Honda S2000 vs. Mazda Miata RF vs. Abarth 124 Spider | Budget Roadster Shootout

Sa.

So summer's coming off fast now and honestly feels like it might already be here. And there's a lot of ways you can enjoy this hot weather. But if you're like me, one of the best things to do, really any.

Time of the year is to set.

It down some windy back roads in.

A convertible sports car with the top down.

Now, in order to do that though, you need a very specific kind of car. Something nimble, lightweight, and with enough punch to at least make you pucker up a little bit. Now, like many things these days, they don't make them like they used to, but luckily I've got three lightweight roadsters here that fit the bill perfectly. And you can find them for under $30,000 used, which means that you can still have a boatload of fun and.

Not have to break the bank.

Let's get started with our budget roadster shootout.

This is the Honda S2000 in chicane silver. It's the most recent AP2 iteration, which means they've bumped the displacement, lowered the rev limiter, improved the gearing and suspension as well as made it look slightly sexier. It's hard to find these stock anymore, but from the factory they made 237 horsepower and 162 pounds of Toyota torque using a 2.2 liter four banger that revs all the way out to 8200 rpm. Even though it's the heaviest of the bunch here, it's still pretty light at a hair over 2,800 pounds. Power is sent to the rear wheels through a lovely six speed manual, and I would be hard pressed not to call this the textbook definition of a driver's car. The interior still feels very modern, and you can easily fool somebody who isn't in the know. The seats offer good lateral support, but they are a bit slippery for dedicated track work. The steering wheel also feels a little oversized, but the rest of the cabin is very driver centric, plus it has a power top. The only notable modification to this car is the cat back exhaust, but any performance gains are probably negligible to us. It does sound pretty darn good though. The first thing you'll notice when you drive this thing is how compliant the suspension is and how confident the gearbox feels. It's no Mercedes, but it's noticeably more comfortable than the 124 night and day. Better than the Miata. The rear feels slightly soft to a corner, but it's only because I've been driving the other two. The other thing you'll notice is how cool the dash cluster looks and really how neutral the car feels. It's overall a very well balanced roadster.

The S2000 is basically one of those.

Cars that have become a cult classic.

Because that's kind of what happens when you stop making a sports car that's actually really fantastic. I mean, Honda's always been about being.

On the lighter side of things, but this recipe is just perfect.

2,800 pounds, 237 brake horsepower, rear wheel drive and manual only in a package.

That'S actually quite attractive. I find it weird that Honda never followed up with the S2000 idea, but in a way I'm glad they didn't because there's a good chance they would ruin its legacy just like they did with the nsx. Silver is not the most flattering color for this car, but the red seats do help with the contrast. I am a big fan of the seating position. Braking confidence is good for street use, but for track work the pedal feels a bit soft. Another thing you'll notice is that a lot of these cars are going to be in the 100,000 mile range. But don't be discouraged. Because it's a Honda, you can track the crap out of it and it'll keep on ticking. Next up is the Fiat Abarth 124 Spider in Rosso Red. And I know I'm pronouncing Abarth wrong, but who cares? Potato potahto. In the most simple terms, it's a turbocharged Mazda Miata with some cool Italian badging. In stock form, it's got a turbo 1.4 liter multi air inline four that makes 164 brake horsepower and a healthy 184 pounds of torque. It's the only manual soft top in this comparison, which also makes it the lightest. However, it makes up for that weight by having a six speed automatic transmission. So the estimated curb weight is around 2477. And because it's basically a Mazda, interior feels very familiar. The only real giveaway is the big red tachometer. If you've been following this channel, you know that this particular copy is almost full bolt on with a Euro compulsion. Phase two tune. Luckily, EC was able to program the stock tune back into the car by just leaving the car out of sport mode. So that's how we're going to keep the playing field fair. The exhaust is a necessary modification for the 124 because it makes it sound the way they originally intended, at least when they designed the Abarth 500. Let's have a listen. Bright Red in the hater stripe is 110% the right combo for this car. Couple that with the throaty exhaust note and you have a real attention grabber. You honestly can't do this little Italian roadster any other way. My biggest regret with this car is buying an automatic, but many of you.

With significant others can probably relate because.

This is actually my wife's weekend toy and she can't drive stick. But regardless, the Fiata is still a lot of fun.

And of the three roadsters, it's probably.

Got the most amount of immediate potential because of its turbo power plant, although.

I don't think anybody's really explored that.

To its fullest beyond the point of maybe bigger turbos. You really don't need them though. Simple stage two tune and supporting mods and you're basically 200 wheel horsepower. Doesn't sound like much, but remember this thing weighs about half of any modern sports car in stock form. There's a ton of lag. You really need to be somewhere between 4,000 and 5,500 rpm to have any usable power. Sounds like common sense, but these days modern sports cars with forced induction tend to produce a nice power curve even as early as 2500 revs. The automatic slush box is also nothing to write home about. It's not tuned as well as the 500 bar and the shifts are just powerful. The only saving grace is that it's got paddles, and even then they're Mazda paddles. The suede backing on the seats are nice, but the seats themselves lack any lateral support, even for heavy canyon carving. And I might be biased, but this is the best looking car of the bunch today. The legendary Mazda Miata. This car spans four generations that dates back to the late 80s, it's now the ND2 generation and this car is an RF GT in ceramic metallic, basically off white. It's got the GTS package, which means it gets all the track goodies, but also has luxurious creature comforts like leather and heated seats. Couple all that with the RF hardtop and it weighs just a hair more than the 124 at £2,493 power wise, it sits somewhere in the middle at 181 horsepower and 151 pounds of torque, all generated from its 2 liter naturally aspirated 4 cylinder that revs to 7,500 rpm. So I expect this power band to be pretty predictable and easy going. Since mazdaspeed doesn't exist right now, the Miata is their flagship sports car and I am sorry to say the exhaust note really disappoints. The other disappointing thing is just how stiff this car feels over normal Jersey roads. A lot of it is because of the GTS track pack. But honestly, what's the point of this car if you don't get that option? For whatever reason, I've always seen the Miata as more of a feminine looking car.

I don't know why.

Could be because of the really short and compact length. At 154 inches, it's 5 1/2 inches shorter than our 124 and over 8 inches shorter than the S2K. Can't deny that it's a potent track vehicle though. I mean, why else would be so many spec Miata and track monster builds out there? It's inexpensive, easy to drive, and the sky's the limit in terms of aftermarket. You could go as hardcore as a full V8 swap or just do the sway bars and tires. In either scenario, a good driver in this thing will probably slay your typical supercar around some corners, or at least in an autocross. I'm not a fan of the gearbox at all. It's better than the six speed manual from the 124, but it still feels very pedestrian. Clutch uptake is too low, the throws are too long, and it's just not very satisfying to drive hard. I gotta say, in a straight line it feels slower than the S2000 and it doesn't have the mid range punch that the turbos provide in the 124. But I get the impression that this thing feels much more rigid through a corner, despite the fact that the hard top is technically not structural support. Ultimately, I bet this thing's going to do pretty well through our handling test, But as with any track day episode, we wouldn't be complete without doing our performance testing. And even though we know straight line power isn't high on the list for these cars, we'll start off with our three way drag race. That means a 30 roll and a half mile dig. Then we'll top it off with our handling test around our new road course, which I am really excited to show you guys. Let's get this party started. I'm surprised I'm pulling away from the Miata here, but dang, look at that S2000. Just walk us both. I wonder if my stage 2 tune would have been able to keep up with it. We know the S2000 is a faster car in a straight line. Unfortunately it botched the 12 shift. But having the automatic in the 124 really gave me a big advantage in this race. Lets move on to the handling test where we'll start with our Barth 1, 2, 4, turn one and turn two coming up. Wow, that's a really good looking Airstream. My wife and I have been thinking about getting a camper lately. Alright, into our first real corner and a little chicane action. I really like this area. Feels like you can build up a lot of speed through here. This one's one of my favorites. A nice wide double apex into turn six where we have a lot of room to push the car laterally and then onto our straightaway. Very unexciting in this thing as you can tell. Here we test the braking into turn seven and then through turn eight across the finish. Let's try it with a Miata.

It.

And finally the s2k. It. Let's take a look at the results. Because these cars are kind of slow. We really only have our 40 to 100. The Abar 24 did that in 14 seconds flat and it's slightly faster than our bone stock time of 15 seconds, but significantly slower than our fully tuned hero time of 11.1. In terms of lap time, it put down 51.29 seconds and that's rather quick. It's actually quicker than the other, but I attribute that to it perhaps being our personal car and me being more comfortable pushing it further. It could also be the automatic transmission providing quicker gear selection, but it's definitely not the R888Rs because they are shot to hell with well over 40 heat cycles and then being driven on daily for a year. Next up we have its NA cousin, the Miata. It was clear as the slowest in the straight line and the data shows that it put down a pretty mundane 40100 time of 14.85 seconds. The good news is that it isn't the slowest car we've ever tested, but it indicates that Mazdas tend to dominate this section of the fast list. I do hope they change that soon, but we know that the Miata's forte is that it knows its way around corners. However, in this regard it was a full second slower than the 124 at 52.29, which is odd because it definitely felt quicker in the turns and had better braking confidence. But the stiff suspension did make it more of a handful around the rough parts of the course. It also posted the slowest of the other metrics as well. For reference, we ran it on the factory Bridgestone Potenzas last but certainly not least is the S2000 with a blistering quick 40100 time of 11.71, which means that it can hang with some more modern entry trim performance cars. And it might even still pull on our Barth 124 with the stage two tune. That's amazing for a 15 year old car that isn't even trying to be fast in a straight line. In terms of lap time, it was just a hair faster than the Miata at 52.21 seconds. It was running Firehawks that have a 340 Treadway rating, so it might have been handicapped there. Overall, it felt like it had the most body roll through the chicane after turn three, but the brakes were better than I thought. We have to remember this car is a solid 300 pounds heavier than the other two, and despite that, it still posted the best overall road course stats. For a more detailed look, check out the fastlisk link in the description below. So now that we've seen all the objective data from the performance tests and I've given you my general driving impressions, I think it's time we crown a Victoria. But like your mom used to tell you back in grade school, where everyone's a winner and that's usually a lie, it's actually true here. You can't go wrong with any of these three roadsters. I'll just come out straight and say it. The S2000 is my first place pick. It's well balanced, soft enough for daily driving and are terrible New Jersey roads, but sharp enough to carve through tight technical courses. Plus the power delivery is linear and predictable. Of course, the Miata being NA also has a linear power band. It's not nearly as satisfying as being able to rev all the way out past 8,000 rpm. Not to mention the gearbox and the clutch in the S2K is leaps and bounds better than the six speed in the Miata. And even though the S2000 is technically over two decades old now, the interior feels more modern than both of the Mazdas we have today. The tachometer alone is worthy of praise. Of course you don't get certain things like integrated Bluetooth blind spot detection or heated seats, but come on guys. Anyway, that leads me to my next choice and it always poses the same how do you make a Miata better? Add boost. And that's basically what the 124 is. The Fiata is my second place pick and it's gotta be the above trim because the lusso or The Classica just don't look nearly as good, especially since they lack an LSD and that cool little sport mode button, which is really kind of useless in stock form but can be handy come time to tune. Even though it's basically the same thing. The interior is just a little bit more spicy than the Miata, especially with the suede seats, and the big red taco power band is definitely more meaty as well, and its ride quality is slightly less harsh. Did I mention it sounds better too? So that leaves the Miata in last place, but like I said, you can't really lose here. Of the three cars, you can probably modify the Miata the furthest for the cheapest, but it has the lowest starting point for me, and even though it has some very interesting design cues, it's really the least attractive overall. The harsh ride will make you question reality. It lacks enough punch to keep up on the straightaways in the gearbox. It just leaves a lot to be desired. Of course, these are just my opinions and they might differ from yours. That said, they are all great driver's cars and I'd be happy ripping them around any track. But yeah, I want to hear what you guys think and how you might have ranked this lineup. Let me know in the comments below. Anyway, that's it for this episode and as always, I will catch you all on the next one. I hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as I did making it. If so, it'd be awesome to if you can hit that like button and share the video with your friends. I can't cover everything I want to in the short amount of time that I have, so if I missed something, let me know in the comments below. 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