In article >, Grant Edwards > wrote:
>On 2005-10-07, ritchiekidd > wrote:
>
>> Hey Grant - No need to be a dick about it. . .
>
>Sorry you thought I was being a dick. I've always thought your
>question was insulting to us engineers.
>
>> Why do people think that the engineers at Mazda would miss
>> minor/inexpensive changes that increased HP without sacrificing
>> reliability??? There are entire teams of engineers that work
>> on that stuff 6 days a week. Yet somehow, soembody thinks they
>> can spend $20 and 20 minutes and do something that will provide
>> a real increase in HP.
>
>Hey, it's an honest question.


I thought the original question, while an oft asked one, is totally
legit and deserved a better response. But I'd agree the answer is
other than forced induction, not much hp to be found for any
reasonable $$. He's already received good advice.

Now why might we engineers not have supplied that power right of the
bat? I can think of a few reasons: emissions, longevity, economy,
drivability tradeoffs. Or marketing (ie.e. why give a lot of hp in
a base model when you can sell it for a lot more in an uplevel?).
The latter wasn't the case with the Miata, but I would bet it has
been done with many another car.