I love cruising down Crane Canyon Road and D Street toward Point Reyes in my 1995 Mazda Miata, trying to master each turn until I feel like the movements my vehicle is making are my own. 

As I increase the throttle a subtle roar fills the cabin, growing until it’s time to pop it into the next gear with a quick jab at the clutch and an instant response from the shifter the cycle repeats.

Adrenaline creates a focal point on my trajectory and with precision, I snap the car around the bend creating a feeling of ecstasy satiating the rush.

The straights provide moments of relief. Miata’s have convertible tops that expose the driver to the elements. At night, dropping to second and looking up at the glistening sky calms my nerves and leaves me in equilibrium.

I’ve driven a Miata for three years, and I can confidently say it is one of the greatest cars ever made.

Initially, buying a Miata seemed like an easy way to get into the hobby since its market-price makes it accessible, but ownership completely altered my perspective on what makes a good car.

Acquiring the Miata was a trial, with months-and-months of searching for the right one, but when I saw the listing for a 1995 Mazda Miata in Union City for the low price of $3,900 I knew I’d found it. It was fully stock and laid dormant on the curb since the prior owner was unable to drive it.

It required a lot of work, but after dozens of hours of painful maintenance and fixes it became a labor of love. 

Once it was ready to drive I took it everywhere and really got a feel for it. I clocked a couple thousand miles in just the first few months. 

“Jinba ittai,” a term from Japanese mounted archery, describes the relationship between a horse, its rider and their unified movements developed over time. Mazda adopted this concept for its car. The idea was to make the driver and their vehicle feel like one entity, to create that feeling I felt ripping down my favorite roads.

Mazda gave the Miata the total package to embody jinba ittai. It’s fun, reliable and iconic. Every aspect of the car was made to connect with its driver. The nimble beast transforms the most mundane commute into a scene straight out of “The Fast and the Furious”.

While the Miata comes from a Japanese manufacturer, its design comes from American origins. After a long design process spanning 30 years and a tough competition, the Miata debuted in 1989.

Despite its sub-150 horsepower, the Miata is an extremely fun ride. A low horsepower engine allows the driver to push the car to its limits; the 1.8 liter engine only caps out to roughly 120 mph. The lack of power turns every on-ramp into a drag strip, and redlining the low gears will only get you to 65.

Though the stock manual transmission lacks the elusive sixth-gear, the five-speed is well crafted with a light clutch and forgiving downshifts. If paired with Ford Motorcraft’s full-synthetic transmission fluid, the gearbox becomes exponentially better, providing buttery smooth shifts.

The car itself weighs just under 2200 pounds, making it an extremely light car compared to similar vehicles such as the Toyota GR86 which weighs roughly 2800 lbs, according to Toyota’s website. A lightweight body allows for better acceleration, stopping power and handling through inertia due to its ability to handle weight transfer better.

Rear-wheel-drive coupled with a lack of traction-control allows for a myriad of methods to take a turn. Rear-wheel-drive better distributes weight during a turn and allows for sharper turning, while traction control changes how the car responds to the drivers inputs, having it off ensures the way the tires spin is consistent.  This combination raises the bar for maxing out the Miata’s capability, its turning dynamics allowing for techniques such as clutch-kicking which sends a surge of power to the rear wheels causing them to lose traction and slide through a turn.

In two years of driving the Miata, the issues have been minimal. Its reliability can rival a Volvo. 

The first generation Miata, depending on the year, can hold a 1.6L or 1.8L inline-4 which are relatively small-low power engines paired with minimal electronics and a simple drivetrain. There’s very little room for anything to go wrong.

Anyone who has worked on a Miata can tell you it’s designed to be worked on. Most of the serviceable parts are placed in accessible positions. Your average garage mechanic becomes a NASCAR technician turning every maintenance instance into a world record pit stop. For example, swapping out the suspension — a typically long arduous task — can be done during a lunch break.

Aside from refurbishment and upgrades, I have never had any major maintenance done as a result of faulty design or catastrophic failure.

Aftermarket support is plentiful for the Miata, and from popular online distributors such as Flyin’ Miata and Good-Win Racing, parts are available for even the most niche builds. There’s support for all kinds of builds ranging from simple quality of life improvements to full-aero race-track builds.

Though Mazda’s design wasn’t the most unique seeing as how they took strong inspiration from the Lotus Elan, another two-seater roadster with a similar design, they still managed to create one of the most visually iconic ’90s Japanese cars of all time.

Even outside of enthusiast spaces, people still manage to recognize the happy-looking two-seater. It’s loved by people of all interest levels including those of a higher brass. For instance Christian von Koenigsegg, founder of Koenigsegg, the Swedish supercar manufacturer responsible for making some of the best high-end cars on the market such as the Jesko, stated in an interview on the T.V. show Top Gear that he would save his last drive for his Mazda Miata he’s owned since he was 17-years-old.

A car like this transcends the hobby, the community is expansive and ever inclusive. A staple characteristic of the Miata community is seeing other drivers on the road and sending a joyful wink with the flap of the pop–up headlights. 

I’ve found that everyone who has approached me has had a differing background, but they were all connected through one modem, the Miata.

For example I’ve been approached in a parking lot by an older man telling me about the connection he’s shared with his daughter through the Miata they worked on together; though apart now he still relished those memories.

The transcendental moments originating from the warm envelopment of the community and the synergy developed with the car by design has left a dedicated parking spot in my driveway for it. While I doubt I will be able to hold on to my car as long as Koenigsegg, I know when the time comes to get rid of it, it’ll have to be pried out of my cold-dead hands.

What I thought before owning an enthusiast vehicle was the enjoyment the car community experienced came from simply owning a fun car. However after delving into the hobby on my own I’ve realized it’s so much more, it’s therapy.

Lonely nights can be remedied with a nightly cruise; driving down empty roads clears the mind, with an open road in front of you, all to think about is where to go next.

The telos of the Miata is pure joy, Mazda reached that level of quality by constructing it with genuine passion, clearly with the driver in mind. Once you place yourself behind that wheel all your worries will fade away and all that’s left is the road in front of you.