Bought another crappy Miata

Is there something wrong with me? I keep dragging home crappy Miatas. Yesterday, I picked up a hail damaged, white 1993 with no options (assuming A/C was standard by 1993). My buddy Rennie came to my dad's funeral in this crappy Miata, someone stuck him with, and it was raining when he left and the Miata top was ripped badly. I suggested rather than drive home and get wet, he borrow one of my cars and sell me the Miata for $1200. He said okay. The interior cleaned right up and the car has only 80,000 miles and runs and drives well. The top needs to be replaced, and the whole car needs paint. Other than that and the fact it was filthy an the new fan belt was squealing, it runs and drives great, had tires put on it recently and the air blows cold. We already have an early Miata race car. Should I flip this white one? Should I do another budget resto-mod for GRM? Should we introduce the Miata to Classic Motorsports readers and restore it to stock? Or should I seek psychiatric care? Your thoughts. I keep thinking the supply of cheap Miatas will dry up and I will be left without a seat.

I find peace of mind in driving an ugly car that is in good mechanical condition. I can trust it, but the car doesn't attract a lot of attention, and new dings don't bother me. I can sit on the hood, parallel park along busy streets, and load the car with questionable items (industrial machinery, hundreds of pounds of potatoes, a motorcycle in parts) without shame.

You would only need psychiatric help is you bought a piece of junk, but by the sounds of it, it was money well spent. I keep tossing around the idea of selling my Miata and replacing it with a E30 convertible, but every time I drive the Miata, I think I must be crazy for even considering it.

Personally, I'd like to see the budget resto-mod, so I could get some ideas for mine. I have a '92 Special Edition with a Jackson Racing supercharger on it, but I'd like some ideas tinkering a bit more yet (suspension, brakes, etc).

Yes, you have big problems with impulse buying. You can alleviate some of it by selling me one of the crappy Miatas next summer.

I would restore it to stock for the Classic Motorsports readers.

It's definitely a unique place to buy a used car, but I can't say I wouldn't do the same.

I'm considering picking up another junk pile Miata for rallycross and winter driving duty. The old rusty 91 was just so much fun in the snow.

Have a contest and give it away ;-)

No offense, but don't use another NA miata as a GRM project car. It's getting pretty old. I love the cars, own one myself. They're fun and cheap and versatile, but it's not the only thing out there and you guys have really covered the bases with them in the past few years (decades really). It's been neat reading about them, but I think it's time to put them on the shelf for a little while.

My $0.02

Have you guys ever done an article on the art of flipping a car? That might be an interesting read for folk. More than just "buy low, sell high".

Challenge car for the magazine staff?

Skip the top and repaint, sounds like an excellent donor to me.

Personally, I'd love to see how much time/work/actual cost is involved in the conversion. This is part of my plans when the body on mine returns to the earth (because Michigan).

A/C works? Fix & flip? To me maybe...

Give it to an intern. Ask them to win something with it. Anything. Then do a reveal on what they did, and how they won.

I'd do it in Classic, but with a slight restomod feel. Nothing wrong buying Miatas. Early ones are a bargain right now.

I second classic. Something like This .

Do the Catfish!

The project car fleet looks like it could use more builds of the fast, cheap, and crazy variety, but not easy to think of something that hasn't been done before with a Miata other than kit cars (and you just did an 818). While restoring one to stock is different, it doesn't particularly interest me, especially since I've driven both stock and modified examples. Unless you can come up with a fresh and interesting take that hasn't shown up in GRM before, my vote would be to flip and resell, and save the project time for whatever you buy with the proceeds of reselling it.

Pics or it didn't happen.

Another Miata? Really?

I'm beginning to wonder if the third initial in GRM doesn't stand for Miata.

I hope you enjoy the car. I hope I don't have to read about it.

Sorry - not trying to be snippy but I think you've (collectively) done everything you can do with these cars. Twice.

Quit buying up the cheap Miatae before I can even get a chance at buying one!!! Lol

pull engine

insert something huge. like a 454 or cummins. cut whatever is necessary.

bolt on slicks.

go to dragstrip and see how many passes the stock rear end takes before it blows out the trunk.

In reply to ZOO:

I'm the intern, and I don't think I'd be winning much of anything...

In reply to KatieSuddard: Well, hellloooo Katie.

The 818 is almost done. Use it as the donor for a kit car project. Maybe the exocet?

Has a Miata for rally cross been done? Is it allowed to run in that? Heck, if it were me, i'd throw a hardtop on that thing and drive the wheels on it.