Hey, guys! It’s always great to meet people who are fans of the Eunos Roadster, since I’m definitely a lifetime fan. My dad had a ‘90 in white that I have fond memories riding around in for a few years (which he got rid of right before I was old enough to drive and I’m still mad). I got an NC poster at the State Fair of Texas in 2005 and it remained on the back of my door for most of a decade. I started off every Gran Turismo with a Miata or with a Miata as Vehicle #2. Recently I spent most of a year as a Mazda salesman, and was known as the resident car enthusiast who knew the vehicles inside and out. And a couple years back it was my wife who got a Shinsen NB, asked me to teach her to drive manual...and got pregnant shortly after so I’ve had an order of magnitude more seat time than her.
So, divisive opinion time. I believe...:
-Everyone should have the ~smallest~ vehicle that fits their needs.(1)
-The NB is secretly the best generation (2)
-If you don’t have the top down, you are doing your life wrong.(3)
-Manuals are - in fact - great in traffic!(4)
-The rotary is great, but it doesn’t make the Miata better.(5)
So meanwhile I’m a massive car enthusiast with a voracious appetite for reading and knowledge in a family man’s body who’s hardly had so much as extra cash to pay for the gas of just going out to drive.
1.So the answer is obviously always Miata, but I won’t begrudge a Fiesta ST or a variety of other good options.
2.Though the ND is awfully close...
3.Treatise Time: Because the magic of the Miata is that it removes all the insulation and distance from the world outside, it connects you back to your surroundings, nature, and other people on the road. As much as keyboard hotshoes will say that a coupé is the best for enthusiast driving because of rigidity and all, I counted that having fun on the open road is usually quickly illegal, unless you open up, because what you get is a genuine sense of speed that sound insulation and visibility can’t mask, and you get a much greater sense of place driving even in normal environments, not even some great driving road. Also, I don’t care about rain or subzero temperatures, I’ve driven in both many times and it’s not that big a deal.
4.Because you pick the exact gear you want at all times, you remain engaged so you won’t nod off out of boredom and run into somebody, and if you complain about a clutch you either have the wrong car or need to change your habits. You get a pass when you have knee surgery.
5.The Miata has always been marked by accessibility, and the immediate torque and response in everyday life you get from even a small conventional engine makes it better than the focused histrionics of the spinning triangles that only comes alive at the top. As an adjunct, that’s why the Miata is a better car than the S2000.
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Originally Posted by Mark D Stroyer
