Post your Mazda Miata. Miata Pictures
12-31-2012, 12:22 PM
#382
Elite Member
iTrader: (13)
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Taos, New mexico
Posts: 6,596
Total Cats: 556
Vash, I know you have a ton of **** on your plate and the miata does not seem all that important right now, but if I have one bit of advice to you it's this:
Fix that thing, don't drop "a few grand" more into it yet. Just fix it, for whatever it costs. It sounds like it doesn't need much if it's simply overheating. You are young, enjoy your little sports car now. Don't keep putting it off, just do it, drive it, and enjoy the **** out of it every day.
I learned this lesson, let me elaborate. I had my car down for about 2 years, and never had the motivation to work on it (or more accurately the time/money). This was because I was a young idiot (IIRC I'm around your age). I turbocharged my car right out of highschool, then realized I needed an EMS, supporting mods, $$$, to do it right.
Because of this it sat, for way too long. When it was running, it was hardly reliable. Now come last winter and this summer I pulled the motor, fixed all my leaks and little issues, and got it running. Reliably running, as in cross country road trip capable. Then I drove it all summer, put several thousand miles on it. HOLY ****, let me tell you - I can seriously never go that long without having a well tuned car again.
The feeling when you come out from the movie theater with your girl and get into your car is awesome. Next time you are alone in a parking lot and you want to spin off a few donuts, you can. When its pouring down rain and you roll on the throttle in third and struggle for traction. Next time you end up down a twisty road with a douchebag in a Porsche boxter on your ***, and you can actually leave him in your dust. These are things you miss with a boring DD. You have a car YOU build and are proud of every day.
Now I know. I will never mod a car out of my "means" again. Honestly if I was smarter as a kid, I would have done suspension mods, ECM first, then finally boosted the car to my desire. This would have allowed me to enjoy the car without it ever being down. I'm not saying you modded your car out of your means at all, I'm mostly just saying DO IT, get it running and DD it if possible. At the very least drive it as much as possible. If it's just sitting there you may as well just sell it and move on, but I DON'T recommend you do that.
That said, my car is down right now for upgrades, but I've learned my lesson and it won't be down for too long. I wont let another summer go by without it. My car WILL be back up for the spring, this i can guarantee. I love my car again thanks to making it my DD last summer. All the things I hated about it (loud, rattles, bumpy, old, etc.) I love about it now. It's raw and people look at you like WTF when you start it up and drive off. On top of that most people don't even know what the **** it is.
I had an old man ask me what kind of car i was driving in a parking lot. I told him it was a Miata, he was like OHHH I've never seen one of those! Driving out of the parking lot i saw a 100% stock red miata parked in that same lot. I laughed to myself, considering the irony of the situation. I guess a well modified miata with a rollbar just doesn't look the same to most people as a stock "gay" one.
/end rant.
Edit: and because this is a picture thread, here's a shitty pic of my car waiting in line for the dyno this summer. She ended up making 242whp on the tired old 1.6. The only reason I pulled this setup is because after 175k miles, learning how to tune on this motor (BAD tuning in some cases), etc, she was tired. I've got a nice 99' motor going in now.
Fix that thing, don't drop "a few grand" more into it yet. Just fix it, for whatever it costs. It sounds like it doesn't need much if it's simply overheating. You are young, enjoy your little sports car now. Don't keep putting it off, just do it, drive it, and enjoy the **** out of it every day.
I learned this lesson, let me elaborate. I had my car down for about 2 years, and never had the motivation to work on it (or more accurately the time/money). This was because I was a young idiot (IIRC I'm around your age). I turbocharged my car right out of highschool, then realized I needed an EMS, supporting mods, $$$, to do it right.
Because of this it sat, for way too long. When it was running, it was hardly reliable. Now come last winter and this summer I pulled the motor, fixed all my leaks and little issues, and got it running. Reliably running, as in cross country road trip capable. Then I drove it all summer, put several thousand miles on it. HOLY ****, let me tell you - I can seriously never go that long without having a well tuned car again.
The feeling when you come out from the movie theater with your girl and get into your car is awesome. Next time you are alone in a parking lot and you want to spin off a few donuts, you can. When its pouring down rain and you roll on the throttle in third and struggle for traction. Next time you end up down a twisty road with a douchebag in a Porsche boxter on your ***, and you can actually leave him in your dust. These are things you miss with a boring DD. You have a car YOU build and are proud of every day.
Now I know. I will never mod a car out of my "means" again. Honestly if I was smarter as a kid, I would have done suspension mods, ECM first, then finally boosted the car to my desire. This would have allowed me to enjoy the car without it ever being down. I'm not saying you modded your car out of your means at all, I'm mostly just saying DO IT, get it running and DD it if possible. At the very least drive it as much as possible. If it's just sitting there you may as well just sell it and move on, but I DON'T recommend you do that.
That said, my car is down right now for upgrades, but I've learned my lesson and it won't be down for too long. I wont let another summer go by without it. My car WILL be back up for the spring, this i can guarantee. I love my car again thanks to making it my DD last summer. All the things I hated about it (loud, rattles, bumpy, old, etc.) I love about it now. It's raw and people look at you like WTF when you start it up and drive off. On top of that most people don't even know what the **** it is.
I had an old man ask me what kind of car i was driving in a parking lot. I told him it was a Miata, he was like OHHH I've never seen one of those! Driving out of the parking lot i saw a 100% stock red miata parked in that same lot. I laughed to myself, considering the irony of the situation. I guess a well modified miata with a rollbar just doesn't look the same to most people as a stock "gay" one.
/end rant.
Edit: and because this is a picture thread, here's a shitty pic of my car waiting in line for the dyno this summer. She ended up making 242whp on the tired old 1.6. The only reason I pulled this setup is because after 175k miles, learning how to tune on this motor (BAD tuning in some cases), etc, she was tired. I've got a nice 99' motor going in now.
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12-31-2012, 02:24 PM
#383
Elite Member
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 8,682
Total Cats: 130
Tell me about the Tiburon. I think those are horrible cars but I am curious- how did you tune it? Also, who made that intake mani and exhaust mani? Is there a decent performance aftermarket?
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01-01-2013, 09:56 AM
#384
Vash, I know you have a ton of **** on your plate and the miata does not seem all that important right now, but if I have one bit of advice to you it's this:
Fix that thing, don't drop "a few grand" more into it yet. Just fix it, for whatever it costs. It sounds like it doesn't need much if it's simply overheating. You are young, enjoy your little sports car now. Don't keep putting it off, just do it, drive it, and enjoy the **** out of it every day.
Fix that thing, don't drop "a few grand" more into it yet. Just fix it, for whatever it costs. It sounds like it doesn't need much if it's simply overheating. You are young, enjoy your little sports car now. Don't keep putting it off, just do it, drive it, and enjoy the **** out of it every day.
Trying to manage my own business and take over the family business has been taking all my time and then some. Once things mellow out, if they ever do, that's when I'll be able to find time for my hobby again. Until then, my mind is elsewhere.
I'll live vicariously through you bros in the meantime.
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01-09-2013, 05:18 PM
#385
Newb
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 9
Total Cats: 1
So I've never really posted on here, but I feel like I should because of this site's sterling reputation. I know the member by the name of 18psi who said I'll catch a whole bunch of **** from this place because mazdaspeeds suck *****, so here I am.
2004 Mazdaspeed with all of the normal bolt-ons and currently running with the **** stock ECU:
Here it is at 18psi's place getting the suspension (running on winter tires here):
The plan is to make the move to Megasquirt 2 in the spring time and upgrade the injectors. As it sits it's still decently fun to drive around despite having a retarded power band.
I came from a Nismo 350z and this thing is already so much more fun to drive. After riding in 18psi's last turbo miata I was hooked.
2004 Mazdaspeed with all of the normal bolt-ons and currently running with the **** stock ECU:
Here it is at 18psi's place getting the suspension (running on winter tires here):
The plan is to make the move to Megasquirt 2 in the spring time and upgrade the injectors. As it sits it's still decently fun to drive around despite having a retarded power band.
I came from a Nismo 350z and this thing is already so much more fun to drive. After riding in 18psi's last turbo miata I was hooked.
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01-09-2013, 05:42 PM
#387
Elite Member
iTrader: (13)
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Taos, New mexico
Posts: 6,596
Total Cats: 556
Meh nothing wrong with the MSM, tons of options that pretty much everyone wishes the had. The price being the downside of the package. it sounds like you are moving in the right direction, ditch the stock ECU first and you can really wake it up.
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01-28-2013, 02:42 PM
#391
Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2012
Posts: 83
Total Cats: 0
[/QUOTE]
Tell me about the Tiburon. I think those are horrible cars but I am curious- how did you tune it? Also, who made that intake mani and exhaust mani? Is there a decent performance aftermarket?[/QUOTE]
About the tiburon, it is running off an Aem Fic, E85, a good bit of boost and a built long block.
I love the car personally, there diffrent and not like a civic hatch you see at every light. That was my main reason to build the car, to make people in Evo, wrx, all go WTF?
Intake mani is a very Rare piece made back in 2000 by a small company called Airram. They made a small run of 500 and quit. I am lucky to have one, they sell for 1500 used and beat up, then you have to source a BBTB.
And there is no performance market, everything you see is one off custom pieces. The performance market that does exist is BS na stuff, egay exhaust, cold air intake, nawz. Only way to make power is to go Turbo.
Exhaust manifold was made locally by a friend of mine, he runs/works at a place called Speedfactory racing. If you watch the import outlaw drags you know who im talking about.
Tell me about the Tiburon. I think those are horrible cars but I am curious- how did you tune it? Also, who made that intake mani and exhaust mani? Is there a decent performance aftermarket?[/QUOTE]
About the tiburon, it is running off an Aem Fic, E85, a good bit of boost and a built long block.
I love the car personally, there diffrent and not like a civic hatch you see at every light. That was my main reason to build the car, to make people in Evo, wrx, all go WTF?
Intake mani is a very Rare piece made back in 2000 by a small company called Airram. They made a small run of 500 and quit. I am lucky to have one, they sell for 1500 used and beat up, then you have to source a BBTB.
And there is no performance market, everything you see is one off custom pieces. The performance market that does exist is BS na stuff, egay exhaust, cold air intake, nawz. Only way to make power is to go Turbo.
Exhaust manifold was made locally by a friend of mine, he runs/works at a place called Speedfactory racing. If you watch the import outlaw drags you know who im talking about.
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