008 01:11 PM

3. Well as an owner of one of the first Miata's to ever touch north american soil I would tend to disagree with biggboss. Yes its not hard to spend big money on such a small car but if you spent 10g's on a miata and didnt touch anything on the engine you are a retard, seriously.

Since there is no reason to really touch the suspension except to add maybe a stiffer adjustable shock and spring and no real reason you should do anything to the interior except a roll bar what did you spend 10 grand on?

6 grand can get you a full FMII Hydra turbo kit from flyin miata which puts the car into the 300HP range at a minimal 12psi of boost. Though 160HP for a miata is not bad since the stock 1.6 produced about 90HP at the wheels. Even just using the bolt on greddy kit you can make close to 150HP on like 4psi of boost.

Either you got ripped off or your tune is WAY out cause 10 grand into a miata engine is pretty much a full rebuild and turbo kit which would put you into the said 300HP range. Dont judge a car because you got screwed over.

Since the miata was released in late 1989 the thing has done nothing but win award after award and has been on Car and Drivers top ten list seven times now.

http://media.ford.com/mazda/article_display.cfm?article_id=15097

Thats the awards mazda has gotten from '83 - '03

www.flyinmiata.com

Thats the best place to get performance parts or info on anything miata related

And just to be kick ass one of the companies that deals with the company I work for happens to stick ford 302's into miatas add a vortech supercharger and you have a 500HP toy

http://www.monstermiata.ca/

The miata is the most underestimated car I can think of its got porsche-like handling at a fraction of the cost.

Meola - Posted November 5 2008 12:09 PM

4. I love my miata, so first off, screw you haters out there.

anyways, I have owned two miatas, a 91, and now, a 97. they have both been great cars. best feature (other than great factory handling), has definitely got to be that its the easiest car that i've ever had to work on.

as far as v8'n goes, i think ls1 would be much more suitable, but i don't have the money to do that. besides, i think motor swaps are cool and all, but keeping it straight japanese is important to me. My future goal is to put an sr20 in my 97. i don't think it will be too impossible. we now have a 2002 nb in our family, yea its nicer.

only thing i have to say is if you want to drift it, your gonna need to drop it, and probably try to make at least another 30hp out of it. the short wheelbase is tough to learn on, but i'm getting better.

oh, and if i had "10 g's", i'd have the prettiest, 250+hp miata out there. your friend must have done a lot of bolt ons with no ecu tuning.

ajbalmat - Posted November 8 2008 11:43 AM

5. sad to say, i don't own a miata, nor have ever driven one. Sure it can't produce gigantic numbers the way an s2000 can, but it wasn't meant to do so in the first place. This car is a classic. It single handedly reminded us just how "cool" it would be to cruise in a 2 door, 2 seater, top down, sports car. Paving the way to the introduction other modern roadsters we see today, like the z3,s2000, etc. so what if you can't tune it to put out a whopping 1000hp.... it never had to.

jeiven - Posted November 21 2008 05:48 AM

6. well i know that they won't make much power but i have hear tale of guys sell their porshe to get a miata because of the feel. the car wasn't built to beat with speed... it was built with handling and balence in mind and i thats why i bought one that needed $4,900 of work and loving every minute of it!!

miataguy94 - Posted December 2 2008 05:44 PM

7. so far the only way you'll be able to show people how truly good the miata is to have them test drive one and it's one hell of a car.

AzulTuning - Posted December 10 2008 05:09 PM

8. Well to add to this lil confrintation,,, I have a 2004 mazdaspeed miata and to tell you the truth this car is probably one of the most spectacular cars I've driven it comes factory with bilstein shocks and springs a 1.8 liter turbo charged engine and a world full of up grades. I have a Bell Engineering stage 3 turbo system that cost me 3800 bucks it has a t25 garret ball bearing turbo charger.. it's had all the internals replaced with cosworth forged internals, cosworth head. The engine can handle up to 45psi of boost and still be reliable and driven daily. I am currently running 37psi and pushes 530 at the wheels to be specific= 529.47hp at the wheels. Has 390ftlbs of torque and I've taken it to the drag strip 3 times with a best run of 9.30 @ 161mph on drag radials I have surprised many people with the best one being a supercharged 02 dodge viper with 700hp I pulled him by three cars all the way to 160mph the the 10 cylinder took it from there the car weighs 2400 with me in it and a half tank of gas on the interstate I get on porsche's and ferrai's they can't pull away it's very funny and total I have in the car with the purchase being $22,000 and $20,000 of upgrades I have a supercar killer for the price you can buy a new infiniti g37 coupe only $42000. So that it goes to show you that you don't need to sell your house to have a fast car. You can easily get 300hp from a miata for less than $10,000. I know a guy that spent 7k on his and has 325hp with 0-60 times at 4sec on street tires so all the people that don't like miata's go drive one cause unless you are a fully tubbed car with drag slicks your not gonna beat me. Plus these prices you have to take into consideration that I used the very best parts you can buy thats just the way I role but there are other ways you can do it and those of you that have miata's CUDO'S cause unless you own one and drive one everyday you'll never know and if anyone needs guidance on modifying a miata hit me back I would be more than happy to help.... Til next time

derakbell - Posted December 27 2008 01:49 PM

9. Does anyone know where superstreet's main office and garage is?

derakbell - Posted December 27 2008 01:50 PM

10. damn! 10 grand? where did all the money go anyway? adding forced induction to an already light weight car would be pretty bad ass. i wouldn't mind owning my own miata... haters might as well buy a domestic piece of trash....

94_subie - Posted December 31 2008 07:07 PM

11. Proud owner of a '94 NA Miata

No they are not girly, yes they are underestimated. They are light, agile, nimble. On any given weekend there are more mazda's out there on the tracks than any other car maker.

Yes they are pitiful on a straight, but come the winding corners, becareful =)

It's not all about the HP, its about balance, this is what makes this car so great.

laxntiga - Posted January 5 2009 06:50 PM

12. I love miata's

derakbell - Posted January 10 2009 01:12 PM

13. Well I hooked the miata up to the lap top today and found out that I was running to lean, I was runnin 529hp runnin to lean can you believe that? This was at 4 in the morning by the way so I did some tuning and check my fuel pressure,, which took about an hour and at about 7am this morning threw it on the chassis dyno,, and with the best of three pulls I pulled of 575.30hp I bout freaked out! I thought the car was tuned perfectly and I was running to lean. so if you think your car isnt putting the hp's out that you want you need to really check it. My torque went from 390, to 426 ft lbs thats crazy out of a 1.8 liter all I have to do now is see how it's gonna run in the quarter mile my guess is 8.75 @ 176mph but thtas just my guess the numbers should be very close to this though, I'm really good at guessing. So to everyone that has really modified vehicles check everything you could have 50 or 60 horse power hiding in there, and if anyone would like to use my dyno hit me up, I'll have to charge you of course but no where near what someone else will bout $60 an hour thats 40 bucks cheaper than the cheapest that I know of for an hour alright I got some things to do I'll see you guys later,,, derak

derakbell - Posted January 10 2009 01:23 PM

14. i like them does anyone know if a focus svt suspension will fit on a Zx2 thanks for the help

Zx2DJG - Posted January 15 2009 03:51 PM

15. i wouldnt because no good parts for them maybe if they but a lot of work into it it would be a maybe but for now i would say no. plus no one really cares about them its all about the r-35 gtr

Flipster - Posted January 17 2009 02:39 PM

(page 1, 2 )

Add a Comment: (Must Be Registered)

User Name

Not Registered?
Signup today

Password

Comment

Ford Focus Research

Finding a fuel efficient automobile today is easier than ever. Check out the Ford Focus buyer's guide providing information on car specs, reviews and fuel economy. The 2010 Focus goes for a suggested retail price of $16,875.00, and has drivers side crash test ratings of 4 stars and passengers side crash test ratings of 4 stars. You may also be interested in the Dodge Magnum and the Toyota Prius.

Events

Editorials

Products

Tech

Type Of Post

Monkeys with Typewriters

Reviews

ACTIVE POSTS

RELATED POSTS

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED BLOGS

RELATED RIDES