Subaru BRZ ZD8 vs Mazda MX-5 Miata ND
“The BRZ is the car you lean on and the MX-5 is the car you listen to: a flat-cornering 2.4-litre boxer coupe with torque and brakes in hand, against a roadster some 400 pounds lighter in which every control feels better.
The sharpest version of the argument is the BRZ tS against the ND3 Club, which Zygrene, Jubbal & Cars, Savagegeese, Drive.com.au and Grassroots Motorsports have all run back to back. The tS's STI-tuned Hitachi dampers are the part the Miata has no answer for. Zygrene says it corners flatter and "doesn't pitch and dive around every corner in the same way," and Jubbal finds the Subaru "more comfortable" with "way better body control than in the Miata." Its Brembos have the better pedal, Savagegeese found the BRZ's brakes held up better as they got hot, and Grassroots watched the BRZ "just running away" once the revs passed the Miata's 4,000 rpm torque peak.
The Mazda takes it back through your hands. Zygrene says the ND3 now has "definitively better steering feel than the BRZ and GR86," and Jubbal calls the tS's rack "nowhere near as good as the ND," with a "strange stickiness off center." The double-wishbone front end is more eager to turn in, the shifter is slicker, the throttle answers as if it were on a cable, and Savagegeese found the ND3's new differential put power down with no inside wheelspin where the BRZ spun a tyre.
The BRZ is easier to drive quickly and easier to own. The MX-5 is the one these reviewers enjoy more.
You want the car that is easier to drive at the limit and stays flat while you do it, with the torque and the brakes for a track day. It also has to be your only car: back seat, big trunk, and a cabin you can sit in for a long highway run.
The steering, the shifter and the turn-in matter more to you than the lap time, you fit in it, and you want the roof down. TheTopher, a BRZ owner, finds it the more challenging car and thinks you can grow a little more as a driver in it.
Is it your only car, and do you fit? Zygrene puts it plainly: if you can live with the Miata's "extreme lack of interior space," it is "the more pleasurable and rewarding driving experience." If you can't, or you want the faster, flatter, more forgiving car for track days, it's the BRZ, and the tS's dampers and Brembos are the version reviewers rate.
Handling is the real split, and the same reviewers sit on both sides of it. They give the Miata steering feel, turn-in and nimbleness, then give the BRZ, the tS above all, body control, damping and ease at the limit. Grassroots Motorsports calls the BRZ "a quicker reacting car" and lapped it 2.8 seconds faster; TheTopher finds the BRZ easier to drift and the Miata more challenging, and counts the challenge in the Mazda's favour. Value rests on two quotes that point opposite ways: Zygrene takes a $31,000 BRZ over a $35,000 Miata, and soloautos has the Mazda cheaper to buy and to run. Read the coverage with care. TheTopher and Zygrene supply 19 of the 40 videos, and both have owned a current BRZ. A few older clips in the set, from 2015 to 2017, compare the first-generation BRZ, and that is where the claims that the Miata feels quicker come from; every back-to-back test of the 2.4-litre car gives the straight line to the Subaru.
Performance
“there is a lap time discrepancy of close to 3 seconds uh 2.8 seconds”
“Mazda MX5 has a horsepower reserve that is a quarter less than the Subaru, accelerates faster and covers a quarter mile to 100 km per hour.”
Handling
Fun to drive
“the BRZ is the more approachable driver's car and it rewards the inexperience as well as the advanced drivers”
“I prefer the feeling of a supercharged engine. Not to say this ND2 with a turbo isn't fun. It's just that it's not really a Miata anymore. Whereas that supercharged BRZ still feels like a BRZ.”
Daily drivability
“This is the best ownership experience well-rounded because nvh levels practicality it just makes a lot of sense if this is your only vehicle.”
“if you can live with the miata's extreme lack of interior space i think you'll find the miata to be the more pleasurable and rewarding driving experience”
