Wallace's $1200 94R

I was lucky enough to find myself a Miata! After spending a few years thinking about them, and with various friends telling me to get one I finally have. My main goal is to get serious about racing in 2014.

Preface: Previous owner buys car in Florida. On the drive back, his wife hits a deer. Deer hits pop up headlight and goes careening down the side of the car. Dude files with insurance, gets some money and leaves it in his yard for a year. Fast forward to current times. See this crashed Miata on good old CL. Figure it's worth a look. Not only is it rust free, it only has 117K and is an original R package! On top of that, the damage was not nearly as bad as I figured it was. Me and the guy shake on $1200 and voila, I've got myself a $1200 R package. Couldn't have been more lucky.

Some pictures from the day that I went to bought it!





Some pictures from right after a bought it. Sitting at work with a  face!





Got lucky thanks to a friend and was able to score some body parts from another black NA. Only catch is that they were all the way in southern Indiana. Two friends from work graciously offered to drive and keep me company. Turned into a pretty interesting day.   

Our parts hauler


Got the parts on a Thursday and spent that Saturday putting them on the car. I was so excited  




Had to take a break part way through. Trying to swap the new door internals was giving me a headache. Nobody should ever have to swap an auto window assembly to manual. #WishIhadpowerwindows

Decided to start tackling the interior in the meantime.

Previous owner decided to improve the sound system in a big way!



After going from two non working head units, to one working one, I was super happy. Still dirty but at least I got some I.C.E. now! Also was able to clean up a lot of crack wiring behind the tombstone.



All finished. Kinda..



Thanks to a good friend as always for the help, moral, and mental support. Oh, also for letting me take half of my car apart in his garage.

It's a bromance ... the cars of course



One thing that I forgot to mention about the car was that, somewhere along the line, someone had used it to tow a trailer in FL. Well as a result, the factory suspension was BEAT! The rear was basically resting on the bumpstops at all times. Not good. Being a broke ass, a friend hooked me up on some shocks and springs to get me by.

Before..not good



During




Alden so graciously expressing his love of both me and my car..





FINALLY  



Somehow I end up with people in my life who are willing to help me with my most frustrating projects. Thanks Bro!



The problem




The solution



Never again evil trailering equiptment




I also decided to do a bumper cut out as the bumper (along with the original rear R spoiler) had already been cut in an attempt to fit the towing receiver.



Much better




Next project was cleaning up the horrible wheels. My god. They must have spent the last decade covered in brake dust. No amount of cleaning would fix these. Some refinishing was in order!





Results?



Like new. Turned out better than expected for sure.

Carwash photo shoot. Shiiiiit





I was introduced to a new autocross region (NWOR) and I am pretty sure that I'm going to run every one of their events next year. Maybe with enough luck, I will be somewhat competitive! Unfortunately I was about 8 seconds off the fastest car in my class (STS). It was was my first autocross in over a year and I was just happy to be out there throwing the car around. It was also my first event ever at an airport. Very fast! Everything I do from this point forward will be in preparation for next year.

Pre-race car wash!

\

The event.







Alden pondering life.


One of my favorite cars of the day



After the race two weeks ago, my brakes were straight up cracked out. I could tell one of the pads had completely given up the ghost. Got the hookup from a friend on some Carbotech XPs. Still trying to figure out exactly which exact model they are. Also giving cheap (17$) NAPA brake rotors a shot. Because I only have one autocross left this year, I probably will not get a chance to tell how well they hold up under track conditions. Guess that's another project for next year.



Old






New



After installing everything we go for a test drive and on my first hard stop MASSIVE amounts of sparks go flying from the wheels. It freaked me out truly as I had never seen that before. Fortunately my homie kept me chilled out until some internet research showed that it was normal for track pads while bedding. My EBC yellows never did that!!

Also recently made a deal on a BUNCH of track goodies. Still don't have them in my possession yet however they come from a person/car that I know well and trust. I'm getting bouncy again