It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Despite looking for something lighter, my “scalpel” as previously mentioned, it wasn’t supposed to be this car. It had a torn top, blown suspension, an ugly steering wheel wrap, and the rear bumper was from a white car with a red smiley face rattle canned onto the passenger side. I was supposed to get my residual, festering teenage idiocy out of my system with this car. I was gonna slam it on cheap suspension, get stupid wide wheels, an annoyingly loud exhaust, and do everything you could possibly do that was annoying to bystanders but secretly kind of fun.
The first drive home was terrifying, midsize sedans looked like freight trains as they flew by. A particularly nasty bump lifted me out of my seat a couple inches, and the whole car felt so light as to be made of nothing, especially compared to my last mode of conveyance. But then I made the mistake of taking it through a fun road I knew well, and my perception of agility was ruined from that point on.
The suspension po-go’d off surface imperfections, the engine made lots of noise going nowhere, and the tires squealed at the slightest provocation. But somehow it was just too damn good. The way I was able to place the nose on a desired line, rotate the chassis around the smallest thought, and keep my foot flat on the throttle through the longest sweepers was just beyond anything I’d bothered to experience before.
Over the next year I’d meet like minded owners who’d become actual friends. The car would go through two sets of suspension, two sets of brakes, four sets of tires, and a couple sets of wheels. I’d play with anti-sway bars, tweak alignment settings, install a roll bar, a replacement top, go to my first autocross, later my first track day, and learn more about car control during my ownership than ever before or since.
Something kept nagging at me however. Everything that I was experiencing I had originally intended to do with the E30. The initial, forgotten idea was I would save a bunch of money not caring for the Miata and then dump it when I was done. I had to go back. I had to replicate the same success with an E30 instead. The rose tinted glasses blinded me from seeing just how good I had it with the Miata. A month after the first track day, I sold the car to a like-minded friend who went off to do what I should have done with it. Drive.