NC(ar)D

[juansolo]

Is that your house?

If so we'd have to change his user name to "his lordship" 

lol, indeed. No that is somewhat posher than my house. Nice backdrop for a photo though 

Nice car never liked the look of the 911 -- they always looked to me like the world's fattest man sat on the front bonnet, and all the mass of the car shifted to the back like a stress ball on wheels.

Mine was a Cayman, proportionally better for having the engine in the middle where it belongs.

[midwayfair]

Ha! Just noticed the "No Parking" sign right behind where the car is parked.

Control + F ... someone beat me to it.

[chuckbuick]

Cool.  An ex-girlfriend had a '91 MX-5.  It wasn't gonna win any drag races but in the twistys it was all kinds of fun.  Took it up Hwy 1 between Morro Bay and Monterey a few times and had lots of smiles while driving.  Chuffed to bits is how I think you Brits say it.  Also, I'm about 6'2" and it fit me fine.

On the flip side I had a chance to drive a Porsche GT3 once.  A bit more power and handling.  A bit steeper price, too.

Enjoy the new ride, man.

[Leevibe]

I have wanted an MX-5 (Miata over here) for a long time now. I really dig the 2nd generation bodies for some reason. I've never driven one, but I love the concept of a car that can make you feel like you're going faster than you really are. I can't justify a roadster. When I sold my bike, a Honda ST-1100 (our version of the Pan European) it was part of an agreement with my wife that I could get a fun car. I really wanted a Miata but needed something more practical, so I settled for an '02 Civic Si that's a bit of a beater. It is a fun little hatch, but it's front wheel drive. Where I live, all of the roads are twisty. The Honda is a blast in the curves, having been lowered on coilovers. Still, the balance and drivetrain of the Mazda would be perfect for our roads. I drove my friend's Boxster (I know, not a fair way to evaluate what a Porsche should be) and I was underwhelmed. It would be utterly boring below 80mph. With my Honda, I can have fun below 60, as long as I keep it 1 gear too low.

Anyway, congrats on the Mazda. I'll be interested to hear how you like it over time. I'm shedding a tear that the Cayman is gone though. Those things are just cool.

[juansolo]

It was time to let the Cayman go. I'd had it 6 years and in all honesty, the points you make about the Boxster worked for that also. In the right environment (northern Scotland, the Alps) where the roads are good quality, flowing and well sighted, it is spectacular. Where I live where the roads are much twistier and poorer quality, with a lot more traffic, a car as quick and as firm as the Cayman didn't make as much sense.

Indeed the thing that made the decision for me was finding a Mk1 MX-5 for my brother and driving that. I remember flinging it around a couple of corners getting a bit of a 4 wheel drift on and feeling a bit guilty. I look down and I'm barely doing the speed limit. To get the same sort of movement out of the Porsche you'd be WAY north of the speed limit. Not only is that license losing territory, our roads just aren't good enough to really be able to do that much.

Which is the rub of it all. Modern cars are way too capable these days. Huge power and huge grip. All well and good, but it means you're massively within the performance envelope of the car when driving on the road. Which is what you drive on the vast majority of the time, making track timings bloody pointless and an endless bug bear of mine. Indeed people harping on about things being faster around the Nurburgring. It's utterly pointless. It's fast around a 12 mile ribbon of tarmac in Germany... Which equates to the real world in no way whatsoever.

The reality is that when you're using say 50% of a car's potential, i.e. well within it's limits, it's all a bit easy and dull. Lower those limits so you're using 90% of it's potential, make it so you have to wring out the revs and stir the gears to make it go, make it so you have to get your braking right, set up the car, balance it through a corner properly, then pour the power in as you straighten up to maintain speed. This is all what makes driving interesting. Relying on the poke of a big engine makes you lazy as you can just squirt between corners. Huge grip allows you to take liberties with corners that you can't with less. All of which makes things ultimately easy and therefore unrewarding.

We've lost our way, it's why I praise the likes of the MX-5 and the GT86 for going the other way. People who complain about them being underpowered are missing the point massively. There's a lot of fun to be had in cars that don't post big numbers.

[alanp]

I seem to recall a Top Gear episode where May was praising vehicles with piddly engines and tyre contact patches the size of tic-tacs, 'cos then you have to thrash the arse off them to get anything.

[juansolo]

I agree with him on many things it seems