Noob from South florida with a 1995 eventual exocet.
 

Hellooo.

I'm a 20 year old South Florida local, and I bought my Miata about a year ago as my first car. It's a 1995 with no options but P/S and A/C, the latter of which is a requirement down here in the swamp. My love for cars was inspired by a quite different machine, a 2011 Hyundai Genesis Coupe 2.0T R-spec bought by my parents in 2012.https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...927b19b170.jpg


I would take that car on 50 mile drive almost every night, much to my parent's dismay. I personally put about 15,000 miles on that car in a year's time, just driving around flat, straight, boring South Florida. As flawed as that car was (poor shifter, heavy for what is was, underpowered, didn't stop well despite having a 4 piston Brembo caliper at each corner, understeered to the moon and back), it had sparked my interest in cars. Realizing how many miles I was putting on the thing, my parents made me buy my own car. I looked at a few Z cars, 240s, e30s, and some older mustangs, all the while dismissing the Miata as a "gay" car. Yeah, I was one of those guys. One day, I decided to test drive one for the hell of it. What do you know, I was in love. It personified everything that the budding car enthusiast in me loved: light weight, stellar handling, and oversteer. I bought it on the spot for too much money, and drove her around in circles for 3 or 4 hours. The guy I bought it from was another Miata nut that had driven her down from the northeast (this should have keyed me in to the rustpocolypse in my future, but alas, I was dumb). Here she is in May of 2015, with just 82,000 miles on the clock, with a few cosmetic touches to taint her stock-ness.https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...669ef171b1.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...3800c21855.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...802f296eeb.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5a4af76684.jpg

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c6f7d0b447.jpg



And here's a quick picture I took today, a bit more than a year later. 110,000 on the clock and counting.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c9e4dba73f.jpg


I've added some go fast bits:
-Hard dog hard core hard top double diagonal.
-Hard dog door bars.
-Sparco sprint V on PCI one piece mount.
-Takata 4-point.
-NRG quick release.
-Hardtop.
-Hardtop brackets.
-15x7 Advanti Storm S1s wrapped in 205/50/15 Dunlop Direzza ZII Star Specs.
-FM sway bars.
-Gen 2 Xida CS 700/400 with dual springs and NB top mounts.
-Wilwood 11" front dynalite BBK with hawk HPS pads.
-15x9 6uls in the mail, with 225/45/15 RS3s waiting in my office for mounting.

My plans for this car are big, bold, and very expensive. In the near to not so near future, i'm looking at throwing the following at the Miata:
-11.75" front, 11" rear brakes.
-Crossflow rad/ reroute/ oil cooler.
-Singular motorsports hood vents.
-MSLabs MS3.
-Clutch.
-LSD.
-EFR 6258 and accompanying hardware run at 200WHP/ 200WTQ until...
-Forged internals/ VVT head run at ~350WHP.
-TSE T5 transmission solution when available.
-Exocet race chassis when I can afford a new daily.
-Many more things I'm forgetting (I have a bitchin spreadsheet though, haha).

My car isn't a looker by any means. Once my phone quits being slow and finally imports all of my photos, I'll throw some more in this thread so y'all can see the current state of affairs. Multiple dings, dents, paint chips, and rust spots to make her look distinguished. She's gonna be a track rat that I can tolerate for my 80 mile round trip commute, with a focus on adding lightness where tolerable. A shitbox, maybe, but a fast shitbox.

Wow, that's a lot of text up there, haha. I'm going to be a good noob and go back to reading build threads. Thanks for reading!

Nice intro, welcome to the site. Looks like you've got a solid plan there. Where are you in South FL? I assume the east coast?

Thanks! I'm in Palm Beach County.

That deserves your first kitten. You are on the right path for sure. Now go be a noob.

Get rid of the 4 point harnesses and replace them with proper 6 point harnesses, unless you dislike having working internal organs after a crash.

It's in the cards. I'm looking into a new seat, as the one I have now doesn't have nearly enough lumbar support. I"ll pick up a 6-point at that time.

Here is an article explaining exactly why 4 point harnesses are bad. Its one of the few safety things that I get on people about. I just don't want to fuck up yourself in an accident.

Interesting read, and I appreciate the concern. The article specifically mentions harnesses with anti-submarine tech not performing as well as advertised. The reason I even considered buying my 4-point from Takata is because it was equipped with their ASM strap. I had always planned to replace it with a 6-point eventually, but if the ASM strap on my harness really isn't effective, maybe I should move a 6-point higher on my list.

My harness, for reference:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...e092a8c8e3.jpg

Did some more research, and found this video. I believe Takata just recently licensed the ASM strap design from Schroth, and the harness is DOT approved.


Probably still not as safe as a proper 6-point/ Hans, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as bad as a standard 4-point,

Laguna Blue
 

Laguna Blue is such a sublime Miata color... always loved blue cars... no less than a day after I bought my 'Starlight Mica' blue, a 100% stock 'Laguna' showed up on Craigslist <2 hours from my parents house... some day... some day... :-)

It's my favorite color, too. Part of me wants to repaint the entire car Laguna Blue, but the rational side of me can't ignore all of the body imperfections. I feel like it'd be a waste. Oh well, I'll Exocet this one and pick up another super clean Laguna to daily in due time:).