talk me out of selling my miata?

My NC miata was bought new and I've now owned it for 13 years. It's got a begi turbo kit on it, some various upgrades like exhaust, coilovers, swaybars, brakes, etc.  

If I had to summarize the problem, it would be this. Some days, when it's 70 degrees out, and I'm on a twisty backroad, and the top is down, this is the perfect car. It's so amazing, it's a 10/10. The problem is, this situation is 0.5% of the driving I get to do. The rest of the time I live in reality, which is a prarie city in Canada with 8 months of winter and the mountains are 4 hours away, our streets are crap. So 99.5% of the time driving the miata is a 2/10, smashing my kidneys over pot holes and pavement cracks, working a E36 M3ty 6 puck clutch in traffic, deafening road noise on the freeway, talking to my passenger in an abnormally loud voice.

"BRACE YOURSELF" 

"WHAT?"

"BRACE YOURSELF, THERE'S A FROST HEAVE COMING UP"

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU"

*WHAM*

"OUCH. F&^%" 

Over the last 5 years I've put less than 2000 miles on. I take it out a few times in the summer out of guilt that it's sitting, and for a brief 5 seconds when I'm using an offramp I've got a big smile on my face. The rest of the time I have to admit, it's utter utter E36 M3. 

Couple that with used car prices ticking up right now I'm thinking that selling the miata is the answer. The "experience" of going out alone or with the wife just for a drive without any particular destination, our motorcycle ticks those boxes just as well as the miata. It's also faster and more reliable and leaves me more room in the garage for other toys. 

Undo your changes.  Especially for the chassis.

The changes make the car marginally better for a tiny part of your drive, and significantly worse for most of your drive.  

Otherwise, sell the car, keep the bikes.

Do they make Xidas for the NC? They're eye wateringly expensive, but my miata rides better than almost anything else in my fleet

400 miles per year.......may as well sell it if it doesn't turn your crank any more.

Now, what kind of motorcycle is "more reliable" than a Miata? You would have to be abusing the car for that to happen, I would think.

calteg said:

Do they make Xidas for the NC? They're eye wateringly expensive, but my miata rides better than almost anything else in my fleet

They've been in development for a few years, but don't know if they are available for sale yet. 

XIDA single-adjustable are very reasonably priced for how well they handle/ride. $2200 for quality coilovers for the NA/NB is not bad. 

Go look up MCS coilovers, then Penske, if you want to see eye-wateringly expensive. 

Sell it and buy bicycles.  I did and have never been happier. 

Contrary to popular belief, Miata Isn't Always the Answer.  You laid out a clear case for selling it- seems like an easy decision to me.  You could put a bunch of time/effort into putting it back to stock, but it's still small and noisy and manual.  For the first time in years I don't own a Miata, or even a fun street car.  I do own a good pickup, a trailer and a real race car.  This situation is bringing me far more enjoyment.

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Contrary to popular belief, Miata isn't Always the Answer.  You laid out a clear case for selling it- seems like an easy decision to me.  You could put a bunch of time/effort into putting it back to stock, but it's still small and noisy and manual.  For the first time in years I don't own a Miata, or even a fun street car.  I do own a good pickup, a trailer and a real race car.  This situation is bringing me far more enjoyment.

I know a trailer and a kart or race bike would be way more fun right now. 

twowheeled said:

I know a trailer and a kart or race bike would be way more fun right now. 

After years of track days and road racing, I went karting for the first time last weekend.  I had an absolute blast- good clean cheap fun.  All the things that are frowned upon in road racing (contact, dive bombs, hooning, etc) are perfectly acceptable on a kart track!

Would eliminating the crashing over bumps mean you would rive the car more? If so put the suspension back to stock and call it a day.

If not sell it and use the money for some other fun toy; karting is hard to argue with.

I'd be tempted to sell it and start over. You've made a series of choices that are making the car uncomfortable and are high effort/expensive to fix. Puck clutches suck almost all the time. Your muffler, doesn't. Your suspension is terrible. 

There are good suspensions available - our Fox setup rides really well, better than the Xidas or Ohlins in my opinion. You don't need to run a puck clutch. There are mufflers that actually bring sound levels down. If you need more power, there are some options out there that are better sorted than a BEGi kit or you can drop in a 2.5 and skip the forced induction.

The nice thing about a Miata instead of a motorcycle is that you don't get wet when it rains, you're less likely to get killed by another driver and those frost heaves aren't going to toss you off the car.