The Project Car State of the Union rolls around again, and the last time I introduced you to my humble, burgundy Sierra. I had just recently gotten it, as it was last summer, and I wanted a RWD car for the winter again.
This post won’t tell you much of anything about the Sierra. Well, I still have it, it’s at a friend’s greasepit and we’re working on the still-too-tall suspension when there’s time. It still runs, it still works, there’s nothing too complicated about it.
That’s pretty much why I bought this 1993 Mazda MX-5 instead.


I found the silver MX-5 in January, advertised on the German classified used car ad website mobile.de. From the sales photos, I noticed it had a couple of dents, and not exactly the kind of ones that you get when inattentive shoppers slam their doors into your car; these were good old parking garage concrete pole hits. The doors were also about as well-adjusted as Jim Morrison.
The passenger side mirror was missing – later to be located in the trunk – and there was a mention of some rust, but it hadn’t rusted to the extent that an another MX-5 I had gotten word of. The wheelarches turned out to be mostly fine, and the rockers hadn’t rotted through yet. Along with funky red gauges and a luggage rack, there was valid inspection left for half a year. A friend was lucky enough to live in the same town as the seller, and he agreed to go kick the tires for me. The canvas top’s split plastic window lowered the price even more, and a deal was struck.



With a new battery and export plates good for a month, the car was handed over to two other friends of mine, and some long-needed maintenance was performed before the car would make it to Finland. The engine oil was old, and what went in would soon come out past the camcover gasket and the camshaft angle sensor’s O-ring. Those were rectified in good time, and the car wouldn’t paint its powertrain with 5W-40 any more.
The spark plugs and plug leads were renewed, and the air filter was discovered to have the breathing qualities of a brick. A new filter gave the car a fresh set of lungs again, and in late February the silver Mazda was driven north via Poland and the Baltic states, and handed over to me, decorated with comedy stickers overnight.


Still, there was a matter of intermittent coughing and sputtering, which took until Finland to be sorted out. The culprit was found to be a 15-euro temp sensor for the ECU, and the faulty sensor caused the engine to run very rich, sooting the spark plugs and oftentimes making it troublesome to start.
I coupled the known-to-be-fiddly sensor swap with a cambelt service, as we didn’t know how old the belts were. Inspecting the belts and the waterpump after the mechanic was done revealed the cambelt had been done at least once since 1993, but at 166k km it was probably due for another. The water pump seals were quite hardened, so a leak would have developed in the foreseeable future.


With the car freshly serviced and the emissions given all-clear, I had it inspected and registered; I also had to pay an import tax bill almost as tall as the purchase price itself. The engineer didn’t find any fault with the car, but that was due to us replacing a snapped rear suspension drop link, which would have caused a clear fail.
There was also some confusion with the papers, as the necessary Euro compliance information wasn’t immediately found from the German documents, but the next day the matter was cleared and I was handed a pair of nice and short, old-style Finnish registration plates that fit the 1993 car nicely. You’re not really even supposed to get this style of plates any more, but the inspection station still had some leftovers in a cupboard.


So, what then? I now have a slightly rusty, somewhat dented MX-5 in my parking spot.
It’s brilliant.
The weather is only now getting warm enough for summertime cars to appear on the streets, but I’ve driven mine top down in the sleet and slush, on studded Yokohama tires on steelies. The car handles predictably but eagerly on frozen surfaces, and it’s been just the best thing to throw around in the snow. Now that it’s on heavier 15” wheels and 195 wide rubber, some of the chuckability has been replaced by a more sure-footed feeling, and I’m looking forward to getting a set of original 14” Daisy-style wheels for it.

The Momo steering wheel feels excellent, especially as it’s leather and not plastic, and the gearbox still feels delightfully precise and short-throw. Sure, the paintwork is a bit tired in places, and the car has been resprayed from here and there, but I wanted an even more affordable MX-5 with the basics in good shape. I’ve figured all of them will need some metalwork around the rocker panels at some point, so getting a decent but cheap one would give me some leeway in that respect. The suspension bits all have surface rust on them, but the underbody is alright. Perhaps the oil leaks have rust-proofed much of it.

This MX-5 will be an ongoing process for me, as I didn’t buy it to be flipped for profit, but to be enjoyed and improved. I will keep modifications to the tried and tested, and the 116-horsepower engine will be good for me as-is, with no enhancements on the power figures. One major selling point for me was that it actually has 116 hp, as the German-market 1.6 engine was detuned to 90 hp at the 1996 facelift, to keep it further away from the 131hp 1.8 model.

I know a dozen people with different MX-5:s or Miatas, so it’s hardly an unique choice in my circle of petrolhead friends. But still, it’s the only NA I’ve seen in this town, and I want to get as much enjoyment out of it as possible – top down when weather even barely permits, snick-snacking that gearbox, enjoying that almost French throttle response. For me, the MX-5 really is as good as everybody’s said all along, and I plan to make mine better and better. It’s already pretty awesome as it is.
[Images: Copyright 2015 Hooniverse/Antti Kautonen]