Last weekend, My Special Lady Friend and I did a bonzai run to just South of the TN/GA border, and got this:
It is a '94 Miata auto (hence the tragic part) that I acquired from HoserRacing for the princely sum of $250 and a bottle of Jameson. It has no title, but I may or may not have driven it the two hours home.
Yuck
So I've seen the questions here before-"What do I do with an an auto Miata?" " What do I do with a free Miata?" While this wasn't quite free, I'll add "What do I do with a Miata that can never be street legal?"
The answer is lots of things, but I'm not just going to tell you what they are. Suffice to say, there is a clue to one of my many nefarious plans in the title.
The day of pickup, Should have gotten a picture with Hoser:
In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) :
You're going to build a deer-themed crapcan racer with it?
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Nope, but that's an excellent guess.
This thing was pretty nasty.
The trunk and passenger floorboard were both filled with dessicants (Do Not Eat!)
First, I gave it a good pressure washing (no pics- lame), then got it up on stands,
and started pulling the interior.
This was all just to get it clean enough that it wasn't disgusting to work on. Although a southern car, and outwardly clean, I'm guessing years of a leaky top had taken quite a toll. I had to drill the screws at the center console and a few seat bolts.
The first role this car is going to play is a parts donor for my M Edition.
There is but one answer for this answer. That's a LS swap backed by a manual valve body TH400. Then Challenge.
In reply to Stampie (FS) :
Nope on the LS swap, but this will be a backup challenge car (shooting for DFL, if I take it).
I'm counting the change left in it, just in case. Gonna need some corrosion removal. If the horrible funk ate away some coinage, can I still take it out of the budget?
There was just a touch of rust under the carpet.
As it is pretty clean underneath, I suspect years of a leaky top. That, or it was often left out in the rain topless.
The driver's floorboard actually looks okay. Pictures above are the passenger's
"What do I do with a Miata that can never be street legal?"
Obviously, you're going to gut the engine and transmission and mount the chassis to the bottom half of a mechanical bull ride you purchased from a failed Houston honkey-tonk and make a Miata Rally-X simulator. I mean, "Buck"?
The price was right! The rest can be fixed in time. There's just something about a Miata that makes me smile when I drive one. Even the crapped out sub $1k cars.
Now we're talking.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/miata-tr3-doing-wierd-things-with-a-scrap-miata/188541/page1/
Did I mention the eye-popping deal esteemed colleague Calteg gave me? Two miata 5-speeds for $100 (ok, and a significant investment in fuel and hotel rooms over a 51 hour bansai run from East TN to Austin TX).
Just goofing now.
