Hey, last time I thought this group was getting WAY too quiet, I started a thread on where the participants were / are. I was shocked how many people were still hanging around and just waiting to comment or read others comments. It led to a long and enjoyable (at least for me) thread.
This is another question that I think will be fun / interesting;
HOW MANY MIATAS HAVE YOU OWNED?
Ya, that means your name had to be on the title for some period of time (well, officially but I'm liberal on this matter). Let us know please. Maybe this will in part spark this group back to life. I know there's all kinds of depressing stuff going on all around us but let's not forget the thing that can always put a smile back on your face in short order!
For me it's 2! A 1992 SE Brilliant Black and Tan (Not officially an SE but referred to as a 'Black Miata' in the sales brochure) and my current 1999 BBB (Black / Black Interior / Black Top). I know there's a bunch of folks out there who've owned as many or more.
One -- '95 R, black all the way. Borla, Hard Core, 5-pt. belts, short-shifter, K&N, 15" alloys (original for autocross and track), hard top in the winter -- no top the rest of the year.
Ask again in ten years, and the answer will be the same... 8;)
In 1989 I had an '88 MR2-Supercharged and, like many others, thought the nifty new Miata was nothing more than a tic-tac or a girly car. I got into an argument over a BBS (remember those days?) with a new Miata owner about how my pretty seriously modified MR2 was so much better, yadda yadda yadda. I'm sure you have heard it before. What I didn't realize was that it was his board, he was a retired sheriff and I had put my actual address in. Long story short, the gentleman showed up one afternoon, handed me the keys to his new A-package, asked for mine, and told me to switch with him for 2 hours. I laughed but figured what the hell, I'd let him see how a REAL car ran?Right?
Well, 2 days later my first Miata, a red '90 B-pkg was in my driveway alongside my matching red MR2. For some reason he never felt it necessary to go out and buy an MR2 after that. I can see why! The fun factor was off the chart!
It wasn't blazingly fast or likely to put down ridiculous lap times as my trusty MR2, however, the sheer grin factor cruising around the back winding roads with the top down, feeling the confident response as the tail would drift wide around a tight corner and slide back into place with the simple twitch of the fingertips. With the track-prepped MR2 it would take ridiculous and insane speeds to have that kind of fun which were just out of line on a public highway?and that from someone who was 20 at the time!
It may not accelerate like a missile but as someone put it so nicely, 'it's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow'. That rings true in a lot of places, but especially here. You could wind out the car, run it through the gears, toss it into corners and do this practically under the nose of every officer on the planet. Friends in their pony cars and such barely even idled along in their upper gears without getting tickets. Sure they might be faster up a long onramp, but even they admitted my car was a lot more fun.
I had that first '89.5 ('90) for just under 3 years when I changed jobs and figured that the lease on it was going to go insane with the new mileage. I bought out of the lease and went hunting for a new car. I looked at (and nearly bought) Camaro Z-28 convertibles, a few older Corvettes, etc. I ended up looking and driving probably 40 cars over two months (still had the MR2 and '89 4-runner). Finally I gave up and did what I knew I was going to end up doing.
My 2nd Miata was a '93 B-package, red over black like the first one. A few new tweaks they had (power mirrors, etc.) but otherwise the same basic car. This one I owned so I made the mistake of putting a much tighter suspension on it (went crazy with the Flyin Miata catalog, some Moss Motors bits, etc.) With the suspension dialed in to attack autocross tracks and the odd road course, the braking vastly improved? well, the engine was still powered by hamsters. As many people who drove it stated "you took the fun out of the car. You made it too much like the MR2. You have to drive it like a moron to get it to slide around, etc." They were right, but it was a bit late to go back.
It did see several thousand miles of track duty, mostly at Sebring Raceway's 3.7 mile course with a few of the track day clubs. It saw a good 50+ autocrosses. It taught at least 30 people how to drive a manual. Between this one and the first, I must have sold 45 Miata's without ever working for a Mazda dealer.
A few years later I was down to just the Miata and a Grand Cherokee when a good deal on a '96 M-package came along and that became my 3rd. Along the way were an '88 911 Cabrio (fantastic car but put more smiles from how it sounded and how it looked than how it drove), '93 Sentra SE-R (great work car, another good autocross car, a trunk that held 30 people, and actually pretty fun), etc. The '96 I left stock save for the KYB 8-way shocks (or wet sponges as we nicknamed them from their sound) as the originals never seemed quite right.
The place to drive and the mood dictated which of the two I would drive. Eventually the roommate bought the '96 M from me and recently traded it for a new '07 Winning Blue Touring. I kept my '93 for 14+ years before a friend decided to buy it out from under me. I had acquired 'Miata Light" about 6 months before and ever since I picked it up it became my daily driver and I just never drove the Miata anymore. The wife would any time she didn't expect to have a lot of stuff to carry for work, but that was few and far between. After almost 15 years my '93 B went to a new home where it is back to daily driver status, a few changes made, and the owner still loves it and drives it daily. Meanwhile, his '95 Mustang Cobra sits in the garage with a forlorn tear in it's eye as it wonders if it's ever going to get driven again.
With my new job (Financial Services) I meet clients a lot and the Miata's are known as an inexpensive and reliable driver. A good bang for the buck. Compared to my current daily driver I was looking for something that didn't financially intimidate clients as it has been costing me sales. The first thing I went to? The new Miata's! Working downtown I figured the '08 PHRT would be an excellent car that provided the fun with the extra security. Alas, when I went down with a few people from the local Miata club and sat in the new one I immediately found that my 6'2 would no longer fit. They changed the roof enough, both hard top and soft, that the bows (soft top) and the design of the hard top squash my head. Oh well. Guess I'll end up with a Mazda 3 hatch, but frankly, that's not a bad thing either! It's a set of swaybars away from playful fun without being too serious. :
This is probably a lot more than you wanted to know about my having 3 Miata's in the past, but there ya go.
1) marvin, my '90 sky blue who was totalled in an accident in may of
2007.
2) helen, a salvaged red '90 that i purchased to mine for parts, which included selling off the drive train, doors, fenders, hood, almost new top, etc, and almost new sunimomo tires.
3) MAX, red 94, purchased 08/2007 since upgraded wiith subframe braces and FM sway bars and stereo upgrades which include a JL steathbox.
-------- "any words spelled incorrectly are probably typing errors"
1990 Classic Red (Tabasco). Added a turbo, subframe braces, Jackson Racing swaybars, wood dash kit and more.
1991 Silver Stone Silver (Silverwind) kept stock.
1991 BRG Eunos Roadster (Wasabi) current vehicle. Stock except for replacement of Japanese radio (does not pick up North American frequencies) and head rest speaker replacement.
First was a White 1993 C package with a hardtop. Purchased new in October 1993. It was my daily driver for most of it's life. Accumulating 180+k miles for me. A large part of that was with daily commutes of 88 mi. round trip. The only modification was koni shocks and 15" wheels.
It has now been passed on to my younger son, and now has 201 k miles. It is his daily driver now.
It was replaced this past January with a 2006 Galaxy Grey GT 6AT. Never thought I would go with an auto, but was looking for a newer Miata for myself with the intention of passing the '93 down, and I was not happy with any that I found in the 2000+ year range for wear, appearance, and price that I was willing to pay. This one was on a dealer lot when I went to test drive a Silver 2002 SE so I gave it a chance. It was more fun to drive than the 2002 SE and the price was right. ( Have to admit that the 2002 SE suffered from flat spotted tires from sitting too long, but the 2006 just felt better overall.) Still having factory warranty on it helped to tip the scales in it's favor.
Now I don't put the mileage on a car that I did before, but the '06 continues to make me smile. The auto transmission is the best and smartest auto I have ever driven in my 42 years of driving. In auto mode it shifts very intelligently based on the amount of throttle. Quick low rpm shifts when cruising around town, and high rpm shifts if you step into it. It will even down shift going down hills if it senses enough braking based on speed and rpm to use engine braking on the hill.
The only thing it won't do in full auto is downshift on the entry to a turn so that you have the right gear for accelerating through the turn and on exit. For that you have to switch to the Manual mode and use the paddle shifters. Then you can have as much fun as a manual and tailor your rpm and torque to the road conditions.
Don't expect to have any more Miatas. Looking to go to a single vehicle for wife and I when we retire in around 5 years. At that point hopefully Mazda will have a highly efficient small to mid size for us. The Mazda 3 5 door is the type of vehicle I am thinking of. We'll see what hybrid, plug-in, hydrogen vehicle they have to offer when the time comes.
One, my current 1992, white of course, I didn't want a slower color!
It'll be my only, I like it but if/when it goes away I'll probably be ready to live with only one car and that'll have to be a van, minivan or SUV, I need the ability have a scooter/wheelchair lift and not being able to take a scooter with me limits the places I can drive the Miata.
1999 Black Ext, Black Int,Black top. Fantastic car. Had it for 2 yrs and 12k miles. It had just come off a 2 yr lease and I got it with about 20K miles. Had to let it go back when the lease came up. (No place to park it in the city.)
My wife andI have been looking at property in upstate NY. I want a garage so I can park a 2004/2004 Mazada Speed Miata there for weekend getaways.
Have seen a few on the web. love them but have to have a garage first. Squat,
Just two. A red NA "mid-life-crisis-mobile" with which I rewarded myself in
1991 after ten years of driving a diesel VW pickup (really!). And a red
2006 NC "no-longer-a-crisis-mobile" purchased nearly 15 years to the day after the first.
Just one, an original 1990 Mk. I purchased new in July, 1989, the first one in Chicago's western suburbs. It was months before I stopped being asked what it was! (It was the 3625th Miata ever built, by the way.)
French blue with two 7" silver stripes (added later) and many many mods for SCCA solo competition, mostly suspension and intake/exhaust pieces, but the Momo steering wheel and shift knob are probably my favorites.
Still sitting out in my garage. Still with very few miles since it was pretty strictly a race car for most of its early life. It will need an awful lot of TLC to get it back on the road. One of these days . . .
I picked it up a bit over two years ago and absolutely love it. I guess I'd post more if anything ever went wrong with it, but nothing ever does. As it is, the weather is beautiful here this time of year and my wife and I take drives in the evenings with the top down. We both really enjoy that. Not the best highway car ever made, but it's my daily driver and I intend for it to say that way for a long time.
I've never driven a non-MSM NA or NB. They definitely sound better and I hear the 5-speed is more precise. I'd like to take one for a spin one of these days.
Red '93 B. Purchased new in August 93. Currently somewhere between
115k and 120k miles. It was a daily driver the first 3-4 years. Now it only goes out for good weather drives or occasional longer trips. I drove it for a trip to Boston in September and put around 1800 miles on that week.
Just the one, a 2000 MX-5, that I bought new, as a retirement gift to myself brand new (June 2000), then taking a road trip with my Wife to the Grand Canyon the next month. Only has a little over 32,000 miles on it. Being retired, all three of our cars get less than 3,000mi/yr.
Just a few trips to the beach, beach bumming several times per yr. during the nice weather here in N.Cal.
Being how my Dad gave up driving at the age of 80, and I am now 59, I doubt that I'll need another car :-):
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