The ten dollar Miata

"feather-throttle-not-hair" (feather-throttle-not-hair)
03/03/2016 at 02:14 • Filed to: None

I recently had a conversation with several co-workers about the Mazda Miata, and the conspicuous absence of one in our work parking lot.

You see, there are lots of car people at my work, many of whom drive Porsches, BMWs, Mustangs, Z-cars, hachis and even the occasional Alfa. None of them however, drive (or drove, I’m getting to that part) arguably the most ubiquitous sports car in the U.S.

During our conversation, my co-workers and I came to the conclusion that while we all liked miatas, none of us would seek out and you know....actually go buy one. It was universal like, combined with a universal lack of lust.

“I actually entered a raffle for one once” one of my co-workers interjected. “A girls basketball team was selling raffle tickets for one when I was at this big muscle car show in Idaho a few months ago.” He figured not many people were going to get out of their big block powered Charger or whatever, smoke still clearing from their 30 second long burnout and think “This is cool, but there’s gotta be some way I can get myself into a Miata.”

Well, turns out he had sound logic, because a couple of weeks later he received a call from an Idaho number informing him that his ten dollar raffle ticket just yielded the minty 1994 beauty you see pictured above.

It’s a single owner car with just 64k miles, and of course it being just about free, he let all of us take turns thrashing it around the parking lot.

Now, having never driven a Miata, I was eager to give it a spin.

My conclusion? Yes. Yes yes yes, a thousand yeses. It doesn’t have the quickest 0-60 time of any car I’ve driven. But it does have the quickest “where does this clutch engage?” to “imma get this bitch sideways at like 10mph in this parking lot.” Time of any car I’ve driven. Which goes a long way towards explaining the dumb grin on my face in the photo.

Yup. It’s lust now.

The weird upshot of this story? That co-worker left and found a new job, pretty much at the exact same time he won the Miata, leaving my work place, once again Miata free.

DISCUSSION (11)

Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 02:29

HELLO LeMONS!

Meatcoma > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 08:24

A guy I worked with that just retired has 2, a 1999 and a newer 2004(?). He plans on driving the 99 through the rest of the winter and then offered to sell it to me for $250. It is a transaction I plan to fully take advantage of. It needs quite a bit of work but it runs well and he recently replaced the top, I’ve looked at parts for them and it’s so cheap to fix I cannot pass it up. Plus my wife said she would learn to drive the 5speed in it, so she is on board as well. Counting down the days.

vondon302 > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 08:29

Good raffle judgement. I was at a car show last summer and it was almost 100 degrees out and the raffle was must be present to win. Wife spent 80 bucks and we walked out of there with about 1200 bucks of car parts and gift certificates.

functionoverfashion > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 09:14

In my old job, my coworkers would often have interesting cars, or at least a few here and there, so I always made it a point to get behind the wheel. One had a very beaten ratty miata, so of course I had to try it. My first impression was similar, wow this is actually pretty fun. But it did surprise me when I tried to get on the highway and found it way slower than my tank of a 3 series wagon.

Then one day he picked up the mazdaspeed mx-5, and I took that out. That is perfect.

yitznewton > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 09:58

Damn, granted it’s only one camera angle, but that NA looks clean!!

yitznewton > Flynorcal: pilot, offshore sailor, car racer and panty thief
03/03/2016 at 09:59

Have mercy on this nice NA. Find him a worn-out one!

feather-throttle-not-hair > Meatcoma
03/03/2016 at 12:22

This echoes what my co-worker was saying after he got his. “Holy shit.....parts are soooo cheap, and there’s so much stuff available! I can’t not mod it!”

He was mostly an E30/E36 guy before.

feather-throttle-not-hair > yitznewton
03/03/2016 at 12:38

It’s pretty damn clean! I’d say 8/10, a small crack in the rear bumper but otherwise that’s it.

Does good burnouts! (One of our co-workers is from Florida)

feather-throttle-not-hair > functionoverfashion
03/03/2016 at 12:47

Funnily enough, that’s kind of the conclusion I came to as well. “This is awesome, but I’d want the turbod version”

I wish they were more common. They were a very cool vehicle.

functionoverfashion > feather-throttle-not-hair
03/03/2016 at 13:10

Yeah I didn’t realize how uncommon they were, and I can’t really understand why. Like, who wouldn’t want that as an option? Or maybe there’s so much aftermarket support that there’s no need? But wouldn’t the factory want to offer it?

feather-throttle-not-hair > functionoverfashion
03/03/2016 at 18:25

Pretty sure the mazdaspeed package was under $1k when it debuted. Why on earth wouldn't you?