My first car, that I bought almost one year ago. In fact just less than a year ago.
It’s a 1.6 110hp model with approximately 130,000km on the clock, whose history isn’t exactly known, and I am having doubts about its mileage due to coolant leaks, a worn af steering wheel etc, but that’s another story.
It’s a Twins/Nevada special edition, that was sold in European countries. What that means is that you basically get a front strut bar, the bigger miata brakes (27cm), special 16" wheels, big mudflaps, special silver color and a dark blue top & interior.
When I bought the car it was almost totally standard. Previous owner had fully resprayed it years ago, probably due to an involvment in a front-end collision. While doing so, he also fully debadged it, and drilled holes on the front bumper to mount the plate Alfa-style. Not cool brother.
When I bought it, I remember that I was sooo fascinated about it, I kept telling myself I’d keep it totally standard and I’d only spend cash on maintenance and fuel. Suuuuure, keep telling that to yourself lil’ Miltey.
Here’s what the car looks like as of now. I know, not much of an extreme makeover, but quite an improvment over stock for me 
On the exterior side of things, I painted its bumpers cause they looked really bad up close, I shaved off the reflectors, took the side indicators off and placed MS badges instead, it gained its front badge back, I blacked its headlights out, I took the foglights off for a meaner look (I now want to put them back in again but I just can’t be bothered), matching rear taillight from a ukdm model alongside with a blackout of the white parts of the tail lights, classic rear bumper cut (that I messed up a bit and makes the rear end CRAVE for a meaner rear muffler), engine bay got a Midnight Purple valve cover, blue accents here and there alongside with’em stickerzz, front windows got carhub stickers coz 50hp yo, front plate moved lower with a proper bracket and finally calipers were painted blue to match my top and interior.
Inside, things aren’t as interesting. New head unit, amplifier, focal 8" speakers, new shifter & e-brake boots, new shiftknob and most importantly of all, new floor mats (lol).
Mechanically though, changes are even fewer, but perhaps more important than all of these things added up. Car gained a Torsen T2 rear limited slip differential, which made the car oversteer-happy when u wanted it to, in a controllable fashion, and grippy when u didnt want it to let go. Best of both worlds. And, more recently, I Installed a set of D2 Coilovers. Fantastic. Ride was harshened up very little compared to the old worn KYB Excel-G factory shocks, but, in return, flat cornering that transformed the way the car handled, and a far more sportscar-y look with all ze drop in height.
Future mods? I’m really tight on the economical side of things now. BUT, since the car was in need for new tires, I pretty much grabbed the chance to upgrade to something better, and therefore I’m keeping the stock wheels and I’m pairing em with a set of fresh rubber. Federal 595 RSR’s, aka extreme road tyres, close to semi-slick stuff.
Now, obviously, I really wish I could upgrade all the engine internals to forged stuff, spend a bunch of cash on the car and turn it into a reliable 300hp lil beast. This is something that just plainly isn’t happening.
Back to reality tho : I want a set of EBC Yellow brake pads, a rear rollbar, a nice lil 330mm Momo Steering wheel along with IL Motorsport pedals, I want a meaty rear muffler to compliment the bumper cut and I also really want to put a beefy radiator with a coolant reroute kit, so that the engine can handle track abuse safely.
Tl;dr : it took me 1 year to change ze floormats and sum stickerz.
