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It's the same turbo motor in the Fiat 500 Abarth. Hasn't had major reliability issues so far in the Abarth, but new frame / potentially new problems. Fiat's come a long way since their old quality issues, but there's still a big stigma against them.
If I wanted a fun car that was a ticking time bomb I could just take my dad's old launch RX-8 off his hands. 120k miles and now has low compression.
I'm in the middle of doing a chrome bumper conversion to a rubber bumper MGB. I also did a rubber bumper MGB with body color painted rubber bumpers, which looked pretty good.
And it is fairly easy to do a reliable engine swap and wiring swap in one to make it much more reliable and quick. I'd rather have an MGB with a Miata drivetrain than a Miata with some old looking bodywork.
Please show the pictures when you are done. Would love to see it.
While it's difficult to objectively quantify style I'd say the original NA Miata is in the same ballpark as the original (as driven by Emma Peel ) Lotus Elan. Now if only they could get the Miata down to the Elan's weight without losing reliability.
Actually, you can. Mazda can't, but you can. Exocet or Catfish, for example, will both get you well under Elan weight. Doors? Who needs doors? Since it could be a Miata bolted up to nothing that moves it should be even more reliable than the Miata is.
The Miata is crazy light as it is. Toss it on a carbon tub ala Elise and it would be freaky light although still not Elan weight. Those pesky safety requirements mean no mass production car will ever be Elan weight. To be able to sell the Elise in the US it would 2,200+ pounds, which isn't really any lighter than the Miata 1.5 which isn't sold here and not all that much lighter than the US-spec Miata.
I'll take a Lotus Elise with a Honda K20A TypeR Motor.
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) Lotus Elan. Now if only they could get the Miata down to the Elan's weight without losing reliability. 
