ehodder

I've been lurking on here since purchasing Miata #1 two years ago, now that I have #2 I figured it was time to actually say "Hi".

Located in Maine, I rode motorcycles through high school and college, didn't think too much about cars. After wrapping up grad school I thought it was time to treat myself and see what the new car lifestyle was all about. Sold my '02 Tacoma, leased a '17 WRX. Six months into ownership I discovered autocross and so began the slippery slope of #FunWithCars.

Took myself down to Devens in 2017 to attend the SCCA Starting Line program. Some guy named Billy Davis hops in my car and opens my eyes, shows me how to really drive. At the event the follow day he gets 2nd Raw, 49.474, in his CSP Miata. I manage 89th with a 61.140. I realized then I'd had an alien in the car.

Compete for the next couple years with my local club, have fun. At our big annual weekend up at Loring Air Force Base I swap cars with some friends, get to drive an NB, RX-8, BRZ, and S2000. I get the lightweight RWD thing now. My car suddenly feels like a pig.

2019, lease is coming to an end, I decide that cars newer than 2010 aren't my jam. At this point we've bought a 2015 Golf TDI (awesome highway cruiser) and a 2011 Silverado (for pulling horses, doing #truckstuff), and while I can now have a summer-only car I can't afford the S2000; I buy an NA Miata.

The purchase was impulsive.
The car had rocker/fender repair and a BRG respray performed by a high school shop class, after which the PO had a fender bender and filled in the passenger fender with bondo, filled the resulting gap between fender and bumper with spray foam.
Pull out the old carpet and door cards Because Racecar. Regret shortly thereafter as PO covered the interior with dynamat, which now gets soft in the summer and leaves black residue on anything it touches.
The Eibach lowering kit and Koni Yellow combination on the car doesn't work. At the tallest of the 3 perch settings it still sends the tire up into the fender.
The Azenis RT615s on the car are 4 years old, the whole thing is a bit of a mess on course.
I know I want to get the car on track, and I'm low on street cred, so I pick up a Hard Dog roll bar, genuine Bride driver's seat, Takata 4pt harness, and Nardi wheel.
Turns out the car is still a mess. Start to wonder if I shouldn't have put money into suspension instead....
Last event of the year I borrow a missmatched set of 205 RE71s and 225 Rivals and "roll" the fenders as needed by jacking up the car, inserting a deadblow between the fender and tire, and lowering the car. Still a mess, but a grippy mess.

Year two of Miata ownership:
Pick up a 4.1 Torsen, an old set of FCM Bilsteins, 425/300. Flyin' Miata 5/8" rear sway bar to go with the 1" Racing Beat that came with the car. 15x9 Dekagrams and 225 Rival 1.5S...es.
LRB door cards with the sweet sweet Initial D vinyls and green carpet because at this point why not? Grew up getting picked up from daycare in a green '66 GTO with green vinyl interior and the car looks janky, may as well have fun with it. Regret this decision after a month or two. BRG with green interior is not a great look.
Thrash the hell out of the car on autocross course, always with at least one co-driver. Okay, so it doesn't PAX well in XS-B, but I'm running with the local STS and STR cars. Go to our Loring autocross with 3 co-drivers (local club permits 4 drivers per car). Buddy's GTI pukes its turbo, he drives the Miata 6 hours home Sunday night. Car doesn't miss a beat.

After the event my buddy with the GTI starts looking for a Miata of his own. I'm scrolling through Facebook Marketplace to help, come across a white 1992 that is just gorgeous, save for the paint on the windshield surround. 107,000 miles but is cleaner underneath than 90% of the 2 year old cars in New England. Hard top, Flyin' Miata VMaxx Xtremes, totally gone through w.r.t. preventative maintenance in the last year. It's out of my buddy's price range but I fall in love. Buy it 3 days later.

I'll be starting a build thread for the 1992, plan is to prep it as a heavy, underpowered summer daily / HPDE car. The green 1990 is going to serve as a winter beater for the next couple of years. Once the rust goes too far I'll pull the drivetrain out, get a shell caged, and prep a dedicated HPDE/TT car. At that point the '92 will be a street car only and we'll see about some forced induction love.

Big thank you to the Miata Turbo community, the amount of information shared here is incredible. If I'd been on here before buying Miata #1 things would have been done differently, but that's okay - the ship has been righted, good times ahead.