I’ve driven every 5 apart from an NC, so can’t help you there unfortunately, but a good question…
Agreed. Don’t like the RF, I’m sure it’s lovely to drive, and much quieter, but the looks don’t do it for me sadly.
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Nd1 has so much more torque. It pulls you at as low as 2k all the way up to about 6k then gets wheezy. Will be mapping mine with a 4-1 manifold so should lengthen the powerband up to around 7k.
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Wouldn’t say I don’t like the RF but I much prefer the soft top. I’ve had a play on the configurator for new cars and to get a similar spec to my current car I’d be looking at around £32k. It’s a lot of money to get something very similar.
Plus for me at least, the ND1 has as much power and torque as I need. While it might be nice to have a bit more power I wouldn’t want any drop in torque. If I found I had to drop a cog in an ND2 where I could just plant the throttle in my ND1 I’d be less than happy.
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Agreed Christoph, but is it really worth all that cash for 1000 revs of extra pull? For that price, you could surely put on a supercharger which would transform the car…?
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Yeah, i agree again. I’ve had quite a few MX5’s, and was led to believe that the ND2 2.0 was the holy grail, but it isn’t, at least for road users Believe me, i liked the car, no complaints, other than when I left the dealers, i could tell instantly that there was very little pull below 4k revs, about the same between 4 and 6, then it pulled away between 6 and 7.5.
Is that enough to hand over my 2018 Z-Sport and £5k in cash, well, the answer is definitely no…
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Absoloutely. It will move the power band a little higher up and peak power figures will not only improve, but be maintained for a longer time. So throughout the entire rev range it will pull more than oem. Im going to fit all the bits myself this time and then take it to be mapped.
Now a SC kit is going to set you back around 6k. Then the gearbox will probably need changing as i dont think it would cope with the torque.
Id say for a car that weighs sub 1000kg 190 bhp and 176 ftlbs is going to make it fairly quick.
Even when I’m doing some ‘spirited’ driving in my 2.0 ND1 it’s very rare that I’ll take the revs over 5k. Sounds like the ND2 would be a little underwhelming for me too.
Sounds very similar to when I swapped my 1.6 NA Eunos for a 1.8 NA UK spec car. Never felt quite as ‘nippy’.
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Thats actually incorrect.
The ND2 has more Torque (albeit about 5lbft) BUT its not as low down in the revs as the ND1 so makes the ND1 more grunty out of bends…
There’s a strong argument to suggest this was one of Mazda’a “fixes” to help the known weak ND gearbox…
Engineering dept - The gearbox isn’t strong enough to handle the great low down torque.
Management - Lower the low down torque.
Engineering dept - Oh.
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Its funny cos its true lol
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Torque is torque. Doesn’t matter at what revolution’s it’s produced (within reason) so to suggest Mazda moved the slightly higher amount further up the revs to ‘protect’ the gearbox is wrong. Gearboxes are designed to cope with ‘X’ amount, not ‘X’ amount at ‘Y’ revs.
The fact the ND2 has slightly more than the ND1 is simply that the ND2 has more power, and to get that power you have to burn more air/fuel mixture, and the only sensible way to do that on a naturally aspirated production engine is to increase the available revs, which will also move peak torque produced to higher revs.
This can be mitigated up to a point with the variable valve timing system fitted (to increase the spread of torque and still allow decent peak power)
Id argue low down torque is where the gearbox will be under its max load so by moving the torque curve you could reduce stress on drivetrain components… I wasn’t saying its the reason Mazda done it BUT you do have to wonder 
Peak figures standard yes your right. The nd1 makes it for a longer time though.
Also once its mapped it makes way more torque than an nd2 (equally mapped). If your intersted i can show you dyno figures for both cars with equal mods. Its quite interesting. Or have a look on the bbr website
I think I spoke to you on ND-Europe regarding this and yes, as I said on there you’re correct, mapped the ND1 responds MUCH better than the ND2… However you can achieve 200bhp from the ND2 without the need of cams although it will never achieve ND1 mapped torque…
You also gain very little mapping the ND2 (most the work already done by Mazda) where has the ND1 makes really good gains 
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Hi dave didnt know it was you sorry
I stand by what i say though. I think mazda did that to save the boxes. Its the torque that breaks them. I remember all the power is up top on the nd2 so the important bit is the bhp gain and i think thats the same gain as an nd1.
Main reason i went with the nd1. Just have to take it easy on that box.
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Very interesting and enlightening discussion this, although i I didn’t mean to open such a can of worms.
As i said previously, i’ve had a few 5’s, NA’s and NB’s but skipped the NC. I am very happy with my ND1 Z-Sport, but was within a whisker of buying an ND2 last weekend, but the lack of low down torque was such a big thing for me, that I pulled out of the deal.
I’m not saying the ND2 isn’t a great car, cos it certainly is, and I enjoyed my fast and furious test drive, but on a daily basis i rarely go above 4k revs. Had the ND2 had the same bottom end, with the additional top end, i would have bought it in an instant…
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Fascinating to hear all the facts and figures but I would guess that to most owners they don’t matter too much. What matters to me at least is the way the car feels in standard form in real life everyday driving.
Yes it’s nice to be able to occasionally use the gears and plenty of throttle to make a swift get away but it’s also nice to be able to pull away smoothly in sixth from 35mph without the engine labouring.
It’s pretty evident from various comments here and elsewhere that swapping from ND1 to ND2 doesn’t produce any jaw dropping performance advantages for the average driver.
I may be looking at my 2.0 ND1 with rose tinted glasses but I’m more than happy with it. While I do really fancy a 30AE at some point it’s because I like the total package not that I particularly want the ND2 engine.
These threads do tend to go a bit off topic but looking back the original question was ‘Anyone regretted buying an ND2 after selling an ND1?’.
It would appear that there aren’t any real regrets, more a case of the other man’s grass not being quite as green as imagined.
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Really interesting viewpoints on this thread. I test drove the ND 2l at launch and was left a little wanting, which was disappointing as I love the look of the Recaro, especially in Ceramic.
When the ND2 came out, bought one as it it felt just right with that extra power at the top end. Reminded me of the S2000 I had, low-down torque was a feature but hit VTEC and it was something else!
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