I'm testing the waters here and I appreciate any input. I'll give you the abbreviated version of my situation and then I'll go into more detail.
Cliff notes version:
I want a Lotus and I don't want to finish my Miata project. Can you guys help me get an idea of what my turbo Miata would fetch?
Detailed explanation:
I have a white 90 manual transmission Miata that has the following parts installed:
- brand new MegaSquirt ECU from DIYAutotune
- brand new Flyin' Miata gt3071R turbo kit (front mount, BOV, and all plumbing)
- 550cc injectors
- Fat Cat Motorsports custom valved Bilstein coilovers with less than 200 miles on them (I'd argue that this is the most sophisticated and most well engineered suspension setup you can get this side of Moton or Penske shocks)
- Racing beat hollow front sway bar with less than 200 miles on it
- 949 Racing end links with less than 200 miles on them
- Harddog Rollbar
- Torsen Diff from an NB
- ACT Clutch
- 1.8 Brake upgrade (calipers and rotors), rotors have less than 200 miles on them
- Some kind of racing brake pads (I bought them Track Dog Racing,per Garry's suggestion, but I can't remember off hand which variety they are)
- Racing Beat front bumper
- Custom half-exhaust, 2.5 inch that terminates right after racing cat
- brand new 949 Racing carbon fiber mirrors
- Stainless steel brake lines
The following parts are not installed:
- brand new AEM plug and play standalone
- brand new GM 3 bar map sensor
- brand new Innovate wideband 02 sensor (this is the full kit with the sensor and the processing box)
- brand new boost solenoid and bracket
- various underbody braces from an R package Miata
- flush mount headlight kit (a little banged up, I bought it used)
- brand new replacement lenses for aforementioned flush mount headlight kit
- pretty nice oil cooler
- gray powder coated valve cover
- gray powder coated intake manifold
There are probably many parts that I've forgotten about that are just sitting my garage.
Here's the story:
I've owned the car since 2007. I bought it with about 105k miles and it now has about 135k miles. It came with a really old Flyin' Miata turbo kit and a Link ECU. It has a 1.6 with less than 100k miles on it. The previous owner told me that the original motor let go when the crank pulley took a dump, he pulled it, put a newer 1.6 from a 1993 Miata, and then boosted it at the same time. As soon as I bought the car I had it re-tuned (the previous owner had it tuned using the auto tuning feature on the Link ECU, and, even though he drove it for about 4 years without incident, I don't trust that kind of thing) at Titan Motorsports in Orlando. The car made 180 whp and life was beautiful.
I drove it that way as my daily driver for several years, including a few trips back and forth from Florida to Texas without ever having any trouble other than a bad slave cylinder on some odd noise that went away when I changed my brake pads (go figure). In 2008, I got rear-ended and pushed into the tow hook of a truck in front of me. The damage was almost entirely cosmetic. I replaced the rear finish panel, put on a new factory aluminum hood, gave my front and rear bumpers the heatgun treatment, repainted the car myself, and then fabbed up a replacement radiator core support (the only part of consequence that was bent, I've got pics showing the damage if anyone cares). The damage totaled the car so it has a salvaged title. What did I care, because, as far as I was concerned, I now had a car that I could feel plenty good about taking to the track. I used the money to buy a new daily driver and I now had a Miata I could do anything I wanted to.
I drove it as a second car for a couple of years. I eventually got an apartment with a garage and I started a few weekend projects, including installing my suspension and getting the car aligned and corner balanced. I took it to Motorsport Ranch a few times and everything was peachy. I cannot say enough good things about the Fat Cat suspension.
Then I got a big promotion, decided I needed more college in my life, got married, bought a house, and had a baby. Needless to say, weekend projects have not happened for a LONG time.
One such weekend project that fell by the wayside was my new turbo install. I got all of the turbo goodies listed above, got rid of my old turbo parts, and I installed the MegaSquirt setup. Immediately after acquiring the MegaSquirt setup, I contacted the best tuner in the state only to learn that he doesn't touch MegaSquirt with a ten foot pole. So I started shopping for other tuners, came pretty close a couple of times, and then decided that rather than sticking with the MegaSquirt and making a little more power than my old turbo setup that I would like to make a lot more power, so I called said best tuner in Texas and asked him which ECU he would prefer to tune. That's how I ended up with the AEM setup and many of the other parts I haven't yet installed. I know that the MegaSquirt ECU is highly praised but, frankly, I think it's fairly primitive compared to other ECUs I've dealt with in the past so I was glad to jump ship and get the AEM setup.
Well, that purchase was at least a year ago and I've never even taken the stuff out of the box.
It is starting to become clear to me that I have a few options:
- Sell the Miata and get a Lotus Elise.
- Install the AEM setup, spend the money to get it tuned, spend the money on some 6ULs and tires, and keep the car (I honestly don't know if I'll have the time to pull this off).
- Just have someone else tune the MegaSquirt setup, keep the car, and have less horsepower than I would like.
Obviously, selling the Miata and getting the Elise is my favorite option. Frankly, I've always been very frugal with cars yet I have advanced far enough in my career that I would like to reward myself. But my cheap side won't let me own two weekend cars, yet it is also loathe to take a bath on the Miata. However, if the demand for the Miata is not there then I will just keep it and maybe I'll get around to it one day in the future. Who knows, maybe my daughter will want to work on it with me some day.
For the record, if I sell the car as it sits, I would likely have the MegaSquirt tuned first. I wouldn't feel comfortable selling it without it being driveable (right now it will start up but it needs to be tuned before it can be driven) and I would sell the AEM ECU and other uninstalled parts separately (probably). As it sits now you can start it and it runs fine until it gets to temp, so it can be checked for compression and so forth.
Furthermore, it's very important to me that I offer full disclosure because A) I think it will help you guys evaluate the car and give me an idea of what it's worth, and B) I am a very honest guy and my reputation means a lot to me, so I wouldn't want to be perceived as trying to sugar coat anything about the car. With that it mind...
Bad stuff about the car:
- No AC or power steering (I removed all of the hardware for each out of boredom).
- I got a wild notion one day to learn how to do body work, so I eliminated the trim on the doors so that they are smooth top to bottom (meaning I got rid of the crease / accent line). I think it looks way better but I imagine not everyone would agree.
- I decided I wanted a different muffler (never got around to it) so I cut off the existing muffler that was a part of my scratch-built exhaust, so it's open soon after the cat and is loud.
- The soft top has a tear on the inside that I sewed up. It's kind of tricky to describe but it is completely non recognizable from the outside of the car. The tear was in one of the folds that you can't see unless you are in the car. Other than that, the top is fairly new and in good shape.
- I lost the data cable to the MegaSquirt when I moved, but I'm sure that it's easily replaceable.
- Airbag light is on (It always has been and I've just never bothered to check it).
- I accidentally cut a small (maybe 1 1/4 inch) slice in the back of the passenger seat.
- The last time I took my car to the track, I braked too hard going into a turn and I flat-spotted my front tires.
- I lost the barn doors for my headlights when I moved. I took the headlights out when I was trying to make my own flush mount headlight kit (I eventually shelved that project too and bought a ready made kit) and I misplaced them.
Here's some (admittedly poorly taken) pics:
PLEASE NOTE: The side mirror mounted to the fender was a bad idea. I have since gotten rid of it and put some aftermarket mirrors in the factory mirrors' location.
http://imageshack.us/a/img844/2254/rearside.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img22/8492/rearrk.jpg
Ignore the headlight. What you see was the rough draft of my ill-fated home made flush mount setup, yet another weekend project that life got in the way of.
http://imageshack.us/a/img194/4760/frontnoc.jpg
