It all started back in the late 90's when I used to autocross water cooled VW's. A buddy of mine showed up to an event one day with a 91' Miata that was supercharged on some sticky tires. One drive and my days of front wheel drive VW's and replacing motor mounts and wheel bearings were over.
My first Miata was a Mariner Blue 91' that I found locally in very good condition. A hardtop, 14" LE BBS's with Azenis, Bilstein/Ground Control coil overs, Eibach sway bars, Harddog rollbar, and a 99' 1.8 swap later I realized I had an addiction.
The "Smurf" was my toy that provided plenty of entertainment at autocrosses and track days until one day at Sebring it lost oil pressure in the hairpin momentarily and the engine was toast. Towed it home and it sat for several months before I decided to sell it due to the fact that I didn't have the ability to put the motor I wanted to in it.
About a year went by and I started to get the itch for another Miata so I started to attend the meets of Tampabay Miatas again. It wasn't long before a 99' Twilight Blue Mica Miata showed up that had a odd rumble to it. The guys name was Steve and he had swapped a LS6/T56 into his Miata. We had several conversations over the next few weeks about what all was involved and if he might be interested in building the parts necessary for me to complete the same swap. Steve had plans of producing a swap kit and I placed my order. From here I started shopping for another Miata to use for the conversion. Initially found another 91' Red with a hardtop but sold it after I picked up a 99' that was too good to pass up. Once I hap the 99' at home I stripped it and began collecting parts.
(We'll come back to this)
In the mean time I continued to keep an eye out for good deals on Miatas as I enjoy driving and didn't want to be without while I was building the LS car. To date I have bought, drove, sold, parted 41 Miatas that includes 3 10AE's, 1 93'LE, and 2 NC's. I even bought a 97' that we ended up building for Chumpcar. There was also 12 04'-06' GTO's that were bought and parted as potential donors except life got in the way and all of the motors and transmissions were sold along with all other useable parts.
All of this nonsense leads to the other day when Shandelle from V8roadsters congratulated me on having the longest build to date. Right now I have a 99' with a LS/T56 swap sitting my garage(it runs and should be driving a any day now),a 09' NC in the driveway and a very understanding wife that doesn't bat an eye when I come home with another Miata.
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Originally Posted by DK Wolf
