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Many years ago I helped a friend pick up a 94 Miata from Ohio to drive it back to Pa. It was a 3 - 4 drive and we switched cars at least once because of lack of comfort . It was our first dive into convertibles and I quickly fell in love with the topless experience. Weeks later I got a 96GT convertible.
I borrowed that Miata many times and loved every minute of it. I can only imagine how nice the new one is and the gen before it.
I have an older Merc SL500 which is a 4000lb car with plenty of power and comfort, but I still keep thinking about nibble simple feel of a Miata. It’s light, it’s manual trans, it’s very simple and most importantly it’s light in its spirit. The complexity of modern convertibles and cars in general is overbearing at times.
What are some of the simple fun cars that you always wanted or had?
I had a 1987 RX7 (160HP maybe) and it was a blast to drive. Dad also had a 69 Rambler that he bought new. He had to have the dealer detune it because it was nearly undrivable due to the power-to-weight ratio.
I had a 1990 CRX Si, which only weighed about 2300lb and had a taut chassis with double wishbone suspension at all corners - one auto writer of the time said it "has moves in traffic like (NFL running back) Marcus Allen"
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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After driving my F150 with the 5.0 V8 anything seems light. Back in 2009 I bought a 1997 Ford Escort, 2.0 4 cylinder and 5 speed stick. It was to commute to a Park & Ride lot in a sketchy area where I caught a vanpool, so I only spent $950, That seemed very light after being used to an Explorer, and Jeep Cherokees for a few years. Going way back, I bought a new 1980 Datsun 210 for my wife with a 1500 4 cylinder and 5 speed stick, and that was definitely the lightest. Those little cars with stick shifts are really fun to zip around in, just not very practical for normal use with today's highways and the big trucks and SUVs all around them.
Our 2013 Fiat 500e weighs a tad less than my 2001 VW Golf TDI (2,934 vs 3,050lbs). The car's seating position is rather high and the windshield angle is rather steep compared to our Tesla Model S. The Fiat's suspension components are tiny and look brittle compared to the VW. I've never seen such thin tie-rods, sway bar, and control arms. That said the weight distribution is fairly even and the car feels like a toy. I enjoyed driving the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gen Miatas. My brother-in-law had them all and I really enjoyed the Mazdaspeed variant with the turbo and Torsen differential; the 4th gen has more visibility issues with the rear window but nothing to complain about.
As for the MBs, I borrowed an SL63 AMG for a weekend in Napa and while I enjoyed the seat massagers I felt the front-end was just too heavy and the blips with the downshifting was a little annoying on an 8-speed transmission. Solid chassis but just felt like driving a plow compared to the Model S.
I believe that for a sporty driving experience, light vehicle weight and good brakes are the most important things. Engine power is way down around #10 on the list of priorities.
I assure you it's a lot more fun to drive a 100 HP MG on twisty New England roads with the top down at 30-50 MPH, than a 400 HP Challenger with the weight of a bank vault and you can't even get 1/5 of the way into the throttle or you'll run into the bushes.
If I still lived in New England a Miata would be high on my purchase priority list. But now I live in a huge southern city where driving is mostly sitting in traffic with outside temps at something uncomfortable (usually flaming hot, but sometimes raw and cold). Not the environment for a small light open sports car.
Many years ago on a business trip I ended up with a rented Geo Metro (or whatever the name was at the time) with the 3 cylinder engine. For one person, that little tin can was a lot of fun - just mash the go-pedal to the floor and the little thing gamely strides off. Yeah, you ran out of go at about 70 MPH, but that's fast enough to go anyway. Yeah, it sounded like a tin can but it was a lot of fun to drive.
Maybe I'm biased because when I was young, high horsepower cars (except the Vette and Camaro - and considering this was the 1970s, they weren't really all that high HP) were all huge wallowing Detroit felony barges that drove like large floating mattresses only remotely connected to the road; and all the interesting cars were wee, low-power, lightweight cars like the Corvair, MG, FOG Capri, Spridgets, the first Audi Fox, BMW 2002. Heck, even the much derided Rabbit, with a standard transmission, was a lot more fun to drive than a 74 full size Chevy station wagon. And aside from the clouds of oil smoke, and the biodegradable bodywork, even the 'orrible Chevy Vega really had rather nice driving characteristics - if you could enjoy them before the whole thing collapsed into iron ore.
I watched a review of the Chevy Sonic hatchback and the reviewer described the car as being nimble with a go kart like driving experience.
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