Wanted: Miata for newbie

[cuppatea]

Wow! This is amazing! Gee whiz, I now even have a choice of colours. Thanks Mark & Gordon !

[Kai Noeske]

Update: This is Kai, replying on behalf of Ivy.

She is currently unable to write due to excessive butterfly activity in her stomach after closing the deal on a 1997 black 1.8L Miata.
Tan leather, short shifter, new top, chrome style bar. 10lb alloys.

I test-drove the car just sub-COM-level. Felt sharp and zippy.

Ivy says thank you all very much for your help and will show off her new baby next spring, after learning how to drive stick (run!).

She will probably still bring the same old wild-haired busted out guy with her, though.

[3B'dB3]

I knew it wouldnt take long to find a nice COM machine!
Congrats Ivy, welcome to the sickness.

[breakaway500]

Cool! Glad you found a winner. You will have to post up some pics.

[Grippy]

Congrats Ivy, sounds like a great car. You get a Torsen limited slip with the leather seats (very usefull). Now just ditch the "style bar" and bolt in a real roll bar and you should be good to go. remember next season started Nov 2.

See you on the grid next year!

Gordon

[cuppatea]

Thanks heaps everyone! Sorry I didn't even get the chance to look at Gordon's or Mark's Miatae, it was just too hard to resist once I sat in it. I will promise to post some pics once I get the CT paperwork straightened out. Wish me luck! They really make you jump through some hoops @ the CT DMV for an out-of-state vehicle. Anyway, will have to get my act together and now learn how to drive a manual transmission ... will give me something to do in winter

Once again, thank you so much for all your support & understanding. This obsession is so much fun!

See you all in a few months!
cheerio,
Ivy

[CP]

Try calling Dave at DWW Motorsports. He builds Spec Miatas and will be taking the cage from my wrecked SM and installing it in my new donor this winter. I was busy tonight chipping the sound proofing off the floors of the new car, grinding off some rust spots underneath and pre-applying more PB Blaster to the suspension. Dave has cars in various states of track readiness and gets alot of his cars from Leos. My first car came via Leos and then Dave built the cage. Call Dave at 978-772-3535. He'll have what you need.

[CP]

Doh...didn't see page 2. To anyone else looking for an ideal track car, my advice is above. Miatas are great cars to learn on, as they don't mask any bad track habits like some other cars do. You pretty much know if you suck or not once you get out there in a Miata.

[3B'dB3]

If its the Dave Im thinking of then I only live a few miles down the road from him and can doubly say hes a cool guy that knows his stuff.
I should be seeing him soon about some seats!

[6PAK72]

Buck up and get the brakes!!, springs, bushings and shocks upgraded. The car we got from Leos was decent with 76k on it, but with about $750 in parts and my 4 hours + VRS's 6 hours, the car is a solid, safe performer.

Did I say do the brakes? DO THE BRAKES!! We used the 1.8L discs in the front, and ran EBC Green pads this season. 6 hard days and the EBC's are 90% gone. We'll probably go for Hawk Black next season, though the EBCs are very linear, feel great and grip well.

Everyone here who has a Miata gave us great advice, so good luck! We'll see you in the spring!

[3B'dB3]

PICS?

[cuppatea]

sorry, the baby is still up in MA and i'm in CT awaiting the paperwork etc.. i'm not going to get the title till my check clears so it'd be a few more days....

[WillM]

Congratulations on the new car! Great choice!

Sounds like this will be a daily driver/weekend fun type car with some track duty.

I highly recommend the Hard Dog roll bars. I've had one on two different Miatas, including my daily driver. I would not get one of the Hard Top models, as they are just too low. The non-hard top models work fine with a hardtop anyway. The "double diagonal" bars actually obstruct less of the rear view, and look cool. I ran a Hard Dog M2 Double Diagonal on my Miata before I had a cage installed, and way before that car found another happy COM home to live.

Jeff, ditch the EBC brakes. They are junk. Been there, done that. Never, ever, again, not even on my street car. Go with Carbotech XP8 on a dual-purpose car. XP10 or XP12 for dedicated track pads.

[CP]

If you want to ditch the leather seats (not so grippy at the track), I've got a good set of cloth seats that just came out of my donor Miata, sliders and all. Come to think of it, I've also got a Nardi leather wheel with or without the airbag mounted in it, center console, power mirrors (green) and all the trunk liners. This all came out of a 99 but should bolt right up to the NA cars. Please come take some of this stuff so that I can make room for the spare hood, fenders and doors in the crawl space of my garage.

[Grippy]

I'm pretty sure the sliders are different from NA to NB (and left and right).