Mazda Super20: The Purest Miata? Ignition Ep. 74

MotorTrend

On this episode of Ignition

Transcript

00:00 [ENGINE REVVING]

00:03 This car is nothing new.

00:12 The Super 20 was built a few years ago

00:14 to commemorate 20 years of the Miata.

00:16 It's appeared at numerous car shows,

00:18 but unlike most beauty queens, this thing actually works.

00:22 This is Mazda, after all, who has big ties to motorsports,

00:25 specifically because of the Miata.

00:28 This week on "Ignition," we're driving the Super 20

00:30 because it appears to be the perfect extension of the things

00:33 that make the Miata so much fun.

00:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:56 The Super 20's face looks like something out of an anime,

00:59 lower and wider thanks to those fender flares.

01:02 And its fog lights sort of look like fangs.

01:05 New suspension components are matched to 16-inch wheels

01:08 wrapped in R-Compound rubber.

01:10 Just look at that sidewall.

01:12 Underneath the hood is an engine built by Cosworth

01:15 to withstand boosts sent from a flying Miata supercharger kit.

01:18 And on top is a very bright roll bar.

01:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:24 Acceleration may not be the whole point of the Super 20,

01:32 but it's pretty good at it because we

01:34 have very sticky tires.

01:35 That means we can do a big clutch dump

01:37 to get it out of the hole.

01:38 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:41 Short gearing means you have to shift quite a bit,

01:49 but you'll hit 60 in 5.2 seconds.

01:52 [ENGINE REVVING]

01:55 And you'll go through pretty much all the gears to get there.

01:59 And the quarter mile arrives in 13.7 seconds

02:02 at 100.9 miles an hour.

02:04 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:07 For our 60 to 0 braking test, it took the Miata

02:17 99 feet to stop from 60.

02:19 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:22 For the figure 8 part of the Super 20 test,

02:26 we're going to take the top off, or we already

02:28 have taken the top off, because Miata, it's what you do.

02:33 The tires on this thing are wonderful.

02:35 There is so much grip.

02:36 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:39 And they just help add to the confidence in the chassis.

02:42 [ENGINE REVVING]

02:46 Your turn in speed is fabulous.

02:50 And you can just dance the car right on the limits

02:55 of the tire's adhesion.

02:58 I think I'm still entering this corner a little bit too slow.

03:01 But--

03:01 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:04 Now, you can still have that kind of balance

03:09 and do big slides like that, even

03:11 with the grip of these tires.

03:12 But you can still do a lot of things

03:14 like that, even with the grip of these tires,

03:17 is very impressive.

03:19 They transition to a slide very easily and very controllably.

03:25 And the added torque means you don't

03:27 have to shift on our handling course, which

03:29 will help this car's lap time.

03:31 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:34 The braking performance, again, because of these tires

03:37 is phenomenal.

03:39 And the speed you can carry is just excellent.

03:42 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:44 [LAUGHS]

03:47 I love this car.

03:48 [ENGINE REVVING]

03:52 Now, as the Super 20 is a car built for a car show,

04:02 there are a number of cosmetic upgrades.

04:04 That's why this roll cage or roll bar behind us is orange.

04:08 That's why the interior looks a little bit different.

04:10 But honestly, we don't care about that.

04:12 We care about how it drives.

04:15 And in a word, I'd have to describe it as wonderful.

04:18 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:21 I always try to compare cars to music, being a big music nerd.

04:27 And I've come to it with this.

04:29 There are some cars that go down the road in a very

04:31 dissonant fashion, like the Evolution, like the GT-R.

04:35 They're just in your face.

04:36 They're kind of like punk rock in that regard.

04:39 And then there's cars that go down the road

04:41 with a certain harmony and melody, like the Cayman

04:45 and like the Miata in general.

04:47 And this Super 20 just further exemplifies

04:51 the traits of that harmony.

04:53 [ENGINE REVVING]

04:56 It's a wonderful, wonderful driving car.

05:02 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:07 This car is not built for production.

05:09 It's not slated to be sold.

05:12 It's made to be an example of what you can do with a Miata.

05:15 And that's an interesting thing, because whenever

05:18 I drive this car, I always come back to the same thought.

05:21 And that is, if I had a Miata, it'd probably

05:23 end up very similar to this, maybe

05:26 without that exhaust noise.

05:29 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:32 But the rest of the car, the fundamentals of this car

05:36 are very nice.

05:37 And the upgrades that they've given to this car only

05:39 strengthen the fundamentals of it.

05:41 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:43 [ENGINE REVVING]

05:46 We have a supercharger on a built engine, not one that has

05:49 any difference in displacement, but just a couple things

05:51 change to, I guess, enhance durability.

05:54 But the beautiful thing about superchargers

05:56 is they aren't built to be sold.

05:58 They're built to be sold.

05:59 But the beautiful thing about superchargers

06:02 is they aren't in your face, like some of the crazy turbos

06:04 are.

06:05 You don't hear whine.

06:07 You don't get a sense that there's

06:08 any extra power being added.

06:10 It just feels like you have a bigger engine

06:12 without many of the downsides of having a bigger engine.

06:15 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:19 And we're not working with a lot of horsepower, 225,

06:22 250 horsepower is about what this is making.

06:25 And that may seem laughable on paper.

06:27 But then you realize it's in a car that

06:29 weighs 2,600 pounds around there.

06:32 And that makes for a very enjoyable driving experience.

06:35 The power doesn't overwhelm the chassis.

06:37 But it is enough to give you very good acceleration.

06:40 [ENGINE REVVING]

06:47 The gearing is also ridiculously short.

06:50 I'm spending most of the time driving on this road in fifth,

06:53 whereas in most high power, high torque cars,

06:56 you're in third or fourth gear.

06:58 But fortunately, the shifter, the clutch,

07:01 works so beautifully.

07:03 The tack only seems to drop a handful of revs on each shift.

07:08 And you can shift so fast, it almost

07:11 sounds like you're driving a sequential gearbox.

07:13 [ENGINE REVVING]

07:17 Now, much of this car's performance

07:19 we can attribute to these tires, which

07:21 are very big and very sticky.

07:23 I love the amount of sidewall you have on these tires.

07:26 But they are for competition use only.

07:29 Sure, they have tread blocks and whatnot.

07:31 But if you go to Tire Racks' website

07:33 and look at the second sentence, it

07:35 says, "These tires are not appropriate for highway use."

07:38 That said, the level of grip that they give to this car

07:41 is simply insane.

07:44 You can wring this car around its neck through every corner.

07:47 You can charge into corners way faster

07:50 than you have any right to.

07:52 But when you back off from the limit performance,

07:55 when you drive at a comfortable pace,

07:57 this car is still extremely enjoyable.

07:59 Because it has, again, those fundamentals

08:02 of a good driving car--

08:03 low weight, good chassis balance,

08:05 communicative steering, pedals.

08:08 It's a beautiful, beautiful driving car.

08:11 [ENGINE REVVING]

08:18 The Super 20 simply is a delightful car.

08:21 The parts Mazda has added amplify the joy

08:24 you get from sitting behind the wheel.

08:25 And they do so without diminishing

08:27 the rest of the car.

08:28 You can easily justify what little drivability sacrifices

08:32 exist by considering the hilarious performance

08:34 and driving experience.

08:36 It's these qualities that make us

08:38 hopeful that Mazda might build something

08:40 like this in the future.

08:41 [MUSIC PLAYING]

08:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

08:51 That sounds great.

08:53 [ENGINE REVVING]

08:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:00 [ENGINE REVVING]

09:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:07 [ENGINE REVVING]

09:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]

09:18 (upbeat music)

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