6 Forgotten 90s Roadsters That Still Own Track Day Sundays

If you’re looking for a great car to take to a track day, you can’t go wrong with an old-school ’90s roadster. These are proper, traditional Sports Cars, with a much more analog feel than current offerings. They also tend to be easier to fix, and you can do a lot more with them in terms of modifications. It can be incredibly satisfying to go out there in a cut-price track day build and beat cars that cost 2, 3, or even 4 times the price you spent overall.

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This list has 6 of the best forgotten ’90s roadsters you can use for a weekend track day. While you may know a couple of them already for being great on a circuit, most of the other ones are cars you wouldn’t have thought of as track day demons.

6

Mazda MX-5 Miata (NA)

Release Date: 1990

Engine	Read Also 1 day ago Hyundai Motor Publishes 2026 Sustainability Report 4 autotech Transmission	Drivetrain	Power	Torque
1.6-liter inline-4	5-speed manual, 4-speed automatic	Rear-wheel drive	88-114 hp	100 lb-ft
1.8-liter inline-4	5-speed manual, 4-speed automatic	Rear-wheel drive	128-133 hp	110-114 lb-ft

The NA Mazda MX-5 Miata is one of the best-known and most-celebrated sports cars to ever come out of the ’90s. Built on the same philosophy that Colin Chapman used to build cars like the Lotus Elan, it’s a simple and lightweight sports car that focuses as much as possible on the authentic driving experience. Additionally, thanks to those Japanese mechanicals, it’s got absolutely bulletproof reliability and spare parts are easy to find. It’s also very easy to find aftermarket parts for them to really bump up the performance, or even swap a completely different engine in. Fully tap into how much these cars can be tuned, and the humble NA Miata becomes an absolute monster.

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The NA Miata is a common track day car. As a result, there are lots of recorded laptimes of them out there. The fastest lap time for a stock NA Miata that’s been recorded seems to be a 1:01.6 recorded at Lime Rock Park in July 2024. A full-on race-tuned NA achieved a lap time of just 54.9 seconds around the same circuit in April 2024. That means that, if you really go crazy with modifying one of these, they can seriously challenge much more expensive cars on a track day.

5

TVR Griffith 500

Release Date: 1993

Bonhams Cars

The TVR Griffith 500 is a car that, if you live in North America, you likely won’t have heard of. That’s because it was never sold there brand new. But, as this variant of the Griffith first entered production in 1993, most examples of the Griffith 500 are now more than 25 years old. That means you can freely import them to America, and enjoy one of the best pure driver’s cars ever made. The Griffith 500 is powered by a 5-liter version of the Rover V8, producing 340 horsepower and up to 350 lb-ft of torque. Put into that super light TVR chassis, the result is a seriously quick car. It’s also completely analog—it doesn’t even have power steering or ABS. That’s down to then-TVR owner Peter Wheeler wanting TVR’s cars to be as pure as possible.

Bonhams Cars

Because the TVR Griffith 500 has barely made an impact in America (even now that most examples are clear of the 25-year import rule), there isn’t much data about how fast these cars are on track. One enthusiast based in the UK has given us a good idea of what the Griffith 500 is capable of, though. He posted his own laptimes from a TVR owner’s club track day at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in the UK. His best lap was a 1:45.42, using the International Super Sportscar Circuit layout.

4

BMW Z3 M Roadster

Release Date: 1995

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The Z3 M Roadster has to be one of the most underrated BMWs ever. Most enthusiasts will point to the classic “clown shoe” Z3 M Coupe as the high-performance Z3, instead of the roadster. While it may be overlooked now, enthusiasts who know how great the Z3 M Roadster is have tipped it as being a potential future classic. Early versions of the Z3 M Roadster were powered by the S50 inline-6 engine in most markets, and the S52 inline-6 in America. The S52 is much less powerful than the S50, producing 240 hp instead of 316. Later models used the S54 engine found in the E46 BMW M3, which produces 315 hp in US-spec cars and 321 hp in the rest of the world. This is exactly the same as the situation with the Z3 M Coupe.

Thanks to the Z3 M Roadster being a compact, light car, even unmodified versions are pretty fast around a track. Horst von Saurma managed to record a Nürburgring lap time of 8:32 for Sport Auto. While that might not exactly set the world on fire compared to modern equivalents, it’s still pretty impressive.

3

Porsche Boxster (986)

Release Date: 1996

Porsche

It’s hard to think of a time now when Porsche didn’t have the Boxster (now the 718 Boxster) in its lineup. The original 986 version was released in 1996, and it was a key part of saving Porsche from financial failure. It embraced a more compact, mid-engined setup, one which quite a few enthusiasts thought was nicer to drive than the 911. It also got a proper Porsche flat-6 engine. The Boxster S’s engine is especially good—a 3.2-liter unit producing 250 hp in early versions and 258 hp in facelifted versions.

Porsche

Owners have regularly taken their 986 Boxsters out on the track, and they’ve consistently recorded very good lap times. A modified 986 Boxster is recorded to have lapped the Nürburgring in 7:59.8 in May 2017. A fully race-prepared 986 has also been recorded completing a lap of the main layout of Summit Point Motorsports Park in 1:21.5 in September 2022. Fully stock 986s can still be fast, though—one example lapped Willow Springs Raceway in 1:33 in January 2023.

2

Toyota MR-S (W30)

Release Date: 1999

The Toyota MR-S is the final iteration (so far…) of the MR-2. While the earlier generations of the MR-2 are beloved by enthusiasts, this version isn’t. For whatever reason, it’s been shoved so far under the radar that you can get an example of these for peanuts. But it’s still a true MR-2. It’s built to the same mid-engined, rear-wheel drive philosophy, and because it uses off-the-shelf Toyota parts, it’s easy to both maintain and upgrade.​​​​​​​

The Toyota MR-S has a surprising number of recorded lap times that prove how fast it can be on a circuit. A stock example managed to record a lap time of 1:58.5 around Oregon Raceway Park in June 2025 and 1:27.5 around Portland International Raceway in August 2025. Meanwhile, a race-prepared example managed to lap Thunderhill’s West layout in 1:21.7 seconds in March 2022. Those are some seriously impressive times, and prove that the MR-S can be a serious track day weapon with a great driver behind the wheel.

1

Honda S2000 (AP1)

Release Date: 1999

Honda

The Honda S2000 AP1 isn’t a car that’s from the ’90s, officially. The earliest customers didn’t get their cars until 2000. But, the original S2000 was developed during the late ’90s, and its design definitely was a product of that decade. That includes it being a properly analog sports car. That 2-liter VTEC engine loves to rev, and even lower-powered US-spec examples still have 240 hp stock. That power can increase dramatically with the typical modifications done to those VTEC units.​​​​​​​

Honda

The Honda S2000 is a typical car that people love to bring to track days. That’s reflected in how many recorded lap times of S2000s are out there from all sorts of different drivers. A stock AP1 S2000 managed to do a lap of Sonoma Raceway in 1:48.3 in September 2025. On the other end of the scale, a race-prepared AP1 S2000 lapped the Lurcy-Levis circuit in France in 1:05.4 seconds in March 2020. The AP1 S2000 really does live up to its reputation, then.

Sources: BMW, Honda, Lapmeta, matthewpoxon.wordpress.com, Mazda, Sport Auto, Toyota, TVR