JulesMaximus
No Lifer
- Jul 3, 2003
- 74,550
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The Miata is significantly lighter than the S2K, especially if you get a base-model NA generation. 2100lbs vs 2800lbs. There is no substitution for lightness. Even the typical V8 Miata is still only ~2500lbs (or less). In my semi-professional opinion, lightness is the most important aspect for a track car's responsiveness. It also reduces wear on EVERYTHING in the car in track conditions. It's less weight to wear tires, less mass for brakes to stop, and less mass for the engine to accelerate.
The Miata's engine is closely related to a turbocharged engine, so it has all of the goodies to keep a strained engine running under severe duty. Street driven Miatas are routinely 250k-300k mile cars on the stock engine and transmission. This also means that the engine responds very well to boost, mine is currently running 12PSI on 165k mile stock internals and stock transmission, this is in the 220whp range, more than double stock power levels.The previous owner ran 14PSI for the three years he raced it. I bought my car for $2300 and have spent another $1200 on supporting engine mods and sorting things out, hardly S2K price ranges.
Parts cost and availability. I don't know what an S2K engine would cost new or used. A Miata engine will run you $300-500 used, and less than $2k shipped for a factory crate motor. I would be amazed if an S2K engine was anywhere near this cheap to replace. A quick look at TireRack shows that Miata suspension and brake equipment is anywhere from a little less expensive to a lot less expensive than equivalent S2K equipment. Tires are more expensive in S2K sizes it seems, if you can match up the staggered sizes with the same tire. With over half a million Miata's made, and an entire racing series just for Miata's (Spec Miata) there is simply amazing after market support, and lower prices parts through high volume.
There's also the esoteric benefit of modding your car. It becomes more yours every time you change something. Frankly, half the reason I own a toy car is to wrench on it, the other half is to drive its brains out. I take pride in saying, "here's my Miata, and this is what I've done to it" instead of "here's my S2K, it's stock."
I haven't had any wheel time or wrench time with any of the cars mentioned here other than a Miata. All I will say is that working in a Miata engine bay is cake compared to any other car I've worked on. There is plenty of room generally, and very few operations that can't be accomplished in a few hours. Apparently 1st timers can expect to strip a Miata of all running gear in two 8-hour days.
In terms of driving it is an incredibly nimble, balanced, and communicative chassis to drive. They'll let you know exactly what they want to do, are hard to upset, give you plenty of warning before you find the limit, and are fairly easy to catch when you exceed the limit.
All of the cars you're considering will be fun, and they'll all do well. I can think of competitive examples of each among the local auto-x drivers I race with. However, I think that a Miata will cost less to buy, keep racing, be more enjoyable to drive off-track and to work on, and be able to support serious modding if you choose to in the future.
I have thought about this a lot
I agree with everything you've said which is why, out of the 3 choices I choose the S2K. I like the Miata but the only one I've driven was an early 90s brand new and I thought it was underpowered personally. I didn't really get a chance to push it though.
I will say that one of my favorite cars of all time is the Lotus Elise which is under 2,000lbs and makes 190hp. Everything you said about reduced weight applies to the Elise. Too bad they are so expensive but finding used examples isn't difficult which brings the price down quite a bit over a new one. Still, it's going to be a lot more expensive than even a new Miata.
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