How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

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Darren Cole
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How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Darren Cole »

I'm looking for a 99 miata with sport package and LSD. No one is stating if the car they are selling has those options. And from what i've found, most don't know and don't know how to find out.

Anyone know of how you tell if the car has those options?
Thanks
Bob Beamesderfer
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Bob Beamesderfer »

This is what they came with:

Sports Package (manual tranmission only): Sports suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, rear spoiler, front air dam, 15-inch aluminum alloy wheels, Torsen-limited-slip differential, strut tower brace bar and 3-spoke Nardi leather wrapped steering wheel.

According to Chris Lambert's site http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/5361/99.html
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Leonard Cachola
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Leonard Cachola »

If you have the VIN #, you can call Mazda directly to find out what options the car had originally. Not 100% reliable from what I've heard, though.
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Reijo Silvennoinen
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Reijo Silvennoinen »

Well, the leather and 10AE (Blue like Bill's and Karen's....and Seb's) have all the sport "goodies" on them but may be a bit heavier......but at least you know they have the goods.

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Bob Beamesderfer
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Bob Beamesderfer »

Leonard Cachola wrote:If you have the VIN #, you can call Mazda directly to find out what options the car had originally. Not 100% reliable from what I've heard, though.
This seems to depend on whether an option was factory installed or done port-side.
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George Schilling
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by George Schilling »

Reijo Silvennoinen wrote:Well, the leather and 10AE (Blue like Bill's and Karen's....and Seb's) have all the sport "goodies" on them but may be a bit heavier......but at least you know they have the goods.

Reijo
True, but it the Aniversary Edition also has a 6 speed transmission and different differential gearing I believe. This is not the car to have for stock class.
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Bob Beamesderfer »

George Schilling wrote:
Reijo Silvennoinen wrote:Well, the leather and 10AE (Blue like Bill's and Karen's....and Seb's) have all the sport "goodies" on them but may be a bit heavier......but at least you know they have the goods.

Reijo
True, but it the Aniversary Edition also has a 6 speed transmission and different differential gearing I believe. This is not the car to have for stock class.
Good points, George. There's also the weight of the AC and power options in the 10AE that the Sport doesn't have.
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Thomas Smith
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Thomas Smith »

Darren Cole wrote:I'm looking for a 99 miata with sport package and LSD. No one is stating if the car they are selling has those options. And from what i've found, most don't know and don't know how to find out.

Anyone know of how you tell if the car has those options?
Thanks
The sports seem to be few and far between. The best way to tell from classified ad photo's is that sports have front and rear spoilers but cloth seats and manual windows.

I looked and did not find any sports I wanted so I bought a 99 PEP package instead. The PEP is the only 99 with torsen and 14" wheels. If the car has cloth seats, power windows & wind blocker, its a PEP. A PEP can also be converted to Sport with the addition of the spoilers, strut bar, and sport package springs and rear sway bar.
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Mako Koiwai »

Going to the taller 225 tires has helped with the 6 spd ... in fact maybe that's not a bad set-up. Didn't Bill go to the 6 spd when he got the new 275's? We actually like having the excess weight excuse. :mrgreen:
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Leonard Cachola
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Leonard Cachola »

Mako Koiwai wrote:We actually like having the excess weight excuse. :mrgreen:
lol, that's definitely my excuse as my '04 is the heaviest of the NBs.
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Bob Beamesderfer
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Bob Beamesderfer »

Mako Koiwai wrote:Going to the taller 225 tires has helped with the 6 spd ... in fact maybe that's not a bad set-up. Didn't Bill go to the 6 spd when he got the new 275's? We actually like having the excess weight excuse. :mrgreen:
But Bill did that to get back to about the same gearing he had with the 13s and the five-speed.
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Mako Koiwai »

Isn't that what we're trying to do with taller tires and our 6 spd's 2nd ... making it more like the 5 spd 2nd gear. Usually we have to shift into 3rd quite a bit. At the last event I only barely hit the rev limiter in 2nd on Saturday coming out of the up-hill corner in the north west.
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Michael Heinitz »

For 99-2000 Miatas, the base Miata suspension is labeled on the door sticker as Sport S, the sports package is listed as Hard S.

IIRC

/mike
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Darren Cole »

This is great stuff. That geo-cites was very detailed. If I understand it right, you could also get an LS with a sports package. Sounds like that sports package has all the Miata Sport handling goodies. Just with the LS you get power convienices and leather. Is this right? Would an LS with sport pack be a good alternative (porbably just a bit heavier)?
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Leonard Cachola
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Re: How do you determine if a Miata has the Sport package?

Post by Leonard Cachola »

The '99 didn't have an "LS" - that was introduced in one of the later years (2001 and later, I believe) - but there was a Leather Package option for '99.
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