>>I certainly do not remember the Fiat 124 Spyders that the Miata is a copy of being a “girlie” car.
I’ve never heard that. From all I’ve read, the Miata is considered a copy of a Lotus Elan.
I owned two 124’s and they were not girlie cars, but real DOHC/5 speed/drop top sports cars. They had leather interiors, real wood, radial tires, rack and pinion steering and would blow the doors off anything from England or Japan at the time, especially on curvy roads. They ran wonderfully if you could keep them on the road. Anyone who ever owned a Fiat knew it was an acroynm for F-ix I-t A-gain T-ony. I still have all my metric tools from the 70’s, they are well used.