I am out-of-town and am here with an empty trailer. I am
looking at two Miatas, both manual trans, of course, and
both metallic blue with black cloth interior:
1996 with crank windows and air conditioning. I looked at
the diff from the back and it looks sort of flat on the back
with a couple of plugs.
1997 with power window, power mirrors and air conditioning.
I looked at the diff from the back and it has seriously
large aluminum fins in a vertical orientation.
Am I correct in assuming that the crank-window car has an
open diff (flat) and the power-window car has a TorSen diff
(finned)? I need to know quickly, since I am only here
through Monday and am not coming back for a car since I am a
long way from home.
The way I understand it, one really wants the TorSen for
autocross. I'd be running the local Twin-Cities street-tire
class with an E-stock PAX. I have been told the stock sway
bar is OK for this.
I drove the 1997 and it seems OK. Everything seems to work.
The tires look like someone has been doing some serious
cornering on pavement, but had not set the camber to
negative. One tire has been replaced. Only small chips in
the paint. No sign of serious rust anywhere I can see. Top
of rear bumper cover looks scorched or somthing, but a bit
of cracking and a yellowing of the paint. 80K on the clock.
My Lotus buddy Dave and I were driving the wheels off it
(car seemed to like it. Pulls strong in all the gears and
the syncros seem to work in all the gears. Pulled into the
red wone on the tach without hitting a rev limiter.
While we were out, it rained. We went on the freeway in a
pounding thunderstorm and there were no leaks apparent in
the top.
Anything else I should be looking for?
What's it worth? Dealer is asking $6500 and I'd like to
make a seriously-smaller counter-offer.
Phil Ethier
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