Years ago someone, maybe Soviet, posted a chart in a thread basically showing how much fun Miatas were at a given horsepower level. I've not been able to find it in years. Anyone know where it is?

 

just google your mom's only fans. absolute perfect representation of fun/reliable.

 

I quickly threw this together for fun. My logic is:

There is a slow decrease in reliability until around 200 WHP after that, you're going to start breaking stuff and it nose dives. By 300-350 WHP you'll have broken most things and hopefully replaced them with stronger stuff. After that point, reliability continues getting worse but not at the same rate as around 250-300 WHP.

With cost, a $4000 turbo kit could get you to 200 WHP. For 300 WHP, you're looking at a built engine and 6spd swap for $1000-$5000 more depending on how you do things. For 350+, you're looking at transmission swaps, differential solutions, and high end engine builds for an additional $5000-$10000.

For Fun, I'd say its most fun at 300 WHP, and past that it become less fun due to how fast it is, but also how much time you spend on jackstands...

I sometimes regret my decisions with my car, but once it is said and done, hopefully I won't regret things anymore. It has been 1-1/2 years since I drove my car. **** sucks. Sometimes I wish I would've stayed around the 200-300 WHP level. Instead, I decided to go a direction very few people have gone and now I've got to deal with my decision. I could just turn it down and go back, but I'm also not a quitter lol

 

I'd personally put a huge jump in cost around 220 WHP. I like having more power than that but I tell basically everyone I talk to that 220 is the sweet spot.