96 miata project, first time miata owner

I boought a 96 miata a month ago and did not expect to be enjoying it as much as I am.
I work at a Honda dealership in Frisco TX and, being the only guy there with a miata, take a lot of ribbing.
I paid $2000 for the car because the paint was oxidized and it had a strong miss. I buffed out the oxidation and spliced new wires into the CAS sensor and now the car looks and drives perfectly.

I also took most of the engine apart and installed new seals, gaskets etc., and then scrubbed the hell out of everything so it looks shiny.

Id like some advice as to project order. Ive got plans to do most of it within the next three months.

Heres what I need to do:

Rear upper control arm bushings: Im told not to use polyeurethene because of the ride. As of now, only the drivers side rear is loose.

Suspension: current suspension is dead. I had been considering the FM vmaxx kit, but a visit to Track Dog Racing last week now has me thinking about Tein, (for $600 more). I would like to Autocross, but this is also my Daily Driver. Im thinking of the suspension because I do like the look of thhe miata being lowered an inch or so.

Stereo replacement: Anyone running an alpine deck with the PNP 45w rms booster? Also looking at the alpine 7" marine coaxials and Gary at TrackDog has some seats with speakers he'll sell me.

Roll bar.

Exhaust: I posted a pic here of my muffler and most people agreed, it looks like a kerosene can, and sounds like a cicada.

Supercharger or Turbo: Gary at TrackDog says Supercharger, Another guy here in the Dallas Area that specializes in Miatas says Turbo. Never used either, Ive always gone NA, but I love the Supercharger sound. Im looking for 200whp.

Exterior: The car has dings and paint swirls real bad. For about $1000 I can get our used car guy to work the car over, pop out dents and do a paint job.

The car already has slotted rotors, but stock calipers. It needs the normal miata parts, like shift boots.

And I really want a hard top.

Anyone else doing similiar now? Sorry for the long post, Im gettiing a bit excited about putting all of this together.

http://i49.tinypic.com/24e71h3.jpg
http://i50.tinypic.com/2ylqsro.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/1606gyv.jpg

Welcome to the Miata world! We have similar builds but mine is a 93 with a 1.8 swap out of a 96.

As for Super vs turbo that is your decision, but I vote turbo. Join the TurboMiata forums and start looking around. A lot of cool things going on like viewing peoples progress on their turbo builds. Who knows, you may even find a build that you want to copy.

Again, welcome!

Montego Blue is one of my favorite colors. Nice score. For, in my opinion, the nicest Montego NA8 on the planet, visit www.revlimiter.net.

I did the s/c on my NB and it was well worth it. 220whp was a kick in the pants and dead-on reliable for several years - most of which was daily driven.

If I do it again, however, it'll be turbo. I miss it from some of my old turbo cars. Plus, the s/c is kind-of a "been there, done that" thing for me now.

Turbos are expensive, unreliable, and slow.

Since you're new, I'll let you know that mr brg has a "sense of humor."


As for the turbo/super debate, it's a personal choice and you'll find lots of people are fervently happy with the choice they made. However, if you do some research, one interesting thing you'll find is that there are far more people who have gone to a turbo from a super than vice versa.

Regarding suspension - how much do you want to spend? Don't forget to include money for at least an upgraded front sway bar (Racing Beat makes some good ones). Most of the fast NA/NBs either run a factory rear bar or no bar at all.

On shocks, decide what you want to do with the car (just lower it, make it a capable daily driver/weekend toy, or make it a full out track/autocross car), then pick your budget. FM's kit and the Teins aren't bad, but I'd pass on them both if I was after performance instead of looks. Instead, I'd opt to save a little bit longer and go with some "real" shocks.

A lot of people in this area (and on this board) are partial to AST, for several reasons. First, they just plain work - take a look at the top results from any local event (or National event, for that matter) and you'll find plenty of AST shod cars near the top. You won't find many - if any - cars with off the shelf Teins.

AST offers fully rebuildable and revalvable high end shocks that are comparable to Penskes, Ohlins, etc. for a lot less money. Their North American headquarters is also here in Plano, which makes service, advice, and rebuilding easy. Where do you send a set of Teins if you want them revalved? Probably back to Japan, if they even offer that service at all.

I've had lots of different shocks on different cars over the years, from budget KYBs and Koni yellows to kits like Tein and KW. Now that I own a set of AST 5100s, I can't imagine ever going back to "off the rack" shocks again.

+1 on AST glory. I have ASTs on both Miatas, lol. Its the only way to drive.

Trackspeed Engineering is going to release the king of turbo kits in the next six months; Abe/ARTech in Wiley does awesome awesome awesome work; TDR is the place to go for superchargers. Its generally true that you can go to TDR and end up wiht a reliable car that can go to the track and drive home; turbocharged cars can be reliable and get you home from the track but it requires thought. People will tell you stories about how I spent more money than I should have and its totally true. However, there is now a formula for reliability and choosing wisely means you only have to choose once...this also means my turbo car never stranded me and its definitely the most fun car on Earth.

I'm the kind of guy who says "it doesn't matter how you get to 200whp, just get there". Actually, 250whp is the magical "so much fun you can kill yourself and many others" in these cars and I wouldn't have it any other way. 10lb/1hp with driver is more fun than the law allows.