I wasn't airing an opinion, I was stating a fact. My opinion by the way is that your last sentence is correct, and that's what I am hearing filtering out from car manufacturers, for a specialised segment of an expanding market.
This is what the Miata is all about (yeah, yeah, I know, a chick car). Old school with modern comforts and doesn't leak oil. (Wanna hear a lame Brit joke? How come the British never built computers? They couldn't figure out how to make them leak oil and stop working when it got dark.) If Mazda expanded the cabin space a bit and added 100 more hp, stick a fork in it because its a done deal as far as I'm concerned.
The picture is creating a bit of an optical illusion TBF, as the 308 is sat further back in the parking space than the 360 and 430, so it looks as though the 360 & 430 are @ 2 feet wider than the 308. In reality, yes the 360 and 430 are wider than the 308, but it's "only" by @ 200mm (@1720mm Vs. @1920mm).
Winner winner chicken dinner, always thought a Miata with 100 more hp would be the ticket. Ford woke up new Focus RS with what ........ 350 hp, 350 lb torque, AWD AND ......wait for it a standard 6 speed manual
Agree re the MX5/Miata. Having owned Brit sports cars over the years I can't disagree with that joke, but now the Brits make some of the best Japanese and German cars in Europe..
If Mazda expanded the cabin space a bit and added 100 more hp, stick a fork in it because its a done deal as far as I'm concerned.[/QUOTE] They would call it a Honda S2000!
respectfully, I disagree the Ferrari licensing and marketing division is only too happy to sell anything with the Ferrari logo teddy bears to Can't afford a car look over here for some useless sheet made in China. Page taken from Harley Davidson...
The decision for Ferrari to remove the manual gear box is economic, having "F1" transmissions and manual transmissions required two different engine management systems and two separate transmission platforms to support, more parts etc. With trickle down from F1, adaption to road cars is most cost effective, note engine power is cut down between shifts, think about the whole power transmission system not just the transmission it's obvious to me that it's all about $, and not customer preference.
You appear to have missed My point completely and have taken My previous post completely out of context! I'm not talking about Ferrari selling merchandise to make money, I'm talking about Ferrari selling manual cars. Mitch Alsup basically stated that if Ferrari no longer sell manual cars then he'll no longer buy Ferrari cars, and My response to that was:
Corvettes back to the C4 had shifting setups similar to that to avoid gas guzzler tax. It was able to be disconected and im.sure this issue is able to be bypassed now, no one would enjoy that **** taking over. Lingenfelter or someone has done it by now.