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I love cars.
All sorts, all makes. I've always had a thing for early 'Vette's and Camaro's, but have also had a particular fondness for small sports cars ie Fiat X1/9, 914's, 240Z, Midgets, TR6 etc.
Fiat X1/9. Not mine.
Miata fits the bill here too. A modern take on the Lotus Elan and the MGB, but with Japanese reliability.
Spring of 2004 I was lucky enough to find a tastefully modified, low miles '96. Black with tan interior. Beautiful little car.
A couple years later my dentist was selling his '97 "Speedster Edition"-a fairly rare example as only 150 were made of that model. We added it to the stable and I autocrossed that car for a couple seasons, but things got busy with work and life and I decided to sell it.
My friend Doug's Cobra ...drool.
The idea of doing a Cobra replicar has been in my mind for several years. Awesomely SEXY car.
I figured that may make a neat retirement project some day. But then I started reading up on the engine conversion forum on miata.net. Folks have been putting 5.0l Mustang engines in these cars for several years, and more recently the GM LSx series of engines has gained popularity with the engine conversion crowd.
While the Cobra is undoubtedly one of the coolest cars ever, it probably isn't a car that would be very comfortable for long drives. The Miata has good seats, a heater, a top that doesn't leak...several 12 hr drives down to Deals Gap NC has proven our '96 to be comfortable for the long haul.
While retirement is still a couple years off, a V8 Miata is a project I'd like to get started on now. So here we are.
This is the car I bought in the fall of 2013 for the project. A nice all original 1990 with only 50k km, complete with hardtop. I paid a little too much, but it was worth it to have a nice rust free car to start with. We drove the car for the summer of '14, including our annual trip to the Tail of the Dragon.
Fall came and the car went on it's last drive as a 4 banger. I found a buyer for the stock drive train, and wasted no time getting started on the V8 conversion. Onto the build blog.
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