For sale: My supercharged 1997 M-edition Miata

My all-time favorite daily driver is for sale. We're moving and need to get down to two cars, each of which needs to have at least a vestigial rear seat. Plus I won't have a garage, so maybe a FR-S or BRZ or 128i that the dealer can maintain is in my future.

I'm asking $5,800 and have posted it for sale at http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cto/4741513458.html There are lots of pictures posted with the ad.

I find this a marvelous daily driver. Handles well and has an acceptable ride with the Konis set to full soft and the stock anti-roll bars. There's plenty of torque instantly available from a closed throttle, no waiting for a turbo to spool up. However if your idea of a good time is smoky burnouts, this is not the car for you. It has a stock clutch and you have to get it fully engaged before romping on the gas; it'll hold the torque but won't pull in from a full-throttle launch or upshift. Since the clutch is still OK I haven't seen the need to replace it with a stronger one.

The car looks as good close up as it does in the pictures, but there's certainly a little wear and tear after 17 years.

I'll be happy to discuss the car in more detail, please call me at (703)354-5416 or send e-mail via the Craigslist mechanism or to martt@cox.net.

I don't know what kind of power numbers the M45 is capable of, but that thing looks like a nicely sorted supercharged Miata for a very nice price. If I didn't already have the Manic Miata, I'd be very interested. GLWS.

Is that the BRP coldside kit?

In reply to Duke: Yes, it is a BRP kit. Bought in 2006, installed Dec that year. Marvelous improvement over the original Jackson Racing hotside setup, which had too many problems and annoyances to describe in less than a short novel. I suffered with that for 6 years, then saw the coldside setup.

I had to add some mods to the BRP kit such as plumbing in EGR, adding a blow-off port, and a remote oil-filter mount because the filter becomes impossible to access except from below in its stock location. Also had to devise an appropriate drive setup, because the BRP arrangement didn't have enough wrap around the alternator pulley and squealed whenever the alternator was charging.

Overall it was an expensive and time-consuming mod, but the result has been trouble free and effective. I'm leaving some power on the table due to lack of a cold air source and inefficient intake plumbing, plus the setup would benefit from a Megasquirt to cure the odd lumps and bumps in the factory ECU's ignition advance curve. These were in the works, but up to the next owner now. I wasn't looking for the last drop of power, just wanted the effect of a considerably larger displacement. Got that!!

Of course I was hoping someone would jump up and yell, "I want it" but no joy yet. So here's a little eye candy via copy-and-paste (which may not work since I don't have the pictures on line so I can't link to them).

Here's the CL link again: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/cto/4741513458.html

One CL response asked about underbody rust since it's my daily driver. There's certainly a little, mostly on the suspension parts. But even though I run a full set of snow tires in the winter, we don't get much snow in the DC area and I usually manage to avoid what little we get. Plus even with snow tires, more than 4" of snow and this lightweight little guy just floats on top and you walk home.

Anything you can think of that would keep this from passing a MD inspection?

Shouldn't be a problem. Passes both the dyno-type and ECU readiness code emissions inspections in Virginia. Several years ago when I requested a printout from an emissions dyno test, the readings were comfortably below the fail thresholds. Nowadays they just ask the ECU what it thinks. Probably cuts down on demand for emissions dynos...

Good price for a nice condition well cared for miata. GLWS kinda wish I could buy it, but don't have room.

In reply to clutchsmoke: Thanks to all for GLWS best wishes. Sold this afternoon. In the end, several people in the DC area were interested. I was concerned, modified cars scare off many potential buyers. This one has been a very reliable and fun daily driver -- but only since I got all the bugs worked out in 2007.