Buying my first Miata
 

I've decided to buy a Miata. It'll be daily driven, but double as a track car. I won't be doing any serious racing, just having some fun at local tracks. I've got a couple of questions before I buy though.

1. When I buy the hardtop for the car, do I absolutely need to use a hoist, or can I just get a couple of strong friends to lower it into place so that I can save 100 bucks?

2. Will I need to replace the brake discs themselves, or can I just swap the pads for now?

3. How much does it cost to get some decent suspension for the car? What is recommended?

4. Stick with stock wheels and just change the tires for now, or get better (maybe bigger?) wheels and new tires?

5. What are the most basic power adding mods that you recommend doing as soon as I get the car?

Here's the car I'm looking at. Does it have too many miles, or do Miatas last a a long time?

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...16830259&Log=0

I'm also looking at this one, which has under 40,000 miles.

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...13337360&Log=0

Thanks in advance.

1. No hoist necessary. One man can lift it, but two is certainly easier.

2. Depends on condition. Rotors are fairly cheap, at 20 something each. Unless they're warped, you can do just pads.

3. Anywhere from a few hundred if you get lucky and find something used to several thousand. Depends on what you want, and how much you're willing to pay for it.

4. Depends on budget. I have stock wheels and I like them just fine. Many go with aftermarket to help save some weight.

5. Do all the maintenance items first. Flush out the brakes and clutch. Replace the shift boots, fuel filter, air filter. After that, it depends on what you're looking for. Not much will give much HP unless you go FI. CAI is probably the cheapest way to gain a couple. Free flowing exhaust will help as well, and you're going to want a larger (3") system if you go turbo anyway.

88k is nothing. I bought mine with 100k, and been driving it like I stole it. Some here have well over 10k miles boosted on stock motors.

Do yourself a favor and ready the stickys in the useful saved posts section. Prepare to be flamed otherwise.

Thanks a lot for the help. Could I stick to plain rotors, or should I go for drilled/slotted right now so that I don't have to do it later? I'll already have the brakes disassembled to swap the pads.

I had to take a double look at the forum header I thought I was on M.net for a moment.

Drilled/slotted rotors are a waste of money. Buy the "silver" level at Advance Auto.

There are some really good suspension threads on here. Read some of them so I don't have to spend 45 minutes breaking down the what and why.

There are great forums to help you with these issues.