Good grief. Again, is the Miata always the answer? Well, maybe – it really depends on your definition of “performance car”, although the new MX-5 is more ambitious than almost any other. After the welterweight original, whatever the best intentions of their engineers, the next two generations got something like a mean bloat.
But the fourth generation MX-5 reverses the trend and offers arguably the most accessible lightweight sports car on the market.
We bet that at least some of you are still asking, “Seriously … the MX-5 is a performance car?” And that could be a tough argument when you only have a two liter naturally aspirated engine and power way south of 200 hp to make your point.
But look at these numbers again from a different perspective. After all, it is not numbers that lie, but the people who manipulate them. So how about a naturally aspirated engine that spins up to 7,500 rpm and delivers more than 180 horsepower to the rear wheels through a cute six-speed manual gearbox? And what if it only had to motivate 1,100 kg or something … that sounds a bit better?
Still no? Well, call BBS quick for 220 horsepower and no weight penalty. Then you have roughly the same output per liter as a Lamborghini Aventador SV for a fraction of the cost.
Otherwise there’s always a long distance call to Flyin ‘Miata …
Weight: 1.058kg
