Before the BMW, I ran a Mazda MX-5 NC — and it’s probably where a lot of my taste in cars was set. It’s the classic recipe done right: light, rear-wheel drive, a manual box and not much between you and the road, which teaches you to enjoy a car for how it drives rather than how quick it is. It wasn’t fast, but it didn’t need to be, and that lesson stuck — it’s a big part of why I gravitate towards manual, characterful cars now and why I’d still like something a bit more playful alongside the daily.
First work I did to the car was the headlights, replaced the bulbs in them, that’s all.
Then I attacked the typical rust on these cars, this one was particularly bad. I swore I would never buy a car from the seaside, but I did the same for my BMW (lol).