Mazda MX-5 Miata RF Performance Explained – Video

Mazda MX-5 Miata RF offers two-seat convertibility year-round thanks to its retractable hardtop. But how does the RF perform compared to the convertible soft top version?

Mazda wisely refrained from packing its Miatas with weighty sound deadening, to help extract maximum zing from its naturally aspirated 2.0-liter inline-four. This is a spirited powerplant, with 155 horsepower on tap at 6000 rpm, no turbocharger to take the edge off the exhaust note, and a 6800-rpm redline. The engine’s secret weapon is a hearty low end with sufficient thrust above 3000 rpm so that the boomy resonance that arrives beyond 5000 rpm can be saved for special occasions.

Even though this car is almost exactly 100 pounds heavier than the first ND MX-5, it set the same zero to 60 mph time of 6.1 seconds and an identical 14.8-second quarter-mile sprint at 93 mph. The quickest MX-5 softtop, which leapt to 60 in 5.8 seconds, clipping 0.2 second off the quarter-mile ET while adding 1 mph to the above trap speed.

 

 

Top gear 30 to 50 mph passing times vary between 8.4 and 10.7 seconds, with this heavier RF toward the slow end with a 9.6-second time. The same is true of the top-gear 50 to 70 mph run, which also takes 9.6 seconds, versus the softtop’s 8.4-second best and 10.6-second worst. For the record, the six-speed automatic, which offers expeditious downshifts, obviously beats the manuals with its 3.4-second jump from 30 to 50 mph and its 4.5-second hop from 50 to 70.