hi guys -

this summer my wife and i have the possibility of landing a nice sum of money (read: settlement). with that kind of capital in the bank, my wife is very interested in trading in her diesel jetta for something a little more fun... a mini cooper s. but before i start dreaming (of fitting it with r-compounds, etc...) i have to remember that it will be *her* car. a nice tool to get her infected with the racing disease, yes, but it won't be *mine* to toy around with...

so that leaves me looking for a car project. i can't let good cash go to waste, right?

i'm thinking of a budget in the neighborhood of $15K cash (no car payments!) for a car that's loads of fun both on the street and on the track. i'd kill to get a turnkey cobra roadster replica, but that would burst my budget (it would also be a little hard to keep safe from damage in the lot of my washington dc apartment).

so i've pretty much settled on getting one of my two favorite cars - either a 3rd-gen rx-7 or a miata.

in my mind, the rx-7 is one of the sexiest looking cars made in the last few decades, and has the performance numbers to match. $15K would find me one in good shape, but the costs to insure and maintain are bound to add up quickly. i really wouldn't have any money left over to modify it either.

i'm also mulling over a turbo miata project. a pre-obd2 1.8 car can be had for under five grand. with 10 grand worth of upgrades (turbo, driveline, suspension, etc) i could have a pretty mean car who's performance surpasses the rx-7 but is cheaper to maintain and insure. the downside is that i have no space to work on this car, so all the mods will have to be done at some yet-unfound tuning shop - so the price of labor and tuning could easily push me out of my budget.

any rx-7 or miata owners out there? if you could go back and do it all over again, which car would You choose? any feedback would be welcome, and be sure to mention any expenses / issues i might not be considering.

thanks!
- ian

 

My vote is for an RX-7, not just because I am an owner, but because upgrades should be easier to come by and will require less custom work to make it faster than stock. And the RX-7 is timeless. Many folks know about Miatas, but not as many know RX-7s and are easily surprised when they learn it is a '93 model.

Start something fast, then make it faster. Of course, be sure to choose your FD wisely, or your upgrades funding may go to repairs and servicing instead! (^_^)

 

7

 

How about you save the money and not buy your wife the Cooper. and buy her the Miata, and spend the money you saved on a 7 and a few mods.

 

To be honest if you live in a apartment with no place to work on the car I would NOT suggest a RX7. I'm a rx7 nut but will admit they can be a handful....especially when you start modding. If you buy one in really really good shape that wont require any reliability type work your going to spend most of you 15K on it and leave little or no money for mods. If you have no where to do you mods labor your self your not going to get very far at all with your budget.

I'd get a upper 90's Miata (96-98) and get a s/c kit for it. They are much more reliable and you wont need to work on it as much.

I will say one thing about a Miata, if you buy it in the winter you'll save about $2500+ on it.

Later,
STEPHEN

 

any car you mod your going to have problems with....

 

how are you gonna surpass a rx7 in performance with a girl's car like the miata

 

I got both, FC's and Supercharged miata. I love the Miata but they can have a pretty harsh ride. Mine is a '93 1.6. I've heard that the newer ones are a much nicer ride.

I'd suggest buying a used '98 or higher I believe and spend the extra to have a low mileage luxurious roadster for your wife. Then at some point mod it out. A $5,000.00 miata can't be all that great. Spend around $10K to $12K and you'll get a killer car. They are fast enough for short course racing, i.e. SoloII. It would be a great place to start.

The FD will be too much to deal with, especially if your wife isn't much for working on cars. hehe.

 

Sure but he can get a good reliable miata with realitivly low miles for about 11K. That leaves him enought money to get it into the low low 13 or maybe a high 12 with drag radial and a decent driver. The cool thing with a Miata is a low 13 sec Miata feels like a 10 second RX7. They are very fun to drive and even stock Miata's feels faster than they are.

The fact of the matter is it sounds like he doesnt have much of a place to work on his car and with a FD he will need some space to work on it. Its a MUCH higher maintenance car than a Miata.

I'm not saying the Miata is a better car but just because a FD is right for me doesnt mean it is for everyone. If I lived in a apartment with limited space and only had 15K to spend I stay away from a RX7.

Let me ask you this, lets say you buy a 7 for 13K and put the other 2K into mods to make it as fast as the s/c Miata would be......will you be able to afford the 5K-7K its going to take to replace the motor? Its going to happen eventually, maybe not today or tomorrow but it will happen. The FD is not the car to own with budget constraints. The motor wont care about your budget its going to pop sometime....and its usually the worst time.

STEPHEN

 

You don't know much about FI Miatas. A turbo 1.8 can easily match and surpass the HP in an FD and the Miata weighs 400-500lbs less than an FD. There are several Miatas at 300HP.

That said, by the time you upgrade brakes, radiator,etc...you've spent enough to buy an FD which I prefer anyway.

It would be fun to suprise a few 996's in an FI Miata.

I wouldn't go the SC route. It costs more and you get less HP.

 

How fast do you really want to go? I have a Miata now. I will turbocharge it this fall and make it quicker. The problem is that at about 250 hp to the tires you start to break transmissions, rear ends, and can even ruin pistons... It gets expensive if you want 300 hp to the tires in a Miata. In an FD, a stock 255 hp can be expensive and blow apex seals.... It's a tough choice. If you see yourself 5 years down the road wanting the ultimate in power like 500 +, then start with the FD. If you think 250 hp to the tires is all you will ever need, then a Miata is very fast and hard to beat. The ReX has a slightly better suspension, a stiffer chassis, and better aerodynamics. Do you want a very fast sporty car, or do you want to go all out? I'm going to build my Miata to be a fast sports car and buy an FD in a few years to be an all out dominating car like a One Lap car. I'll be putting an LS1 engine into it... sorry guys.

 

Be warned that its gonna take all $15k to find an FD is nice condition. Even then I would bet on having some things that'll need fixing/replacing in the near future, so I'd plan on having more money available. Tons of people on the forum spend around that on an FD and use up all their money, then have no money for the inevitable broken this or that, or wear items, or skimp on maintenance, and then it causes agony later on. With that said, you'd think I'd recommend the Miata, but after all that custom work, the same thing is going to apply. You probably know the more you mod a car the less reliable it tends to be, so although RX-7s start out pretty unreliable, doubling the power of a Miata probably isn't going to be that great on the wallet either. Food for thought.

 

i've been collection old bimmers for a while now, and while they're a blast to drive on the street, in an auto-x, and on the occasional track day, they cost a lot to maintain and even more to make fast. the biggest appeal of a miata to me is that spares and mods are so much cheaper - usually about half what i'd pay for my E30's. a miata would also mean a newer car and lower insurance costs. a turbo would be expensive, but i'd never tune even to 250hp, so i doubt i'll have to go buy a whole new set of heavy-duty driveline components.

it's my impression that buying a third gen rx-7 is kinda like owning a bmw m car - awesome performance out of the box and endless tuning capabilities, but high ownership costs and headaches to match... they're damn sexy cars though!

what i'm really looking for is an awesome car for the street that i can also have fun with on track. both cars would qualify and both have their ownership trade-offs. thanks for your input guys!

 

I assume you've been to the Miata Forum?

 

Interesting, I know a local guy with a early 90's model (less stock hp) Miata. He has intake, full exhaust, and a s/c he got used. I think he's clicking off low/mid 13's. You could take a Miata and bolt on a s/c in a day with basic hand tools and its VERY reliable.

Its all about what the guy wants. With NO room to work on a car how can you guy suggest a 93 FD???? THE FD IS NOT A CAR THAT CAN BE CONFINED TO A BUDGET!!!!!

I'd NEVER trade my fd for a Miata but can admit that a fd isnt for everyone.

A Miata is WAAYYYYY more reliable than a FD, even when comparing a s/c Miata running 13's and tearing up the autox to a bone stock 93 FD.

 

I agree, I think that generally SCs work better on cars with bigger engines.... a whipple charger on a 3.0+ litre car would be fun, but with a sub 2 litre engine, I think turbo is a much better way to go.

 

first off...is she gonna let you tinker with *her* car or are you gonna bolt on the mods at 3am in the morning when she's fast asleep?

 

Some Miata SC guys regret not going turbo becuase of the cost and tuning limitations.

 

7

 

Hi,

I run both, here in OZ we are lucky re the MX5 (miata) we have just had a limited edition MX5sp, it is a turbo version producing about 150kw compared with the standard 112kw, it is sh__ hot! But I still prefer my rx7,