[Rosso]

Originally Posted by WatertownNewbie

Ok, Sydude, here's a proposal for another thread in view of the recent news on Mazda and Skippy. Do we need to trash our existing track notes for our favorite venues? Or can we build off of those notes? In particular, if the Neon engine goes out of a car and a Mazda engine moves in, but all else (such as tires, suspension, etc.) remain the same, how different will the driving be?

Be interesting to see which Mazda motor we end up with. Lust in my heart for the Miata 2.0 DOHC there is, but I bet we get the base 3 series 2.0, which is probably closer in performance to the old Neon unit.

As an engineering geek, I would think we would be most interested in the difference in weight and its distribution between the old and new motors. The lusty twin-cam motor might be top heavy relative to the old Dodge? More weight will change the polar roll rates. Same weight overall but located higher up will raise the center-of-mass and change the pitch axis and the roll rates. I would expect the powers that be will tune the RPM characteristics of the chosen motor to mate most harmoniously with the gear ratios in the existing gearboxes.