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We Bought A Mazda Miata Just For Fun

This web site was designed by Richard and Susan to share their Miata fun and frolics in southern Arizona with the rest of the Miata community.

Meet "Aruba", our first Miata -- a 2001 LS roadster.

Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them, then use browser back button to return.

Aruba was named by Susan who simply felt the dear little car needed an identity.

We bought the car three days after returning from a vacation to the Caribbean Island of Aruba.

The color of the car, Crystal Blue according to Mazda, is the color of the water around Aruba,

hence the name Aruba for our lovely Crystal Blue Miata.

Aruba only had 13.5K miles on her when we brought her home in mid-May 2004; she had about

45K miles when we sold her to a good home in May of 2008 after buying a 2004 MazdaSpeed Miata.

Here are some pictures of Aruba.

Click Here For Video Featuring Sound of RB Dual Exhaust

A new Miata fell into our lives in May 2008

We were not giving any consideration to buying another car, let alone another Miata.

But fate dropped a wonderful one in our laps.

Through a Miata club member we became aware in late April 2008

of a 2004 MazdaSpeed Miata that a widow in Tucson was trying to sell.

I called the seller and she told me the car was indeed for sale and that it had been setting

for at least seven months in her driveway. She also told me she thought it

only had about 10,000 miles on it. We of course went over to look at it

and brought jumper cables because she said the battery was dead.

When we got it started I was absolutely astonished to see it did not have 10,000 miles,

but only 2265 miles on the odometer. We took the very dirty car out for a long test drive

and it seemed to perform perfectly, but when we got back to the woman's house

the idle was stuck at 1500 rpm (discovered later the throttle cable was misadjusted).

No problem we thought, the car still had several months of factory warranty remaining.

To make a long story short, we made a low-ball offer for the car and she instantly accepted.

We are now very happy MazdaSpeed Miata owners.

The MazdaSpeed model (usually just called M-S-M) is a special turbo-charged, limited production model

produced in 2004 and 2005. Four thousand were made in 2004 (ours is #3838 of 4000),

and 1500 of a planned 4000 2005 models were built before the Japanese assembly plant

was completely destroyed by fire in mid-2005.

Meet "Titanium" our new to us titanium-gray-metallic 2004 MazdaSpeed Miata.

As soon as we took possession of the car we swapped wheels with our 2001 Miata

because we did not like the look of the large 17"original equipment wheels on the MSM.

Titanium now happily wears lovely 16X7 inch Enkei RP-F1 wheels with marvelous

215/40/16 Good Year F1 GS-D3 tires.

Just got the new bolt-on modification on the new MSM: Flyin' Miata intercooler (see upper pic on right),

Flyin' Miata full turbo-back stainless-steel large-diameter exhaust system, BEGI throttle body inlet duct with Flyin' Miata GFB-BOV,

and 37mm dual-core all-aluminum Koyo radiator. These modifications clearly added a fair amount of power

to the already quick little 2500 lb car.

Click Here To For Audio Clip of The FM Exhaust Sound

Also recently installed: new HardDog rollbar, and A-pillar boost and oil temp gauges.

Had the car on the dyno to determine hp and torque before the above modifications and it

did 157 hp and 144 ft/lbs torque at the rear wheels (numbers would be 15% higher measured at the crank where

manufacturers measure them). After the modifications the car did about 170 rwhp and about 150 ft/lbs torque

(these last numbers include a temperature correction and are approximate).

In early September of 2008, new wheels and tires were installed on the MSM.

We added very light weight 15x8 inch 949Racing wheels with 225/45/15 Toyo Proxes R888 track tires

which are also DOT approved for street use. This combination puts a lot more rubber on the road

and will provide far greater traction in corners for road and track use. Here are some pictures.

Click Here To View Video Clip From Mt Graham Drive

Click Here To View Video Clip From Laguna Seca Raceway

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