New Guy From Alabama

[Irishguy]

Hey folks,

Been checking out the forum for a while and thought if it was OK with you guys, I might stop by from time to time, hang around, share what little I know and learn from others here on the forum.

My first Miata was a 1992 Black & Tan I bought after a crappy divorce sort of as some therapy. Not new to Sports cars though. I have had many sporty cars from a 1966 Mustang GT Fastback to a 1971 Olds 442 with a 455SD motor to my current 1995/1996 Miata. I have had about 12 Miata "rescues" in between along with about 7 BMW E30 "rescues." Miatas & E30's that I have bought in forlorn condition, and refurbished to what I would call nice condition, kept them for a while and sold to hopefully a good home.

I have one home built turbo Miata under my belt, a short stint helping out on a SPEC Miata team and lots of garage time making stupid mistakes, getting my fingernails greasy, cussing, and learning stuff along the way.

My latest Miata has the following that I can remember:

Factory ABS
Power windows (But strangely enough no cruise control)
Dealer installed very nice leather upholstery

Some retro interior garnish
Tokico Illumina shocks
FM springs
Jackson racing header
Borla Exhaust
Some kind of CAI with stainless heat shield
Track Dog header blanket
Fidanza aluminum flywheel
F1 Stage 2 clutch
Stainless brake lines
Yokohama S-Drive tires
Some wheels

Anyway, it runs great and for whatever reason seems to have more power than any other Miata that I have owned (other than the turbo '93) and I'm not sure why. I suspect that - judging by the performance parts that were already installed - it may have had some head work done.

My youngest son - the only one that still lives at home - wanted a sports car as his second car so we were fortunate enough to find him a very nice 2000 Emerald Green LS model with all the bells and whistles. His daily driver is a 2002 Protege, my daily driver is a 2003 Tacoma 4 door TRD and Mrs. Irishguy's daily driver is a 2017 Mazda CX-5. She's had 2 Mazda 3's before that, so we're sort of a Mazda family.

My son's 2000 and my 1995 on one of our road carving expeditions:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/CuEM1B]

A couple of crappy interior pics of my 1995/1996 after my roll bar swap last weekend:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/ELiRCy]

[url=https://flic.kr/p/22TPgU4]