Miata may always be the answer in the not very curious world of the automotive enthusiast, but hopefully nobody tells you that you can just roll up into the pits of your local race track during race day in a stock MX-5 and expect to be allowed to compete—you'll need a Roadster for that, and only if its name ends in the three letters, "NR-A".
Limited to only its home market of Japan, the NR-A grade of the enduring Mazda Roadster, which debuted in its 2nd "NB" generation model, is essentially a road legal, built to spec racecar offered directly by Mazda for entry into the JAF–sanctioned
Roadster Party Races held across Japan. Using the most basic, stripped out "S" model as a base, standard issue parts for track use on the NR-A include adjustable Bilstein dampers, a reinforced driveshaft, front suspension tower bars, enlarged brake rotors and radiators, and even the differential from the 2 litre Roadster models normally meant only for the RF and export models, paired to the JDM exclusive 1.5 Litre Inline 4. And of course, as one would expect from a modern racecar, tow hooks, a roll cage, 6 point harnesses, bucket seats with throwback Mazdaspeed branding all prominently feature on the NR-A... as
options. All these heavy duty track items add around 20 kilos (44lbs) to the base, barebones S trim already represented in the game, bringing the NR-A to what Mazda quotes to be 1,010kg (2,227lbs), putting its mass on par with the S Special Package trim. Overall, these items don't radically transform the NR-A into a fire breathing track monster, but I think that minimalistic list of changes is indicative of just how race ready, dead reliable, and built with a laser focus the base car already is, and I think that's really, really cool.
Unfortunately, there are more than a few inaccuracies with the NR-A model in Gran Turismo 7, and they irk me to no end: The
fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell is completely missing, for starters. The blacked out middle brake light cover on the boot lid of the car, an NR-A exclusive detail and thus a surefire way to tell one apart from its kin, is not present. The digital NR-A also sits 20mm lower than its real life model due to the ride height drop from the Sports Suspension equipped by default, measuring in at 120mm (4.72in) when
the real car sits at 140mm (1.57in), same as any other Roadster grade. Also, because the roll cage is fitted to the car by default, it cannot be coloured at all by any means, unlike the aftermarket item of the S that is accepting of any hue and finish in the livery editor. The default licence plate reads "ROADSTER" in the now phased out
Mazda Font, when 2022 models should've long since adopted the newer
Mazda Type font. And, this may be a minor thing not specific to the NR-A, but I find that it sticks out much more in a car specifically made to go racing: the GT Auto tow hooks are stuck onto the tow hook anchor point
covers instead of removing the cover and screwing in the tow hooks, and that just looks
INCREDIBLY stupid to me, almost like glued on ricer items rather than functional racing equipment. While tow hooks may be an option on the NR-A grade and only fitted for track use, they're still a requirement for participation in the Roadster Party Race, and thus I argue is a standout feature of the trim, and it's such a shame they look so goofy on the NR-A in GT7. It genuinely appears to me that Polyphony Digital took the existing 2015 S model, replaced the seats, added a roll cage, and installed a Sports Suspension as standard, and called it the 2022 NR-A instead of actually scanning a real NR-A for the game.
GT Auto tow hooks on the NR-A
NR-A option tow hooks on the car
Photo: Mazda
To cap it all off, the S and NR-A share mostly identical wide bodies and aero parts in GT Auto, with the NR-A adding to or replacing the S' options. It really feels to me like Polyphony Digital really couldn't be bothered with the flagship sports car of its official partner, and it just reeks. And that's even before we consider the fact that the 2022 NR-A was one of the very few cars added to this anorexic game post–launch, when we're still missing any representation for the NB and NC generations of the Roadster. They could've at least given us a visually striking RF model with the mechanically distinct 2L engine, or even a Fiat 124 Turbo, but
noooooope, here's a largely similar car to what you already have, made on the cheap. Deal with it.
Look, I love Mazdas. I
want the NR-A, both in the game and IRL, but even I can't deny what a slap across the face the NR-A feels like in the context of GT7.
The 2022 NR-A we got in the game may look largely identical to the base model S, but does it
drive similar?
I'm sure anyone who's managed to squeeze into the claustrophobic ND Roadster will report that two of its most glaring shortcomings are its low power figure and floppy springs, and I'm very happy to report that the track focused NR-A has addressed that latter issue, exhibiting no–nonsense tautness and immediacy approaching bona fide racecar territory. Just this one change alone
completely transforms the personality of the car, from a casual, goofy, fun loving, but sometimes too unserious and borderline dangerous car into something that is easy and immediate to place, feeling like a proper weapon to wield. Despite the NR-A weighing 20 kilos more and packing negligibly more power, just the suspension changes alone made the NR-A around 4 tenths quicker around Tsukuba than the S in my hands. Of course, the 195/50R16 Comfort Soft tyres are exactly the same that is found on the base S model, and so grip in the NR-A is still extremely limited, especially now that the car isn't massively leaning on them with its tightened setup. I personally would soften the damping on both ends a bit, as I find it can be hard to put weight over the tyres without big, heavy pedal inputs, making the car hard to minutely adjust mid corner. Understeer also tends to be a bit of a problem in high speed sweepers that don't let drivers stomp on the middle pedal to shift weight up front for beforehand. That is to say, the car is very reliant on the brakes to get turned, which can work against the car even at notoriously tight tracks like Tsukuba and Streets of Willow.
Thankfully, none of that is to say at all that the track focused NR-A has traded in its playful and feisty nature to become a soulless track weapon; in fact, I'd argue that the NR-A only truly comes alive when it loses its grip on the pavement. The base Roadster is already one of the best cars to learn fast driving in because of how slowly it lets go, and with how much warning and communication it gives drivers throughout. In the NR-A, this trait only gets highlighted more, as the car loses most of its snappy tendencies to its taut suspension setup, leaving only safe, gradual slides that only helps rotate the car into the apex of turns. Couple this with the slight bias towards understeer, and this is a car that will very quickly make clear to its driver that it wants a hint of yaw angle into a corner for the highest minimum speed and earliest throttle application out of the corner, and it just begs for a confident driver to flick its steering wheel hard into a corner on the brakes with full commitment and smoothness to get the most of it. And with its low grip tyres, the car gives its driver so much surreal, tactile buildup into a slide, it feels like I enter bullet time when the tyres start to screech, and everything comes into hyper focus: the steering wheel becomes a novel written in braille. The throttle and brake pedals are every bit as involved in the rotation of the car as the steering wheel. All four tyres would almost be a relaxing ASMR experience if not for the tiny NA engine begging to be kept screaming to hold that slide. In that moment, every bit of the car just fits and clicks together immaculately with such ridiculously satisfying fashion, it's almost like watching a master craftsman assemble a watch. Except, I'm no master craftsman or driver; the car just makes me
feel like one. Mazda may like to throw the term, "Jinba–Ittai" around as a marketing slogan. I just think it's driving euphoria that no other car, no other Roadster in any other trim, can give. If you ever find yourself in a position to playtest gaming wheels before purchase, there is no car I'd recommend more than the NR-A for that pleasure.
Having experienced that cohesion that created something that is, in my mind, worth well more than the sum of its parts, I'm so genuinely smitten by the car that there isn't much of anything I want to change at all on the car. I don't want more grip. I don't even want more power. The car is made to make perfect sense with what it is. Everything meshes together and balances with each other so perfectly in the NR-A that changing one thing feels like pulling one string and unfurling an intricate, beautiful knot. The stiffness in the suspension gives me reason and ability to slide it. The moderate power and immediacy of a small NA engine gives me perfect control to hold and adjust slides for the grip level it has. And while undeniably low powered, the Roadster never feels disengaging to drive even in the lull between the twisty bits of the track; said
1.5L NA Inline 4 P5-VP engine in the NR-A very oddly requires just a slight hint of a short shift before its 7,500rpm redline for optimal acceleration, always giving drivers something to do and think about even as they wait for the next corner. And unlike some of the other cars we've tested here in COTW, the Roadster doesn't hit terminal velocity and stop accelerating well past the 200km/h mark (124mph), which will see the NR-A pull even to the end of some of the longest straights in the game, such as Conrod Straight of Bathurst. The fact that it keeps pulling for so long ensures that every bit of corner exit momentum and slipstream its driver can eke out meaningful throughout the whole straight, and to me, that's enough power to race.
The
one thing that's still somewhat niggling at me is that I'd prefer 2nd and 3rd gears to be a
bit closer together, as the dropoff when upshifting to 3rd drops the engine to the very bottom edge of its healthy power zone, making the
gear ratios rather inflexible to work with. The low speed corners that this car craves often has me choosing between making a short lived downshift into 2nd sniffing the limiter, or lugging the lifeless car out in 3rd, and sometimes it can feel like there isn't a correct choice between the two. I do sometimes wish the front end was softer to reduce that horrid understeer when off the brakes, and the resulting reliance on the brakes to turn, and I imagine the car must be horrid with worn tyres. On cold rubber at race start, the rear end is almost heinously loose under hard braking, but at this point, I'm so smitten by the car that I'm just going to say that adds some old school supercar charm to the car: it's a racecar that I can drive to the shops and back, it'd be my
honour to treat it with some caution and respect!
I started the week posing the question to everyone: Why would I want the NR-A over the S (in the context of this game)? Unsurprisingly, a Mazda Roadster only makes sense after being driven and experienced rather than weighed on numbers alone. Yes, for the 6,050 Credits the NR-A costs over the S, you could just slap a racing chip or better tyres on, and have a faster car than the NR-A. You could even buy the 3,100 Credit Sports Suspension upgrade and put a
1,000 Credit paintable roll cage in to match the NR-A and get a similarly performing car with change leftover. But trust me when I say that no crummy aftermarket part will get you this level of precision, playfulness, linearity, and tactility, unless you're willing to shell out nearly half the price of another Roadster S for a full custom suspension and spend hours tinkering with it. The NR-A may cost a bit more than the S, but if you intend to tune a ND Roadster for whatever reason, be it to organise a spec racing event or simply adding more power to it, the NR-A will save you a lot of time, certainly more than 6,050 Credits worth of time.
In essence, the NR-A is exactly what it says on the tin: it's a spec racing car that buys you a budget ticket into an exciting world of grassroots racing, removing entirely the long and arduous process of finding a setup that works for racing, being ready right off the assembly line. Despite its low price tag relative to bona–fide Grouped racecars, I genuinely think the NR-A is right up there among the best one–make racecars in the game. It just proves that racing has almost nothing to do with outright speed, is best without downforce, ground effects, and the resultant stiff suspension, low, scraping ride heights, and dirty air. Maybe it won't look as exciting to the audience from the outside, but to actually drive and have a race in? I'd genuinely rather the NR-A than any GT500, LMP, or Super Formula.
I love Mazdas. I think most sim racers do, because they make the best drivers' cars out there. We at Car of the Week are featuring our 3rd Mazda in a row. But even someone like me hadn't expected to fall so deeply in love with a Roadster with a cage and stiffened suspension. Even someone who expects to like every Mazda he drives is pleasantly surprised by the NR-A, which should hopefully tell you just how darn good the NR-A in GT7 is, flaws and all.
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