Haha, it's all personal preferance, but any of the newer big muscle cars will handle almost as well as a small can if you aren't pushing them to the very limit as you would on a track. Plus, apart from the weight distribution issue, there are many things you can do to a car to make it handle better, and most of it is fairly cheap. New struts, swaybars, rims, and low pro tires will do wonders to a properly set up car no matter what it was like stock, and would probably cost you under 2 grand if you let someone else do the work. So why not get the best of both worlds and something with a little more power to start with... you'll appreciate it unless you are out at the track doing autocross all the time.
And as for the turbo sound being cooler... again personal preference, but very few people know what turbo whine or a blowoff valve sounds like, so they won't have any idea. I own both a 350+ small block chevy powered truck, and a turbo Mercedes and actually prefer the truck over the mercedes, so I guess it's all up to what you like.
So good luck on the choice, and while I'm sure the miata makes a really nice car, I think there are options that unless you need the ultimate cornering will do great for the price. Even take a look at some of the new Audi's... the TT is a cool little car, might not be the fastest, but its still sweet looking, and the S4 if you can find one is wicked fast, plus they are both AWD, making fun in the snow just that... a little more fun
