New to the site and the miata world. Been a long time german car guy with modded 335s and S4s. Picked up a low mile '99 a few weeks ago to turn into a fun weekend/occasional auto-x car. Found it local-ish and for a great price with only 45k miles on it. NB1, emerald mica, tan leather, torsen, 100% stock and never been modded and a bonus of NO RUST.

Already got a few baselining items to it such as plugs/NGK wires, fluids and filters done the first weekend I had it.

When I picked it up:



Been busy with it for the past few weeks. Picked up some Kosei K1's 15x7 ET38 locally with new Yoko S-Drives mounted for cheap! Added a 4-2-1 header, mazda comp engine mounts, frankenstein phone mount, and a full Bosectomy stereo install with new headunit, amp, speakers and wiring, all hidden. Also have done some more minor mods.


More to come but once I get the chassis, suspension and brakes sorted, it'll get a turbo. Have been doing a lot of reading on various kits and will hopefully nail down which kit or piece one together myself and install as next winter's project. Will be picking up a MS3 once some of the suspension/brake work is done so that I can begin tuning on stock motor prior to turbo. Next big item will be suspension.

 

Beautiful base to start with! Will look forward to seeing the progress.

 

Thanks. I bought this partly just to have something to wrench on so it'll be a fun project.

 

 

Really nice car, man.

 

 

That's in beautiful shape! Nice find.

 

Thanks! Been researching suspension and while the Xida's are nice, I am considering the ebay bilstein built shocks. Am about 60% through the 80-someodd page thread and it seems the results are very hit or miss and most end up spending up around 1500 or so (i'd need to buy shocks themselves) playing with different springs, tophats, etc. May just need to buck up for the Xida's even though it would be roughly half the purchase price of the car!

 

Don't ever think of parts costs in relation to what you paid for the car. You won't ever do anything to car if that is your mindset.

 

This is sage advice.

 

 

Purchase price = cover charge
Parts = drinks
Track fees = those special dances you get to pay for

 

Damn...that is clean.

 

Congratulations on your purchase, looks like you've got yourself a very interesting and exciting project. I'm sure this Miata will be getting only better with all the work you planned on it. Good luck and keep us posted!

 

Looks like the turbo is going to wait a little bit. I have decided to run ES AutoX this season with this car and have since taken the header off and put it back into compliance for ES. Going to buy some 205/50/15 RE-71Rs on the stock wheels and do a few other small things and see how it goes. This will be my first season running AutoX and wanted try it out while the car is stock-ish. If I enjoy autoX and want to continue it, I will keep this car for AutoX and pick up another miata to build into a turbo street/fun car as it is something I would still like to do.

 

Kind of agree, a guy could use more than one Miata. However, I’m still moving towards a single one to use for:
Autocross
HPDE
Daily Driver
Mountain Pleasure
Drag Strip

If I had known, would likely have gone for adjustable coil-overs. Then again, am not shooting for the stars in any one function, just dabbling in each.