vader1

The RX8 and the Miata are hardly the same car. The RX8 had very funky love it or hate it styling and a guzzling engine that was completely torqueless. Its an apples to gorillas comparison.

I for one am not asking for a monster miata V8 conversion, but for freaks sake, how the hell hard is it to make a 2 liter NA 200 horse engine? EVERYBODY and their brother seems to have done it except Mazda. At 2200 pounds and 200 horses you have a poor man's Elise for $25k with a warranty and some room to grow for the mod freaks. At 2200 pounds and the same old 150-170 range, you have the same old car that has had declinig sales. Is it fun? Sure. But if you need to drop several thousand into it to keep up with the average V6 family sedan at 270 hp+, then it is not going to bring in the sports car crowd in waves.

I aint asking for 300hp, but jebus, 200 would be nice. A little "sport" in the sports car? Otherwise it is a soft top, fun driving economy car.

deepbluejh

The RX8 and the Miata are hardly the same car. The RX8 had very funky love it or hate it styling and a guzzling engine that was completely torqueless. Its an apples to gorillas comparison.

I for one am not asking for a monster miata V8 conversion, but for freaks sake, how the hell hard is it to make a 2 liter NA 200 horse engine? EVERYBODY and their brother seems to have done it except Mazda. At 2200 pounds and 200 horses you have a poor man's Elise for $25k with a warranty and some room to grow for the mod freaks. At 2200 pounds and the same old 150-170 range, you have the same old car that has had declinig sales. Is it fun? Sure. But if you need to drop several thousand into it to keep up with the average V6 family sedan at 270 hp+, then it is not going to bring in the sports car crowd in waves.

I aint asking for 300hp, but jebus, 200 would be nice. A little "sport" in the sports car? Otherwise it is a soft top, fun driving economy car.
[/quote]

At 200HP, with a commensurate increase in torque, every part of that drivetrain would have to be beefed up to maintain stock reliability. Not to mention suspension and brake system reinforcements That means more weight and more cost to the bottom line.

It wouldn't be 2200lbs, nor would it cost $25k. It might be 2500 or 2600, and it would probably cost $30k.

If you wanted to push it even further, you could give it 240HP and have it weigh 2800lbs and cost $35k. But now we're talking about an S2000

CosmosMpower

The RX8 and the Miata are hardly the same car. The RX8 had very funky love it or hate it styling and a guzzling engine that was completely torqueless. Its an apples to gorillas comparison.

I for one am not asking for a monster miata V8 conversion, but for freaks sake, how the hell hard is it to make a 2 liter NA 200 horse engine? EVERYBODY and their brother seems to have done it except Mazda. At 2200 pounds and 200 horses you have a poor man's Elise for $25k with a warranty and some room to grow for the mod freaks. At 2200 pounds and the same old 150-170 range, you have the same old car that has had declinig sales. Is it fun? Sure. But if you need to drop several thousand into it to keep up with the average V6 family sedan at 270 hp+, then it is not going to bring in the sports car crowd in waves.

I aint asking for 300hp, but jebus, 200 would be nice. A little "sport" in the sports car? Otherwise it is a soft top, fun driving economy car.
[/quote]

At 200HP, with a commensurate increase in torque, every part of that drivetrain would have to be beefed up to maintain stock reliability. Not to mention suspension and brake system reinforcements That means more weight and more cost to the bottom line.

It wouldn't be 2200lbs, nor would it cost $25k. It might be 2500 or 2600, and it would probably cost $30k.

If you wanted to push it even further, you could give it 240HP and have it weigh 2800lbs and cost $35k. But now we're talking about an S2000
[/quote]


I don't think anything would need to be beefed up for 200 hp vs 150 or 170 hp. You can slap a turbo on an old 1.6L Miata with basic fuel management and beat on it all day at those power levels and that's a 20 year old car with tiny rotors, pads and a stock clutch.

Saki GT

I agree - a power bump wouldn't require that much engineering. I don't understand why Mazda has never offered a truly hot version of this car, but I suspect its just typical Japanese thinking - they don't seem to get that certain markets want more power, which is weird seeing how Mazda is the "zoom-zoom" car company.

SpudRacer

Somehow I think the Italians will know what to do with this platform. The 1750 TBi in the Giulietta Quadrifoglio Verde makes 235 hp and 251 lb ft in a direct-injection turbo DOHC 16-valve inline-4. 6,000 rpm rev limit. What would that be like in a Miata with better looks?

Moddiction

I do love the lightweight sports car thing which hopefully is coming back now! However I hate that they always have to put a tiny low power engine in them. Why can't we just get the lightweight WITH some actual power.
Miata I know is a great seller for Mazda and has been for a long time. They are pretty fun to drive but just so low on power.
Car would be a blast with the MS3 engine in there I bet!

ltswb

Sorry, but that is a fugly ass BMW knockoff. No thanks

Scot

according to this... looks like the RX8 was a pretty successful seller. That same engine in a 2200lb Miata would be awesome!

thielepr

I will trade my s2k for a 2200lbs miata with a rotary engine tomorrow. There is something about the flames that I like

ms32s2k

It's not love at first sight. I really want to love a car like I love the S2000, but it's no where to be found.

I'll wait to see how it looks in the flesh and in production.