FiST and MX5...mentioned together here frequently

[kona16]

In reading many of the posts here the FiST and the Miata are mentioned together a lot. Who here has them... or once had one or both?

I am lucky enough to have both...

Wow, nice to see so many great cars! I have had the Miata since new and don't see selling it any time soon...the wife is even cool with it staying around.
It is a base model with a few mods and has never not started...well maybe because the battery needed charging, but not for any mechanical reason (knock on wood). Rock solid and very old school, feel of pure driving experience, zoom zoom. FiST, my daily, is different, much newer feel and...well everyone knows what they are all about...

 

[Lawrider]

Current car is a 16" FiST. Used to own a fully kitted (FM turbo kit with FMIC, Shiv fuel rail, full suspension, full FM exhaust with shock mounts, HDHCDD rollbar, Wilwood big brake kit, ACT clutch, FM extraction hood, removed AC, removed airbag steering wheel, etc...) 94 C package NA Miata. Loved that car. Repainted it Pikes Peak White Pearl, ran the hardtop year-round. With it's electronic traction and torque vectoring the FiST is more confidence inspiring.

It's a struggle I have now - whether to mod the FiST. I remember how different my Miata was post turbo build compared to the simple 100rwhp NA power that made me fall in love with it. Don't get me wrong, both setups rocked...but I wonder if my simple Cobb stage 1 + intake is the sweet spot. When all I had on my Miata was the suspension/rollbar intake and exhaust - it was so damned carefree, sounded great, and was FUN. Yes it was slow, but kinda like the FiST, you can drive it hard all the time and not die. Once my Miata was ~230rwhp it was murderously fast but was so serious - instant oversteer if you got careless, just momentary bursts of boost before you were really moving. It was flawless but I was always checking under the hood, carried an entire tool kit around...just in case something might happen.

Back to the FiST - FWD + open diff is a big brake on me doing anything, but seems like a simple cyborg/pumaspeed drop-in would be delightful...ugh. My last car was a 13" GTI which i modded to stage 2+ (tune, intake, FMIC, 3" TBE) and while the exhaust droned horribly - that was a quick car with those mods - very, very quick. While the FiST is dynamically magnitudes better, i do miss that power on the highway.

 

[Thirty-Two]

Me too! Though I have to sell the Miata now.
1991 British Racing Green Mazda Miata LE #3982 of 4000

2016 Kona Blue Ford Fiesta

Hey another BRG. Here is mine, sharing daily duties currently.

[/IMG]

I'm planning on selling 2-3 years from now and then building an Exocet. Decided if I'm going to be impractical I'm going to go to the extreme and it being the closest thing to a motorcycle without the increased risk.

Everyone who buys a Fiesta ST has great taste in both cars and motorcycles.

Ha just noticed mine has a ding in nearly the same spot on the front fender.

 

[kansei]

i've had a couple

2004 Mazdaspeed, the car shunned by the Miata community

230whp, lots of fun. Got rid of it stupidly kind of on a whim in 2010 for..

2006 MX-5 GT

mostly stock, just an FM muffler and some minor appearance mods really.

Sold it and lived car-free for 3 or 4 years until I bought my orange '16 FiST in October

still live in the city and still don't drive ever, but at least this car is fun to mod unlike the NC MX-5. Soon I might actually have a place to work on and store additional cars in the city so I started browsing craigslist for local NA Miatas

 

[kona16]

Current car is a 16" FiST. Used to own a fully kitted (FM turbo kit with FMIC, Shiv fuel rail, full suspension, full FM exhaust with shock mounts, HDHCDD rollbar, Wilwood big brake kit, ACT clutch, FM extraction hood, removed AC, removed airbag steering wheel, etc...) 94 C package NA Miata. Loved that car. Repainted it Pikes Peak White Pearl, ran the hardtop year-round. With it's electronic traction and torque vectoring the FiST is more confidence inspiring.

It's a struggle I have now - whether to mod the FiST. I remember how different my Miata was post turbo build compared to the simple 100rwhp NA power that made me fall in love with it. Don't get me wrong, both setups rocked...but I wonder if my simple Cobb stage 1 + intake is the sweet spot. When all I had on my Miata was the suspension/rollbar intake and exhaust - it was so damned carefree, sounded great, and was FUN. Yes it was slow, but kinda like the FiST, you can drive it hard all the time and not die. Once my Miata was ~230rwhp it was murderously fast but was so serious - instant oversteer if you got careless, just momentary bursts of boost before you were really moving. It was flawless but I was always checking under the hood, carried an entire tool kit around...just in case something might happen.

Back to the FiST - FWD + open diff is a big brake on me doing anything, but seems like a simple cyborg/pumaspeed drop-in would be delightful...ugh. My last car was a 13" GTI which i modded to stage 2+ (tune, intake, FMIC, 3" TBE) and while the exhaust droned horribly - that was a quick car with those mods - very, very quick. While the FiST is dynamically magnitudes better, i do miss that power on the highway.

I had always thought to go big with my NA but then I remembered all the other cars I had that needed so much attention. My '91 has never given me any real issues or left me stranded. No engine mods just coilovers, exhaust, rollbar, swaybars, wheels, simple brakes and other add ons. Still fun to drive, bare bones basics...like they say...better to drive a slow car fast then to drive a fast car slow.

With my '16 FiST kinda' keeping the same thing going. Simple add ons and drive it. Dependability is my main focus since this is my Daily.

 

[7thson]

It's a struggle I have now - whether to mod the FiST. I remember how different my Miata was post turbo build compared to the simple 100rwhp NA power that made me fall in love with it. Don't get me wrong, both setups rocked...but I wonder if my simple Cobb stage 1 + intake is the sweet spot. When all I had on my Miata was the suspension/rollbar intake and exhaust - it was so damned carefree, sounded great, and was FUN. Yes it was slow, but kinda like the FiST, you can drive it hard all the time and not die. Once my Miata was ~230rwhp it was murderously fast but was so serious - instant oversteer if you got careless, just momentary bursts of boost before you were really moving. It was flawless but I was always checking under the hood, carried an entire tool kit around...just in case something might happen

Prior to my NA Miata, I had an Mk1 Golf GTI (Rabbit). I did everything on my wish-list to that car, and it was very quick. It was also super stiff, crazy loud, and drank gas like a 7 liter V8. It wasn't long before I was skipping events because the car was just too obnoxious to drive more than 20-30 miles, and I hated to drive it on the freeway. After is sat a long while, I finally sold it to some teenager, who planned to drive it the 300+ miles home. I just remember thinking how his excitement was going to be all gone by the time he got there.

I swore I would never do that to my Miata. But, the slow progression of "good deals" on parts, and/or the constant need for improvement, has lead me again to near the same point with the Miata that I reached with the Mk1 Golf. I find myself taking the FiST up into the mountains for drives, while the Miata sits in the garage. Now, I have friends with modified FiSTs, and the desire to mod this car is getting strong...

 

[kona16]

^^^^^ Once a car guy, always a car guy!

 

[insertnamehere]

Looks like I'll be leaving the joint MX-5/FiST club tomorrow. Miata is going buh-bye.

 

[Business6]

I've had a few. Loved my 00 more than the 04 or the 91 as I simply hated the 6 speed transmission in the 04 and the 91 just needed a lot of work given the age and mileage. The 00 was RIP'd when another driver took a left turn from a right lane causing me to crash right into her. Regarding the 04's transmission it was horribly notchy even though it had only 54k miles on it when I picked it up. It remained the same regardless of what I did to it as far as new fluid (even the motorcraft liquid dreams oil) rebuild kits, etc. Very disappointing.

Now I'm running around in an incredibly loud-colored '14 FiST and I'm enjoying it like crazy. I told my girlfriend today that I didn't realize how limited I felt in the Miata in terms of when/where to drive. Much more confidence now.