Last fall, I drove the 2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. It's a track-focused, 760-horsepower howitzer of a car that comes with a caveat the size of Dearborn, Michigan: unless you’re at ten-tenths and in the unrestricted confines of the track, it’s thoroughly uncommunicative and, dare I say, boring. Enjoyable, but not as wildly addictive as the less powerful Mustang Shelby GT350.

I got a lot of hate mail because of that opinion, including texts and DMs from fellow automotive writers inquiring if I had some kind of brain injury. I don't—at least, not to my knowledge—and I stand by my conclusion. But given I’m a glutton for ridicule and it’s been some time since I truly riled everyone up, I thought it’s high-time I filled up my inbox again thanks to what I believe is a far more explosive admission about Ford’s most powerful Mustang ever.

What I didn’t tell you at the time of my GT500 screed was that to get to the pony car’s launch, I drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, which is not out of the ordinary given it’s a fairly short three- or four-hour trip. But to do so, I grabbed the keys to Mazda’s refreshed Miata, complete with the upgraded 2.0-liter four-cylinder motor.

And after driving it to and from Las Vegas, hammering it through the Mojave and Death Valley, and racing through the canyons surrounding Sin City, I can say that the Miata is better than the GT500 in every single non-quantifiable way.

Deal with it, haters.