Everyone knows that ‘Miata is racecar.’ It’s the answer. The alpha and the omega when it comes to cars aimed directly at people who love to drive. But Miata as a racecar is missing one very important thing: the right steering wheel.
Mazda MX-5 Miatas have never come with particularly appealing factory steering wheels, especially in the US, where early NAs had ugly airbags instead of beautiful Momo three-spoke wheels like the rest of the world. Sure, they’ve gotten a little better over time, but early cars and their giant early airbags are especially horrendous. It’s why there is an entire industry of aftermarket steering wheels for cars like this. Replacing the factory plastic with wood, metal, or, if you’re feeling cringe at Pep Boys, chain links. One owner has changed this, though. In a video posted to YouTube, we get to see the craziest steering wheel on a Miata since one owner used a Nintendo Wii remote. It’s also worth as much as the car used to cost. And, of course, it is very, very cool.
This Mazda Has An F1-Style Wheel From A High-End Sim Rig
Elon Musk and your Tesla yoke, eat your heart out. This MX-5 has a more racer-like wheel than you’ll ever be able to put in a Model 3. It looks like it was snagged directly from Max Verstappen’s F1 car, but it’s something just slightly less rare than that.
The Mazda Miata’s factory wheel has been replaced by a Moza GS V2P GT racing sim wheel. The wheel isn’t one of the company’s top-of-the-line Lamborghini Squadra Corsa-branded wheels with a digital screen, but it’s still some serious hardware.
Moza’s GS GT wheel is made from forged carbon fiber. It has two magnetic shift paddles, two clutch paddles, 10 mechanical buttons, five rotary encoders, and looks like it can handle just about every setting that a real F1 car can offer. The $469 wheel is normally attached to one of the company’s motorized wheel base stations, but here it’s attached directly to the Mazda’s steering column.
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Dozens of gated shift kits have come and gone for the Miata, but we’ve never seen one this meticulously engineered.
It’s a steering wheel that has more controls than an early Mazda Miata has buttons and features. Though this one has air conditioning, so it might balance out and give some of the buttons something to do. If they wanted to hook them up, that is.
Miata Gets Bad Exhaust, Great Wheel
The team at Mazda shop Immortan Automotive is giving the wheel a try on an early NA Miata in their shop. The yoke is hooked up, and yes, they are actually driving it on the street. At least briefly.
This short video makes Immortan look a bit amateur, but this is a serious performance shop. Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, it services high-performance sports cars and vintage Japanese metal. It specialises in Miatas, especially ones that are meant for the track.
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The Mazda Miata is a near-perfect sports car, but there’s one thing missing.
Is this the beginning of a new next-level Miata? Probably not, it looks more like a shop just having some fun with stuff around the garage. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Forget that none of the switches, dials, and rotary controls can actually do anything; this is all about ‘because racecar.’ And since because racecar should be fun, this delivers.
Oh, and yes, making turns in a car with a yoke and a standard steering ratio is as horrible as you think it is.
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