Oh well, perhaps today's Mazdaspeed MX-5 turbo will have you all singing a different tune. Everybody likes the Miata, right? Reconstituting the form made popular and then all but abandoned by the British and Italians, the MX-5 has curried favor among a divergent group of drivers including fun-seeking women, teh gahz, and even hard core racers. And of course anybody who could check off all three of those boxes – cough* Betty Jack Devin *cough – would conceivably go apoplectic over this Velocity Red two seater.

Like the Hydrogen atom, what initially made the Miata so great was its extreme elemental nature — what was needed to put a big smile on its driver's face was there, and everything else was left off. While larger and less cheeky, Mazda's second swing at the plate refined the concept without losing too much of what made the first a good substitute for a barrel full of monkeys. What was gained was a couple hundred pounds and some government-meddling pedestrian-friendly headlamps, the previous pop-ups apparently having the potential for jaywalker genitalia removal. BTW, wouldn't genitalia be an awesome name for a sports car? Imagine being able to say Let's take out the Genitalia today or I spent the morning waxing my Genitalia, and it looks insane now! The question would remain, do you have what it takes to master a Genitalia?

You might ask yourself the same thing with this turbo'd 1.8, which the seller – Cody Strife – says makes over 200 horses. Now, I just finished watching Jeremy Clarkson blow sparkplugs out of a normally aspirated version of the Mazda twin cam so 9.5 PSI makes me a little leery. Of course Jezza is a buffoon, and the Mazdaspeed engine is a factory turbo which here has seen but modest upgrades to its intake and exhaust. That should keep its stress at the skidmarks called out in gym class level, and not at the terrorist hostage with ill-planned dotted-line neck tattoo level.

Other mods here include a spate of Flyin' Miata springs, shocks and sway bars, plus a fresh set of Yoko Onos Yokohamas mounted on Enkei 16 inchers. Externally the car has skirts like your sister, and its trunk lid benefits from an unobtrusive lip spoiler, while inside a roll bar appears to be the only change from stock. It's not a very old car so the claimed 58K mileage seems about right.

What's the downside? Well, there's a couple of douchie stickers that'll need to be heat-gunned off, and there's the fact that the seller calls this the latest from Strife Performance, even though that doesn't seem to be an actual business. It's sort of like that Seinfeld episode where the spazzy dude kept referring to himself in the third person – Jimmy likes Miatas! – and that just seems a little weird. But the car otherwise doesn't seem off, and Strife Performance is willing to cut the price if you don't want all his add-ons. Should you want a strife sentence then this MX-5 will set you back $13,000. No Strife in your life? $10,750. That seems like an awful lot of work to remove the mods, so let's stick with the Strife. What do you say, is $13,000 a price that would make you Mazdaspeed over to buy it? Or, does that make you say do you know how many (fill in the blank) I could get for that!?

You decide!

I voted Nice Price, but only just.

Had this been a bone-stock, low-mileage car (as in somewhere around the 30k miles mark) I would have jumped at Nice Price.

But, alas, there are a few things that bug me about. Let's finish off the mileage aspect: while 58k miles seems reasonable for a car this age, note the roll cage. That roll cage leads me to believe that there is significant potential that the car's mileage was racked up, at least in part, on a race track. Normally, not a big deal, especially if it comes from a long-respected speed shop.

But claims that the add-ons come from a non-existent company called "strife performance"? This sounds slightly shady. Throw in the fact that all of the parts are simply existing aftermarket parts that were bolted on, and this sure as hell does not sound like a legit speed shop. It's just some guy who thinks he's hot **** that is new and unique and has never been seen before (read: he's narcissistic and doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about car or modifications other than how to bolt something on). This whole "Strife Performance" bullshit is him trying market himself with a totally unexceptional "product".

I hate guys like this, who think that modifying and customizing a car is so easy. Any jackass can bolt on parts. But tuning a car such that the parts work in concert with each other to increase every aspect of the vehicles performance, ensuring that the work is detailed and thorough, takes a whole hell of a lot more effort. Stickers and bolt-on parts do not a custom vehicle make. Modifying and tuning a car require dedication, skill, and artistic vision, and a "Strife Performance" sticker doesn't qualify as any of the above. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I get the feeling this guy ranks a little high on the brodacious scale.

And then there's the fact of the modifications from a meta standpoint: Why would you modify a Mazdaspeed Miata to begin with? To go faster? Miatas have never been about going fast. They've been about sublime balance and a harmonious driving experience that is much, much more than the sum of the vehicle's parts. Mazda has always gotten that right straight out of the box with the Miata, and they perfected it with the Mazdaspeed Miata. Why mess with perfection? That's like suggesting Jessica Biel should have plastic surgery and a boob job. It's ludicrous. Jessica Biel is a knock-out in stock form, and so is the Mazdaspeed Miata. No modifications necessary.

Finally, there's the price. That's a lot money for a Miata. If your goal is to mess with perfection and make modifications, then there is no shortage of non-Mazdaspeed Miatas out there for dirt cheap, and would serve as a better choice for modifying to your own tastes while providing a substantially lower price-of-entry, thus allowing more money for the modifications.

Dammit...can I change my vote to Crack Pipe?