There’s no doubt that the new Mazda MX-5 Miata and Pontiac Solstice are attractive cars, but appearance doesn’t mean much when you’ve got a helmet strapped on and are hurtling toward an apex at warp speed. The true sports car is not about being sporty looking—it’s about sports. Motorsports with a capital “M.” That’s where adrenaline and gasoline mix …
Our Combatants
The Tire Rack test track provided us with a roughly 40-second course that featured a slalom, several offsets and a hard braking zone.
Our plan was simple: Bring a 2006 Mazda MX-5 and a 2006 Pontiac Solstice to The Tire Rack’s headquarters for a few days of hardcore testing. Exercising them on a closed track would allow us to explore the limits—and go well beyond them—in an effort to see how the cars would perform in amateur motorsports.
While the two new players haven’t been classed yet by the SCCA, we’re betting that they’ll have to face off against the most recent Miata in the C Stock class for autocross competition.
To make things more equitable and even more interesting, we fitted all of the cars with sticky race rubber: Hoosier’s new A3S05 tires. Original equipment tires typically just aren’t meant for track use, and putting all of our test vehicles on the same rubber would make this a fair comparison. It would also yield better feedback as to how the cars would react in a competition environment. Race compound tires can highlight strengths or weaknesses that aren’t readily apparent with the lower-grip tires that come on practically all street-going cars.
We also brought along a benchmark for the test, again calling Chris Harvey’s 1999 Miata into service. This car is thoroughly prepared for the SCCA’s C Stock Solo 2 class and posted the top two times during the second day of competition at the most recent Tire Rack Solo National Championships. (A damp first day prevented Chris and his co-driver, Joe Tharpe, from posting a strong finishing position.)
Chris’s Miata has benefited from six years of development, and it has been fortified with a Racing Beat 11/8-inch front anti-roll bar, revalved Koni shocks and a pretty serious competition alignment. Chris runs 1.2 degrees of negative camber in the front and one degree…
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