Has links to the recent deluge of articles:

U.S.-Spec 2016 ND Miata MX-5 Review Roundup

 

Even though this is post 1002, I put down 1000 on a 41W/NJ2 with a 1BB.

 

My brain hurts. Oh M.net.

I love it when I tell people I own a Miata and they say "Oh, you should joint the Mt. Hood Miata Club!"

Nope. NWIH.

 

Oh, and congrats sir. The ND is going to be pretty darn fantastic.

 

I posted about my last experience taking a late autumn drive in the mountains last year before the roads closed due to snow. There were few cars on the road, but those that were there were obviously not tourists but trying to get somewhere. They were driving large SUVs, and inevitably, they would go very slowly in the corners and then speed up quickly and be 10-15 MPH over on the straights. I wasn't driving much faster than they were on the straights, but quite a bit faster when the roads were twisty. They probably thought they were doing me a favor by speeding up so much when the roads were straight, and if I were driving my Miata, I would have had no possibility of getting by them. Fortunately, I wasn't driving my Miata and getting by them quickly and safely was a non-issue. Stopping to let them get five minutes ahead is stupid and not something that you should have to do if you are spending $30k on a vehicle. And what if a similarly slow vehicle comes along 4 1/2 minutes later?

I was one of the earlier, vocal dissenters against where Mazda seemed to be taking the ND in terms of performance. A year ago, I was firmly in the camp of buying an ND, and started a fund solely for that purpose. When the specs came out, I was pretty disappointed at where I thought the performance levels would end up. Surprisingly, they have been better than I thought, and at an acceptable level if I were still in the market for an ND. Two things, though, have turned me off from doing so. First, to get it equipped with an LSD is a few thousand more than I feel is worthwhile for me in my situation (where I am replacing both two-seaters that I own). Second is just the bad taste in my mouth that I've gotten from the divisive nature of the discussion here. It devolved into sniping and those who felt that Mazda made the right decision just being needlessly derisive and sarcastic to those who wanted a higher performance Miata, and frankly I don't want to be associated with the attitude and maturity level that group exhibits.

Whatever. I'm sure there'll be enough sarcastic comments directed at this post as well. But the deed is done. The money originally destined for an ND, that I decided should go somewhere else, only to find that an ND would fit my performance level needs, won't go to Mazda despite how much I want the Miata to succeed because I so much enjoy my NA.

 

Is that a cross post or something? I'm confused. Didn't you just say 2 days ago that you put a deposit on a brembo package ND?

 

Also confused..

 

I think it has to do with the title. Miata.net is involved somehow.

 

Yeah, a good ol google.

MX-5 Miata Forum - View Single Post - Aggregated performance figures from reviews.

He changed his mind on buying the car because people on a forum are mean to each other, despite the fact that he still likes the car. What a ****. One of the more stupid things I've read.

 

Correctomundo.

The context of that post is that people who are firmly in the "The ND REQUIRES at least 175hp" camp decided to bring up the passing on a mountain road scenario. Since reality is not particularly backing their theorycrafting, a lot of people have resolved themselves to think of fantasy situations and opt to put faith in a conspiracy that Mazda is secretly cooking the numbers.

I drive a 100HP Mazda2. It's power to weight is 23.06lb/hp. I can manage to get around traffic because I look ahead and have a plan.

I find it hilarious that the idea of taking a 5 minute breather to let traffic pass is being considered as an unrealistic option by the people who think if they bitch enough, the stars will align and the ND will get a magical HP bump.

 

Well, they may actually get it. The published power and weight figures don't match the published quarter mile time and trap speeds, so I suspect that when the cars are available and people start dynoing them it's going to show more like 150 at the wheels than the 125 you'd expect.

--Ian

 

A part of the Skyactiv technology package is focused on drivetrain losses. Instead of seeing a "conventional" 15-20% drop, it might only be 10% or so. Another big part of it is the torque curve; there have been a few Miatas running around here with more torque than HP.

It doesn't mean that the crank figure is necessarily wrong.

 

I mean I think having to pull over to wait for traffic to pass because a vehicle is inadequate is not a reasonable option. However, I cannot think of a single car that would fit this definition. Its not really that hard to pass people on a public road unless they are just being an ******* but this rarely happens. I wouldn't let random acts of road rage dictate my vehicle purchase.

I came from the camp that thought the ND should have had 170+ HP mainly because I can't comprehend how a modern 2.0l engine with 13:1 compression and direct injection cannot be tuned to achieve this goal with ease. However, I am rather excited to see that the ND put up sub 6 second 0-60 times and didn't even seem to fall on its face for the 1/4 mile or 5-60 tests either. Beat the twins all the way to 100mph with 45 less official hp.

This is also why I think the engine is a little underrated.

 

I can't wait for Andrew to get his new ND and dyno it (in 6th!). Truth (either way) will be known soon enough.

Andrew, when are you expecting the car?

 

Not used to people referring to me by my first name, thought you were talking about Savington. I do have an MS3 to put in my NA, so I'll probably grab a buddy for when I rent out the local dyno for an hour and I'll put the ND on it for a few pulls, as well.

Mark Booth has taken time off from complaining about dumb garbage (shark fin antenna) and replaced it with an insane hobby of tracking freight ships traveling across the Pacific. A few people claimed to have been Mazda salespeople and that June 3rd was the cut-off date for the first allotment wave. The first batch of NDs hitting US soil will be a mix between the LEs and various trims, and people have been given a mid-July time frame to take delivery.

Right now it's just a waiting game.

 

If you got a red one, please have a big old **** sticker put on your hood for a couple days just for pictures to see how mad he gets.

 

I'm getting a black one. :P

I was thinking of something fairly diabolical, but would be a copycat of something a guy did on another forum a few years ago. This dude made posts in all of the various subforums (sports, cars, cooking, computers, pets, weight lifting, etc) and made a thread in each that was relevant to that forum. He'd post something and have a picture of him in the post; however, every single photo had his ***** slightly visible and in frame.

I'm not going to lie, I was thinking about doing something extremely similar.

 

Perhaps. The difference seems larger than I think can be accounted for just in a few percent more efficient drivetrain, but the proof will be in the dyno chart.

Just for once, it would be nice to see a Mazda that actually makes MORE power than they advertised. Perhaps they gathered up all the extra horsies that fell out of the RX8s and 2001 VVT motors and put them in the ND instead.

--Ian

 

If you go back into the past, they did it before.

With the 88-92 MX6/626. Both n/a and turbo models do their rated crank hp or MORE.

To the wheels.

 

Didn't a couple PTE miatas just ruin it for everyone else by gaming the lb/hp limits by using a fat *** powerband that was basically making peak HP over the entire relevant RPM range. Just saying....

Then you compare it to a car with a peaky powerband like the BRZ....



and you might find that when you integrate the power by the RPM ranges of the gears, and divide it by the weight of the car you could wind up with very similar #s