New Miata (er, MX-5)

2nd is a bit hard to get into on a cold welsh winter mornings on my 1999 6mt (its better after 15minutes on a really cold day - it takes a little longer than the water gauge to move - you can also change te oil to synthetic) - also 6th gear is geared hardly any differennt to 5th from what I remember - roughly 3500revs at 70mph

4000 rpm in my '99 5-speed gives an indicated 76 mph.

Dang St. Louis! Hills, hills hills! Whatever! I grew up in Peoria, I remember hills!

Chris

99BBB

I agree but there are just too many of the Titanium MSM's. Although I don't like the Black Mica as well as my good old 'Brilliant Black', to me, it'd be worth it to have a more rare MSM. The Lava Orange is more unique I guess but a bit too 'out there' for me.

Chris

99BBB

In searching for the MSM, it seems to me there were as many Black ones as Titanium. There were a surprising number of Oranges ones, considering the number made. I don't actually ever recall seeing a MSM of any color around here (Dallas).

To me it wasn't about color. I walked into the local stealership carrying my golf clubs, and the sales guy laughed and said, "they'll fit. The only Miata I have here today is this grey one..."

I knew exactly what it was. He did not. One mile into the test drive I had the top down, my wife and I were both laughing, and that was that.

I would have preferred red. But that day, I would have bought it if it was purple.

The will if you take the driver out of the bag. Where to put the second set of clubs is the hard part. Back in my pre-miata days I drove an Alfa spyder, and it had about 12" of cargo space behind the seats (space that went all the way to the floor). It was just right for a couple sets of golf clubs. I still sort of miss having that storage space.

Betcha don't miss 30k miles between valve jobs... :)

Never had to have a valve job. Though I did have to have the clutch rebuilt, the differential rebuilt, the 2nd gear snycro was pretty much gone, it needed a ring job (it was running on 3 cyinders when I traded it in), and I had to disconnect the 5th injector (the one in the throttle-body) to keep it from flooding when starting.

And I had the "reliable" version after they switch to the Bosch injection/ignition/engine-control system.

The solid rear axle wasn't a plus in bumpy corners either.

But, it was a Pinin Farina design. That almost made everything worth while.

You'll start seeing them all the time now (the titanium and the red) that your attention is peeked ;-) There really are tons of them here around Houston.

I may have to start checking out MSN Autos for the Black ones!

Enjoy! Chris

99BBB

Amen brother, I'll second that! The interior was as lovely as the exterior too!

cd

99BBB

In Australia they used to sell NB Miatas with a 3.6 rear end. If you could transplant that into a U.S. spec 6-speed NA/NB I think it would be just about perfect. First through fifth would correspond to first through fifth in a 5-speed NA/NB with just a little more revs at any given speed, plus you'd get that granny gear. Downshifting is fun.

I wonder how much it would cost. I'd guess swapping out the diff might be easier and cheaper rebuilding a transmission.

yrs jp

Don't know about Australian Miatas, but in my search I did come across an MSM that had had the 6-speed replaced with a 5-speed.

There's supposed to be a reverse lock out in the transmission so you can't select reverse when moving forwards. That said, I've never been game to try it out to see if it works.

If you mean NBs, then most n/a 6 spd are 7,000 rpm, JDM models with different intake cam are 7500 rpm.

By Mazdaspeed, I meant the MX-5 Mazdaspeed, which *is* limited at 6500.

Ya, I think 'Me' was confirming that all of the normally aspirated NB's do have the higher redline. The 6500 red line does seem a bit low, as conservative as Mazda is, the 7000 limit would have probably been fine for all but the the worst of the rev limiter bouncers ;-)

Chris

99BBB

Could be the reverse lockout WAS the bad noise that he heard. Maybe they make it sound nasty to keep you from thinking you just haven't jammed it in there hard enough, and keeping trying?

Chris

99BBB