I Had a Miata Before They Were Cool!!

It was late spring in New Jersey and I had just sold my Civic for $7500. I needed a car, but I didn’t know what to buy. For the previous couple of months, my favorite magazine, Sport Compact Car, was doing a build series. They were building a Mazda Miata. I learned a lot about the Miata in that build series. I learned about it’s low curb weight, bulletproof engine, 50/50 weight distribution and one of the best shifters ever made. Over several issues, Sport Compact Car created an amazing daily driver/track car. They installed a Hard Dog roll bar, a Flyin’ Miata turbo kit and dialed in the suspension with aftermarket springs and struts that allowed them to pull 1.10 g’s on their skid pad, which set a new record for the magazine. Sport Compact Car had me intrigued, but not sold.

A local dealership had a red one for sale listed at $9500 with 35,000 miles. I was curious and so my girlfriend and I test drove it. It was important that she joined me on the test drive because the Miata has only two seats. That means that I was going to be able to test drive the car without a chaperone. We put the top down and took the car out for a spin. I floored it at every opportunity, slammed through the Miata’s magnificent gearbox and whipped it around corners. We returned the car in one piece and a smile on our faces. I handed the keys over to the salesman and said, “Thank you, that was fun.” He then asked me if I wanted the car and honestly, I really wasn’t interested. Lightweight rear-wheel drive cars are useless in a state that gets snow in the winter. That convertible top wouldn’t do a very good job keeping the cold out either. The trunk is puny, it only has two seats. The salesman could tell that I wasn’t sold on the car so he asked what would it take for me to buy the car. I said I’d take it for $8400 out the door (they were asking $9500 + tax, tag and title). The salesman talked to his boss for about 15 seconds, turned to me and said, “Deal.”

So I had a Miata. I quickly joined Miata.net and started reading up on the “most raced car in the world.” I was rocking stock wheels again and I was ready to really step up my wheel game. This time I went with 16×7 SSR Integrals with 215/45/16 Toyo Proxes tires. Expensive, but badass. I didn’t stop there. Under the hood I added a Racing Beat intake. For exhaust, I also went with Racing Beat and got their catback system. Flyin’ Miata handled the suspension with some lowering springs and front and rear sway bars. KYB 8-way adjustable struts controlled the dampening. The Miata rode stiff (mostly because of those big sway bars), but it handled incredibly well.

The Miata was great at everything. Very confidence inspiring. It only had one weakness…snow. It was horrible in the snow. Terrible! I can’t tell you how many times I literally would be driving, lose control and just throw my hands up in the air and wait for the car to come to a stop on it’s own because I had absolutely no control over it. Somehow I never crashed it. It was light enough so that I could push it out, myself, if and when I got stuck. The Toyo’s were great on dry or wet roads, but totally useless in the snow. I didn’t want to get snow tires and have to have a second set of wheels around (I was living in an apartment at the time) so I realized it would probably be best to get a second car. I needed something that I could commute to work in, was good on gas and fun to drive. The search began…