AKA the answer was Miata
Had to share with a group of people who 'get it', my friends are looking at me funny.
Bought a 95 Miata R package last week, 120 on the clock.
FM sways, Headers, exhaust, came already foamectomied
(Good as I'm 6'3'', length wise I'm doing alright, but my hips and shoulders could use a little more wiggle room).
Just placed an order with FM for a hard dog bar, plan to grab their 1.5 kit next month, followed by a butterfly brace, then fun rubber soon as it stops raining again.
Woo!
Jaynen
HalfDork
10/6/12 5:16 p.m.
Awesome. Now get yourself to an autocross and a track day
Duke
PowerDork
10/6/12 5:35 p.m.
That Kool-aid tastes good, don't it? Get thee to an autocross before the season ends. Congratulations!
Excellent choice!
I really like my FM VMaxx stage two kit.
I almost jumped in myself this year... but all the Miatae around here start at 5 grand.. this includes NAs with bad paint, questionable stripes, and 150,000 miles on them
mad_machine wrote:
I almost jumped in myself this year... but all the Miatae around here start at 5 grand.. this includes NAs with bad paint, questionable stripes, and 150,000 miles on them
Did you shop in the spring? There can be a difference of 2K or more between the April/May price and the September/October price anywhere north of the snow belt. Now is actually a great time to Miata shop.
mad_machine wrote:
I almost jumped in myself this year... but all the Miatae around here start at 5 grand.. this includes NAs with bad paint, questionable stripes, and 150,000 miles on them
If anyone finds a Miata down my way (Tulsa or anywhere around) I'd be happy to go take a look/test drive, report back on condition, etc.
Down here 90-93 for a clean one seem to be $2500-3000, 94-97 $5-6k.
I'm very happy with mine so far.
Paint is alright, but she's a Cali car, so I've yet to find any rust.
Only questionable thing so far was the oh-my-god fugly Wallace and grommet teeth that the guy had on it.
(Bonus points, people pay 70 bucks for a set of those! Nuts.)
First mod was de-fanging her..
In reply to mad_machine:
Wow. That's really surprising. Here in MI, 5K will buy you an absolutely primo example, and at the beginning of the season. Wouldn't expect what you were looking at to bring more than 3 to 3.5K, and that at the beginning of the season. I found a 1995 in absolutely mint condition and 75K on the clock for $4,200 in June for a friend of mine. The year before, I bought my 1994 M (which was, admittedly, a little rough body/paint wise, but had a near perfect interior and only 80K on the clock)) for $2,300 in late July. Must be a regional pricing quirk. Here's what less than 5K gets you in MI: http://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/cto/3268112661.html For that one, I'd probably offer the 4.2K my friend paid and be surprised if they didn't take it.
The crappy ones you mentioned go for 2k or less, but do tend to be rusty: http://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/cto/3280071264.html
The only explanation I can think of is the fact that "Miata season" is only about 7 months long, because when I was looking for a winter beater Saturn, it seemed like local prices were a lot higher in MI than nationally.
BTW - for the OP - congrats. Sounds like a good buy.
Ermahgerd, Keith just responded to my post on the FM facebook wall.
/swoons
I have to wait how long for my bar to show up?!
:P
My plan to hold off on new rubber has been made moot...
silly me, not realizing that the car came with healthy Star Specs.
/facepalm
That being said, is there really even any need to look for 'hotter' rubber than what I've got?
Everything I've read suggests that these are more than adequate for street driving and an occasional (at this point hypothetical) autocross
Picking up a set of all seasons off CL tomorrow and packing up the Dunlops for the winter, hibernation time
(for the tires at least, we'll see how winter with this as my DD goes... hardtop, engage.)
EDIT: Rollbar just shipped! woohoo!
SnowMongoose wrote:
My plan to hold off on new rubber has been made moot...
silly me, not realizing that the car came with healthy Star Specs.
/facepalm
That being said, is there really even any need to look for 'hotter' rubber than what I've got?
Everything I've read suggests that these are more than adequate for street driving and an occasional (at this point hypothetical) autocross
Picking up a set of all seasons off CL tomorrow and packing up the Dunlops for the winter, hibernation time
(for the tires at least, we'll see how winter with this as my DD goes... hardtop, engage.)
EDIT: Rollbar just shipped! woohoo!
For now, I'd say there's absolutely no reason to upgrade over Star Specs. They are a great street tire and won't let you if you decide to try autocross. You're golden. Spend your money on other stuff.
I was going to do this before I lost my job at the beginning of the year.
Then I got a job that was so far away and an old miata would not do, so I bought a new car.
Then I got a job in town, but now I have a new car, haven't sold my old car, and would be summarily executed by my wife if I even thought about getting another car.
....Sigh.
OG320: One of the upsides of working for a giant evil corporation is a surprising amount of job security
(Hint: Rhymes with 'Costco')
... and one of the upsides of not having a wife is... not worrying about supporting a wife.
I'm embracing a little bit of the trendy YOLO (You only live once) thing here, as my bicycle tried to kill me over the summer, or else I'd have found something more... reasonable.
Back to car stuff, got a work party ready for the rollbar showing up on Friday, picked up and installed new wheels, feel slightly more confident in my ability to handle the next eight months of rain.
(Not that I was terribly worried before, I've just never had ridiculous tires before... cool just feeling the difference between the Star Specs and Altimaxes)
And there she is, with my baby brother being excited about having just driven it.
(Car is pointing up a hill, sits level on level ground)
On the topic of how she sits, I measured hub center to bottom of fender and got the same distance as FM says to expect with their Strut and Spring kit...
should I be planning on cutting a dead coil to pare down the fender gap?
Good idea? Obviously not neccesary, especially as I plan on jumping up to 15's when I burn through my Star Specs...
Yay long posts on the internet!
But...its red.... You are going to paint I suppose?
The paint isn't great, but certainly not bad enough to warrant painting...
is there something I should know about red miatas?
Red miatas turn kind of pink, but it looks like the paint is in decent shape here.
Duke
PowerDork
10/15/12 9:26 a.m.
Some people hate red cars. Miatae do tend to turn a disturbingly organ-like shade of pink if left out too much, but looks like you're nowhere near that stage.
Nice car!
Ah, yeah, she's not pink yet.
And with how little sun we see up here, I'm not terribly worried about it
(Bonus points for a handful of ridiculous paint jobs kicking around inside my head, for eventual paint replacement or if she becomes a non-DD)
Screw it, don't worry about the paint. Mine is about a similar color to yours. If I ever get around to it, I'll try to give it a real good once over and get the red shine back. Mine also resembles a golf ball, having been in a hail storm with the previous owner. But it still drives great, and that's the Kool-Aid here...
Did the roll bar install the other day.
Let's just say that I'm very happy this car had a bar in the past, meaning we only had to drill two holes.
Holy pain in the butt Batman!
Suspension and seats up next, fitting more than six feet of guy under the roof means my head (and that of a passenger if there happens to be a tallish one) is way too prone to touching the bar even in normal driving, to say nothing of a crash scenario.
Looking at Kirkey and Ultrashield, need to be tall, install low, and accommodate a 34 inch waist, should be doable eh?
