about 6mos ago, i would've said go with the miata. i was shopping for one myself, but ended up with a 96 for ITA instead.

but recently (in part due to a hugely misleading article in sportscar) there has been a mob gathering for a witch hunt against the miata in ITA. this stems from fear of the many years of pointed development in both SM car and driver that has produced a very, very quick package. often times the SM guys outrun the ITA guys, despite being down 10-15hp, and having inferior tires and suspensions.

with the shortcomings of the SM ruleset there is more and more people making the switch to IT, bringing their car prep and driver ability with them. consequently, former SM now ITA competitors are starting to see some good results (yet nothing like the Honda crowd has seen for as long as i can remember) and it's unjustifiably raising eyebrows. to paraphrase one of my fellow ITA competitors "it makes me skeptical when these miatas show up out of nowhere and start kicking butt."

the point is i don't see any reason why this couldn't happen to the ITS miata. get a few good finishes, and the mob will switch their attention to you, using any combination of rumor, lie, speculation, ignorance, and fear to justify an adjustment to the ITAC.