Long time lurker of this awesome forum. I have a 96 NA 1.8 M edition, manual and I love it to death. I acquired it 4 years ago and have been slowly modifying it. Goal is to make it faster. And a daily driver that I can drive to the mountains, track or autoX on the weekends. Progress has been slow as life has gotten in the way (married, baby, moved, new jobs). I honestly thought that covid would mean more time to work on the car but it's amazing how little you can get done with a toddler at home.

I got the car stock with 212k miles, but with a newer engine with 80k. Everything was stock and original except that. Since then, I've taken my time to slowly modify things and on a budget:

• Tein street advance coilovers (these are fine cuz they were cheap but I will go xida in the future)
• Polyurethane bushings with zerk fittings (most painful mod to do)
• Hard dog m1 hardtop roll bar
• Hawley performance coolant reroute
• Koyorad radiator
• Supermiata sport clutch and lightweight flywheel
• Flying Miata sway bars and end links
• Konig hypergram 15x7.5 with Yokohama S drive 195/50R15 (I don't care what you say, these are fun tires and sizes for this stock powered car. U can get the back out in 1st and 2nd if u want and still plenty of grip in the corners)
• Double DIN radio to replace the broken stock unit
• Hardtop and tossed out the soft top, which was torn (kinda regret this, might put it back in)
• Supermiata stainless steel brake lines
• Lots of maintenance (water pump, belts, valve cover gasket, slave cylinder, pads & rotors, spark plugs and wires)

Originally plan was to turbo it but I am reconsidering that as I like the reliability of an NA engine. Will be slowly reading up on that (k swap with their newer kit maybe, or the lfx swap looks badass but pricey).

 

Welcome fellow Richmonder! Looks like you're off to a solid start for sure.

And I agree that putting zerk fittings in the control arms was one of the most painful things I've done on a Miata so far. I think it's worth it in the end though.