Now that Christmas is finally here, we should not be sad that it’s going to be over in a matter of hours. As someone wisely said once: every day taking you further away from this year’s cheerful holiday is another day taking you closer to next year’s Christmas...
As such, I’m going to be a little egotistical and set aside 2021’s presents to cook up my Christmas shopping list – if Santa doesn’t come through with a surprise – for the 2022 edition. Frankly, I loved every bit of Chevrolet's tearjerker Christmas commercial featuring a cool 1966 Chevy Impala, but I still prefer the new car smell over anything else. So, my choices are simple... and either affordable or very expensive.
Regularly, I am a two-kids-dad, and my daily driver is a mundane station wagon. As such, there’s ample room in the back for what feels like tens of thousands of sporting and DIY car maintenance accessories. Seriously, it’s like Batman’s cave in there, if he wasn’t a billionaire (genius philanthropist, just to swing a pun in Marvel’s direction) and his crime-fighting toys were actual, as safe as possible... real toys. But I digress.
The main thing about Christmas and Santa – if you’re not the religious type (nothing wrong if you are, of course) – is that such a celebration is still a great one in terms of hope, cheerfulness, and general human well-being. So, we are allowed to dream a little. Or more, in my particular case. With an accent on more.
Photo: Mazda
As such, for 2022’s Christmas, I decided to envision myself with a couple of sports cars that have just two seats each. Frankly, if by a miracle (Christmas is always the best time to hope for one) I could get them both, I would not feel too guilty: me with one kid in a car, the missus, and the other kid in the second one. Racing (below actual speed limits, or on a proper racetrack) a little, then swapping cars, drivers, and kids. That would be fun, I imagine.
Anyway, let’s see if anyone agrees with my dream 2022 choices. First up on the roster is the daily driver, a 2022 Mazda MX-5 Miata. I must confess that ever since a dear friend of mine fulfilled his life-long dream of owning one, I promised myself that someday I would better him with a newer, cooler example. And what better option would be than to play around town in a nimbler Mazda equipped with banned Formula One technology from the 1990s.
Photo: Manthey Racing / Instagram
Don’t raise an eyebrow, just check out the explanation for the pompous Kinematic Posture Control. Now, that’s nothing outrageous, right? Wait until you hear about the track toy. That would be Manthey Racing’s new take on the Porsche 911 GT3 (992). It’s going to be available from the second quarter of next year, enough time for every fan to lament that it costs an arm and a leg on top of the huge paycheck the German automaker demands for owning one.
Still, it’s entirely mesmerizing to own a Porsche, especially one that stands out in the tuning crowd the right way. Manthey did nothing fancy from a technical standpoint. They just added a four-way adjustable suspension kit, stunning Manthey OM-1 lightweight wheels, a brake upgrade kit... and then some gorgeous aero enhancements.
The pack contains stuff like a front lip/front splitter, flics, a rear diffusor, a carbon fiber rear wing (including the side plates), as well as Aerodiscs for the rear axle. What can I say? They had me at “Manthey has taken on the challenge of increasing the performance of the new Porsche 911 GT3 (992) even further.” Now I am eagerly waiting for their second go around the Nurburgring Nordschleife to see how fast it has become compared to the OEM setup...
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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