Miata remains the quintessential sports car
The Mazda Miata — sorry, I just can’t call it MX-5 — that denies much of nearly a half-century of its North American history as the bestselling two-seat sports car of all time, is now in its fourth generation.
The current car, known as ND to Miata-philes — following (not surprisingly) the NA, NB and NC — was unveiled in September 2014 as a 2016 car.
The basic principle remained the same as it ever was when the NA was launched in 1989: a lightweight, perfectly balanced car that remains a delight to drive, even when you aren’t actually going that fast.
The basic 2017 Miata GS roadster lists at $31,900, ranging to $35,900 for the GS and $39,200 for the GT.
Today’s subject is the latest iteration on this concept, the ND RF, the latter two characters standing for “Retractable Fastback.”
As with its previous iteration, the Miata is now offered in a retractable hardtop form, although this car is much more fastback-coupe-like when the roof is up. It is offered in GS ($38,800) and GT ($42,200) trims only.
My tester was a GS with the Sport Package ($4,400), which includes front brakes made by Italian race brake maker Brembo, red-painted brake calipers front and rear, 17-inch BBS forged alloy road wheels and multi-adjustable heated Recaro sports seats.
It seems there is a market for a quieter, more comfortable, less breezy variant of this car. Sales in Canada currently run about 50-50 between the soft- and retractable hardtop models, skewed somewhat in the hardtop’s favour by virtue of the fact that there’s no base-trim level in the hardtop convertible version. The customer is always right.
And while I cannot fathom why anybody would not want to shift for themselves in a Miata, the majority are now sold with a six-speed automatic transmission. Whatever fills yer boots.
Full disclosure — I own (well, Lady Leadfoot owns) a 1999 NB (the first one without pop-up headlights). It remains a treat, even after a tree fell on it. Yes, we had it repaired. The 2017 Miata RF looks just a shade like the old Jaguar E-Type coupe, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. Everything is pretty much familiar Miata until you get just aft of the doors, where the coupe body adds flying buttress arches that house the folding roof.
The ND in any body configuration takes its lightweight history seriously. Additional aluminum and ultra-high-tensile-strength steels has actually carved some 67 kilograms out of the previous NC to the point where the base car weighs almost the same as the original NA, and that’s with a whole bunch of mandated safety hardware added.
The RF model with its roof motor et al puts almost all of that extra weight (some 56 kg) back on. Still, at 1,114 kg, it remains one of the very lightest cars you can buy. And weight is the enemy of every aspect of performance.
So, despite a fairly modest 155 horsepower, the Miata moves smartly. The engine spins away merrily, and the gearbox remains as light and direct as any in the industry.
The car handles brilliantly, thanks to things no one else even thinks about, such as arranging the car’s fore-and-aft pitch axis so it runs more or less through the centre point of the average-sized driver’s body, which serves to minimize the feeling of rocking back and forth as you accelerate, brake or traverse bumps in the road, and to keep the driver’s line of sight down the road as stable as possible. The Brembo brakes prove much stronger than the engine, which is how you want brakes to be.
The roof-operating switch appears to be upside down — you push the upper half to lower the roof and the lower half to raise it. Whatever, the roof zips up or down in mere seconds, and provides a secure and quiet feeling inside the car when erect.
The now-seemingly-mandatory screen-based controls for most functions — sound system, phone, climate control, etc. — take considerable figuring out.
Back to that ‘average-sized driver’s body’ — you either fit in a Miata or you don’t.
A colleague of mine who is a tick under six-foot-two owns an NC, and he manages, just barely. He points out that his length is disproportionately in his legs; if you’re six-foottwo and have a longer body, you might be peeking under the windshield header.
And if you are heftier than average, again, you might not fit.
Either way, if you don’t fit, too bad for you, because the Mazda Miata in any body configuration remains the quintessential sports car of our time.
Even if Mazda calls it by the wrong name.