Wow,
your list of cars all have distinctly different handling charateristics. Depends on what you want. All are probably good choices.
At the autcross this weekend I drove two of the cars in your list. I have been co-driving with a buddy who is trying to develop his mk1 MR2 into a competive STS car. The MR2 is not cosidered to be "The Car to have" in that particular class. But I have been impressed with the car so far.
We have already caused a couple of miata drivers to sweat a bit... But the car still has a ways to go before we are full developed, I think the car is underated. That car has tons of grip. It likes to change direction but it dosent like it when you lift on the throttle mid-corner. As you can see me do in run #1 of the follwing video:
YouTubeLinky
I had my miata out during the fun runs at the end of the day. The car felt completely different from the MR2. First off the miata was stock with crap tires so I had very little grip (which was expected) but what surpised me was the cars willingness to rotate under power. With power off through a corner the miata tended to understeer slightly, but I could induce oversteer with throttle application.
Which contrasts with the MR2 which didn't seem to care if power was on or off as long as you didn't lift.
If your looking for miata information miata.net is the place to go.
Also FatCatMotorsports has some good info on their website, including suspension setup tutorials and online calculators.
flyinmiata is another good source:
Also there is this Keith Tanner guy, who slums around this board a bit
, he has written a book or two about miatas they are worth picking up.
