Can you guess what I’m doing this weekend based on one photo?

IIn reply to Tom Suddard :

I know where that bridge is, spent the coldest four winters of my life about a 1/4 mile west of it.  Say hello to Buzzards Bay for me!

Edit: I’m now remembering you’re originally from Wareham MA.  Welcome back!

Was this some kind of family deal, or did you really have to travel that far from Florida to find a nice Miata?

Is this a continuation of the printed advice to start filling warehouses with Miatas? 

John Welsh said:

Is this a continuation of the printed advice to start filling warehouses with Miatas? 

It does seem like a pretty example. 

In reply to MrJoshua :

The cold, rust belt can be a good place to buy a car like a Miata. Up here, Miatas only come two ways...

1. Driven every day of the year, and it shows, or

2. Driven only on sunny, dry days, in the summer only and it shows. Shows on odometer too. 

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

I also can't believe that we all missed the answer. 

Not all--Sleepyhead got it: "my gut says "miata"... it being the answer and all... but, I don't see how it fits in with other stuff going on;  based on that, I'd guess CM fodder... but no idea what."

Margie

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

if it wasn't for the wheels, I'd be asking if this was a 1.6L car that was going to get setup for Vintage racing.

In reply to tb :

FD? FD! Please be an FD!

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

In reply to Marjorie Suddard :

if it wasn't for the wheels, I'd be asking if this was a 1.6L car that was going to get setup for Vintage racing.

What am I missing about the wheels? Looks like a 1.6 to me!

Also looks clean. Enjoy the road trip south!

In reply to cmcgregor (Forum Supporter) :

Those are 1.8 wheels with exposed lug nuts. The 1.6s were more true daisy with caps over the lug nuts. 

Nose badge for 1.8s too.  The non power mirrors imply early 1.8 also. I guess '94

In reply to John Welsh :

Both of my 1.6 powered cars have had manual mirrors, and wheels are easy to change. That engine bay shot looks like a 1.6 intake to me. I guess 1993 to account for the nose badge.

1993 with NA8 wheels. 

I've always loved those NA8 wheels.
 

I actually have a brand new set of them up in my attic but, sadly, no Miata. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

That looks way nicer than the 96 that GaryP -> me -> nocones -> mtn -> FueledByCaffiene owned!

Javelin (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to tb :

FD? FD! Please be an FD!

Nah, but I definitely wouldn't rule it out for some day as they are intriguing. I've always enjoyed Nissans so I picked up a Z32 for fun.

John Welsh said:

In reply to MrJoshua :

The cold, rust belt can be a good place to buy a car like a Miata. Up here, Miatas only come two ways...

1. Driven every day of the year, and it shows, or

2. Driven only on sunny, dry days, in the summer only and it shows. Shows on odometer too. 

Our local club has a few of us heathens who drive our cars through the winter, but the majority throw their cars into storage in early November. At the November club meeting the president remarked that the parking lot looked more like a pickup truck club meeting.

In reply to tb :

Z32, cool.

PS: sorry to hear your camera is broken. 

In reply to John Welsh :

In reply to tb :

Super sweet.

BBSs and a subtle gold accent.  I like the subtelty but I sort of secretly want to add a screaming chicken to the hood also.  I mean this as a compliment. 

One thing I remember from my '97 Nissan 240sx is that Nissan does the color black very well. 

If you haven't across snuck through the mid atlantic...

pick this up in delaware and have your thanksgiving weekend project plans set

In reply to John Welsh :

Thanks. I am not really a fan of gold at all, so the wheels and accent stripe might not last too long... they are quality and are growing on me so we shall see.

So far I have to say that even with the flaws of a 30 year old car it is still a beauty. I might get around to making a thread for it eventually...

Okay, this thread deserves an ending. Sorry for the lack of updates; time was too tight to check my phone much this past weekend. 

My dad inherited a nicely kept '93 Miata, and Nicole and I offered to drive it down to Florida from Massachusetts. So, we did. And while it wasn't the most comfortable thing I've driven home from the northeast... it really wasn't too bad. More impressively, after not being driven for a year.... ZERO BREAKDOWNS. It didn't even use any oil. 

Pictures:

nice looking little car. My first Miata had a pinstripe just like that when I got it.

I think this is a Classic Motorsports resto project :)

Yeah, I think that's the direction it's headed. We already have a 1.6 Miata street car GRM project, and plenty of race content coming from our V6 car.

Here's an interesting thing I realized: I have thousands of miles behind the wheel of modified NA Miatas, but I'd never driven a stock one more than a few miles. It's much closer to my Triumph Spitfire than to an NC. 

It's good to drive a stock NA occasionally to remind you why we fell in love with them in the first place. That's one of the reasons I'm keeping #338 mostly stock.

You do have to make sure they've got functioning shocks, though - the originals only lasted 30k miles or so before starting to suffer, and with their limited suspension travel they don't give a good impression if the shocks are toast. A set of Koni STR.Ts would probably put some sparkle back in the chassis.

And chronologically, it IS closer to your Spitfire than an NC.