Joe46922

Hey Everybody,

After several months of forum creeping, I figured it was time to make a profile and show my build plan. "Small" intro about myself first though..

fell in love with cars/motorcycles at an early age, and was able to find a Z31 300zx for my first car in high school. College came (and so did student loan debt) and i had to offload my toys, but now as Im getting older I can start acquiring some things back. I had a buddy in high school who had a miata, and we would swap cars every so often just for the fun of it. i always remembered that miata, for the agility and overall fun of flat footing it without getting into too much trouble.

fast forward a couple of years and i am out of college, and was lucky enough to secure a job at Factory Five Racing in their tech support department. i learned a lot from working there, and thats where my love for power-to-weight came from. i was working for them during the design and development of the 818, their 1800# mid engine utilizing the EJ25 platform. They also make a high end "super car" called the GTM, which uses a C5 corvette as a donor. one of my co-workers had a C5 sitting at his house for a future GTM build, but i convinced him to sell it to me for dirt cheap (since it was autotragic). that was a fun car, and i did a handful of TNiA events with it. I decided to leave FFR and secure a more stable job with long term benefits (FFR is an awesome place to work, but it is a small company so the health insurance was expensive and the retirement benefits we lackluster) and i decided to dabble into finance. i now primarily do residential construction lending for new home building or large scale renovations/additions. The corvette was fun, but the automatic was killing me, so i decided to offload it and start a miata build. (someone going from a C5 TO a miata, what the hell is going on here)

i first bought a NA6 from a friend-of-a-friend that has solid rockers and rails, but the rest of the underside was a bit crunchy. i purchased this miata too quickly without doing my research, and after determining my long term goals for the car i knew this one had to go. i was lucky enough to offload it for the same amount i bought it for, and then the hunt was on for a clean NA8 or NB1.

After (maybe months) of waiting and searching the entire region of New England, i came across a little cream puff of a NA8 in Maine. The car came with a crazy story, i bought it from a hippie kid who actually bought a one way ticket from ME to FL to go purchase a Toyota camper van, which he was planning to drive back to ME. When he arrived, the van had mold/mildew so he passed on buying it, but he was already in Florida on a one way ticket and needed to drive something home. He had a few miatas in the past, so he decided to buy and drive this clean NA8 from FL to ME and sell for a quick flip. The car was in New England for about 2 weeks before it came into my possession, and had never seen salt or snow (which destroys all miata's up here in NE).

the Na8 is super clean, torsen, 5 speed, 110K, no dents/damage, and not a single flake of rust under it. The day i bought it i ordered TEIN Flex Z coilovers for my first modification. it was probably the fastest ive ever put coilovers in, within 2 hours it was done. shortly after i had a friend make me a rear roll bar setup, 2.5" .095 DOM with it properly plated. he builds FD spec cages, so i trust his work. im 6'3", and wanted the top bar as close to the hardtop as possible. i also put in a set of highback kirkeys to lower my seating position, so i could actually drive the car. I attended a few TNiA sessions in the fall (NHMS & Palmer) with just coilovers, hawk pads with superblue, and SS595's, and fell in love. the momentum this car produces is a lot of fun, and i would always catch up to the pack in braking or coming into corners, but man this miata is lacking the pull in straights. this car needs a turbo, it would really come alive with one, so ive fell down the rabbit hole and started to prep for some forced induction

the car is currently getting a FM happy meal with the 10.9# flywheel installed, the throwout/pilot bearing where chattering so decided while they were in there to upgrade the clutch and do the seals.I brought the car over to a miata specific shop in state for the clutch job (i could make up a million excuses why i didnt do it myself but i just didnt have the time this spring). When the car comes back, i will be doing the timing belt with crank/cams seals and a gates water pump. i'm a firm believer in preventative maintenance, and want this car to be 100% solid before any forced induction gets added. i did compression test, and i was ~180-175 on all cylinders. My plan after the car come back from the clutch job is to get the front accessories cleaned up (belts, Tbelt, WP) and clean any leaks i can find (i believe my PS is leaking near the pressure port on the pump). i plan to also put a crossflow radiator with dual fans/shrouded along with a coolant reroute at the same time. once this is completed, set base timing (i know i can adjust this on the MS but want it to be as close as possible from the CAS to start) then throw the MSPNP2 in and get it running solid on the MS in stock form. Shortly after the MS i will dabble into higher CC injectors and a pump, again i want this car solid before any forced induction is added.

im still on the fence on which turbo to go with, either a GTX or EFR. I'm leaning more towards the EFR 6258 to start. im not looking for high power, and it looks like the EFR has the room to grow as i progress. id be happy at 250 for now which i believe is just enough for the stock 5 speed to live a somewhat decent life for this year.

Quick punchlist about the car as it sits today:

• 1996 NA8, ~110K miles
• Torsen, Hardtop
• custom rear half cage with harness bar
• Kirkey Highbacks with racequip 5 points
• Tein Flex Z Coilovers
• Fresh rotors with Hawk HP+ front, HPS rear, Superblue DOT4, new hoses
• SS595 tires
• small odds & ends for interior/exterior bits, nothing to call home about.

thanks for the long read, and i apologize for rambling but hey! this is an intro post


The C5

The NA6

The day I purchased the NA8 in Maine

Painting the rollbar

TNiA NHMS

before she went into hibernation for winter

Stealth97

iTrader: (5)

Nice story, I love the look of this car. Black NAs are the best. Welcome to the madness

Joe46922

thank you Stealth, I look forward to the build. Black was preferred for me as well, but i was not trying to be picky on the color when looking, just got lucky that this one checked all the boxes and was black as well