So after years of saving for a car (and college) at the ripe age of 16 and 1 month I purchased a 95 merlot from some guy, I'm sure he's on here, rockin a 94 with an fm 2 kit. So I decided, when I was ready I would enter that portal. The rest of this I'll probably put on a build thread so I don't break da' rulez. Any what, I'm 16 and from a humble mass town about 45 minutes south of boston, great in any season except winter. Any way here's my car before I did a rust resto on the rockers.





Not a bad little car, head was blown, painted was faded, wheel was peeling, and the rockers weren't really all there. Besides that started everyday and drove fine.






I get the basic premises around here, respect your elders and don't ask a question that has been asked 10000001 times. Hopefully I can learn alot, I'll try to not be nooby!

 

Welcome to the site Forrest95M, thanks for joining up!

 

You are 16 so the order of your mods should be.

1. Double your insurance coverage. You are driving a RWD car in a place that gets snow and ice. Chances of you crashing it are higher because of that. Protect yourself and have good insurance.
2. But a decent set of rims and tires. You want 15" rims that are light. 949Racing, FM, Goodwin Racing, are all vendors that sell quality rims. Get a good set of tires.
3. Get snow tires for the BBS. Put them on in the winter.
4. Possibly do brakes. Get Napa rotors for $100 for all 4. Then a good quality street pad.
5. Get a decent suspension setup. For a DD on the street I would recommend Tokico Illumina's and some lowering springs. Stay away from any coil over setups that are less then a grand. The majority of them are marginal at best.
6. Drive the car for a year or two and get used to driving. At 16 your don't need any more horse power. The only thing it will do is cause you long term trouble, accidents and tickets are expensive. See if there are any local autocross clubs and go autocross some.

In 2 years after you have some driving experience under your belt the path for boost is as follows.
1. Megasquirt and wideband.
2. Larger Injectors.
3. Clutch
4. Proper turbo setup.
5. Profit.

 

1. Pretty good insurance policy, I get good student benefits, all paid for by me.
2. Noted, thought the BBS would be a light enough wheel
3. Decent all season, but I'm sure that's not enough.
4. Napa blanks and some decent bosch pads were done a week or two ago.
5. Tried the yonaka coils, were OK, might do a budget baller bilstein soon.

1. Mtx-l and ms1 (tell me how much you hate it) going in soon
2. Green top 7mge acquired
3. Haven't decided on a clutch
4. Doing it right on a budget, ie cast mani, tried to do as much homework as possible.
5. The main goal
Had the car for almost a year now
Thanks for the input

 

I want to show you an img of different shocks travel compared but I forget where I last saw it.....

Tokico are no joke, I want some myself with FM lowering springs. Didn't know Yonaka had any miata stuff.

I recommend when doing your clutch to just go all out New master, new slave, 949 racing extended line, FM1 clutch, Amsoil fluid or the ATE 200 super blue stuff (Think it's amber color now). No ragrets

 

You seem to be starting out well. Are the BBS on the 95M the 15" BBS rims? If so then you are good with them. Just pick up a set of stock miata rims to use in the winter. A good set of snow tires can make a huge difference. This then allows you to run a good summer performance tire the rest of the year.

FM1 or ACT are the only clutch brands you should be looking at. Clutches are a PITA to change. It is not worth saving a $100 or $200 to have to redo the clutch job when the cheap eBay one fails. This becomes even more costly if you are paying a shop to do it. I prefer the FM1 over ACT due to it being slightly cheaper, and holds more torque. I have used both brands and both work great.

MS1 really suck now adays. You have an extremely small limit of inputs and outputs. Their tuning features are also lacking in modern days. You can make it work, but not nearly as well as a MS3x. If you have a regular MS1 and not a MSPNP you can upgrade to a MS3X for a reasonable cost. I would highly suggest doing it as it will make your all around tuning much easier.

The Bilstien/ebay coils are a decent setup. Out of everything else coil over in the sub $1000 price range they are probably the best you can do. I do think Tokico and FM springs is a better "DD" setup.

 

would a second hand fm1 clutch work fine? Flywheel? there was on here i think. An ms2 cpu might be coming around soon too, i like to do the wiring side of things. wanted ones coils to provide a decent drop, they should suffice for now.

 

Second hand FM1 should be fine. Lightweight flywheel is a personal preference, I don't care for them myself. Skip the MS2, it has slightly better tuning options but you are still limited by the number of inputs and output it has.

 

what would be a good exhaust? Im extremely skeptical running a 2 and 1/2 inch down pipe to the stock system. could it be done as a temporary set up? I would like an fm set up but money could be a problem.

 

3" is the only exhaust you should buy. Get that after everything else is done. I would spend money on a MS3X way before spending a single penny on any turbo hardware.

 

The BBS's on the 95m are 15x6 and 12lbs. Get some decent summer tread in 195-50/15 for them and pick up a set of dasies for the winter. General Altimax Arctic are cheap and good snow tires. I have been running them the last 6 years.

If you already have an MS1, Just get the MS3 processor and expansion board and be on your way.

I otherwose echo what everyone else is saying.

 

Welcome to the forum.

MS1 + Bilstein crew checking in. The MS1 leaves a lot to be desired with regard to idle quality amongst other things. Bilsteins are great.

 

I just want to add to the folks saying how awesome the Tokiko shocks are. Specifically, they're talking about the Illuminas (I think I got that right). The white shocks. The Tokiko blue shocks are garbage. Don't touch them with a 10 ft pole.

Besides that, welcome.

 

Lightweight flywheels are awesome. You should buy that used one in the classifieds.

 

For those who care to follow
https://www.miataturbo.net/build-thr...a-cheap-87684/