Finally have some free time now that the semesters over, so I wanted to make a build thread to hopefully meet some new people on here.

First, a little bit about me, I'm from Chicago and am a sophomore at the University of Alabama studying chemical engineering. This miata was my first car, and a forever car. Anyways lets play some catch-up.

I bought my 2002 Miata from a dealer in the fall of 2014, the car was basically brand new with only 8,157 miles from one owner heres a picture back then.




One with the girlfriend crazy how young we were, still together now, its been 4 years.




The first mod, sometime later that fall of 2014, this is where it all started, a BEAUTIFUL flyin-miata strut bar probably unnecessary but I was so happy at the time. Super nice starting with a car this clean its like it was in a time-capsule.





That's enough for this post more to come.

 

At that point winter was coming and the car has never seen the winter and never should so I put it in storage till the next year while saving money.

Winter ended and I drove the car some more, hit 10,000 miles! Now were in the spring of 2015.



Somewhere soon after this I decided to to my first big mods, suspension. Went with FM sways, there v-maxx coils, and some adjustable endlinks. 20/20 Hindsight I wouldn't have got the coils they are my next big change for the car come next summer, just not happy with them.




From there I just drove the car like this most of the spring and summer went to some local shows hung-out with friends, all in all good memories.

Now its the Fall of 2015

Next mod I went for was wheels and tires, 15x9 Jongbloeds with 225/45/15 Rival S. Put them on, got the car aligned and really loved how it drove, tons of fun, so much grip.





At this point is when I really fell down the wormhole and decided the car deserved some more power to go along with its handling. To prepare for the power I got a FM level 1 Clutch, LW flywheel, and all the other goodies/seals to go along with the install. The car had 13,600 miles then. Cant really find photos of the install right now, but here is the money shot.


For the rest of that summer I just enjoyed the car and saved money.

 

x9s with the rivals definitely woke that car up.

 

^They sure did haha I think the tires on it were the originals from when the car was new.
So I put the car back in storage for the winter of 2015 and again, brought it back out for the spring of 2016. Had the x9s off and the stock wheels on so the rivals didn't freeze in the garage. Heres the first picture I took when I got the car from storage that spring



Over that winter I accumulated new seats, marrad lx1 to get lower in the car and some Morimoto HID, I really like having good lights.




Put the seat and lights in and and got a little crazy trying to make a console that was less annoying (this was terrible but I made a better revision at some point, the stock one lives in the car now and will forever, sometimes I do dumb things but hey we all learn)




Next sometime later in 2016 I found a craigslist deal on a used for 300 mile FM 4 wheel brake kit in sport sizing and couldn't pass it up. These are not usually bigger than stock but my car had non-sport brakes and these are sport brake size so overall a nice upgrade, the pedal felt so much firmer. Did all hard lines and a bias adjuster at the same time.





Bonus update pic with the girlfriend

 

Next to prepare for the turbo I wanted a LSD, found a 3.9 for a good price put it in the car and swapped the speed sensor.




Now in the fall of 2016 I felt the car was truly ready for boost and ordered an FM Voodoo 2 kit with hardlines, inconel studs with locking hardware, a crossflow radiator with fan and shrouds, and all the other good stuff like a wideband.. etc. cant find many pictures of the install or parts but I'll add them once I check my old phone.




Time for senior prom! Went with the girlfriend of course.





Boost was great it really transformed the car, wanted to start tracking the car so a roll-bar was in order, got a BBFW GT3 custom powder coated bronze.

 

I graduated high-school and accepted a full ride to the University of Alabama! To celebrate that summer my Dad and I planned a trip to MATG and FM summercamp. It was really an experience that I wouldn't trade anything for. Met so many awesome people.







The trip was two parts Chicago to North Carolina, back to Chicago for a week then off to Colorado. Driving the car that far and that hard made me learn a few things. For one voodoo box=garbage driving through the mountains at 10,000 feet of elevation on a tune I made at nearly sea-level in Chicago was brutal, not being able to easily change timing for 91 gas and so much more really made me realize its shortcomings. It was a nice stepping stone but I knew that was all it was when I got into it.

 

Well the summer ended and I went off to college I left the car at home for my first year and didn't get to drive again till that summer and the small breaks I was home for. Over the summer the trip really made me realize what I wanted the car for and how to make it the best for that. I basically want the car do be a super capable streetcar that can be road-tripped anywhere, kill the canyons, and be taken to the track and beat on as hard as I can.

I started with the interior, here is how it was at the end of that summer, I had to have harnesses because with the roll-bar and the seats I had the stock seat-belts were unusable and from the seating position my knee would get trapped between the door-card and steering wheel so I had to have aluminum door-cards.




The first step to fixing this issue was new seats, found Tesla Roadster seats which are basically lotus Elise seats but fancier for a good price so I picked them up.




With these my seating position was now perfect because I had drilled out the stock seat mounting humps and custom mounted them to the floor just how I wanted while still utilizing the oem Tesla slider on the drivers side so the seat moves. Now I was able to put back in the stock door-cards stock console and stock seat-belts and the car was so much better to drive and much more oriented to how I wanted it. Got all this done over my breaks home from college.

Next was the ECU. standalone was the only answer and I went with a MS3-PNP Pro thanks to this forum and I haven't looked back. Thanks guys!



When I got home from college to install it I found out they call for zip-ties to hold my 1k ecu. No thanks. Singular motorsports ecu bracket was ordered and used.

Sometime towards the end of that year at college a mint hardtop in red popped up on craigslist back home and I've been searching ever since I bought the car for one, so I bought it and had my Dad go and pick it up for me.



Also had picked up FlowForce 640cc injectors to go with the megasquirt.



Well I finished my freshman year of college came home and was super excited to get everything installed and the car up to snuff.

Got the car up and running on MS with the new injectors on the base-map and started tuning. Oh man was that fun. I read as much as I could and eventually things started to click, besides a few things the tune is very good now.

 

Kept learning and tuning the car that summer getting ready to go to MATG with my Dad again. Its sort of a thing we do every year now. My girlfriend and I went out and shot some good photos of the car too now that it was almost perfect.







Well that is it for todays updates, killed a few hours, I will finish bringing the build up to the current time soon.

 

What a clean car! Nice job.

 

Very nice story.

 

Very clean! Look forward to see the progress in the future

 

Thanks guys! It has definitely been quite a transformation haha!

 

that is one seriously low mile and clean car.

 

It is.... it's just as nice in person too. Nice to see you made your way over here!

<----- the dented and gross loud purple car.

 

Damn that is a clean nb, nice car man!

 

I finally found your build thread. I can personally vouch for how well kept this car is.

 

Wow.. thanks for the kind words everyone! I actually remember both of your cars from MATG Concealer and miataman04. I remember the purple car, I drove in some groups with you it was fun! Miataman04, I remember you! I'm glad to see you rebuilding your car, I remember giving you the ride from the gas station to the scene after the accident, it was a sad day but its going to be better than ever now.

 

The Gap was truly an adventure. I thought it was funny when you pulled up at the Killboy shop. You didn't say a word, I just knew I had to go with you to see what happened to the car. I wanted to ride in your car, just not for that reason. Oh well. Are you planning on going to the Gap this year?

 

 

Really nice car, man.