Push the shifter past the notched center in the first gear, touch the pedal and you can feel the vibration there. If you raise the first gear to 25 mph, the standard speed in a neighborhood, the MX-5 feels and sounds like it’s going 50 mph. We found ourselves braking as pedestrians drove along the sidewalk without a sidewalk, imagining our Facebook posts in the upset neighborhood.
Walk up to 45 mph on a two-lane street and you’ll be sure the cops are waiting around every corner. The tachometer is in the middle of the gauge group, which we found more useful than looking at the speedo. With the windows down and a cold 55-degree breeze flowing through the cab, we climbed the highway to find out how it feels at 200 mph, doing 85 mph.
In addition to the need for a more rigid form of hair gel, you will also notice that Miata feels faster due to its small size. This feeling of speed, which is closely linked to fear, intensifies when you drive with massive semi-trucks and SUVs that do almost the same speed. The band changes are clear, although with so much extra width to play with between the lines, they don’t have to be as accurate.