/ BY EZRA DYER /
↓ MOWANNERUAL’S^
DRIVINGO
34 July/August 2019 _ PopularMechanics.comF&S^ENTERPRISESKAY, SO I THOUGHT this column
was going to be about something
else. When I arranged to take a
2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata and a
Genesis G70 3.3T AWD to a Fer-
rari club track day at Virginia
International Raceway, I hoped to
prove a thesis that those two cars aren’t the
rolling roadblocks you’d expect. Instead, I
got a lesson in the concept of automotive evo-
lution and the quantifiable value of history.
The Miata’s been around for 30 years, with
Mazda tinkering and perfecting it all along.
Genesis split from Hyundai and debuted as
a stand-alone company less than four years
ago, in 2015. Which makes the overall excel-
lence of the G70 all the more impressive. But
the Miata demonstrates how great a car can
become when it incorporates a decade or
three of experience.
On a crisp Virginia morning, I take my
first laps in the G70, allowing myself the
crutch of all-wheel drive to compensate for
any early-on goofs. The G70 3.3T isn’t posited
as a track machine, but any sport sedan in its
competitive set should be able to handle a trip
to a road course (and indeed, there’s a white
Alfa Giulia 2.0T in our run group). The Gen-
esis looks good on paper: 365-hp twin-turbo
V-6, big Brembo brakes, and Michelin Pilot
Sport 4S summer tires. I’m still worried about
how it’ll fare in this crowd, which includes not
just Ferraris but plenty of Porsches and Cor-vettes. I keep my eye out for blue flags, which
the corner workers wave when they want you
to get the hell out the way of a faster car.
But one of the only cars to chase me down
is a black Camaro SS, which I recognize as
my friend Dennis’s ride for the day. Nor-
mally, track etiquette dictates that you move
over on a straightaway, point your finger out
the window, and maybe slow down a bit to
allow the pass. And I do all of that, except
the part about slowing down. We’re at 125
mph by the time he pulls alongside. Yeah,
the V-8 muscle car caught the V-6 Korean
sedan, but it wasn’t a gimme.
Back around at the front straight, feel-
ing confident, I go for the brakes at 135 mph.
There’s an initial bite and then...not much of
anything, like the pedal is sinking into a loaf
of Spam. Fortunately, there’s plenty of runoff
on this corner, so I scribe the widest tire-
shredding arc I can and then go off gently into
the dirt. Huh. Back in the pits, I learn that
Car and Driver had the same thing happen
here with the G70’s corporate cousin, the Kia
Stinger, on the same corner. The culprit was
the soft, U.S.-spec brake pads. Kia swapped
in one fitted with Euro pads and all was good.
Which raises the question: Why not use the
Euro pads in the first place? I blame Brexit.
Meanwhile, the Miata is pure joy. Well,
no duh, Ez, it’s a two-seater and not a 4,000-
pound luxury sedan. True enough. But even
in the realm of sports cars, the Miata is spe-cial—so much so that my friend Naveed, who
road-tripped here in his 911 Turbo, recently
ordered a 30th-anniversary Miata without
so much as sitting in one. Which he does
today, and is pleased to find that he fits.
The 2019 model is the strongest Miata
yet, but it still has only 181 horsepower—
about what you got in a 1983 Camaro.
Comparing it with the G70, I’m more par-
anoid about getting in everyone’s way. So
much so that I look in the rearview mirror
whilst in the middle of an 85-mph corner,
getting way off line and then totally sideways
before gathering it in. If I were in a Mustang,
I’d be a half-mile off in the grass by now. But
this is the nature of the Miata: You can visit
the very edge of its capabilities, maybe even
a little beyond, and learn important lessons
without drastic consequences. Like: Don’t
worry about that 718 Boxster back there
until you’re on the straightaway.
By the end of the day, the Genesis sounds
like it’s ready for new brakes. But the MX-5
still has those factory-fresh nubs on the tires.
It’s hard to think of what I’d change about the
Miata. With the Genesis, it’s all excellent
except for one thing: the composition of that
12 millimeters or so of materia l bet ween the
brake calipers and the rotors. Mazda’s had
30 years to ponder and refine those kind of
details. You could say that in 30 years it’ll also
be hard to find much wrong with a Genesis. I
don’t think it’ll take that long.The Ferrari Club of America let a 2019 Mazda MX-5
Miata and a Genesis G70 infiltrate their track day.
But are they quick enough to hang with this crowd?Crashing a
Ferrari Party
The Miata runs with
a Ferrari F360 and
Porsche 911 at VIR.
Though it has more
power for 2019,
corners are still the
Miata’s forte.