Reasons I refuse to buy an ND RF despite the fact I love them. I have no debt right now and it's glorious. I'm sure it'd not be "smart", it's definitely not fun, but I'd put the 6,800 towards principal + a little extra principal on monthly payments and get rid of the ND if it's a burden. Then enjoy no payment bliss in an NA/NB or even cheap as balls NC.

I have been through 5 other Miatas now. 3 NB's and 2 NC's. The ND is such a leap over the other generations. I currently have an 01 SE that the paint is peeling off in rapid fashion and loves to vibrate apart. It is a 16 year old car, after all. I just took it on a 1500+ mile road trip and it is fun, but the ND just blows it away in every dimension. I easily have 10k of parts laying around my garage for it and I could probably sell the car itself for 3-5k. If I sold all of that and used that $6500 towards principal, I could make the ND much less of a burden and enjoy a much better car. Decisions, decisions...

My goal for a long time was to have a 250 whp miata and apparently the ND can do that stock and track reliably. According to one guy (ITOzann) on m.net, he has done 3 track days so far and had no issues. My goal is to have a fun street car and do the occasional HPDE. I don't want any reliability issues and I love to do long road trips. I definitely don't understand the lack of off-the-shelf oil coolers, though. Every modern car these days that uses VVT heats up the oil big time and they need a cooler.

It seems pretty clear then:
sell off everything else and enjoy the car that makes you happy, which appears to be the ND. This hobby is a money pit no matter which way you look at it, the main goal being enjoyment/satisfaction. If you're not loving the car you drive every day, you're doing it oh so very wrong.

People who seriously care about sound financial decisions do not buy roadsters to modify and track and daily drive.

ND Xida ACE semi-active suspension
 

So we had a local customer with a 124 Abarth order a Xida ACE system with 400/200 "Sport" springs and our billet coaxial mounts. Standard ACE systems is effectively double adjustable. We asked if we could install the system to see how it worked in the Fiata. Straigt forward install.
The lead coming out the top of each damper was small enough not to interfere with the OEM shock tower brace. So under the hood the harness is basically invisible. Other than the little fob on the center console, one would never know this little Fiat has a state of the art semi active race suspension. Quite stealth.

The fob has three parameters you can adjust to 5 different levels each, 1=full soft, 5=max stiff. DDA which is base shock stiffness, Roll, and Pitch. The Roll and Pitch parameters are interesting because the control unit can actually soften the unloaded side of the car below the base DDA setting while stiffening the loaded side. If combining say, braking and turning, it vectors damping stiffness to the most heavily loaded wheel and softens the lightest loaded wheel. Crank the Pitch stiffness to max and it responds to small on/off throttle inputs by stiffening the shocks. Too much for daily driving so we keep the Roll & Pitch turned down to position 2 or 3 and DDA at full soft. The owner has the OEM RE050's on 17x7 wheels. No exactly a high grip tire/wheel combo. For this reason and the anti-roll characteristics of the ACE system, we advised him to stick with the Abarths OEM sway bars to preserve ride quality.

So driving it is fascinating. The jittery ride of the OEM Bilstein shocks is gone. Where Botts dots and tiny road imperfections would make the car shimmy and vibrate, the ACE equipped cars just soaks it up. You hear the tires slapping over the bumps but can't feel it in the car. It floats over big expansion joints with the gentle body motions of a 3000lb car. Dab the brakes and snap it into a turn and the car responds instantaneously, hunkering down and railing around the turn with almost no body roll like a 2200lb STR Miata. Weird and wonderful.

This Fiata rides better than our own ND. We're quite jelly at the moment. Our car will also get ACE with a 4 way adjustable damper and the DSC control system. That's basically what they are running on Pirelli World Challenge GT3's and Vipers.

Before install
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...fb60d17c16.jpg

Tractive accelerometer/control unit installed in this void under the center console
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ace071002b.jpg

Fob location
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba1e4f7428.jpg

the win is quite strong
next you should convince him to ditch those horrendously ugly wheels for some proper 6uls

He is totally flossing on those stock size HRE's lol. I have considered getting a 124 Classica, too, if any reliable reflash info came out showing real gains. Adding an ND 2.9 rear end to the Classica gives it the perfect DD gearing.

Emilio, I need some feedback from you on the AVO turbo kit!

What is the price tag on that full-stop suspension kit?

Any updates on the OSGiken?

Troof. Sounds like the NB is more of a burden than the ND. My only car is a lowish mileage NA that's fantastic in every way EXCEPT HOW LOUD IT IS ON THE INTERSTATE, so I'm just going to ignore all the stuff about how great the ND is before I head to the Mazda dealer a mile up the road and make poor (awesome) decisions.

Don't go test drive one. I put off driving one for months and months, but the first time I drove one, I drove home in the Sport.

1. Ours not installed yet. Find a transmission solution before installing.
2. ND Xida coilovers Miata
3. You may notice we tend to not offer updates until we have something to update :)

4k isn't bad at all for the billet upper mounts and a semi-active suspension!

Ugghhhhh, I am just imagining buying a 124 Classica, adding that suspension set-up, bigger brakes, 17x9 6UL's w/ 245s, an ND 2.9 rear end, full bolt-ons, and a reflash. That would be an insanely good canyon car!!

Analysis paralysis.

That is definitely not the case. I act and act often. 5 cars in two years.

Indeed.

You appear to be afflicted in a similar manner as I am. Always saying "Oh man this would be sweet," constantly coming up with new configurations and builds and plans, gathering information, etc.

If you're not sure about it, don't do anything. Just sit tight. You'll find what you're looking for, and you'll know it when you find it.

When did MT turn into CR?

It always was, our wheels just fit.

What are you referring to?

Some folks have the grass is greener syndrome. Lots of us do, I think. Even with my Miata.... always thinking about what to do next, what I want out of the car. It's worse with my main car (currently my S2000), always thinking about a Camaro or Corvette or GTI or... or....... always something else pulling.

But ultimately, every day, I love driving my S2000. And when I think about my Miata, I'm very happy with the turbo build, so I stay where I am.

He'll figure it out.

Yep, this. I'm conflicted between keeping the BRZ and doing some more mods to it, taking it back stock. Buying a new Mustang GT or Camaro SS, I also have an unhealthy desire for the Audi RS3 they are going to start bringing over (although that would really be out of the budget until I get some stuff paid off).

HAHAHA could not agree more with these guys.

Every single day I'm pondering another car. After wasting hours looking, thinking, comparing, I realize that I can't really do much better than I'm doing now without spending a ton of time, or money, or both, or significantly downgrading altogether. Then I look at my sexy car that's a perfect blend of power/speed, sexiness, comfort, and sportiness and wonder why I'm wasting time day dreaming about all these things.

Then 2-3 days later the whole process starts over. Rinse and repeat.

It's silly, but what are you gonna do. And no, this place aint CR. Not while I'm here and have the ability to ban those retards.

I must say, I'm in a happy place right now with both of my NAs.

Craigslist/Autotrader browsing/dreaming is about a every other week thing for me. That's about how much time it takes to forget the math and that I'm a peasant by Austin standards. ND, NSX, FD, 996 Carrera S/Turbo, Cayman S, or hell just turbo/supercharging the NA, the list goes on and will never be realized because my next vehicle will probably be a boring ass truck so I can haul my NA to the track in comfort and maybe, one day, an SM/SPM S2/Cheap as balls by racing standards Miata.