2007 Mazda Miata NC MX-5 (SOLD - Aug 2024)
When it comes to my life, if I'm having fun doing it, it's worth sharing and doing with others. Track days have proven no exception in my 1999 Corvette C5 track project car, as I have quickly come to enjoy it very much and I've even had fun taking a few friends along as passengers. Thus after my most recent track day, I found myself wanting to get my friends involved. I tried to convince a few friends that track days are a blast, and they all said they'd surely enjoy it, but as most folks so wisely do before taking a big plunge into an expensive hobby they hemmed and hawed and didn't move on it. So, knowing most folks need the low cost entry to see just how fun it is, I started searching for a budget buddy car for friends.
My search criteria developed pretty quickly: I needed a car that was reliable, not something a friend could get themselves into too much trouble with power wise, and ideally not so expensive that if a friend wrecked it I'd be bothered or I'd be chasing expensive parts on the car for months on end.
After a few track days of watching a variety of common cars on the track, two choices were left: C5 Corvettes, and Miatas. The majority of other track cars I saw either failed to complete a full track day on a hot day, or were challenging with a novice driver at the helm due to having too much power/capability or not being terribly capable out of the box. Also, don't even get me started on how shit the S2000 is at the track.
Between the Corvette and a Miata, the Corvettes were notably more expensive and were starting to get into the too much power to capability ratio, so the Miata become the logical choice. It also didn't hurt the argument that at one of my early track days at Streets of Willow Springs my C5 Corvette couldn't keep up with a full aero Miata, thus showing me it was also a very capable platform.
The headache with Miatas, and the used car market right now in general, is that everybody knows that what they have is interesting. They know it's a limited commodity as well, and thus wanted ridiculous amounts of money for what is often absolute hammered on garbage. Often people would be listing a 20+ year old Miata for sale for what seemed like a good price, and I'd click on the advertisement only to discover the car didn't even have an engine in it.
The Miata I found was a tough find, and arguably not that good of a find at all. The owner wanted a notable sum of money for a salvage title miata. It appeared clean though, had a few proper decent modifications, and while a lot was done by what was clearly an incompotent idiot... it was mostly there and I could salavage the car. I test drove the car, and it arguably had a better initial functional and mechanical state than my C5 Corvette. Thus, I purchased the car for a price most would heckle but was playing out as reasonable in the current market, and took the plunge.
Thus began the story of the 2007 Miata NC MX-5 track car, which performed double duty as the primary track car used by friends, and as a learner car or backup car for anyone else who happens to tag along and need the car.
Several years later and over a dozen track days and various autocross days... it wastime to let go of the NC Miata. It was a great car, but it just didn't fit me well and wasn't finding the time to modify the car up to work for me... so off it went to a new home!