I had a mercedes 320 daily driver and my 08C2S was parked almost all the time. I soon realized this arrangement sucked and parked the mercedes. the 08C2s is now and forever my daily driver. I drive it everwhere and in the rain. It is a great rain car.

 

I would love to have a Miata for a beater/track ****. A well driven Flying Miata f/i car w/ 200+ rwhp and a well sorted chassis would give most everyone fits on a track day or at an auto-x.

The whole "slow car driven fast" thing is true, IMO.

I'm splitting time between 3 cars since I'd gladly drive the 997 as a daily I just don't feel comfortable seeing clients in the 997.

Up until about 6 months ago I was definitely making more money than most of them.

Now - not bloody likely.

 

Hey Cattman, you totally nailed it. I've often mentioned to friends about my metric of 'over the shoulder smiling'. That is, when you exit your car, boat, whatever, and you're walking away, and glance briefly over your shoulder to admire it, does it bring a big smile to your face?
My Porsche does, my Ford GT does, for me a modern C6 might, I suspect an Ultima would, but I doubt a Miata would.
'Not that there's anything wrong with it...'

 

We have a 08 Miata that my wife uses as her commuter. Its a fun car for sunny days. Im 6'0 ft and dont fit very well. The quality isnt has good as my 997. It has rattles and squeaks, even a panel under the steering wheel fell off due to manufacture defect. I wouldnt buy another one.

 

Did a track day in October, and at the end of the afternoon the instructors drove us round the track in their own cars. Most of them ran track/race prepped Miatas, and they were unbelievably quick. I was absolutely stunned at how well those things handled and cornered, they were just phenomenal. I've never been in a car that cornered as hard as those things. I'll never look at a Miata in the same way again - a few mods, and those things are amazing track cars.

 

Drive that P-car, nothing else comes close!

 

Many thanks to all who responded here...I test drove the Miata today and then went and drove an 09 C4S with almost all the regular options that my car has (mine is an 07 C4S manual with nav, short throw shifter and leather seats, sport chrono plus and so on).

The Miata was fun to drive and seemed pretty well built. It's definitely very slow in stock form compared to my C4S and controls were just OK. The stock shifter was nice and the interior fit/finish seemed very good. It was fairly quiet at all speeds compared to my C4S. The hard top is nice and seemed to help with noise and space - it seemed a bit larger inside that the soft top even if it wasn't. The operation of the top is fast and pretty slick.

I took the Miata on the same "test track" that I test Porsches on and in fact tested the 09 C4S on just 30 minutes later - trying to A/B as much as possible.

The Miata was peppy and sporty but felt very fast on an off camber turn followed by a high speed long sweeping curve. By that I mean that at 50 MPH it felt like I was close to max'ing out the car and wasn't comfortable going faster. Sort of the old saying "driving a slow car fast" in action.

The C4S easily handles the same set of turns at 65 without feeling unsettled or even pushed anywhere close to it's limits - sort of the "driving a fast car slow" paradigm.

For me, I've decided against the Miata since the C4S just fits me like a glove and is a joy to drive in all aspects. The Miata is not the sublime experience that I'm used to in my 911 and it also fails the "look back" test. I always look at the 911 as I walk away - who wouldn't it's as close to a work of art as any car can get IMHO.

 

Glad you finally got it....