Hey guys, name is Alex and I'm new to the miata world, but not cars.

Little bit of info about myself first, I grew up in Ohio gearhead, joined the military out of high school and was stationed in Pensacola, Fl for 5 years as an air traffic controller(tough place, right?!) Did my time, got out, of course, FAA was on a hiring freeze and the sequester for the goverment just happened right before I got out, of course. So, went to work on tow boats out of lowsyanna for a bit before finally getting picked up by the FAA almost 2 years later. Now, I'm an air traffic controller at Albuquerque Center. Enough of the boring stuff...

Currently, I own a 04 cobra, basica bolt ons making 650 wheel. TVS blower, exhaust, killer chiller, nitrous etc etc. Fun car, and feel in love with going around turns when I followed a group of exotics(hurcan, 918, gt3rs, 488 etc) up the crest road to the top of the mountain one morning after C&C. Long story short, ended up going to our little 1.3 mile, or however short it is, road course out here and had a freaking blast!

Anyways, onto why I joined here. Might sound crazy, but....a few coworkers and I have decided on a little friendly competition between us. The goal, $5k between a car and parts. Then take them out to our local track and race them for bragging rights. Not looking to set any records or anything, just a friendly little competition. I think it will be fun learning a whole new platform and modding it! So I'm joining here, and probably several other forums to learn me some miata! Anyways, enough about me, I'll attach a few pics of my ride, past rides and hopefully the miata I'll be picking up! Dont flame me too bad for beinf a domestic guy!

 

Welcome.
With that budget, you would be best served buying suspension bits.
You would be amazed at what a nicely sorted Miata can do on the track even without forced induction.
What year Miata are you going to buy?
The correct answer is 94+

 

The one I'm looking at is a 91, but has new bilstiens with GC coilovers, I think an eibach front sway bar, the brand new wheels with brand new Kumho Ecsta 720 tires and a short throw. Think it may need a motor, so I've been reading on doing a 1.8 swap. From what I can tell, I'll need to do the 1.8 rearend swap too. If, if I can get that car cheap enough, I'd like to piece together a turbo kit.

 

Apparently, I don't know how to attach pictures either, since they are at the top of the post, oops...

 

Definitely try to get a 94+, way more capable of basically anything. One thing to keep in mind is nb prices seem to be kinda low right now, if you can find one for the right price, it'd be worth it. Is the fox yours? The fox and the termi have a special place in my heart, so I enjoy your car collection so far! Your competition with your friends sounds like a real good time.

 

Don't start with a 1.6 car....

 

Is the NB 94+? Ya, I've had a few mustangs, a 4g63 FC, etc. Ya, that was my old fox. Nothing special, bunch of suspension, stock block with a single 70mm. Made 488&516 on 15lbs I think. I'm actually super stoked about the competition, it pretty much started out as a joke, and now it has become a reality, lol.

 

Even if you could get it for super cheap? Whats the pro's for a 1.8 minus the engine and rearend? Tranny maybe? Keep in mind, cheap is the goal here, and I'd really like to turbo it, if at all possible, especially since I'm at 6000'+ in the air out here.

 

What are the pro's of a 04 cobra over a standard GT?

For cereal though, tracking a 1.6 diff with boost will end in tears. Do some reading on the subject. By the time you take a cheap 1.6 car and add a 1.8 diff you're beyond the cost of a cheap 1.8 car, and you're still stuck with a 1.6. The engine differences are substantial when adding boost.

NB's are second gen. 99-05.

 

94+ has better rearened and engine as already stated.
They also have more bracing and bigger brakes.
99-01 has a better head and the possibility of a 6 speed, which will give you better ratios on the track, and more strength for boost down the road.
01+ got VVT.
If I were in your position, with your budget, i would be looking for a ratty NB.
Put a good set of tires on it, build a set of bilsteins, and go to town.
You aren't going to build a track reliable turbo setup with that budget.
Also, you WILL NOT be able to drive a naturally aspirated miata to it's full capability at first unless you are a very experienced driver.
If you don't believe me, watch some of hornetball's videos to see what a well sorted NA can do on the track.

 

Here you go:
https://albuquerque.craigslist.org/cto/6077335582.html
This is the best bang for your buck.
It has almost everything you want right off the bat.
Talk him down a bit, sell the current wheels, buy some 15" wheels and tires, install a rollbar, and get driving.

 

Nice find right there!^^^^

 

Yeah, get that NB!!!!

I honestly think that NB>NA since you can get a lot more for your money. I really wanted an NA but bought an NB because I found one that met my criteria and price. I don't regret it.

Make sure you can get OBD exemption with the car you're looking at if you're going to end up doing megasquirt things!

 

Thread update: couldn’t remember if I registered here or another site, but ended up finding my name on here! After some interweb and CL searching, I found myself a miata(s)!


Well, 2 to be exact. Little background on them. The blue is a 94 laguna blue with 63k miles on it. Fairly clean car. Was told it just had some spun bearings in the motor. Previous owner was just going to part out black one, 130k mile car, swap cranks and tops and be done with it. Fast forward to me getting them.
Figured I could part black one out, make some decent money since it was a whole car, fairly clean and be on my way. Well, several months go by and I only end up making around $500 off the black car. Fed up, I post it up for sale to get it out of my way so I can actually work on the blue car. Some kid in Colorado hits me up and wants to trade a turbo prelude for it. Car in question: So I go ahead and do it. Keep in mind, this is for a $5k budget competition, and anything I sell off orginal budget, I can use towards the $5k total. So I trade, and turn around and flip it for $1200 without even touching it. Score! Back to the blue car, I finally end up tearing the old motor apart and find out the whole motor is trashed. The knife edged crank is toast, the block and the wiseco pistons in, allllll trash.

I did find out its got some decent Carillo Rods in it though! So at this point I’m doing massive amounts of reading on here and other sites to see what I can do to still keep this whole thing in the budget. Browings craigslist one day, I find this little gem for $1200
Needed a little bit of work and put back together(won’t bore you with the story) Clean it up, put it back together, throw a little elbow grease and I ended up with this! Turn around and sell it for $2200 AND I kept the hardtop! Lol. So back to progress on the blue car in between all of that and now. Ive almost completely swapped out all the tan interior for all black interior. Brand new black top with glass window and defrost. Cut and buff and brought some life back to the paint. Sandblasted and painted suspension parts. Overall cleanup of parts that came with it. Car should be a fun little car. Full racing beat header and exhaust. Jackson racing intake, ground control coil overs, upgraded clutch, web cams in the head, new block, new supertech pistons, adjustable cam gears etc etc etc. Still need to order a few things, like a new radiator, qmax coolant reroute, head studs, and billet oil pump gears. Also, if budget allows, getting rid of slip streams for some Storm S1’s in black. Overall, cant wait to get it back together and drive it!! Here’s some more random pics of progress.









Anyways, that’s all I got for now! Sorry for the long post. Here’s my budget left so far, think I should be able to get whats need left and be able to rock and roll!