2006 NC Miata: Daily Driver Maximus

So how much NC Miata can you buy for 10K? This much:

The question comes up a bit so I thought I'd give what my answer was. I will also say there are a lot of rough 10K NCs out there, but some great deals to be had too. I'll use this to chronicle my trials and tribulations.

The NC was to replace my 16V Sciroccos I had been daily driving for the past 5 years. I've tuned them and tweaked those VWs on a shoestring budget, and I could have really let loose and put the car payment into steady repairs, but the NC was one of the few cars that put a smile on my face the same way and better. So the NC would have to take on the same duties, getting me to work 5 days a week no matter what Philly area weather will throw at me, while getting tuned to my flavor.

This particular car is an 2006 Grand Touring with the sports package installed, with just shy of 95K miles on her.

She looked very good for the constant use of daily driving in the Tristate area.

A refusal by the dealer to remove the trunk rack before I was sold gave me some concern, but it was unfounded. Aside from very slight discoloration from the straps it was in good shape.

Then there was this: Missing trunk carpet and the plastic paneling kind of hanging there. But the rest of the car was in such good shape and I was happy with everything else I wasn't thrown off enough.

I would later find out there was a leak that had saturated the back end when it rained. A loose nut on the passenger tail light assembly wasnt allowing a sufficient seal. With a dry trunk I added lightness, no more plastic panels. except for the aft most which holds the trunk light and trunk button disabler

Add in a solid tuneup with oil change, the finicky 6 speed Transmission getting new genuine Motorcraft oil, Redline in the diff, and the plugs looked original, so out they went. Surprisingly the coolant passed the pH test and brake fluid passed the copper test, although I will probably do the latter with some unopened ATE Blue I have laying around.

Two days after coming home it seems the weather sought to remind me why it was a good thing I have rear wheel drive and gave me a light dusting of snow to play in.

I've been doing quite a few other things too, but I'll break this into a few posts.

One of the things I really liked about the NC was that after years of being 100% VW guy was that the interior felt very VW like but without falling apart like a VW is prone to.

Unfortunately the one thing that also felt very VW-like was the suspension, the dampening on the NC was always a bit soft and 95K of wear was doing mine no favors. The really weird part was how it would stick the turns if you "placed" it in there, all the same it did not feel very sporting.

My original budget was 12-13K for an NC, but this car let me take the excess money and put it into stuff I was eventually going to do anyway. First step was putting an order into Flyin' Miata for their Stage 2 setup.

I was going to do it all at once, but due to some interruptions I only got the sway bars in on the first day. Holy diameter difference! Rears: Fronts: Good thing I got new sway bar links, these were thrashed and seized. Moog makes a fine replacement at a fair price. GRM RockAuto discount to the rescue.

Driving home that night gave me a real appreciation of what just the bars would do, if you buy an NC and want to do noting else, change out your sway bars. The car was finally flat through the turns! But I could feel the weak dampening still lagging, so back the next day for FM springs and Tokico HTS struts.

If you have a higher mileage NC I'd recommend getting new spring insulators from the dealer since the bellows boots are incorporated into them. Mine were less than perfect, but I reused them anyway. But the bump stops looked great, glad I didn't drop coin on them And one thing I didn't need to drop money on was strut bushings, but with Monroe kits at $8 a corner I'm not too mad I did and used the new part anyway.

After a good alignment using FM specs she feels like a genuine sports car. But I couldn't ever get Caster quite to 5.0 and Camber to -1.0 per side, I settled on using -1.0 camber and 5.2 caster.

The missing plastic panels in the trunk came in handy with getting to the HTS dampening adjusters, but the factory front strut brace needs to be cut out on the top to get to the adjuster without removing the bar. I drilled it, but it just wasn't big enough, I'll mess with it more later.

On the FM suggested settings it wasn't unduly upsetting to my wife who has a spinal fusion. Especially important since this has become "The Datemobile" I still may try it softer for our nights out once I have the front brace properly cut, but kudos to Keith and FM a great package for this car.

Nice! I like that color quite a bit and have always thought these would make a solid DD. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with one of these babies.

Cool! I keep seeing these pop up 'round me near the 10k mark and lusting over them. If we don't get furloughed one might end up in my driveway!

Will def. be watching this.

It's like seeing poor little Nancy before we had our way with her I do miss that great blue.

Thanks for the kind words on the suspension. I think it really does work well - the NC is a good platform to start with. I'm really happy to hear it has spousal approval, especially given her sensitivity.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's like seeing poor little Nancy before we had our way with her I do miss that great blue. Thanks for the kind words on the suspension. I think it really does work well - the NC is a good platform to start with. I'm really happy to hear it has spousal approval, especially given her sensitivity.

Get ready for more Nancitude, today's installment is wheels. They should look familiar.

Being an all season car in a state that sees snow, two sets of wheels were in order. I was originally planning on swapping with someone for 16's, but I would find there are a couple bends in my 17's and I'd feel bad about doing an even trade in that condition. It only gives a shake from 40-50 mph, but I'd like a clear conscious.

Another factor was sizing. 16's use a 195/55 which have many more snow options over the stock 205/45/17. BUT moving to a 205/50/17 moves into much greater availability, is no taller than the 255/40/17, same cost as 16" tires, and hey... 17's all year long. I used Continental WinterExtreme Contacts on the Scirocco with great success and are available in 205/50/17, if Michelin doesn't release the Xi3 next year in that size it's a given next year.

Which leaves me to my the fun summer set. I had trouble finding a good wheel I was happy with until I found 15x7 TR Motorsports C1. Great weight, cost, offset and were hub centric without rings.

So it was a given that I would turn to TRM's for my Miata. My usual contact at Tirerack told me they only had 18's for my car. It was with a bit of research and putting it in as 2006 Mazda MX-5 SCCA STR Class that I would find the 17x9 C3's. Max tire available for it is a 255/40/17, but I went for 245/40/17 Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

Why I didn't go full out for the Extreme performance tire like a Dunlop ZII is varied. This is daily driver with back road burning in mind and maybe a couple Autox's a year if that. I probably won't be missing a lot, plus this is my first RWD car, and even with all the electronic nannies watching me, I'm sure I'd rather have a little more wet weather traction and give up some maximum dry traction. I've learned that lesson the hard way one already. Maybe on the next set I'll be more comfortable with the character of the car, but from what little driving I've done on the new set I don't think I'll be too disappointed in that time.

With the small increase in sidewall height, and the fact that Michelin sidewalls tend to be a lot more compliant than the brick wall like Bridgestone all-seasons ride comfort has improved once again. Now a valid question would be what about the Continental DW which is has only scored slightly lower than the Michelin PSS but are substantially cheaper? Through my work I get a hefty annual discount on buying a set of Michelins. All told I got rims and tires for $1100.

I'm guessing you needed to do just a little bit of fender rolling? Usually a 235 is the widest you can manage on those wheels without touching the body. A 255 requires a pull.

But all this talk of wheels and tires is not complete without going with the one practical thing that the car was missing.

A spare.

I put it off for a couple weeks. With the idea that if I got got a flat I'd call her up, tell her to bring the Mazda 6 and let me borrow her spare. But all it took was one trip into Philly with us together to make me realize how screwed we'd be, and had me sweating a little bit on the way home.

To eBay!

The commonality of Mazda bolt patterns and hub bores gave me lots of options. But the fancy Enkei alloy spares from the RX-8 run $300 on average, and even the Steel donuts I was finding were $80 shipped. My local junk yards claimed they had nothing for me.

Then I stumbled across an eBay listing for an FC RX7 16 alloy for $99 shipped. "Used once" Sold. But then I started thinking... ...20 years is pretty old.

But while were at it, the 125/80/16 is a fair bit shorter than the other tires I'm using, plus only name brands were available at Tirerack in that size. Enter 135/80/16, same height range as the tires I'll be using and availble for a whopping $50 in a generic Kenda.

Finally refreshed with rubber from this century, into the trunk with you.

Here came a new oddity, in the couple days I had it on the old tire I had a blanket between the tire and the walls of the trunk to keep it from rubbing and shifting around in the trunk. In the new size the blanket thickness rubbed on something that would keep the trunk actuator from working. The tire now keeps itself wedged snugly in place sans blanket, trunk works fine.

No guarantees if this size will work if you keep the plastic liners in the trunk of your own NC.

And it seems the universe is without a sense of humor... ...I wasn't trying it out just for fun... Luckily it was a front tire. The LSD in the rear would have required an impromptu rotation if it had been a rear tire. Steering was nice and even, obvious the difference in contact patch made the braking a little weird, but it got me limped to work.

Keith Tanner wrote: I'm guessing you needed to do just a little bit of fender rolling? Usually a 235 is the widest you can manage on those wheels without touching the body. A 255 requires a pull.

Yes, I forgot to mention that. I got it rolled by a guy in South Jersey, did a great job at his house with a professional roller for about $100 for all 4 corners. He's done hundreds of cars, but somehow I was his first NC.

If anyone is in DE/PA/NJ needing a fender roll give Leon a shout, great guy to sit there and chat with while he does your car. tattoodup12@comcast.net

One last practical post.

I had already chased a water leak from the tail light, but I had a good leak coming from the passenger footwell that would occur after heavy downpours. It would puddle on top of the rubber floor mats so it was coming down from somewhere.

It was this Shiny Happy Piece. It's the mount the screw that holds the rain tray in place. For some reason Mazda thought it was a good idea to mount this with access into the cabin, and seal this with a foam gasket.

Guess what happens after 7 years? The crappy gasket fails and makes your feet wet. Mine appears to have been leaking for awhile.

I applied some all weather sealant around the edges, so far so good. So if you find yourself with the rain tray off, do yourself a favor and seal yours too.

So last week I did what I should have done a long time ago. Go racing. My very first Autocross for that matter. I really didn't change anything except add air to the tires. I assumed the biggest area that needed tuning was the loose nut behind the wheel.

On a very small and tight course I was told anything under 60 seconds was good. I'd say I did pretty well. Due to the small nature of this local motorsports club I got grouped in in C Stock even with full admission of my mods. There wasn't a whole lot in the entire field that was faster than me, has my psyched to do it again.

Dash cam action on my fastest lap: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57479556@N00/8666037269/

Nice!

I'm very strongly considering this same suspension route, but need to research the other options as well.

I hate lots of gap between the tire/wheel well, but decent coilovers on a DD seems a bit much.