OK, you convinced me

[xvxax]

You are going a little hard on deep details here, considering Hondas carry something around 99.9999% of their weight over the front wheels.

So here is what economy car hondas and mazda miatas have in common: Stock they kind of suck, enormous aftermarket, cheap price, decent fun, cheap consumables.

Here is what separates them. There is a pretty reasonable flow of old lady weekend only driven Mazda Miatas with 60k on them. There is not a very decent flow of any old honda with 60k miles on them, and when you do find them they are crazy expensive. So why hate? It's clear this isn't going to be a daily driver. Trying to do both with a single car is kind of miserable so who cares how many groceries you can fit in the trunk of a miata?. The miata is way easier, and some people don't want to mess with the shortcomings of fwd.

So, anyway. Mr. OP, keep the dream alive. Miata it is.

I'm not trying to be a jerk... just going to push the argument to a more educated level.

Hondas built to play on track and daily arent chalked full of JDM bling parts, rootbeer paint, and monster merchandise... they ride stiffer, wider, simplier than the super street honda bois.

Now lets talk 50/50 weight distribution. You are talking about something you no little to nothing about. Stop reading the internet and beg you to work a weekend at the tech shed with NASA. after 11 years scaling cars, ONLY a lotus super 7 has come close to 50/50 in all definitions of! There are three ways to look at it:

1. Front two tires vs. rear two tires.... it show the bias... this will help with brakes and what your springs actually are
2. LR and RF vs RR and LF... this shows the predictability of the car and its ability to transition from L to R and vise versa
3. both left side tires vs the right side... it doesnt really do anything for you performance wise, but on a non coil overed car, if you know what you are doing, you can identify the bias of the gas tank, where the driver sits (you can look too), basically where all the factory junk is. but it really does you no good.

Let me remind you... a miata DOES NOT meet any of the 3 without serious work. It will ONLY be able to meet #2, as will a honda, with similar serious work.

Cheap tires and brakes? "track" hondas and miata can and often do use the same wheels and tires... track brake pads are expensive for both, autozone pads and rotors are cheap for both. its a wash.

Amature-turned pro Drivers: Spec Miata is popular. It is NASCAR for grassroots motorsports. Its a huge field, money talks, and cheating happens every single race. a huge list of drivers turned pro is due to the popularity of the class and not due to the car. a miata was a stepping stone not a life changing (in terms of driving skill) vehicle.

I'd argue that the only thing that SM and all those turned pro drivers ever did... drive up the cost of body parts, steering racks, engines/transmission/rear ends. Just like the honda tunning/super street wanabes drive up the price for all the honda crap. again, its a wash.

Miata: Because BRAIN WASH