Datsun Roadster NMNA Miata?

In 1989 I fell in love with the Miata at the Chicago Auto Show intro.  How much?   A decent Datsun Roadster was $2500. Why buy a new Miata for a toy?

Now Datsun prices too high and a really nice rust free Midwest Miata is $4000-$5000.  Why buy a Datsun?

In the end the Miata is the answer.  

https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/1969-datsun-fairlady/6736595687.html

https://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/d/1990-mazda-miata/6718958176.html

Oh wait - I missed the steering wheel cover and dildo shifter.   

That's sad to see. I've had four roadsters over the years. A 1600 and three 2000's. The Two Litre's were pretty seriously fast cars for their time. It was fairly easy to wring 150hp out of them and they only weighed 2100 pounds. If you bolted a panhard rod to leaf spring rear axle along with a rear sway bar, installed a limited-slip and good shocks, they handled pretty good. They didn't look as good as an MGB but they were WAY faster in both a straight line and around corners. My last one would go 130mph and it got there pretty quickly.

Trouble is now days, half the money will get you twice the car in a Miata. The tops don't leak, parts are incredibly easy to get, and they are remarkably reliable. Datsun Roadsters will swing and miss at all three of those points. Speaking of points, when was the last time you had to worry about points and dwell and advance and E36 M3 like that? Tuned any SU's lately? I sure don't miss it.

I saw a nicely restored one up in NorCal wine country recently. The owner told me he had over 20k in the build and it was ABOUT done! Nicely done, though.

I haven't tuned an SU in 18 hours! 

My mom bought a brand new MGB, the first model year. Both my parents had LBCs of various sorts. The first time she saw me put up the top in my 1990 Miata, she accused me of showing off. They now own a 1990 Miata that just...runs.

Once cars get past the depreciation abyss, it's never 100% clear which ones are going to be valuable. High points in performance or style, sure. But I suspect nice NB Miatas will remain less valuable than nice NA Miatas from now on, and it's not due to how good they are. Those Datsuns are cool little cars, but they may not be cool enough to go through the effort of owning for most people. The Miata may not be as cool, but it's much easier to own and will likely remain so for some time.

I sold my car in 1996 to a guy who was restoring for his wife - she worked for Nissan. He took the blue car home and immediately took it apart. 

12 years or so later its its now white and never driven and he wants to know if I want to buy it back.  

His wife said screw it and bought a mustang convertible instead.  

BTW, there's one of these hibernating in a yard near our shop. Every time I go that direction, I always check to see how it's doing. You have to, don't you?

I grew up in a family with multiple MGs and multiple Datsuns. But I only remember seeing one Datsun roadster as a kid, and that was probably when I was a freshman in high school, and the owner of that car had moved here from Oklahoma. These cars barely existed on the East Coast.

I have a rebuilt cyclinder head for a U20 on my shelf that I am looking to sell. They are not cheap anymore.

I had a 1966 Fairlady for a while, bought it through someone I met at the Challenge.  Very nice car, turns heads as no Miata could.  Easy to work on.  Click around here for community feel.