A good point - there are hardly any UHP tyres in 195/50R16 hence I stick with the Yokohamas which I like, fortunately. But I would probably have tried Goodyear F1 were they available.
I will just say you don’t need to rev out the 1.5 all the time…the torque is actually not bad for the engine capacity and it’s flexible enough to drive quite normally using up to 3000rpm, and certainly 3500. But you will require the art of timely gear changing when you encounter a moderate hill or want to overtake. I regularly block change down 2 or 3 gears.
I know what you mean. I’m so glad I got a good rust treatment at 6m old when I bought my Arctic, it’s as good as new for practical purposes and when I read all the posts from people trying to figure out why their i-stop doesn’t work and how to switch off Lane-keeping Assist, I think mine is Peak MX-5 for me.
The Artisan Red and the wheels on the forthcoming 35th Anniversary caught my eye but I really don’t want all the extra stuff that comes with it , or the extra weight, so I’d really rather not update it regardless of the cost involved.
They are both a great drive if course, and obviously the 2.0 is a little quicker. But the 1.5 encourages you to drive it a little harder and because mine was an SE the ride was softer and more compliant.
They will both be great cars, it’s just down to choice. Im sure you would be happy with either…
I am on my 2nd RF, both with the 1.5 engine. When time came to buy my 2nd RF, I thought perhaps I was missing out on something so I drove a few 2.0 and a few soft tops. Genuinely couldn’t feel a huge difference between soft top or RF and the 1.5 engine in my personal opinion suits my driving style a lot better - for context, my daily previous to my 1.5 RF was a Scirocco R running over 300 bhp and I have plenty of experience with Porsches, Ferraris, AMGs, Audi RS’s, etc etc so I am quite familiar with powerful cars. 1.5 was still my choice
I’m going to put my two pennies worth in.
I had an ND1 1.5 Icon and loved it, before that I had the Mini Cooper with the 3 cyl 1.5 turbo engine and the Mazda felt easily a match for it in handling and performance, you could really rev the ND but it did feel a little bit on the soft side and if you had to change direction quickly a higher speeds it didn’t really like it and this wasn’t a high mileage car, it had 13000 miles on it when we got it and 26000 miles when we sold it, but it did give Golf GTI’s and the likes a run for their money. We then changed to a new ND 2 2.0l Exclusive Line exactly a year ago and the difference was in my ( and the wife’s) opinion was massive, the engine just feels so much more lively, the handling feels so much more settled, it pulls out of bends much better than the 1.5 did, it just feels like a much better sports car and the ND 2 engine just revs. So you should try both, I was more than happy with the 1.5 until I got the 2.0l, whether the ND1 2.0l is as good I don’t know as I’ve never tried one. I hope this helps.
Chris.