[Conrad S]

Hello California Residents,


Myself, Tuned, and SandMan are planning an epic roadtrip from San Diego all of the way up to Canada. The initial plan is to fly down on or around Jun 21st, purchase two miataii, and then take a week to drive back via the Pacific Coast Highway, eventually cutting over to Alberta & Saskatchewan. Over the course of this week, we’ll be camping, hostelling, hotelling, and taking in as many tourist traps as possible. We were also of course wondering:


1. Do any of you know of any cool, cheap, reliable cars coming up for sale? Priorities in order of importance:
a. Reliable
b. Suspension
c. Turbo
d. Cloth seats
We still have a couple to play with here, and aren’t really in a rush. That being said, we’d really prefer to not have to pick up something from a lot..
2. Would any of you like to participate on any of the legs?
3. Are there any attractions that we need to hit? So far we have hearst castle, windchester house, monteray aquarium, and that’s about it. The road itself will take us through the redwoods, and golden gate.
4. Temporary Permits? Will we need those?
5. Does Kinod welcome outsiders?

The three of us are originally from Canada, and we each have our own JDM Eunos Roaster (they’re great). Any help would be appreciated,
Conrad S

 

[sandman]

 

[tuned]

hi

 

[tuned]

I only have this picture :|

 

[WASABI]

What seat is the BRG with the tan nose rocking?

 

[tuned]

nakamaes

 

[L2 Tuning]

There haven't been any good deals lately in the SD Craigslist postings IMO. But of course that doesn't mean there aren't any in great condition for a slight premium.

 

[Conrad S]

Kinda a threadjack, but found another one from our trip to Montana 2 yrs ago.

 

[sandman]

L2 Tuning, Would you be able to give us an idea of what kind of premium you speak of? Since our car markets are so far from each other I think the prices differ huge. What do you think a stock miata in good shape is worth for example?

Also is Craigs list a good place to look? Know any other good places?

 

[adpena]

damn, I want to do this trip too! how much $$ have you expected to spend

 

[sandman]

Plan is to sell the car once we are back home so after that I'm expecting around $1000-1500.

Major costs include Beer, one way flight, gas, hotel/camping costs and any gain or loss on the sale of the car. Breakdown costs could get us though... Hoping for good old miata reliability.

 

[Sai]

Sounds like you guys are going to have a lot fun! And woww nice RHD Miatas! :3

 

[nickydicky13]

sounds like a blast! i want to do a cross country trip from NJ to the west this summer.

best of luck! maybe ill see you out there

 

[Lurker_oner]

Nice I almost did the opposite from Vancouver to LA on a motorcycle but the motorcycle I was bringing down was sold.

Craig-list the easy solution to look at all available roadsters in the market.
But most of the Miatas on there have issues. I say this because I spent almost a year looking for the one Miata from someone that wasn't a douche overselling a piece of ****.

Use FireFox and go to crazedlist.org to do a California wide search. Eventually you'll get an idea of going rates.
Once more people see your thread here, I'm sure sellers will open up with offers.

I was thinking you 3 could find 3 So Cal people that want to ride down and not call your Miata purchase a total loss.

Well if your coming to SD then on your way up North you have to stop in Hollywood just to say you did or drive thru Mulholland Highway on your way to Malibu and pacific coast HWY.

I used to see Jay Leno ride his jet powered bike at the local eatery here.

 

[caliboy15]

can I join?? I wanna do the Call-calgary trip.

 

[GoDogGo]

Wow, this sounds like some serious fun. I love long road trips/rallies (just drove up to SF and back last week/end) and a west coast run will see you through some epic drivers' roads.

Some thoughts:

- An NA1 might be your best bet (judging from a couple years of perusing Craigslist here). SoCal is a Miata-friendly (and increasingly obsessed) market so the prices for good NA2/NB's can be high, particularly in the summer. All conditions equal, a 1.6 will be cheaper by a decent margin.

- Consider bringing your own suspensions to install. Everything's going to be floaty at the mileage you'll be shopping at so if you like your current ride, think about bringing your coils. It's a quick(ish) job and I'm sure some folks here could help you.

- Consider bringing a cam position sensor, slave cylinder, maybe a water pump and a few of those other bits that we all know have a likelihood to let go.

- You must do Mulholland Highway and surrounding canyons around Malibu. It's epic, there's a huge "speed community" around it and you'll get your pics taken if it's on the weekend (look at rockstorephotos.com). Enjoy a Racer 5 IPA at "The Old Place" and visit the long-gone Paramount Raceway (1950's racetrack), a few miles away. It's an old western movie set/state park now...

- You must hit Yosemite, via highway 41. The journey is awesome but the destination is truly a mind-blower and really is epic in a roadster. Great hiking if you're down but the roads all through the park are amazing too.

- Northern Cal has tons of good roads north of SF - Tomales Bay through Humboldt/Mendocino all the way to Oregon is a drivers paradise. Oregon is too for that matter!

- Bring sunscreen. Tons of it.

Hope to read about all your progress if not meet you guys! Cheers.

 

[sandman]

Thanks guys, we are all getting pretty excited about it. Still a bit of planning to do etc but that will all come in time. Once we have the trip all planned out we'll post the legs and then maybe people can come join for a leg or meet us for beers after or something.

Lurker oner, I'm not sure I follow you here "I was thinking you 3 could find 3 So Cal people that want to ride down and not call your Miata purchase a total loss. "

GoDogGo, thanks for the awesome information! A couple of us had been discussing buying some good used coils if we happend to end up with a miata without suspension and installing them in the campground! Something like that would be awesome and hilarious...

We are going to meet later today to discuss how things are progressing so we'll keep you guys up to date.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Conrad S]

Quick question: Winchester house, or the #1 from Santa Cruz to the golden gate?

Also, we may keep the cars purchased. This depends on the sweetness ratio to the ones we already have.