A Shout Out To The Mazda Miata

Above and below: The Gen 4 (2016) Miata remains state-of-the-art for a small-bore high-production roadster.

The previous post about the new Fiat 124 Spider, and the recent Top Gear piece on  the new Mazda Miata, remind me to give it a shout out.  Richard Hammond said the new Miata is still great fun.  Duh.  He made a point James May has made several times: that a rear-drive car with 50/50 balance on narrow tires is a hoot.  He also said that it weighs 200 lbs. less than the previous generation and remains the same size as the original Miata.  That's quite an accomplishment in an era of crush zones, door beams, and airbags.

The Miata anchored the low end of my "bang for the buck" spreadsheet in the aughts, when I was thinking about new cars to buy.  I couldn't find a better low-cost benchmark car until the Gen 8 Honda Civic Si came out.  At the time, I knew a guy who loved his Gen 3 MazdaSpeed (turbo) Miata.  He said it had a lot of grunt.  (It was, however, too expensive to anchor the low-price end of the spreadsheet.)  For that matter, back-in-the-day, I thought the Gen 1 Miata was a much better car than its closest competitor, the Toyota MR 2.  I drove a Miata only once.  City streets didn't allow me to push its envelope.  But the ergonomics, controls, and steering lived up to their rave press notices.

I'll be the first to admit that the Miata isn't a great road trip car.  But it's no accident that a Tail of the Dragon "local" bought a used one to build into his new slayer--on the recommendation of another local. Killboy's new FR-S might be a better platform: it has the rigidity of a coupe.  But then you can't put your coupe's top down.

So the Miata is still going strong after almost 20 years (and donating a platform to the new Fiat Spider). It has an undeserved reputation in the U.S. for being "a girl's car."  Were British and Italian roadsters of the '50's and '60's girls' cars?  Is one of the best affordable slayer platforms a girl's car?  The Miata has always been macho enough for me...  See, for example, Spec. Miata, where "rubbin' is racin'" and corner workers dread the carnage.  Come to think of it, two of the better club racers I know are women.  Neither is dumb enough to sign up for the rebuild costs of the Spec. Miata class.  Maybe women are smarter than men.   ;-)

Sigh...

The styling cues from the '60's Fiat 124 Spider are more than OK with me.  But some of the preview pix have the car
looking a lot more like the (also updated) Mazda X-5 Miata.  Mine would lose these wheels for some minimalist OZ's.

The new Alfa Spider, based on the Mazda Miata platform, turns out to be the new Fiat 124 Spider.  Sigh...  It's understandable, perhaps, if Fiat wants to move a lot more units at an affordable price.  But I'd have loved to see a hard-core little brother for the 4 C, reviving the Alfa Spider name and a peaky motore Italiano.  Also, the Alfa-badged concept car had a unique look while "referring" to traditional Alfa styling cues.  It's hard to do a small-bore roadster that doesn't look generic, but the prototype Alfa pulled it off.

Above and below: the Fiat 124 Spider was a good-looking car, especially before the '70's era of Rubber Baby Buggy
Bumpers.  Yet another classy Pininfarina design.  Non-standard wheels on this one.  I remember it as a fun, if not
thrilling, car to drive.

What might have been.  But I suppose a price point in the mid-$40,000's doesn't make a lot of sense when the Alfa 4 C,
a semi-supercar, is sitting on the same showroom floor with a price point in the $50,000's.  Even though each car would
appeal to a completely different kind of buyer.

Class Reptilia, Family V-Twin, Genus Lacerta, Species Iguana

Photo from Daytona Bike Week by Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort.

OK, I'm prejudiced, but an Iguana on a Harley makes as much sense as a Harley on the Dragon.  ;-)

Another Harry Metcalfe Video

Metcalfe and I differ on the Testarossa's looks: I thought it was ugly then and still do.

Metcalfe sings the praises of his Testarossa's practicality: comfort, visibility, luggage space, and creature comforts that work.  He rightly says it's more a GT than a supercar.  Surely it must be one of the most livable Ferraris ever made.  But I'd take one of the more modern hard-edged Ferraris that he doesn't like in a heartbeat over the Testarossa, especially the 458 Italia.  But then if wishes were Ferraris, Pilote would ride... er... drive.

Around 1987, it fell to me to get a Testarossa weighed.  Two guys showed up at the steel distributorship where I worked in a Testarossa and asked if they could borrow our truck scale.  My recollection is that it weighed a bit south of 4000 lbs. with driver and fuel--maybe 3850?  That was on the heavy side in those days.  Alas, they didn't rev it so I didn't hear that sound that Metcalfe and I love.  Metcalfe says the Testarossa is not big for a supercar--it's smaller than his Countach.  It looked big to me: length and especially width.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XlPUQjmJyk

Belaboring The Obvious (Driving Talent)

To really belabor the obvious, note the angle of the car to the paint stripe, the angle of the front tires to the car, and the
amount of body roll.  It's like that joke about breakfast: the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed.  Here, F-1
driver Daniel Ricciardo is the "Star in the Reasonably Priced Car" on Top Gear.

All Hail Daniel Ricciardo!  A gearhead buddy sent me this link.  He put "Greatness" in the subject line.

http://jalopnik.com/f1-driver-daniel-ricciardo-reminds-you-that-you-can-sli-1688044057

Can't argue with that.  Great drivers have a sixth sense about the limits; they can quickly and consistently drive at or slightly over them.  This got me to thinking about driver skill gradations.  Our old friend the bell curve is a useful way to do that.

Toward the center of the curve are the friends and family we all ride and drive with.  These people are alarmed when they feel a car's tires generating slip angle.  It's their canary in the coal mine: this car is going too fast.  I'm gonna to crash it, or worse, he's gonna crash it and I'm stuck here in the passenger seat.  Slow down.  What's the problem with driving a tall, square-rigged, crossover SUV if you don't care about body roll?  None.  "I can see better from my taller perch."

Closer to the sharp end of the curve, but still in the fat part,  are "sporting" drivers like... me.   We are more than comfortable at side loads in excess of 0.5 g's.  Squealing tires do not alarm us.  We can easily tell the difference between a good-handling car and a bad one.  And handling is a priority for us.  But we're 8/10's drivers because our limited skills can get us on the wrong side of the car's limits--especially a really good-handling car.  It's hard for us to find a car's precise limits.

Then we have club racers, used to driving prepared cars on slick tires, consistently near or at the limits of braking and cornering capability, able to vary their lines through corners or alter them in wheel-to-wheel traffic as necessary.  They can drive a car with high and precise g-force limits all summer long with few mistakes.  But few of them have what it takes to be a champion in a national season-long points chase.  That requires even more pace, closer to the limit, with no mistakes.  The bell curve has flattened out, but we're not near the pointy end yet.

The best amateurs are repeat champions or graduate to pro racing.  A car salesman, a good friend who mentored me, once said of our dealership's owner (a three-time SCCA Champion), "He's not that good, you know.  He only drives small-bore cars."  The salesman had never driven against a clock or competition.  Just the same, I'll grant his point, as far as it went: our employer had not raced big-bore modifieds against the household names in road racing.  But he regularly stomped his class competitors and had a remarkable record of top-three finishes.  To race at this level, you need serious driving talent.  Decades later, the champion told me he had chased Joe Buzzetta in near-equal Porsche Spyders at Virginia International Raceway, and just could not catch him.  Buzzetta went on to be a Porsche factory driver, but only briefly, and he didn't reach the top rank in pro sports car racing.  There are, I'd guess, maybe 500-1000 drivers this good at any one time in the U.S.

Then we have pro drivers with consistent rides and long careers in pro series.  We're near the pointy end of the bell curve.  You don't drive for long in this segment of the curve, even if your racer has fenders, unless you've already been a demonstrated winner who's mistakes are very rare.  And you probably have a special talent.  Maybe you're a demon qualifier.  Or can move forward from mid-grid on race day. Scott Dixon (IndyCar) consistently uses less fuel than his competitors.

I remember, a few years ago, watching Fernando Alonso's Benetton hold off Michael Schumacher's Ferrari for several laps.  Alonso wasn't blocking, Michael just could not find a way past in a faster car. Last year, Daniel Ricciardo consistently out-qualified his World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel, and drove his Red Bull with its underpowered Renault engine to the front to win some races.  He gave Mercedes and Williams all they could handle, and more.  Drivers like these are at the pointy, pointy end of the bell curve: the best of the best.  A hot lap in "a reasonably priced car" is a day at the beach for them.

Harry's Hooty XJ C 12-Cylinder

I've usually enjoyed Harry Metcalfe's cars and videos.  He has a penchant for offbeat, overlooked, or dismissed cars.  He has a layman's interest in engineering.  It's good to see that he now has his own video channel.  This car's power and torque aren't impressive by current standards, especially for a 5.3 (!) liter, but the V-12 sound is great, and it's easy to see why the car is so much fun to drive.  Here's the link to his interesting "one of two" Jag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TMgIkx40tI&feature=youtu.be

Purdy Car, Grainy Picture

Jim Clark, Lotus 49-Cosworth, Belgian Grand Prix, 1967.  Clark finished 6h, one lap down, after leading, with mechanical
woes.  Here he is just completing his braking and getting ready for turn-in into the La Source hairpin (note the angle of
his head and how the road is beginning to bank right at the right side of the picture).  It's surprising how few shots
were taken from this superb angle at Old Spa.  I don't know who the photographer was, but he got a good one.