The MGB; the drive is decidedly sporty. The feel in the cockpit is sporty. The transmission shifting is decent-sporty. The twin carburetors are sporty. The exhaust-sound is sporty... The car is decidedly a slug, by way of acceleration... oh, maybe 12-and-change seconds to 60... more than 18.5 seconds for the quarter... and it has LEAF SPRINGS behind!
Hey, if I ever get mine back(another thread running on that) it SHOULD manage maybe somewhere in the ballpark of 10 seconds 0-60(upped C/R, hotter cam, ported head), but yeah it's pretty crude by most any modern standard.
Actually, I should say that the front suspension is a great double A arm design, and it has front disks-not bad for a car first sold in 1962. Comparing the front and rear suspension, it's almost like the bean counters said "Okay, that's a great design upfront and we'll do it, but there's no money left over for the rear" and that's how you end up with a rear axle straight off a cattle truck. There's also the stiff unibody, which again was noteable in 1962.
The cast iron lump up front leaves a bit to be desired. It's a good engine, just not particularly refined and there's only so much you can do with an OHV 4-pot that breaths through a 5 port head. The MGA Twin-Cam engine was a legitimate advance, not only as a DOHC engine but also that it actually managed an efficient crossflow design for that block(most of the OHV crossflow attempts for that engine have been worse than the stock 5 port). Unfortunately, the TC engine managed a non-undeserved reputation for poor reliability.
But still, it's a heck of a fun car, and it is a pure sports car. Actually, I should say that some argue that it lost some of its sports car "street cred" when they added luxuries like roll up windows(yes, those were an advertised feature) and a heater as standard. "Everyone knows" a proper sportscar is just fine with side curtains if you want to try and keep the rain off of you, and who needs a heater?
The Miata is the natural evolution of cars like the MGB, which is why I take issue with statements like
A cute little car that can go around corners. Sporty is a high output Ferrari, A Porsche turbo , A Vette with the high output engine.
IMO, if you don't consider a Miata a sports car, you don't really know what a sports car is. BTW, it was pretty heavily patterned after the Lotus Elan(and if you don't think that's a sports car, we need to have a talk). A lot about it was intended to be reminiscent of cars like the MGB, and supposedly the engineers even tried to emulate the MGB exhaust note. An MGB with its stock dual can exhaust often makes lists of "best sounding 4 cylinder exhausts", and I may be biased but it's one of the few 4 cylinders that actually sounds good to me. I think the NA Miata sounds pretty darn similar to an MGB with a stock exhaust.
Oh, BTW, I'm in my early 30s. I've just always loved British sports cars.