I'm a Miata Noob but I'm in love

[Yamahaman444]

Real quick rundown.

My name is Jake. 22 year old college grad who works at Denton County Sheriffs Office. Avid motorcyclist and never thought cars could be fun in corners. after having just a FZ1 for 2.5 years I decided to buy a car. Picked up an 04 Celica GTS with the 6 speed. As you may know, one of the best handling FWD cars, and the 8K redline doesn't hurt its fun factor. After going to 1 AutoX meet and vacationing at Deals Gap with a family who has two miatas, I caught the Miata fever. Picked up a 97 NA with 135K for 2200$. No mods, everything works well (minus this TX heat making the temp needle rise while doing parking lot maneuvers so I drained and filled the radiator with distilled water. No issues since. The coolant looked brand new, but it needed to be less than 50/50.) pretty sure I have an open diff. It's not my DD, and I want it to be a go cart. I'm still on 14 inch oem wheels, need those. Changed. On some touring 440 rubber that came with it (BLECK squelllllll). Bought some used bilsteins with the GC sleeves and eibach springs. Yet to recieve and install but that's gonna happen soon. Purpose of this car is AutoX (although not really competitively, just local fun stuff) and mountain carver when I move out East to Georgia or near the smokey mountains. Looking for great advice and parts perhaps. And I think slammed miatas are dumb. Ruins the car. Anyways. Thanks!!

[sammm]

Welcome aboard....I transitioned from 2-wheels to 4 awhile back too.

[cone-cerned]

Welcome, have fun with your Miata.

[AnthonyS]

Miatas are amazing cars in a lot of ways. One time in the mountains of WA state on a Miata club run we had a group of sport bikes pull off the road and let us pass as they were afraid were going to just run over them for going too slow. True story. It was on a trip up the park service roads onto the ridge up the back side of Mt. St. Helens. Good times for sure. I had a stock drivetrain, FM springs and KYB AGX shocks, bigger sways and very sticky DoT legal autoX rubber on 16 x 7.5s. It made for high g cornering.