Story by Tim Suddard • Photography by Travis Ingram
The Miata could use more power. It’s something that’s been said since the dawn of time–or at least since the car’s release some 30 years ago.
We said it, too, in fact, in one of this magazine’s earliest new-car reviews. “The Miata’s powerplant was the most often criticized feature,” we reported after putting the original car through its paces. “Most of the drivers simply felt it needed to be more powerful.” That was the sole flat note in the otherwise harmonic Miata package.
Of course, the aftermarket quickly offered the car a boost. Late in 1989, we featured a Miata performance buyer guide: wheels, shocks and the like. Right there in the middle of the spread was a glimpse of things to come: the mention of a forthcoming bolt-on turbocharger kit from Corky Bell’s Cartech. The kit promised higher top speeds and zero-to-60 times in the low-7-second range.
Fast-forward to today, through four generations of Miatas, and you’ll notice a constant: an aftermarket ready and willing to supply more power. One of those companies is Flyin’ Miata, a firm birthed in 1983 by Bill and Teri Cardell as a service center for Porsches, Audis and Volkswagens.
“One day in 1989, one of our Porsche customers came by and threw us the keys to his brand-new Miata,” the company’s website explains, “and we fell in love. Within a couple of months we had turbocharged our own Miata and a new business was born.”
Today, that same business offers power upgrades for all variations of the Miata, MX-5 and Fiat Spider, with the menu including turbo, supercharger and V8 options. So, we wondered, how do the different generations of the Miata respond to a little forced feeding? Only one way to find out, so we rounded up a modified example of each generation. Our base of operations would be Grand Junction, Colorado, home of Flyin’ Miata as well as Grand Junction Motor Speedway, our…
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