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Trizz's 1994 Miata "The Red Pill"
Hello everyone. I'm TJ, or Trizz, or Trizvi. Call me what you will. I am 22, from the Bay Area, and I am extremely into cars. I am coming from a background of Subarus. I call this car "The Red Pill" because I also have a Blue WRX and I really love "The Matrix". It could not have worked better. It has other names as well too, like Claire and Miranda, but I like its current moniker :blaugh2:
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I wanted a Miata because I wanted to have a project to do with my brother, and the vape life was just too expensive for me. (Actually the parts could be dumb expensive). At any rate, my brother and I searched for a Miata for.... I want to say a month. We looked for about a month. We found a Miata Sport in Morgan Hill, but the car was sort of clapped and the owner wanted too much. We looked at one in our town, but same deal. We checked one out in Tracy that was SUPER clapped out. It just wasn't what we wanted. It just wasn't going our way. My other older brother told us to find one that was owned by an old man and pretty much stock. I figured "Damn. This is going to be hard." The funniest thing was when looking for this car, I had just watched "Gone in Sixty Seconds". I was dealing with a good amount of Miatas, so I had to name them. This one was Claire until a friend of mine, Regular Ol' Shithead Eric, renamed it Miranda.
Anyways, my brother and I had been checking out cars together so that we both agreed on it and all that. Well, one night, I was pawing around on Craigslist and came across an ad for a red 1994 Miata, 174000 miles, and with a mild power steering leak. It was listed at 3500. I figured what the hell, I'll just go check it out. My brother was busy so I called up my friend Rob who agreed to roll out with me. We drove about 45 minutes out to the San Jose/Fremont Area. The stars could not have aligned better. I pulled up to the house. The house had a "SALE PENDING" sign. I called the gentleman, Charles I think his name was. Out came a man who was easily in his 60s. I found a stock Miata, owned by an older man, with low miles. I took it out on a test drive, looked rust, functionality etc etc. It all checked out.
After the test drive, I told him "Alright Charles. I have your information, I am really interested." "Okay TJ. I'm trying to get rid of it soon though." Alright, so now I have a dilemma. Someone might scoop this car up, so I cannot necessarily wait on both of my brothers. I told him "Alright, expect a call from me later Charles." Rob and I went to lovely ol' McDonalds and talked it over. He told me "Yeah, if anything, this is the one to get." I thought to myself and said, "Lemme make a phone call really quick." I go outside. "Okay Haider (My brother), it's the second owner, it checks out just fine." "Alright, I'm trusting you, don't pay more than 3000 for it."
Rob and I hit up 2 different ATMs to scrounge together 3000 dollars. I figured yeah, if he goes for 3000, its an alright price. But then, something came over me..... I'm gonna offer 2500. He's about to sell his house, he NEEDS to move out. I give him a call and drive on back over. "I can do 2500 right now, cash." He hesitates. "Alright, I can do that." After it was signed over to me, I tossed the keys over to Rob and drove the Miata.
It was July of 2017 and I found exactly what I needed, a relatively older Miata owner that did not abuse the car. Okay sure, it isn't perfect, I found out that the car had been resprayed at some point, but it was straight, clean title, and pretty much was exactly what I wanted. My brother and I wanted a car we could build up into a street car that could be functional on the street.
After a bit, we purchased a set of VMAXX coilovers and sway bars from Flying Miata. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the install, but it went along..... alright. It was sort of a pain, but we got them in at the end. We rolled on VMAXX for a while and it was alright. Ride quality was pretty nice, and they still ride nicely today even with spirited driving. Pretty impressed with the package.
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For the next while, I did some small things. I installed pull straps on the door so that I could sit comfortably in the car.
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I also ordered a MOMO Nero shift knob and a Cusco drift button because my brother got weird about the E Brake clicking. Sort of whatever parts, but added a bit of flair to it.
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The next planned mod was the roll bar. However, around September, my brother unexpectedly relocated to the East Coast for work. He told me to continue building it on my own, so that I did not spend more money on Subaru parts. Plus, if I wanted to learn how to drive, then this was the car to do it in.
Soon after he left, I ordered a Hard Dog Roll Bar from Goodwin Racing. One long weekend of wrenching in the garage with my dad, some blood, sweat, and a bit of tears, we had it installed.
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After I installed the Roll Bar, I decided, you know what, I really do not like the stock wheel. It was coming apart, dirty, so why not. I ended up with a MOMO Prototipo to replace the tired stock unit.
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The car sat as is for a while. I enjoyed taking it out to work, to the store, took it to a couple meets for just whatever reasons. Did some dumb things like park under a semi truck :mrgreen:
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My friend Rob even got me some goodies from Laguna Seca when he went there too. He is a really awesome guy.
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For all the mobile users or if my pictures just do not want to work, here is an album which I will try to update as I go
https://imgur.com/a/ipxtam7
