Car companies are always trying to "redefine" things. One car that hasn't been redefined in the past dozen years is the traditional sports car. Look up "sports car" in a modern dictionary and there's a picture of a Mazda Miata. Well, there should be. The Miata is everything the classic sports cars were meant to be, and many things the two-seat British roadsters never were. The Miata is simple and affordable, absolutely reliable, and fun to drive in a way not achieved by powerful sport coupes or high-performance sedans.

The Miata is not brutally fast, nor particularly exotic. Nor were the great roadsters it emulates. Like them, however, the Miata celebrates the simple joy of motion, of human beings relating to machines in a manner that borders on intimacy.

Since its 1989 introduction, Mazda has sold a half-million Miatas, making it the most successful two-seat roadster in history. Its success has inspired a number of imitators, most of them more powerful and more expensive. Those more expensive sports cars are faster and fancier, but whether they're more fun is debatable. The Miata remains the benchmark, for its low-cost simplicity and outstanding sports-car handling. Last year, Mazda increased the Miata's power with variable valve timing, enlarged its brakes, stiffened its chassis, and upgraded its interior.