Build My Own Mazda MX-5 Miata - Dougs Mazda - Serving Seattle, Lynnwood, Bellevue Kirkland Washington.

The heart of the MX-5 remains a highly-responsive MZR-series 2.0-liter, powerplant making 167-horsepower (158 for automatic transmission-equipped models). The MZR is light and compact, featuring chain-driven double overhead camshafts, a lightweight flywheel, variable intake valve timing, electronically controlled port fuel injection and coil-on-plug ignition. Revving smoothly to its 7,200 rpm redline (6700 rpm with an automatic transmission), the flexible 2.0-liter engine delivers 140 lb-ft of torque at 5,000 rpm for driving exhilaration throughout the rev range.

The sophisticated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine gives strong performance, has an inspiring exhaust note, and most important of all, is tremendously responsive. It reacts to driver commands with lightning-quick reflexes, and offers progressive power delivery. Such linearity is the key to all of the MX-5's driving controls.

The engine is mounted front mid-ship, for ideal handling balance and nimbleness. It uses an aluminum block and head for lighter weight and structural rigidity, ultimately improving performance and refinement. Chain-driven double-overhead camshafts and 16-valves are used for improved revving and flexibility. Variable intake valve timing improves low-end torque and high-end power.

The engine features a forged steel crankshaft, forged steel connecting rods with floating wrist pins, revised pistons with stronger wrist pin bosses, stiffer valve springs, and an engine oil cooler.

The MX-5's fun and modern exterior design retains the iconic feel of the earlier generation MX-5 Miatas while simultaneously moving it into the future. The body is shaped to make the cockpit the widest portion of the car, delivering a roomier, safer design that still expresses the compact look of a lightweight sports car. Side surfacing is rounded, yet taut - like the skin over a muscled body. Head and tail lamps are mounted inboard to reinforce the sense of compactness that is so central to the car's design philosophy. Joining this modern shape are tail lamps and rearview mirrors that harken back to the elliptical shape of the first-generation MX-5 Miata and a silhouette that could be mistaken for nothing else.

The front of the MX-5 features an aggressive face with a five-point grille and highly-sculpted triangular front fog lamp bezels. The design is functional as well. The bulge below the front fog lamps, the wide air deflectors ahead of the front tires, the side sills, the rounded lower corners of the rear bumper and even the taillights all contribute to a low coefficient of drag.