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    4,000 rpm - entering the fun zone speedypenguin's Avatar
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    Jazz

    Hey MR,

    Seeing many quality builds and personal Miata journeys on this forum has inspired me to share my...friendship with my Miata. I've only had a "detailed" build post on my local forum, but the more I browse MR, the more I find how great this forum is. Let's begin shall we?

    Rewind back to high school. I was going through a frustrating time in school, and wanted to satiate my love for cars. In high school, my family acquired a Ford SVT Focus. I'm a huge fan of hatchbacks, and this was my family's 2nd focus. The SVT was my first exposure into "modding", but in reality, all I had on the car was a custom intake (since my parents bought the car, I didn't want to break the car by accident...I'm too cautious. )
    But I had the opportunity to attend my first autocross w/the SVT, and that was when I knew I wanted to modify a car. But when would that opportunity arise?




    Long story short, I ended up selling the SVT before I went to college. I go to school less than an hour away from home, so it was hard to justify keeping the SVT because it would just sit at home. Plus...the SVT wasn't very fuel efficient and drank premium...and I confess, not that fast. But to this day, it was one of the best handling FF cars I've driven. But the main reason I sold the SVT was so my mom could get a mid-life crisis car: a R53 Mini Cooper S. Can't complain, and to this day we still have the Mini and it definitely has a unique charm. Everyone smiles when they see it.
    The Mini is a great car to have fun with too, and I've autocrossed it a couple of times.



    Then, in August 2011, I decided to take some time off from school to work full-time. I had to commute to Silicon Valley each day from school...but I didn't want to bring our family's Mini to college...reasons being I didn't want to park the Mini outside, basically felt the car was too nice for a college kid, y'know? So, I decided I was going to pick up a 2nd hand car, something fun, daily-driver worthy, and cool. What car then? A Honda? Nah, stock=boring, modified=theft. An older BMW, perhaps e30? Nope, relatively expensive to maintain. I almost decided to search for a Mazda Protege 5, but my friend had just gotten a Miata, and something about it...just resonated with me. He had added basic modifications, but I was amazed how little changes could make significant changes with that car. So that was it. I wanted to find a Miata.

    I proceeded to post a WTB ad on CL, and I was literally flooded with people trying to sell me their...well-used Miatas for insane prices. Luckily I was patient, because I eventually received an email from a guy selling a '94 Black NA.


    The car came with a HDHCSD roll bar, hardtop, and some fancy 5zigen wheels. Overall, pretty clean, but there were interior pieces missing (side plastics, gauge hood, interior brace) and there was an exhaust leak after the cat. But brought the car to get inspected, and looked pretty straight, so I acquired the car afterwards. First thing I did was wash the car. I like having a clean car. It was at that point, that my journey with Jazz began.

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    Last edited by speedypenguin; 05-02-2013 at 10:18 PM.

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