If you want ok speed get a S2000. Miatas are just too slow.

 

i've had miatas for the past ten years and only recently bought an s2k, trading in my '94 base miata. the s2k is faster, but it's easier to get into fun driving with the miata, with its lower limits. just riding around town and back roads you'll have more chances to redline it and make some noise, whereas with the honda you can get dangerous with just one redline shift.

 

At the risk of deteriorating the argument:

Lower limits are fun? Sure, then get a TR3, WAY more fun than a S2k.

Dangerous? I fail to see how the Ap2 is dangerous? An Ap1 with bald tires in the rain isn't too forgiving, sure. The only dangerous thing I've seen is a miata trying to keep up...

You can dumb down a S2k. Crank the alignment down, put on narrower taller tires, dro the redline. Predictable as all get out.

 

The 2007 Miata is one the best handling and balanced feeling cars I have ever driven. I was almost impressed enough to choose it over the S2000. However, there is something special about the S2000 that made me choose it over the Miata.

I must admit I bought a used SC'ed S2000 for $25,000 via private party sale, which is the same price the loaded new Miata was going for after tax. I don't think that I would consider buying a new S2000 for $34,000 compared to a new Miata costing $10,000 less.

Although the S2000 is a better car, it's not $10,000 better IMHO.

 

This in car footage of my old 1.8 NA MX-5/Miata vs. a Subaru 2 door WRX might change a few minds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhx3O1IZtwQ

 

Different strokes for different folks. I think people like you and I are probably in the minority, but my greatest motoring joy comes from extracting all the performance a vehicle has to offer, and one cannot deny that the more underpowered a car or bike is, the more often you get the opportunity to drive it like you stole it. For me, driving at 10/10ths in a fun kart is more fun than lugging a high powered car through traffic, and having to drive at 10/10ths just to keep up with traffic can be a real hoot.

I started driving during the height of the "muscle car" era, and have owned plenty of cars with impressive power and torque, and they are fun, but it is a different type of fun, and you can't enjoy the power as often as you can enjoy wringing out a tiny sports car with a tiny engine.

Back when I was into bikes (many moons ago), I had both an FJ-1100 and an RZ-350, because I like to have my cake and eat it too. I was using the bikes for my daily transportation (30 miles one way to work, 5-6 days a week, rain or shine, summer or winter), and unless I wasn't feeling well, I'd almost always take the little 350 over the 1100. Why? Because I could ride the thing flat out as hard as it could go, and not end up hitting over 140 MPH between corners. Going faster on the FJ-1100 was much less challenging and much less enjoyable.

With an S2000, full throttle acceleration in the first three gears invites a ticket for exhibition, and full throttle acceleration in the upper three gears invites jail and impound. You get much more opportunity to ring out our first gen Miata without attracting nearly as much attention.

OTOH, in the north Georgia mountains or on the Dragon, a Miata is downright booring compared to an S2000.

Miata + FI @ 200whp > stock S2000 @ 200whp.

 

Or you can just as easily crank up a Miata. I think you miss the point (and joy) of driving a small underpowered car, probabaly because it's just not the kind of thing you like. Hopefully threads like this one will help you understand the appeal it has for some.

 

While I think that someone asking the S2000 crowd which car he would prefer is really stupid, this has morphed into an interesting discussion.

My first car was a FIAT 124 Spider--95bhp of absolute fun in a 2000 pound chassis. Since then, I've had another 124 Spider, a Toyota (while our kids grew), then the S2000.

I love practically any good performance car, but lots of them aren't to my taste. I spent three days a couple of years ago driving various flavors of late-model Corvettes on a track in Nevada, and it was a blast. But I'm not about to turn in my love for little roadsters for a Corvette.

I think that there's no real substitute for the fun of a really light, tossable roadster. Those who think that the S2000 is tossable haven't driven a really light, good-handling car. But, of course, there's no substitute for power, either.

Now, to the issue at hand--Miata vs. S2000. I daily drive and autocross a 2004 S2000; I race a 1991 Miata. I can honestly say that I prefer driving my Miata on the track to driving my S2000 on the track. But this may not be a "fair" comparison, since the Miata is optimized for racing, while the S2000 is a fine daily driver. But the sheer fun of throwing the Miata into a corner and blasting out of it (well, to the extent that 110rwhp can "blast" at all), controlling the car so much more easily than my S2000, is practically Nirvana.

But I also enjoy having a good deal more punch in the S2000 while daily driving it, than comes with any stock Miata. Since I started tracking and then racing, I don't drive my cars hard on the street. So the fun, for me, of street driving is getting off the line in a sprightly fashion, and going around corners at the highest legal, safe speed I can. The S2000 does that in a very fine fashion, while having a few creature comforts, and looking beautiful. I actually think that I enjoy my stock S2000 (well, stock except for a big front bar and decent radio) more than I would enjoy a Miata as a daily driver.

The early Miatas were more my idea of a true sports car; the more recent ones are much heavier, and still not as powerful as an S2000, and are approaching it in price. If one could get the equivalent of a 1991 Miata, brand new off the lot, with a few of the modern comforts of the S2000, while still weighing so much less than the S2000, for around $20,000, that would be a more difficult comparison for a DD, to me.

YMMV.

 

[QUOTE=124Spider,Dec 10 2007, 08:05 PM]While I think that someone asking the S2000 crowd which car he would prefer is really stupid, this has morphed into an interesting discussion.

My first car was a FIAT 124 Spider--95bhp of absolute fun in a 2000 pound chassis.

 

Try this in an S2000. It *IS* possible, but it's a lot easier in a car that is more tossable.