I'd be curious to see how an autocross (or whatever track event) would stack the Miata, E30 vs E30 M3. That'd be a fun contest! Honestly I'm sure the Miata would out handle the E30 but I never fit well into one....

As far as reliability, my car only died on me once in over 10 years and 90k (my fault, forgot to tighten the idler pulley on the timing belt) which resulted in me rebuilding the cylinder head. Oh well, while the head was off, I installed a Schrick cam and now the car really scoots!