There is no one great Miata. The whole point is that there are so many of these attainable, accessible sports cars out there. If you’re looking for a two-door that’s easy to own and fun to drive, a Miata is always the answer. That said, the feature car in is up for sale and could be yours.

This is the car that Jalopnik alum Travis Okulski eulogized when he applied for a gig here. That was in 2010, roughly a hundred thousand internet years ago, when a site’s reputation could be made by repeating because racecar or handling an iPhone before it came out.

In any case, the car is an M-Edition model. Indeed, the Miata exists to take the place not one star in the sports car constellation, but two. One is to be a low-weight, low-cost beginner car, cloth seats, nothing that would stand in the way of a good autocross time. The other is to be a recreation of creaky midcentury British sports cars, a lively but stylish car that doesn’t break down. The M-Edition is meant to be the latter. Travis’ particular car is an M-Edition modified for running autocross, because Travis is a particular brand of stubborn.

I will not assess the quality of the car, instead I will choose two great comments from . Here, first, is from Keith at Flyin’ Miata, the go-to go-fast parts company for Miatas, best known for V8 kits:

Nice looking car. The leather on these has a tendency to wear badly and it looks like it’s in quite good shape on this car. That Montego Blue paint also sunburns on the Southwester cars and it’s escaped that fate.

I can help if there are any technical questions about the car in general. The new owner will want to replace that radiator immediately. It has aged and will be ready to crack. The car was also due a timing belt change at 60k so that’s a good job to do at the same time if it hasn’t been done already. Fixing the squeak mentioned in the R&T column could be as simple as a bit of grease on the end of the clutch slave which is a 5 minute job.Good luck with the sale, Travis!

And with that credible opinion out of the way, here’s the top comment from the rest of the anonymous masses, a commenter ArchSail:

IDK, I just see a low mile rode hard put up wet used car lot Miata here. Enthusiast driven maybe, but not what I would call enthusiast owned, at least by appearances. I would expect a much cleaner engine bay and a lot less rust underneath (I guess the blizzaks explain how that happened) …just takes a few hours of cleaning in the spring and fall. And maybe a cover in storage might have prevented all the paint chips. What else has been neglected?

The M edition luster is mostly irrelevant on this one, though the mods are nice and straight forward. We know it needs a timing belt replacement, new soft top or rear window if these zip out, and apparently a new radiator. Those Konis are nice but are rusting at the seams…The hardtop and original wheels are nice. I guess this is a great buy it and drive the hell out of it NA. But if not for BaT and this car’s ownership provenance, I wouldn’t pay much, if any, more than the current bid. Hey but that’s just me.

Also pretty amazing to see that for just a couple grand more than this sold for TWENTY FOUR years ago, you could get a 2020 Miata Sport…..

GLWTA

Please bid well, because racecar.