I am on my 5th Mazda. The driving dynamics improved with each until the current generation. The third generation Mazda3 (2014-18) was a great driver’s car. The 2019+, especially with AWD, is a soft comfy cruiser in comparison.

The BRZ/GR86 would fit in perfectly in the prior Mazda engineering zoom zoom vision. I would hate to imagine what they would do with our cars now. I suspect the dash would be padded, there would be a lot of sound insulation, lots of improvements like automatic high beams, automatic windshield wipers, lots of ways to set the locks and nothing we would ask for.

 

My guess is he would want too much roll in the corners.

 

Depends. We’re stuck with McPherson in the front because of how wide the boxer is. This means you can’t have large wheel deflections while keeping the contact patch consistent, as the double A-arms on the Miata can.

so undoubtedly Mazda would want to soften the car up, much like the Miata, but the BRZ would suffer too much from it dynamically.

The twins are tuned right for the hardware that they have. Porsche learned this lesson too when they still had McPherson setups in the rear of the 911, you have to keep the wheel deflections down.

 

mazda's dynamics have kinda gone down the shitter lately

 

The mission of the GRZ opposes that of modern Mazda. I think the question would be if they'd provide us different geometry that could be utilized by the aftermarket better (an ND2 with 2-ways and sway bars is brutally fast), but like others have said, there are too many packaging constraints with our pancake-looking engine.

I think the one thing that might be different is a reduction in anti-squat from Mazda, but that can be changed by the aftermarket anyway.

 

Easy answer - softer suspension, more midrange power with less top end. Basically a less focused, but more comfortable/DD version of the current BRZ/GR86.

I remember reading an interview with Coleman once where he said he thinks body roll and midrange torque are fundamental to making the Miata more exciting at slower speeds. It's interesting though because while he's said that, the ND2 was focused on adding top end power/higher redline and the ND3 was focused on reducing body roll (KPC). Maybe his hand is being forced by others in the company or his responses were just marketing, not sure. Either way, I'm glad he wasn't in charge of tuning our cars.

 

I really don't care what someone from another manufacturer would do, to be honest. The only thing I would do would be to have the standard tire on the high level trim be the DWS06+, and have an option for a summer compound ultra high performance tire.

 

I agree. I always thought it would be smarter for the manufacturers to have the two trim levels focused on touring and track for cars like ours. The first could have all season tires and a few more comfort features and the second could have more serious summer tires less comfort features and more performance options.

The current two trim levels are too close ,in my opinion, and don’t expand the customer base. I doubt there are many that buy the base trim that would have not bought the higher trim if the lower was not available.