Speedanimal

Looking for some experiences from people who had or have a Miata and now have an FD. Did getting your FD drastically cut how much time you spend in your Miata?

Just hit three years of NB Miata ownership, and I think it is time to start saving more towards an FD, the car I've wanted since I was little (y'all have heard this story before). I like my Miata, but I'm ready for the next step.

I love my cars, and just as much as I hate letting one go, I also hate the idea of having one that rarely gets driven. I'm just curious if many people here have both cars, and if they both see plenty of driving time.

From my thoughts thus far, it would be easy to keep the Miata for my HPDE toy, and it is inexpensive to keep of course. However, this car was only meant to be a "stepping stone" to an FD once my career had taken off. I'm contemplating whether I should just take the $3k for the car and hope that opens up more options for FDs in a few months time.

Thanks in advance for chiming in with your experiences. I really appreciate it.

JhnRx7

iTrader: (12)

I went the other way... I owned my FD for over a decade before I ended up buying a Miata. I had started doing HPDE events in the FD a few years before purchasing the Miata. I got the Miata with the intent of using it to make me a better driver. I never expected I would love it as much as I do. I still have both, and find myself choosing the Miata over the FD more than I would have expected. I enjoyed it so much, I drove the Miata for a couple years as a daily. Now its pretty much a track only toy.

After a solid year of tracking the Miata, I was instantly faster in the FD after getting it back out on track. I prefer to track the Miata both from a financial aspect and reliability aspect.

They are both incredible cars in their own right. IMO if you have the means for both, one is not a replacement for the other. I drive them both frequently.

wstrohm

Owned an NA from 1989 to 2008, have an FD now since '94. My take is that the Miata (after the addition of a turbo) was kinda the ideal "poor man's" sports car. Very reliable and great fun. With a 10 psi turbo, my Miata could easily keep up with her FD around here. (195 hp, 2200 lbs)

IMHO, the stock FD (255 hp, 2800 lbs) is the ideal GT car for the road; no experience here in modding it for power. More complex and consequently more things to go wrong, but easily learned and with help from this forum, reasonably easily maintained. Very smooth, and it doesn't even know the Grapevine (I-5 over the 4144 ft summit) exists.

"My" car was the Miata; wife's car is the FD, I hardly ever drive it. In Southern California, ANY manual transmission car is bad news in heavy stop/go traffic, and here there is a lot of it. It's a drag on your clutch foot (and on the clutch). But if you live in an area where you can be out on the road at least some of the time, the MT is great.

We just spent over $13K on an overhaul with a new crate engine (after 113K miles on the original), new '99-spec turbos, etc. The car will now no doubt outlast me and get inherited by one of our next-generations.

jsemerica

iTrader: (1)

I have an FD and a 97 miata. I imagine it depends to what extent your cars are modified but for me, the miata still gets driven more. It's usually just easier and better for running around town. If you have the means I'd suggest keeping both.

Spirit-RE

iTrader: (25)

I had an NA when I first got the FD. There's merits to both, they are quite different cars. The miata was more practical, easier to drive, and no worries about much ever going wrong. The FD's can be finicky at times and cost more to run, and for HPDE's the FD is going to require a whole list of mods to not melt down. FD is leagues ahead of the miata as a sportscar, but the lightweight and simplicity of the miata is great in its own right.

The right answer is to keep both. For myself though, years later I still have the FD, but sold the miata shortly after buying the FD.


If your doing track days, I'd suggest using the miata as the track car, its going to be way cheaper to run, less problematic, and is much easier and cheaper to replace should an incident happen where the car gets written off.

wstrohm

High-density Polyethylene?

BLUE TII

iTrader: (9)

HPDE
High Performance Driving Event.

Driving on a track without it being a competition event.

Not really. Just take off the turbos!

If you take off the emissions, AC and PS at the same time that will be as much as a 185Lbs weight reduction off just the engine which will get your FD down to 2,500lbs.

It will leave the FD around S2000 performance levels which is the next step up from Miata levels.

michaelz

I been daily driving a 99 NB for 5 years and will keep doing so. Great on fuel, cheap on insurance, super reliable. Bought my FD project this year to build but it will only ever be a weekend toy. It's not something I'd want as an only car to be honest. Expensive parts, thirsty and hateful in bumper to bumper traffic. I spend on average 4 days a week driving the Miata and 3 days in the hobby cars.

Keep the Miata!

the daily with the big brother:

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i've had just about every year and model of Rx7, and a couple of miata's and i think you will find that they are very different. you'll probably drive the miata more, but want both

in fact, not to get off on a tangent or anything, but the miata and rx7 are so different in so many ways its almost weird that they were built in the same factory at the same time by the same people.

wstrohm

Tom Matano was heavily involved in the designs of both models.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

and Uncle Koby was in charge of the late (S5) FC, FD and the 99 miata. they all have a little something special

alape8

It almost sounds like I could have made this post as I'm in a very similar situation. I've had my Mazdaspeed Miata for almost 4 years now and am starting to look for an FD to replace it. Thought about keeping it as a track toy but decided on selling it so it'll be an outright replacement. Maybe pick up a cheap NA (just sold a 92 I had been using for track duty) down the road depending on how the FD works out...
Also picked up a Mazda3 as a daily so I won't mind the downtime on the FD to get things fixed / upgraded properly when they crop up.

Speaking of NB's and FD's...ever seen this one? I'm sure people around here are tired of seeing it but I find it really amusing.

fendamonky

iTrader: (6)

^ eww...

Natey

iTrader: (19)

I came from an NB into an FD. My Miata had a Z-Engineering supercharger and pushed about 200whp, and it sat on FM Stg2 suspension.

I used to take it down to Buttonwillow (about 5 hours), drive the crap out of it all weekend, then drive it home, hang it up wet and do it again next weekend.

That **** doesn't fly with an FD. You have to pay much closer attention to things like water temp, boost pressure, etc. The FD is a lot more fragile and it's also a lot harder to drive at the limit...but the limit is also higher and I guarantee you're gonna have a ball driving the 7.

Jez

My first ever manual car was a 1998 1.6l Mazda Roadster, and then I bought my FD, since then I haven't driven the car and I ended up selling the Roadster.

In retrospect, I do miss it, and I am thinking on getting another.

Speedanimal

I don't mean to bump this thread! But I realized I never thanked everyone for their replies; thank you all!