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Thread: The Slow Pursuit of Vintage.

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    6,000 rpm - mere mortals would shift JamieH's Avatar
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    Black & Tan '97 - Betty
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    Kinston, NC
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    Jan 2012
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    The Slow Pursuit of Vintage.

    So.... I've been apprehensive about making a build thread for my car for a looong time. I mean, when I first decided to really start looking for a Miata to buy, I kept telling myself I was just looking for a front engine, RWD, manual trans 2 seater that was decent on gas that I could still have fun with, without making any changes to it. Anyways, getting a little ahead of myself here. Let me tell you what got me thinking about owning a Miata.

    Back in Dec. of '10 I was sitting at home having a moment of nostalgia as I was looking through all my old Hot Wheels that I played with when I was a kid. I then came across a little yellow Miata with a pink interior. You Hot Wheels guys know which one I'm talking about. So I was looking at it, and started to think what a Miata is. For as long as I could remember I had thought of them as girls' cars, but why? It's a front engined, RWD, 2 seater convertible sports car that you can get with a manual trans. That's a pretty damn good description for fun and all through my 20's I've learned to look at cars more maturely. Anyways, I tried to think of other cars that where what the Miata was and I had a short list. And once I started to look at the going prices of the Miata and it's competition nothing made as much sense as a used 1st or 2nd gen Miata. Now, I had already been thinking about finding something to use as a new DD to keep the miles off my '98/'99 Chevy 1500 that would also be better on gas. But I knew I'd never be able to live with a boring economy car. So I get to looking at Miatas, started researching them, learning about them, finding out everything that I could about them. When you break it down to what a Miata is, you get a lot of fun for not much dough. And there's just no other car that has what a used Miata does at it's price.

    So, the search began. I had a list of must haves that were simple. Cruise control, A/C, and Torsen. Wasn't concerned on color or NA/NB or black cloth/tan leather. Then a buddy kept showing me wrecked Miatas laying belly up. So I started to look for cars that had rollbars or I was going to budget for one to immediately buy. Well, 2 months go by and I had looked at car after car. Then I came across the car I would buy. It was all the way up in the mountains of VA near the Blue Ridge Parkway 200+ miles away. Off I went with a buddy and his gf (they're now married) with cash in hand to look at the car. After crawling on our backs, checking for rust, leaks, & damage and then a proper test drive, the car checked out. I handed over the cash and on Feb 13th '11 I was the new owner of a Black & Tan '97 NA with everything I thought I wanted in a Miata. That first long drive was fricken awesome. Driving through those mountains on the way back home removed any concerns that my new little Miata would ever be boring.

    OK, so that got longer than I intended quick. So, pics, yeah, those things that keep people looking. Here's how it sat the morning after getting it home.















    128K miles on her when I bought her. Yes, her, I've come to the decision that her name is Betty. I'll explain that later. Betty is a nearly fully loaded '97 only lacking ABS (which I rather not have) and a HT as far as I can think of without being an M, R or STO. She also came with all of the following bonuses as is. New-ish Robbins glass window top, silver 15x7 Chaparrals w/ 195 Yokohama S-Drives, Hard Dog HTDD M2 Sport, OEM tan top boot, Wolf fitted car cover, Haynes manual, and a recent amount of service which included the timing belt, water pump, belts, clutch master & slave, and KYB GR2s.

    So yeah, those pics were taken on Feb. 14th... the car has been a love affair since.

    Now, the one thing I did not anticipate on was the Miata turning me into a convertible convert. I'm a dude with pretty damn long hair, and long hair plus top down driving just doesn't mix. But, it only took the first top down drive to realize I was going to start putting the top down far more often than I had thought I would. So I've learned to do what I must to keep my hair out of my face with the top down.

    Here's the first pics I took of her with the top down.










    There's so much more I have to post, but I'll do it later. I just wanted to get this started today, on my birthday. Every year I have a local cake shop make me a simple themed cake. This year was a triple layer cake with the Eunos "V". I thought after 3 years of ownership it would be fitting since I've recently figured out my "finished" vision of the car.





    It was soooo gooood.

    So, yeah, will post more later.
    Last edited by JamieH; 07-22-2017 at 09:07 PM.

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