Hey! Yes, I’m talking to you, the reader who has the Blipshift shirt collection and the encyclopedic knowledge of Top Gear UK episodes but who has never actually owned a genuine sporting automobile. You’ve been telling yourself for years now that you are just around the corner from having a weekend toy or a track rat of your own–but life keeps getting in the way. It could be money, it could be a lack of parking spots. For many of you, however, it’s the very simple fact that the Venn diagram of “sports cars you can afford to buy” and “sports cars on which you can depend to get you to work” has virtually no overlap.

Sure, you’ve read on the Internet that “Miata is always the answer.” You’ve probably said it yourself in response to a dozen threads and topics. But when it comes time to actually buy a Miata, you’re frightened off for a number of entirely legitimate reasons. You’re worried about the age of the cars; the newest of the “classic” NA and NB Miatas is now thirteen years old. That’s a lot of rust, a lot of dried-out rubber bushings and hoses, a lot of deferred maintenance to consider. The bank won’t loan you a dime on an old car like that.

Even if your local credit union would come around to the idea, however, you’re dealing with the unpleasant fact that the original Miatas are very low, very small cars from another era of safety technology and chassis design. Do you want your significant other, or your toddler, next to you when a 5,000-pound “four-door-coupe” texts-and-drives through a red light into your door? Yes, a sports car is always going to have the edge in what we call “active safety," meaning the ability to avoid a collision before it happens. What about good old-fashioned getting-hit-from-behind-at-a-light safety? Wouldn’t you like some of that, too?

I have some good news for you. The “NC” Miata, the one that wore an MX-5 badge in this market and which was sold from 2006 through 2014, can now be had at a cost that is very competitive with what you’d pay for solid driver-grade examples of the NA and NB. If you’re looking for a rust-free car from the states with no salt, you might even find that the NC is cheaper.

Yes, I can see you waving dismissively from all the way over here. “I don’t want an NC,” you’re thinking. “They’re big and fat and slow-witted, they had ‘4x4’ ride height, and they lost many of the qualities that made the first cars great. And those ‘PRHT’ versions with their awkward-looking hardtops…. ugh!”

Don’t be so quick to judge. Much of what you’ve heard regarding the third-generation car is exaggerated; some of it is just plain wrong. Start with the comments about weight and size. Guess what? The NB Miata was 155.7 inches long, with later examples scaling at around 2375 pounds. A 2006 NC MX-5? Just 157.3 inches long and 2425 pounds. Not that big of a difference, right? Then consider the fact that the NC has a significant advantage in power. We’re talking 167hp against 142hp, with significantly more torque “beneath the curve.” In fact, a good NC can be just as fast as a turbocharged Mazdaspeed Miata.

The ‘4x4’ ride height? Well, that’s true–at least for early cars. For reasons nobody will ever truly understand, the “NC1” arrived riding pretty high. It’s not just the US market; my wife just got done driving a bone-stock NC1 in Thailand that had been imported to Malaysia from Japan. It, too, had about five inches of ground clearance.

The NC3-generation Club model solved that problem with factory Bilstein suspension, but they are also the most pricey, and most desirable, of NC Miatas. The rest of them can be easily fixed with a variety of suspension options from Flyin’ Miata and other suppliers, ranging from an affordable set of lowering springs to the race-ready Fox suspension kit that replaced the Penske shocks in our 2006 NC1 MX-5 Cup car.

Any of these options will let your NC run rings around the original NA, both in a straight line and in a turn. As for tires? The 225/45R17 fitment that’s popular with NC owners is one of the most common sizes available for high-performance rubber. RE71? A052? Pilot 4S? RT615K? They’re all present and accounted for, usually at prices that are much lower than what you’d pay to put the same kind of shoes on a modern Mustang or Bimmer.

Want more? Everything from a supercharger kit to an LS swap is now plug-and-play for the third-gen. The folks at Blackbird Fabworks make three different rollbars that will get you into everything from a local trackday to NASA and SCCA Time Trials.

Mazda

It gets better. The NC Miata came with outstanding brakes from the factory. Endurance racers and drivers who like extra-sticky tires can upgrade to RX-8 hubs for a minor additional cost. The earliest of the NC1 cars can be visually updated to 2014 spec for just a couple thousand bucks. Right now, the NC MX-5 is exceptionally competitive in NASA ST5 and multiple SCCA classes like T4 and STL. You can race it in Pirelli World Challenge TCA (with the factory 2.0 liter) or TC (with the Mazdaspeed 2.5 World Challenge engine kit).

Even if you never take your NC to the track, you’ll appreciate the stability control fitted to most examples, the available sixth gear for highway cruising, the exceptionally durable powertrain, and the hard-wearing interior fabrics. In the event of a crash, you’ll benefit from a modern structure and design largely shared with the RX-8. And those power-retractable hardtops? They’re reliable in operation and solid choices for drivers who use their sports cars in urban or four-season scenarios.

My household has put our money where my mouth is; we own an NC1 Cup car and a 2014 NC3 Club. They’ve been a joy to own and they have brought us all sorts of trophies in autocross, sprint racing, and endurance racing. This weekend we will be running the Club in SCCA’s inaugural Time Trials Nationals.

Would we trade our cars for a brand-new 2019 Miata Club and a new MX-5 Cup car from Long Road Racing? Sure we would. But that would be a $90,000 proposition. Our NC investment is just over a third of that. The best part? In the real world, where people don’t just pay cash for everything they drive, you can still get a competitive loan on a 2013 or 2014 MX-5 and have some confidence that the car will still be running strong when you make the last payment.

While I’m not going to go out on a limb and predict a Luftgekuhlt-style appreciation curve like the one that has affected (and, in my opinion, afflicted) the market for my long-suffering Porsche 993 coupe, I do think that late examples of NC Miatas are exceptionally affordable at the moment. Now’s the time to strike, before they all get worn-out and diverted into club racing. At which point it will be time to look at the 2015 ND-generation car. Come back in, say, three years, and we’ll start talking about it. In the meantime, if you’re ready to stop thinking about your first sports car and start driving it, the answer is always… MX-5.

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