New member in Chino Hills, CA

[xypex982]

Hello, I have owned my 04 NB for about seven months or so now. I picked it up from the second owner with 32k miles to replace my 3000gt that had toasted valve stems and burned enough oil to completely block out the sight of those behind me (270k miles on the orignal motor lol).

The miata has been nothing but a pleasure to own and am glad to say I found this forum. Although I have lurked several other forums for a while this one seems to have the best attitude amongst members and is more orientated toward improving the performance of our cars rather than simply slamming our frames on the street. I may not post much here, but I will certainly continue to lurk.

I would like to say I have some grand plans for it like ITBs or boost, however in all reality due to me being a broke college student it will likely not happen. I also need reliability so it can get me back and forth from Chino Hills to UCI, so I will likely focus on suspension, tires, and rims rather than power adding mods. After all I have a few twisty roads VERY close to my house that make having handling much more rewarding that having pure power.

To do list:

1) Hardtop
2) Roll Bar (I know this is controversial for street cars but I can't help thinking about my face eating asphalt in the off chance of a roll over)
3) Stereo (infinity reference components in the front and reference 6 x 9s in the rear but not installed. I would rather not make my car more enticing to break in to with the soft top)
4) Suspension (OEM currently, researching best budget minded performance orientated setup. Megan EZ streets or maybe Koni shocks with good springs?)
5) Wheels (I have the best looking OEM ones in my opinion currently. Deciding between some deep BBS RS knock offs or 6uls)

Only pic I have thus far sadly. Next to my 1997 3000gt before I sold it.

[Winlowe]

Welcome to the MR forum

[maharaj]

Welcome to The Forum. That is a good 'to do' list, like most of us you will end up adding to that list!

[—atank—]

Good to have you here................

[— Dandy —]

Glad you are happy with your purchase and good to have you here. It sounds like you have a reasonable modification plan. For your suspension mods I'd recommend spending some time on the "Flyin' Miata" and "949 Racing" sites and paying attention to any posts to any forums by Bill Cardell, Keith Tanner, and Emilio Cervantes. Sadly, they are not yet direct sponsors here (come on guys!), but these guys have a lot of experience and can be relied upon for practical performance information. The BBS RS is a very nice looking wheel. At about 15 lbs. for a 15" wheel, it is not a complete brick but it is a little on the heavier side. The 6UL is a good-looking, very light weight (around 12 lbs. for a 15" wheel, depending on width), and affordable performance wheel for our cars. The more you read, the more you will hear about "unsprung weight" and how lighter is better when it comes to performance for our cars.

[— John J —]

Welcome to the site. During the 1980's I lived in Chino Hills prior to most of the major developments right off Carbon Canyon Road on Peach Street. I would loved to have driven my V8 Roadster down Carbon Canyon Road. It was fun in my Baja VW and on my motorcycle. Like you wrote, "there are quite a few good driving roads in the area"

[xypex982]

I am only 21, but I can remember in the mid 90's when Chino Hills was still very underdeveloped. My mom and I could, and would do 80 on many a main street as it was like the wild west with absolutely no police or citizen presence. It's now a nice place to live, but very upper middle class white "stuffy" types, and the police presence has adjusted accordingly. Especially in places like Carbon Canyon and Woodview Road. Thankfully I don't let my testosterone get the best of me and have never ran into trouble with the law here.

I once took my vw camper bus through Carbon Canyon, haha never did that again.


I read a two articles a while ago from some car magazine, motor trend or something like that. One article was for the NA and the other for the NB. They did laps and found that the difference between OEM and light-weight same size & width rim/tires was negligible. For laughs however they threw on slightly wider heavy as sin three point mags from the 80s on and found a consistent 00.2 sec faster lap time. It ended up being due to the small stretch they provided.


I am not here to say super stretch is good, or that weight doesn't matter, but I want to keep my 205 width rubber and put it on an eight inch wide rim. It seems that tightens up the sidewall for a little more confidence in the corners.

I have yet to actually drive a set so I don't know, but even if it is all bupkis I like the look of a mild stretch that an eight inch wide rim pulls on a 205.

My experience with unsprung weight comes from cycling. On my first bike I got, a 70's tank of a road bike (Windsor Carrera Sport) with steel rims. The first thing I did was grab some cheap Araya alloy rims for it and boy did that small difference in weight make ALL the difference for the motor (me).