A Tale of Two-Seaters; Mazda's split-personality roadster.(Mazdad Miata)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)

The two conflicting sides to the Mazda Miata's character have finally come to a head. Realize the car has always had an appeal stretching from the track-day geeks to the ``wine and cheese'' set, a single car trying to satisfy diametrical ends of the continuum. One type of owner wants Mazda's fabled ``oneness between horse and rider,'' the purity of a simple sports car. On the other side of the fence is the owner who wants,

essentially, a cute luxury roadster with power and leather everything. As Mazda has changed the Miata over the years, it has managed to keep a foot in each camp with a few special luxury and performance editions and some well-timed bumps in horsepower. But this year, Mazda stumbled.

It's not news anymore, but if you haven't heard already, it bears repeating: Mazda originally overrated the horsepower of its ``improved'' Miata. Shades of the '99 Mustang Cobra, the '01 Miata was said to have 155 horses when it went on sale late last year. When the truth was told, March saw the official figure drop to 142 (vs. 140 in 1999 and 2000), and a buyback-or-service-credit program was instituted to assuage affected owners. Unlike the Cobra, which took a sales hiatus while Ford fixed the problem, Mazda merely stopped advertising the higher horsepower number and continued selling the 2001 cars.

But without the 13 promised ponies that everyone has been longing for, the Miata's confused identity has become plain to see. It's not quite up

to snuff as a luxury car (nor, in its defense, does it carry an accompanying luxury-car price), and at its heaviest-ever 2387 pounds (2447 with the optional six-speed manual transmission), carrying standard power windows, mirrors and antenna, it's no longer the simple lightweight cornering machine of yore. Competition has increased as the roadster market fragments, putting the Miata's ability to serve two masters under pressure. Still, the 2001 Miata is a great bang-for-the-buck, a blast to drive, with one-make that two-of the best-shifting manual transmissions in the business.

And yes, phantom ponies be damned, this new Miata is still faster. When we last tested one-a 1999 model, the first year of the current design cycle-our best quarter-mile was 16.22 seconds at 84.1 mph. The 2001 managed 16.03 seconds at 85.8 mph, and was also faster to 60 mph by 0.23 ...