Can the LS1 V8 Miata really be a daily driver?

I'll get to the question above but first what’s better than a V8 Miata?  3 of them! 

This is 1400 hp in 3 Miatas together at an autocross.

I rolled out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to make the trip to Minneapolis to meet the owners of these fine cars. 
It was fun to see their builds especially the green one because it was built by Flyin Miata.

It was a great day and fun to race with them. I made some new friends and we are already planning track days next year.

Oh and the results…

If you know autocross you know this is a huge spread and the game is 90% driver 10% car. So I just have less common sense then the other guys to know when to slow down!    

The next weekend I raised the car up about an inch and took my sweetie on a 5 day 30th anniversary get away to hit the north shore for some fall colors. 

One of the days we connected with the Miata club of Minnesota on their fall colors cruise.

 

Unfortunately it rained the whole day so I don’t have many photos but it was still fun to roll down the road with 30 other Miatas.The rest of the time we just enjoyed our time away in the north land together.  

We like light houses so we stayed in this one built in 1894,

 and visited a few more.  (this is split rock on lake superior)

Stats on the 5 day trip about half of which was top down :-)

No my sweetie was not in the car when the max speed was set but not by my doing.  The way God has wired me to protect, honor and serve my wife is far beyond my capability!  

So now that you are up to date I want to comment on the question many ask, can a conversion like this be a reliable daily driver?  Indeed.  I have driven her almost every day to work and lots of other trips racking up over 4500 miles since the conversion with no issues.  I do have the overheating on the track to deal with but for normal to spirited use she has proven to be a very capable and fun daily driver.  The gas mileage has averaged 23 mpg including the 4 autocrosses, which for a car this fast and fun to drive is very respectable.  The only real issue I have is the back tires wear much faster than the front ones do…

Well I’m pretty much going to close the adventure out for the year here. In a couple weeks Jenna will go into a shed that will soon be buried in snow.  Come April will be paint, cooling and charging the AC.  So until we visit again I pray this post finds you happy, healthy and not at all average!

Ref is Jeremiah 17:9 in that the only way to be un-average is to lay down our rights, surrender to Jesus, be transformed by the Spirit and be available to God to soar in the way he desires to use us. 

The V8 Miata Insurance Conundrum

For those of you considering building a V8 Miata I’d like to pass on some insurance info so you know what the trap it is going in.  For the rest of you who could care less about how to insure a high dollar non classic car you should skip this post.

In my research I came up with 3 kinds of full coverage available for a V8 Miata: 

Normal full coverage treats the car as a normal Miata using NADA or Kelly blue book to establish the value of the car and pays accordingly.

Stated value I tell the company what I want to insure the car for and they write the policy for that amount.  In the event of a claim I have to prove that it’s worth the amount of the claim and they have the option to agree with me or not.

Agreed value I prove to the company now what the car is worth and they agree to that number.  In the event of a claim they have already agreed to the value of the car and pay accordingly.

 

So with that back ground let’s shop for insurance for a 1996 V8 Miata that would cost around $18,000 to replace.

Normal full insurance on my Progressive multi car policy is 93 bucks for 6 months. If totaled they would take the book value of a normal 96 Miata with 170,000 miles on it and probably pay me around $3000 for it.  However most policies will cover aftermarket parts like custom wheels and trailer hitches up to a certain value and for me that is $5000. Better but still $10,000 short of covering a total loss. Also if totaled they don’t have to let me buy the car back so the potential is there to have to deny the payout or loose the car. 

Stated value insurance of $18,000 on my Progressive multi car policy costs $622 for 6 months and has no driving restrictions on it. Besides the staggering cost there are a few other drawbacks to this. Notice the asterisk comment on the bill.

The problem is they decide what the "Actual Cash Value" of the car is and since I have no receipt for the Camaro parts it would likely be a battle to get them to agree to my numbers. Also they will depreciate value of the receipts I do have from when it was built.  Like normal full insurance they don’t have to let me buy the car back but if they did with the bigger the payout they would want more for it.  In a nutshell it’s a gamble and they hold all the cards... 

For most companies a 1996 is much too new for agreed value insurance.  Even if they would insure it none of them would allow me to drive it to work every day like I do.  The one company I did find that would insure a 96 would not allow the car to be driven for any use that my normal daily driver could be used for.  So the car could only be used car shows and cruises with no driving it to work, the store or church.  And of course timed events and track days are out of the question… Just to know the number I did get a quote and the price is $310 for 6 months to never use the car.

So the options are:

A: Meaningless full coverage at $93
B: Expensive crap shoot at $622
C: Garage queen at $310
D: No full coverage liability at $51

I wanted to let you know about this nasty little rock and hard place situation because I did not research insurance well before I built the car and I really should have.  Not that it would have kept me from building the car mind you…