Today, for the first time in many months, I went on not 1, but 2 test drives. While both of them are “sports cars” per se, they couldn't be more different. Today I drove a 2016 Mazda MX-5/Miata (6MT Club w/Brembo & BBS package) and a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS (6MT 2SS package).
The last time I drove the new ND Miata, I had a few qualms with it. Limited interior space and the fact that it caused me a decent amount of pain in my right knee were certainly a couple of negative factors. Fast forward almost half a year and my knee has been slowly healing (with some physical therapy) over the past few months and I've also learned how to properly adjust the seat to avoid excessive pain. It's also much warmer outside. How is that relevant? I'm now wearing summer clothes and thin souled shoes, which really add up when you're a bigger guy (about 6'2”, 210 lbs) driving a small car.
The result? Zero knee pain on a 45 minute test drive and I actually fit just fine. The combination of thicker/heavier clothes, knee pain and ~30 degree weather didn't help the ND Miata's case the last time I drove it. This time was much better!
I'll immediately address the pink elephant in the room about the Miata: power. It needs more. Seriously, with myself and a ~250 lbs salesman in the car, it felt like the little engine that could. It clawed it's way up the steep inclines of Deer Creek Canyon, but by the time it hit 3rd gear it felt pretty anemic. The aggressive gearing in 1st/2nd helped it feel peppy enough at low speeds, but once it ran out of torque multiplication the lack of power was immediately noticeable.
People at sea level might not have this problem, but up here at over 5000 ft elevation (Denver area), the combination of the heavy extra passenger, the car still being in the break-in period (likely running on dealer filled 85 octane piss water) and my daily driver (2016 VW Golf R) being significantly faster really made the little Miata's lack of power stand out. Keep in mind that for every 1000 ft in elevation you go up, a naturally aspirated engine loses roughly 3% power. On today's canyon run, I would say the elevation was between 5000-7000 ft, so the little ND was likely down between 15-21% power vs sea level. It really adds up quickly.
Onto handling... Yes, the ND has quite a bit of body roll. Yes, it could certainly use a stiffer suspension. However, the lightweight chassis felt very capable and was a joy to pitch around corners! The last time I drove an ND I didn't really push it very hard as the cold temperatures (around ~30 degrees F at the time) don't really play too well with the ND's summer tires. Today, with temps in the high 80's it was a different story entirely!
Playing around in the canyons, the ND Miata's steering is very direct, but there's a moment of hesitation as the car starts to lean. Keeping the pressure on the wheel results in the car setting itself on it's bump-stops and rotating with ease. Coming off of the brakes the car feels like it wants to push just a bit, but applying a bit of throttle tightens the car's line quickly. Overall, it's a very neutral car that inspires quite a bit of confidence after you allow it to rest on the bump stops. I can only imagine how good it would be with a stiffer suspension!
I will say that outside of playing in the canyons, the car rides very well and soaks up bumps and road undulations without a care in the world.
The car I drove had the Brembo brake package and they worked great! Good feedback through the pedal and very easy to modulate. Through the downhill portion of the canyon I put them through their paces and never felt the slightest amount of fade. Unfortunately, I've never driven the “base” car, so I can't comment on the differences between the brakes.
I don't need to go into detail about the shifter and clutch setup... everyone knows it's outstanding! The gates are well spaced and defined- I never even came close to missing a gear. The clutch has a nice, low engagement point and is easy to modulate. I had a lot of fun playing with the gearbox. It's too bad people have been breaking them lately, as it's a fun shifter to row and disappointing that it might not reliably stand up to track duty. Hopefully Mazda will release an updated version of it soon.
I didn't spend too much time playing with the interior, as I was more concerned with driving, so I won't comment too much on it. I will say that it's relatively neat, well organized and all the materials you actually come into contact with (seats, shifter, steering wheel, ect) felt pretty nice. After adjusting the seat- 1 click forward from full-rear to give additional recline- it held me in place pretty well. The foot-wells are a bit tight on space, and there's something in the door that occasionally poked me in the left leg, but it wasn't much of a concern.
Overall, I came away with a much more positive impression of the ND Miata than I had the last time I drove it. It's a good car, but I think it needs a bit of work in order to be a great car. Namely, I think it needs another 40-50hp and a stiffer suspension. Basically, if it had the power to weight ratio of an S2000, and a suspension setup similar to, well, an S2000, I think it would make one hell of a performer! With a set of cams to help with the top end, a full exhaust, a tune and a decent set of coilovers, I think it would make for a fun little track/weekend/autoX car! As time goes on, I'll be curious to see how the transmission holds up as people start to add additional power....
In the end I really enjoyed the car. As a person that has owned 2 Miata's in the past (1990 NA and 2004 Mazdaspeed), I'm a fan of the recipe and I think Mazda did a pretty good job with the new ND. I know complaining about power and excessive suspension movement is going to result in some people saying that I “don't understand the new Miata”, and maybe they're right. But that doesn't change the way I feel about it.
I felt like both my NA and especially my NB MSM had significantly less body roll than the ND and that was a good thing.
I also felt like the new 2.0L engine didn't want to rev. It had plenty of low-end torque, but that's not what I want out of a dedicated sports car. Again, a set of more high-RPM oriented cams, an exhaust and a tune would likely go a long way. Yes, the new car is supposedly faster than all previous iterations, but there's something missing with the engine....
My old weak-sauce 1.6L NA was certainly slower, but that motor loved to rev and was fun to take to redline! The ND? Not so much. They've traded high-end zing for low-end torque.
And I don't care what stats on a piece of paper say, my 178hp Mazdaspeed Miata was faster than the ND. At least at my elevation. Granted, turbocharged cars have an advantage over NA cars up here, but the motor in my MSM was considerably more fun to play with.
Would I buy the ND as a weekend playtoy? Maybe. But only with the full knowledge that it wouldn't stay stock for very long! The biggest stumbling block about buying the ND Miata for me is simply the fact that the AP2 S2000 exists and addresses all of my complaints about the Miata in stock form...
Would I recommend the ND Miata? Absolutely! I still had a ton of fun driving it and believe the smiles per hour factor is very high with this one! She just needs a bit of extra love from the aftermarket to hit the “sweet spot” I'm looking for.
Due to my power robbing elevation, I'm now looking forward to driving the upcoming turbocharged Fiat 124 Spider Abarth. A bit of boost would certainly be helpful up here! As would the beefier NC gearbox they've shoved inside of it.... I'll be sure to post my thoughts about the Fiata in the upcoming months!
***PART 2*******
After I left the Mazda dealership, I stopped by my local Chevy dealership. I've read all the reviews on the new Camaro and wanted to see if it lived up to all the hype. I'll save you the suspense- it does. Sweet baby Jesus the 6th gen Camaro is good. Very good. I've driven a lot of cars over the years, and I have no problem saying that it is the best “pony” car I've ever driven. Yes, I said it. It's better than the Mustang. I understand some people won't agree with that assessment, but it's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. YMMV.
-Side note: to be fair to the 2015+ Mustang, I do believe the 5.0L Coyote V8 makes a better sound (one of the best on earth!) and I prefer the Stang's powerband & gearing; but I preferred pretty much everything else about the Camaro.
Getting inside of the Camaro, I was concerned that I wouldn't hardly fit due to my size (6'2”, 210 lbs) and the car's low roof-line. Not a problem at all! I was actually very comfortable. I had about a couple of inches between my head and the roof and I felt like I could drive the car while wearing a helmet without a problem.
The seats are fantastic! Extremely soft and comfortable, while remaining supportive and keeping me in place in the canyon.
The driving position was also very good. I was able to tailor it to my size perfectly and I felt very much like I was inside of a sports-car style cockpit. Everything fell to hand easily and visibility wasn't nearly as much of an issue as I thought it would be. Yes, when backing out of a parking space, the rear pillars are massive an obscure your view; but I have a confession to make: I cheated and used the back-up camera. Problem solved.
I've seen some people complain about forward visibility, but I didn't think it was that bad. Maybe a shorter driver might have a problem with it, but I didn't really notice it during my 45 minute test drive.
Again, I didn't spend too much time playing with the interior, but it was very high quality. It had a much better fit and finish than any bow-tie product I've ever seen before it. It felt more Cadillac than Chevy inside. To say it's an improvement over the last gen Camaro is a huge understatement.
Setting off the clutch is a bit heavier than I'm used to in my Golf R, but fairly smooth and easy to modulate. The shifter is notchy, but in the best way possible. It feels much heavier than the gearbox setup in my VW (and the Miata), but had a positive engagement and I never came close to missing a gear.
Then we get to the 455hp 6.2L engine... dear lord, what an engine! Torque, torque everywhere! 455 ft-lbs of it! I've driven a lot of boosted cars and I usually can't tell that my Golf R has any perceivable turbo lag... until you drive a huge, torquey, NA V8!! I almost forgot how good the throttle response is on an engine like this!
Talk about a fast car.... people have been trapping these things in the ¼ mile at over 116mph! For those that follow drag racing, a trap like that is generally good for a high 11 second pass if you can hook up! This car has power galore, all over the rev band and it sounds great doing it.
However, there are a couple of gripes I have about the powertrain:
-The retarded 1st to 4th shift the gearbox makes you use when driving slowly. This only happened to me once while driving, but it was 1 time too many. It's a manual goddamn it, the whole point is that I can shift it however I want to whatever gear I want! Not a problem if you wrap the engine over 2000rpm, but this is something I would remedy in short order if I ever owned one.
-The gearing is too tall. I think 2nd gear hits almost 80mph! Sure, this sounds great for fuel economy and taking down on the number of shifts you need in the ¼ mile; but I'm a sports car guy that likes to wrap the motor out and play with the shifter. Yes, the motor has the torque to use the tall gearing, but a shorter final drive would really make it feel more playful.
So, speaking of sports car.... how does it handle? Better than any 3700 lbs car has a right to! I think it had the magnetic shocks, or as I'm going to call them- voodoo witchcraft shocks. The car rides very well and soaks up bumps, but when you put it in the canyons, it just stays flat!
The new Camaro has a smaller steering wheel than I've ever seen in a car this large. The turn-in is direct, immediate and had more feel than I expected for a car with an electric rack and wide tires. The body motions are controlled extremely well. Almost too well. You just point the big brawler and it goes wherever you tell it to go!
Speaking of big, the car starts to shrink around you as you drive. You can tell it's a big, heavy car, but it does a good job of masking it in the corners. It has more grip and agility than a car this size has a right to.
That actually brings me to another complaint:
-Despite being supremely planted, it actually wasn't as much fun as you might expect in the canyons. The car's overall limits are almost too high for canyon runs. I felt the same way the last time I drove a C5 Z06. Combine the car's high limits with being a wide car on a tight canyon road and you quickly realize you really can't push it anywhere close to it's limits on a public road. On an open race track, I think it would be a monster. In the canyons? I had more fun in the much slower Miata.
The brakes had plenty of stopping power and showed no signs of fade on my drive. However, I prefer the pedal feel in both the Miata and my Golf R.
Overall, I was really impressed with the new Camaro. It looks good, it's comfortable and it drives extremely well. I think it's quite a bit of car for the money.
I guess the question is: would I buy one? I don't know. It depends.
I have a family that includes 2 kids and a 50 lbs dog (he fits in the Golf R's trunk!). For me, the Camaro wouldn't work for a daily. It also snows here, so having AWD is a bonus. Another tick against the Camaro.
However, if I didn't have a family/dog and lived in a place where it didn't snow, I think I might be tempted by this machine! Or minus the family, I could see someone keeping a winter beater and driving this thing throughout the rest of the year when it's nice outside.
As a weekend playtoy car? Nope. It's very fast and very capable, but I actually had more fun driving the Miata... and if I'm being honest, my lowly VW Golf R is more fun to drive as well. The first time I remember bringing my Golf R to the same canyon road, I remember having a bigger smile on my face, likely due to the lighter weight, shorter gearing, more narrow canyon-friendly body and the ability to push it closer to it's limits.
And despite the Camaro's additional power and grip, I don't think it's any quicker on a canyon road than my VW. On a big open race track? The Camaro is certainly faster. In the windy mountain roads of Colorado? Not so much. The extra power and grip just can't be exploited on public roads. At least not by someone that values their license, or the safety of others.
Would I recommend the Camaro? Absolutely! But I would recommend it more as a daily than a weekend car. When I think weekend car, I think light-weight sports cars that aren't practical for a daily commute- Miata, S2000, Boxster/Cayman, Lotus Elise, Corvette, ect. The new Camaro certainly has sports car pedigree, but it's also just usable enough to commute or take a long road trip in.
I do know one thing: I've driven the old 4th and 5th gen Camaro's and they really don't hold a candle to this new car from GM. The General did a fine job on this one and you can color me impressed.
It's worth noting that an AP1 S2000 pulls about 205 rwhp (measured on our dyno) while an ND pulls 150 rwhp. The Honda is right around 2800 lbs, the Miata 2300. The power/weight isn't as far off as you'd think - an extra 20 hp would even them out.
