As the title says... I am from Seattle and now live in Miami. the "and looking to Miata" means I am in search of my next Miata. I owned a 1991 bone stock Miata many years ago and loved zipping around town in it but I sold it because
I didn't have much time for it because at the time I was into my sportbike, boat and building a 1964 Chevy C10 truck.

My hobbies now in Miami are down to zipping around on my Honda Grom and my C10 project is still in Seattle but nearly finished so....... I need to get into wrenching on something else.

My first question... What year Miata should I buy and why? and 1.6L engine is the one to go with, correct?

 

Welcome to sunny Florida.

Who in the world told you that a 1.6L is the engine to go with? i would no longer be his friend.

1994-2002. depending if you want NA, NB or NB2.

2003-2005 are fine, but they have the Fuiju LSD that many dont like. 01-02 have the real Torsen.

I personally like 01-02 nb2 the best. stiffest chassy, good headlights/front end, VVT etc...

 

Welcome welcome!

1.8L is definitely the way to go, but don't let that blind you to good deals on 1.6's. In my case, it took me 5 months before I came across a good deal on an NA and it's a 1.6. At the time the choice was a tired 1.8 NA or a 70 y/o owned, garage kept, resprayed, and with hardtop 1.6 for the same price. I bought the 1.6. Plus, 1.8 swaps can be had for a very reasonable price too.

I'm biased to the NA but I agree with borka on the NB2.

 

Hola. I might want to sell my 91... if you want to drive to Detroit and look at it

 

Dont forget that with a 1.6 you are not just a motor away from a 1.8 car. You still need to swap, 1.8 clutch/flywheel, driveshaft, torsen+axles, and 1.8L brakes. if going turbo all this stuff is pretty much a must have list.
So you are starting out $1500-2000 in the red + lots of headache and work finding the parts, just to get to a stock 1.8L spec car.

 

You're absolutely right. Also, the 1.6 chassis is the least rigid chassis. boy, I'm really marketing my '91 well. I'd make a terrible salesman, albeit an honest one...

Every day I'm reminded of my list of necessary pre-turbo upgrades.

 

Thank you for the advice! thinking back on my post I meant to type 1.8L but my fat fingers and lack of coffee had me typing 1.6L haha. is NA/NB/NB2 just have to do with body style?

So here is what I want to do with the Miata I purchase so hopefully some of you vets can guide me a little further...

Main use would be to autocross the heck out of it
Not a daily driver but would want it to be reliable
I want to keep my budget for upgrades at less than $5k (basically make it as fast and safe as possible with a low budget while using good parts not some Chinese knock off stuff from ebay)

So, with that said, should I go with a 2001-02 has the stiffest chassis and then add mods or should I look into a 2004 MazdaSpeed that has a turbo and a little more HP stock?

 

Being a miata enthusiast I would assume you should know what na nb nb2 stands for.

mazdaspeed is nice, expensive and horrible ecu. If you are happy with about 210hp. It's a good choice. First things to upgrade are ecu (ms3) Downpipe and cooling.

you will spend about 8k + 3k in mods on a mazdapseed to have it ok running for track use.

nb2 can be had for 3-4k. and 5-6k in mods will get it well beyond mazdaspeed performance wise.

so total cost is similar, just depends on your goals.

or better yet, buy one that is already turbo and nicely setup for $6-9k.

 

Fuji LSD that is in the 03-05 is perfectly fine.
Find the best example 01-05 with sport brakes (standard on 03-05) and have fun.

 

having driven a mazdaspeed miata, with a stock ecu and terrible spool and lack of smoothness in powerband... I should have started with one. It might have its flaws, but it freaking starts turbo, and is a real hoot to drive with its really short gears.

During my very first drive (home) in my 2001 miata (stock) I was disappointed in its lack of power, which only got worse as I climbed back into 8000 ft elevation. 3 years later, I'm still not boosted, its stayed on jack stands for almost 3 months, and I have no desire to even work on it.

If I could do it all again, I would... get a msm (mazdaspeed miata) put decent tires on an 8inch 6ul, intake, exhaust, tune. and just drive it. And when the time came to replace the blown out shocks, bilstein shocks with the coil over thingy. and nothing else. I spend 10s of thousands trying to improve over oem, and in every aspect, I liked it less and less. Most of it could have been avoided if I knew what questions to ask, spent more time reading, and less time just ordering super expensive **** that I didnt need. Keep it simple, stupid. Really should have done that.