I am currently looking at purchasing an S2000 after autocrossing a 94 Miata for several years. My current car is no longer competitive with second generation Miatas, and I was a bit concerned about whether the 2004 S2000s will do the same thing to earlier models, since it will have a 2.2 L engine. C & D says the car will have the same HP rating, but more torque, and a softer suspension. Should I wait for the 04's?

Thanks!

 

*I looks into magic ball*

Magic Ball says, no one knows. Wait untill you see someone race one.

 

Who's to say that the new model will even stay in the same class? It may be faster, but uncompetitive.

 

"Best of breed" is how andy said they class cars usually.

So the current S2K's would follow the 2.2L is it was comptetive enuf to be upclassed.

 

Didn't the C4 move down to AS when the C5 was introduced and classified as SS?

 

Just saying what Andy recently told me.

 

Maybe we are talking about different sanctioning bodies. In SCCA, the first gen Miata is in a different class than the current version. Further, Miatas do very well in both classes. (C and D stock I think). It is very common for new models to be in different classes than the old version of the same car when you are talking about stock class. The prepared and modified classes have some compression.

 

I must have miss understood him then.

 

It really depends on the differences in performance. The older miatas are in ES, and are not really competetive anymore. If the S2200 is close in performance to the S2000, then they'll be treated as the same car and get "Best-of-Breed"ed. The new miatas are in CS due to the capabilities of the 99 Sport. If you don't have a 99 Sport, you can't expect to win Nats. If the S2200 blows away the S2000, it'll probably end up in AS, and may still be competetive. If not, the S2200 could possibly be the car to have in BS, or the S2000 would be less competetive in AS.

 

"Best of breed" is only a guiding principle, not an immutable rule.

When a model undergoes major changes, as the Corvette did between each generation, the MR2 did between each generation, and the Miata did between 1993 and 1994, then the different versions of the car can be considered separately.

The only things I've heard so far about the new model that I believe are a 2.2L engine with more torque and less power, and wider 17" wheels. If there aren't any other performance-related changes, I don't think the new car will be different enough to split it out.

Since the S2000 is on the edge between AS and BS already, a slightly better performing version of the S2000 could be considered the same "breed" and drag the whole lot of them up into AS.

I am waiting to hear more about the changes to the S2000 for 2004 before I make a purchasing decision. You can probably still pick up a 2003 S2000 after the 2004s come out and you can see what they're like.

I'm also waiting to learn more about the final specifications of the 2004 Lotus Elise, which may delay my own decicision to the point where I have to choose between a used 2002/2003 S2000 or a new 2004.