Which generation of Miata makes the best racer? | ...

Miata NA

FAST TIME: 1:14.154

After we mentioned “Mazda’s race-minded public relations employees,” we meant it, because the aforementioned Jeremy Barnes owns and frequently races the lovable (sorry, however it was) yellow NA racer. He competes within the Spec Miata class, which permits NA and NB vehicles.

With simply 115 horsepower from the 1.6-liter four-cylinder, Barnes’s No. 14 confirmed all of the traits that make the Miata an ideal automotive for each novices and skilled racers. Steering was gentle however not twitchy, and the nominal horsepower made it vitally necessary to keep up momentum. As an alternative of searching for the quickest line via the corners, we appeared for the road that allowed for essentially the most exit velocity. 

As with all race automotive, you may get into bother with this one. On this case, that could be from the modest brakes, which nobody would confuse with carbon. However preserving prices down was and is crucial, and if you happen to resolve you need to spend sufficient to make an NA right into a killer monitor day automotive, you would possibly as properly simply purchase one thing that’s already sooner.

Sadly, we didn’t get to see Barnes’s automotive within the optimum gentle, as a number of of the journalists earlier than us had leaned method too laborious on its already-taxed clutch. We needed to be much more affected person leaving corners than typical as we waited for the clutch to catch up. 

Barnes instructed us to go for it anyway, however true grassroots racers who’ve truly needed to pay for their very own repairs are reluctant to thrash a hurting automotive, particularly when it belongs to a buddy. 

Miata NB

FAST TIME: 1:13.736

Owned by Mazda designer Ken Saward, No. 16 was a cheerful little automotive that we discovered very snug, each ergonomically and at velocity. The additional energy from the 1.8-liter engine didn’t imply we might now ignore momentum, solely {that a} unhealthy nook would possibly lose us only one place as a substitute of two or three. Just like the NA, this one was additionally ready for the extraordinarily widespread Spec Miata ranks. 

The NB carried greater than 100 additional kilos over the NA, however we didn’t actually discover it, maybe attributable to an unlucky life expertise that had us carrying a number of additional kilos, too. The NB nonetheless appeared very gentle on its toes, and we had been stunned that it was solely a half-second sooner than the NA–though we questioned how the NA did so properly with a wonky clutch.

Miata NC

FAST TIME: 1:12.882

Tom Lengthy, who pilots the Mazda SkyActiv Prototype within the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sequence, stands out as the world’s greatest Miata driver. That’s applicable, since he and his father, Glenn–proprietor of Lengthy Street Racing in North Carolina–are constructing a number of dozen MX-5 Cup vehicles for the 2016 season. Like, the entire vehicles within the Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup Offered by BFGoodrich will come from their store. So Lengthy is an efficient one to ask on the subject of these vehicles. 

When he didn’t appear to love the NC as a lot as the opposite chassis, we wished to know why. Like the remaining, this automotive was additionally prepped to a spec, roughly–it was mainly an outgoing MX-5 Cup automotive fitted with a passenger seat. Lengthy mentioned that he most popular a little bit little bit of physique roll, and this explicit NC didn’t have any, arrange because it was for responsibility as a tempo automotive at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. 

Yeah, perhaps that was a part of it. However you had so as to add in a very uncomfortable driving place, together with a entrance alignment that allowed for a really quick turn-in however zero pure unwinding. Say we went right into a right-hand nook; until we decisively steered again to the left, we’d be doing right-hand doughnuts till we ran out of gasoline. It was okay after we received used to it, however it wasn’t that a lot enjoyable. 

Nonetheless, the 170 horsepower and really planted rear finish lastly delivered the Miata from the strict momentum requirement, permitting for a little bit point-and-shoot motion. Had it been the one Miata race automotive we drove all day, we’d have appreciated it quite a bit higher. Underneath the circumstances, although, it was the one one we weren’t wishing to take for extra laps.

Miata ND

FAST TIME: 1:10.562

Sure, in fact you’d assume that the most recent automotive was the perfect one. Nonetheless, we had been a little bit stunned by how a lot higher the ND felt, particularly because it’s down 15 horses over the NC. Nevertheless it’s up on torque–to 148 ft.-lbs.–and lighter by about 150 kilos. And we’re fairly positive each journalist at Streets of Willow that day logged the quickest laps within the ND. We actually did. 

The engine, as you’d suspect, was silky easy, although by the top of the day there was some proof of a head gasket subject. This was the instance, and the engine, that had been thrashed mercilessly as Mazda’s principal growth mule. 

The six-speed transmission was as near telepathic because it will get–we might suppose “fourth gear” and magically it was there. On the very low-mileage 2016 avenue vehicles we’d pushed, the shifter was a bit stiffer. If extra relaxed shifts are what house owners need to stay up for after logging some miles, carry them on. Clutch engagement was gentle and positive, too. Miata guide transmissions have been textbook-good for the reason that first 1990 mannequin rolled off the boat, however you simply couldn’t ask for greater than this ND delivered. 

The Brembo brakes had been proper there, linear all the way in which into the near-perfect, unobtrusive ABS. Mazda isn’t fairly able to announce the manufacturers of the suspension bits, brake pads or eventual tires, however belief us, “lowest bidder” is just not an element until it occurs to explain the best choice.

There was some stunning understeer in two corners, however we had been instructed that was extra a perform of setup than something inherent. We might have appreciated to play with the tire pressures, however there wasn’t time.

Tom and Glenn Lengthy aren’t actually doing something to the ND that you simply couldn’t do your self. In truth, they’ll be blissful to level out what they’ve performed, however a lot of it, just like the fantastically welded cage, is fairly evident.

Additionally, that is the automotive (in left- and right-hand drive) that Mazda plans to race globally for years, they usually’re working towards a serious world championship. In 2016, the fledgling international finale can be at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The winner will get a one-day check within the SkyActiv Prototype race automotive–which is able to, fortunately, be powered in 2016 by a gasoline engine.

That is the purpose within the story the place, if we had been the Motor Trend of 1990, we’d say, “We’d like to choose a winner, however they’re all so good! And have you ever pushed the brand new Lincoln City Automotive?”

However that is the Grassroots Motorsports of 2016, and we’re calling it: Whereas there has by no means been a nasty Miata or a ensuing unhealthy Miata race automotive, the brand new ND mannequin is an enchancment in each space, each on the road and on the monitor. Did we anticipate something much less?