Mazda Miata vs. Toyota GR86: There are no losers here.
"ND" Miata debuted eight years ago and our love has only grown since. Two staffers own NDs, and after one day of driving, I started doing the math. It's the purest sports car on sale today. Mazda developed a unique platform for the car, keeping dimensions tidy and weight remarkably low, well under 2400 pounds for this well-equipped GT soft top. Since 2019, the Miata gets power from a 2.0-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder that makes 181 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque.
Toyota's GR86 is the fresh one, arriving just last year. If the Miata is the modern take on the classic roadster, this is a classic take on a sports coupe. The Datsun 240Z to the Miata's Lotus Elan. It rides on an updated version of the platform developed for the original Toyota 86 and its not-quite-identical twin, the Subaru BRZ. Parked next to anything except an ND Miata, it's a small car, certainly no larger than a 2+2 coupe need be.
Given that these two are the only affordable, lightweight sports cars on the market, it's remarkable how different they feel. Their execution of a similar idea is quite different, and myself, plusstaff writer Brian Silvestro and editor-at-arge Travis Okulski, on hand to help with evaluation and photography, found ourselves discussing their details at length. In between bouts of sliding the cars around.
It has the more ideal sports-car chassis, with double-wishbone suspension up front and multi-links out back. Double wishbones are more expensive and harder to package than McPherson struts, but allow for better camber control in cornering without the need for a stiffer spring/damper setup. Dave Coleman, the engineering ace at Mazda North America, once said that the best, most exciting roads are usually the worst when it comes to surface quality, so a sports car shouldn't be overly stiff.
The driving position is spot-on. As with the old 86, the GR86 is one of those cars that feels right immediately when you get in. The seats are far nicer than the standard Miata chairs, with much more bolstering though no meaningful sacrifice in everyday comfort. You can get better seats in a Miata, but you need to option the expensive, yet desirable $4500 BBS/Brembo/Recaro package, which as the name suggests, adds gorgeous forged BBS wheels and larger Brembo brakes.
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