Adios Miata....

I've been talking about selling my Miata for about a year and a half now....but I finally did it. I listed the Miata for sale last month and now it is on it's way home to an autocross in Virginia (go figure!). Corey lives in the Norfolk area and will be autocrossing with all of the Tidewater guys, so he will be racing against a bunch of folks I used to race against!

Here is the car right before he started the 1,500mi journey home:

I am going to miss this car - the great Miata chassis and steering coupled with the responsive Turbo engine was great fun. Now for the fun part though.....what to replace it with??

For Sale: Low Mileage 2004 Mazdaspeed MX-5 (Factory Turbocharged Miata)

credit: Vu Banh 

I am selling my 2004 Mazdaspeed MX-5. It currently has 46,575 miles. This is a low-mileage, very clean car that I have only used as a daily driver. This car is a blast to drive and I have enjoyed it, but it is time to get a more practical hatchback. I usually get about 26mpg combined and between 28 and 30mpg with all highway driving. This MX-5 features a 1.8L turbocharged engine that it is estimated to produce 200 wheel horsepower with the modifications listed below. It has a 6-speed manual transmission. I recently put Kumho All-Season tires on it which have less than 1,000 miles.

I am the 2nd owner and have owned this car since it had 22,000 miles. The first owner modified the car with the following bolt-on parts:

Modifications:

Boss Frog Double Max Miata Roll Bar
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Intake Upgrade Kit
GFB Blow-Off Valve
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Midpipe and Exhaust Upgrade
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Intercooler Upgrade Kit
A-Pillar Mounted Boost Guage

Price: $11,900 ($1,800 under KBB so priced to sell!)

This car would make a great daily driver, autocrosser, or track day toy...or all three. Please contact Dave Ogburn at (DOgburn at gmail dot com) for questions. I can provide more information, a VIN number, and more photos upon request. These are photos taken of my car in November 2011 (still this clean).  Thanks.

 credit: Vu Banh 

credit: Vu Banh

Photoshoot for my Mazdaspeed Miata Tonight

I got my car detailed today (thanks Ali!) by Longhorn Motors and wanted to take some photos while the car still looks immaculate.

There is an abandoned K-Mart near my house which I thought would make a cool spot to take photos and provide a consistent background. I started out with some basic shots like this:

After about twenty minutes of me taking so-so photos, my buddy Vu (his blog here) showed up and turned my photoshoot into a magazine cover quality shoot.

Here is Vu in action:

And the result:


Thanks for the great photos Vu! My Mazdaspeed Miata is for sale so comment or email me if you are interested.

Photo: Miata + Raging West Texas Wildfire

My friend Vu Banh snapped this cool photo of my Mazdaspeed Miata with the Wildcat Wildfire in the background. The photo was snapped on the outskirts of San Angelo, TX. The Wildcat fire is 80% contained as of this morning and has burned more than 150,000 acres.

New Car

I picked up a new toy for street/track use. It will be daily driver and will get some time at track days and maybe the drag strip. I sold my Nissan Sentra SE-R and my Honda 919 motorcycle in the process. Always good to consolidate resources!

It is a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata and stock except for Boss Frog roll-bars, Flyin' Miata intercooler, FM cat-back exahust, and FM boost controller/blow-off valve kits. Flyin' Miata claims this setup makes 200HP at the wheels. All I know it that it is a blast to drive and I love having a RWD car. I don't plan on further modifying so I'll put all racing money towards karting.