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Stock Miata beats bunch of high-powered cars in wet 1/4-mile drag race

When is a stock, 167-horsepower Mazda MX-5 Miata quicker than a Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Mustang, Lamborghini Gallardo, Lotus Elise and a Porsche 911? When it's raining. Sort of.
Mazda Canada arranged a unique drag race to show off the fact that the Miata's optional power retractable folding hardtop can go from top-down to top-up in just 12 seconds flat. In this video, all six cars line up for a drag race, and it starts to rain (well, sort of - but you'll have to watch the video all the way to the end to see what we mean). The green flag is waved, and the timer starts as soon as the convertibles begin to put their tops up. But because the Miata's roof mechanism gets the car's roof back up a full 5.1 seconds quicker than the second-place car, the Mazda gets a serious advantage off the line for the actual drag race.
It's a fun video. And while we've spoiled the results (come on, the video was uploaded by Mazda, you knew the Miata was going to win), be sure to see how it all unfolds, below.

2022 Lotus Emira revealed with two engine options, Evija-inspired looks

The final internal-combustion-powered Lotus has been revealed: the 2022 Lotus Emira. The styling looks like a blend of the outgoing Evora and the all-new Evija electric car. It also features two choices of engine, one of which comes from AMG. The Emira's nose has the closest resemblance to the electric car, particularly in the headlights and the vent openings on either side of the hood. But the whole car has a softer, more rounded shape like the EV rather than the old Evora. It has very large intakes on each side, and a slim, wrap-around taillight at the back. The body fits over a typical Lotus bonded-aluminum chassis, and the company says the lightest version of the car will weigh around 3,100 pounds. Two kinds of suspension are available, the standard Tour setup and an optional and stiffer Sports version. Also noteworthy is the inclusion of hydraulic power steering, rather than electric. Powering that chassis is your choice of engines. It will launch initially with the same supercharged 3.5-liter V6 from the Evora. Next summer, it will be offered with a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder from AMG. Lotus says three transmissions will be available: manual, automatic and dual-clutch transmissions. It didn't say which pairings of engine and transmission would be available, but we expect the V6 to get the manual and automatic options, while the four-cylinder gets the dual-clutch transmission (just as it does when in Mercedes A-Class-related cars). The company also says power will range from 360 to 400 horsepower. This will get the car from 0 to 62 mph in under 4.5 seconds. The interior is fairly minimalist, but definitely more advanced than recent Lotus offerings. Most surfaces are covered in fabric, leather or Alcantara. It has two screens for instruments and infotainment. The former has a 12.3-inch screen, and the latter has a 10.25-inch touchscreen. Features include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There's only seating for two, and cargo space is split between a 5.3-cubic-foot trunk and a 7.3-cubic-foot area behind the seats. The Emira was revealed this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Pricing for the U.S. has not been announced, but it will cost under 72,000 Euros in Europe. That comes to around $85,000 in the United States. We should know more about specifications and pricing closer to when it goes on sale sometime this year.

Lotus confirms new Elise S Cup

Head on over to the Lotus website, and though the Elise isn't offered in the United States anymore, buyers in other markets can choose between numerous models: there's the base Elise, the Elise Club Racer, the Elise S and the Elise S Club Racer, and that's before even getting into the even more extreme Exige that's also based on the Elise. Track-day enthusiasts can also go for the full-on Elise S Cup R, but now the British sportscar manufacturer has confirmed a new variant.
Called the Elise S Cup, it slots in between the CR and the Cup R as an extreme performance model that can actually be driven to the track and back home on public roads. The S designation tells us it packs the 1.8-liter supercharged four that already produces 217 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque in the existing Elise S, Elise S CR and Elise S Cup R, but as we saw when Lotus was testing the new variant around the Nürburgring, the Elise S Cup packs some key upgrades.
It's got an aero kit - including front splitter, winglets, side skirts, rear diffuser and rear wing - that's more aggressive than other road-going models (though apparently less extreme than the track-focused S Cup R), helping to generate 145 lbs of downforce at 100 mph and 275 lbs at top speed and besting the Elise S around the Lotus test track by an impressive three seconds.