Hva Jay Leno syntes om Miata/MX-5
Posted: 10 Aug 2005, 20:00
There was a movie a couple of years ago called The Incredible Lightness of Being. I liked the title because it reminded me of Lotus' attitude to making cars, and more recently of the Miata, or MX-5 as you call it. It's all about less being more.
I like the Miata because it's the only sports car in which they haven't used horsepower to solve all the problems. With almost every other car, when they have trouble with it, or it just isn't selling, they just add gobs of horsepower to it.
'You've got the Mercedes coupe moving a little slow? You come out with the CL65 with 604hp. Bad handling? Put a Hemi in it.'
With the Miata, that doesn't really seem to the issue. Although the power's gone up a bit over the years, it's one of the few cars you can drive where power doesn't seem to be the issue. It's one of balance.
Because cars are so powerful now, there aren't many cars where you need to use all the power all the time to keep it on the boil. When you drive a new Porsche or Corvette or any of those cars, anything past a third throttle to a half throttle and you're in jail. With the Miata, you can whip the gearbox around, bring the a$$ end around and slide it a little bit and have a great deal of fun with it. And if you do manage to damage it, there's a Mazda junkyard less than 3 miles from me.
My Miata was my late brother's. He got it in '96 and, like most people, I had that 'haridresser car' kind of reaction. 'What did you buy that for? Why didn't you get an MGA Twin Cam or something? Something that will leak oil and catch fire?'
Like a lot of people, I came late to the Miata party, and had that incredible snobbery: 'Oh sure it's got twin cams, but it's not the same twin cams as Lotus!' And then Pat got the car. He put a supercharger on it, sway bars and some handling stuff. And every time I went home I loved driving it more and more.
Now that I have inherited it, I drive it quite a bit. I use it when - and this sounds dumb - I use it when I have to park my car somewhere. For me, cars tend to be a great form of recreation. You take a Porsche Carrera GT or a Ford GT, you go out and go in a huge circle, you go 150 miles on windy roads up through the hills, and then you always come back to the same destination, then you lock it in the garage. It's not a car you can actually park on the street and leave.
It's a bit like taking an attractive woman in a mini-skirt into a club. If you go to the restroom, you're constantly looking out the door making sure no other guys are talking to her and you hurry up and get back there. But with the Miata, it's a car you can actually drive, and park, and people may throw it a cursory glance but no one will hit on it.
In the last column, I talked about MG. Of course, if MG had made the Miata it probably would have saved them, but I don't think they could have made it.
I think the English and Americans have that great 'we know what we're doing' snobbery. It's a bit like trying to talk to a doctor. Most private planes that have crashed have been flown by doctors, because you can't tell them anything. If a doctor gets in a plane, and you say 'Now that control...', you get 'I'm a doctor! I know what I'm doing!'
It's the same thing with building a sports car. I'll give you an example. About a month-and-a-half ago, a group of Toyota engineers called me up, and they said they want to build a Toyota super-car. Could I show them some of my cars and tell them what I like and don't like? Can you imagine a British company going 'Hello, we'd like to find out what you like and don't like...'
So now there's a new MX-5. I think it's very nice. Like everything else, it's a little wider but I think the sense of balance, the sense of proportion, is still there. I haven't driven it yet, but I'm sure by using lightweight materials and all that type of thing they've kept that. I mean, this is a cash cow isn't it? It's the most popular sports car in the world.
The great thing about the Miata is that to us who lived with the first model this is a refreshed version. But to a whole new generation of people, it will be the only version they know. Heritage is wonderful for guys of a certain age, but to another generation it's ancient history. This is the sports car of record and the only difference is they work hard to keep it that way.
Jay Leno
I like the Miata because it's the only sports car in which they haven't used horsepower to solve all the problems. With almost every other car, when they have trouble with it, or it just isn't selling, they just add gobs of horsepower to it.
'You've got the Mercedes coupe moving a little slow? You come out with the CL65 with 604hp. Bad handling? Put a Hemi in it.'
With the Miata, that doesn't really seem to the issue. Although the power's gone up a bit over the years, it's one of the few cars you can drive where power doesn't seem to be the issue. It's one of balance.
Because cars are so powerful now, there aren't many cars where you need to use all the power all the time to keep it on the boil. When you drive a new Porsche or Corvette or any of those cars, anything past a third throttle to a half throttle and you're in jail. With the Miata, you can whip the gearbox around, bring the a$$ end around and slide it a little bit and have a great deal of fun with it. And if you do manage to damage it, there's a Mazda junkyard less than 3 miles from me.
My Miata was my late brother's. He got it in '96 and, like most people, I had that 'haridresser car' kind of reaction. 'What did you buy that for? Why didn't you get an MGA Twin Cam or something? Something that will leak oil and catch fire?'
Like a lot of people, I came late to the Miata party, and had that incredible snobbery: 'Oh sure it's got twin cams, but it's not the same twin cams as Lotus!' And then Pat got the car. He put a supercharger on it, sway bars and some handling stuff. And every time I went home I loved driving it more and more.
Now that I have inherited it, I drive it quite a bit. I use it when - and this sounds dumb - I use it when I have to park my car somewhere. For me, cars tend to be a great form of recreation. You take a Porsche Carrera GT or a Ford GT, you go out and go in a huge circle, you go 150 miles on windy roads up through the hills, and then you always come back to the same destination, then you lock it in the garage. It's not a car you can actually park on the street and leave.
It's a bit like taking an attractive woman in a mini-skirt into a club. If you go to the restroom, you're constantly looking out the door making sure no other guys are talking to her and you hurry up and get back there. But with the Miata, it's a car you can actually drive, and park, and people may throw it a cursory glance but no one will hit on it.
In the last column, I talked about MG. Of course, if MG had made the Miata it probably would have saved them, but I don't think they could have made it.
I think the English and Americans have that great 'we know what we're doing' snobbery. It's a bit like trying to talk to a doctor. Most private planes that have crashed have been flown by doctors, because you can't tell them anything. If a doctor gets in a plane, and you say 'Now that control...', you get 'I'm a doctor! I know what I'm doing!'
It's the same thing with building a sports car. I'll give you an example. About a month-and-a-half ago, a group of Toyota engineers called me up, and they said they want to build a Toyota super-car. Could I show them some of my cars and tell them what I like and don't like? Can you imagine a British company going 'Hello, we'd like to find out what you like and don't like...'
So now there's a new MX-5. I think it's very nice. Like everything else, it's a little wider but I think the sense of balance, the sense of proportion, is still there. I haven't driven it yet, but I'm sure by using lightweight materials and all that type of thing they've kept that. I mean, this is a cash cow isn't it? It's the most popular sports car in the world.
The great thing about the Miata is that to us who lived with the first model this is a refreshed version. But to a whole new generation of people, it will be the only version they know. Heritage is wonderful for guys of a certain age, but to another generation it's ancient history. This is the sports car of record and the only difference is they work hard to keep it that way.
Jay Leno
