So here goes! As many here would have seen I recently sold my long term NB SE 'Selene'...
I could have got a higher price but wanted to find the right home and fortunately I believe I did with a member of these very forums. I had spent a lot of time, effort and money on her over the years and the last thing I wanted was to see her trashed by some boy racer because Nissan S cars are now too expensive...
Why not do more myself? Well I felt the journey had gone as far as I was willing to take it without a major escalation in scope and cost and only maniacs in Queensland, who's name may or may not being with L (2 of them) or D (probably the worst) seem to be that way inclined!
For those of you who aren't familiar here's a picture of my now departed....
Initially I was unsure what I was going to replace Selene with, but it didn't take long before I realised I wanted much the same as before, just newer. Perhaps upgrading the 17yr old 323 Astina povo-pack daily driver with a new top of the line Subaru Impreza had something to do with it?
So, a good handling, open top sports cars it is! What are the options? Not too many that appeal to be honest....
BMW Z4? Nah I'm just not that much of an a-hole and I know how to use a blinker...
Porsche Boxster? For the budget, 987.2 so 10+ years old and expensive if things go wrong...
Another MX5? That'll do! But which one?
I've never been a fan of the NC and was fascinated by the ND from when they were released so an easy choice there. I remember attending Blue Mountains Mazda Dealership (MX5 Club of NSW sponsor) for the official release and over 100 club members were in attendance and test driving on the day!
However, up until this point I'd never test dríven one (didn't want to tempt myself) and was unsure if they'd lost something in the process of evolving to meet modern standards. I was also undecided about soft top verses retractable fastback. I liked the style and security offered by the fastback but didn't want to lose the open-air feeling of the soft-top, which was almost never up on Selene.
Opportunity knocked and a local dealership (Ford ironically) had one of each on the used car lot, a little older and somewhat riced up, but good enough to have a decent test drive and do a back to back comparison. The verdict? Well both feel a lot more enclosed than an NB with a higher waistline, presumably for improved side impact protection. The cabin also feels more 'cosy' than the NB, which fortunately I like.
Once on the move though there was little between them in terms of openness except for a barn door sized blindspot on the RF when looking over your shoulder. Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross traffic alert features helped deal with this but it's still a bit nerve wracking reversing in the RF... Apart from that the buttress arrangement of the RF largely disappears behind you while driving and I found I hardly noticed it.
Now, new or second hand? There's the $60K question.... seriously that's what a new fully optioned up ND GT RF RS costs, I think most went on the absurdly long acronym...
I had another problem though, I'd sat in the ND version of the Recaros and well, I couldn't settle for the normal seats after that...
After contacting Mazda Australia and establishing there was no way of getting them as a special order from the factory I was disheartened. It was even worse when I discovered it was possible to get them directly from the manufacturer but would come in at ~$14K landed in Australia.
So a new ND RF with all the bits I wanted, including Recaros, was heading North of $75K before I started playing with it.... *Sigh*
What now? After some research I established that the Recaros were only ever available in Australia in two versions;
- 30AE, soft-top only, only in an orange colour I wasn't fond of and only 30 delivered.
- MY18 RF Ltd., only Retractable Fastback, available in 5 colours, only 110 delivered, older ND1 gen.
So the choice was made and the search began for an RF Ltd. in either Soul Red or Machine Grey that wasn't one of the 7 press cars trashed by journos on release. Through some dumb luck I was able to find out the VIN numbers of the press cars so was able to avoid them....
While searching and researching I stumbled across the below image of an American Club spec which is very similar to the Aussie RF Ltd. and afterwards the decision for Soul Red was made!
Here's a little video (UK version similar but different) that I may have watched a few (lots of) times...
https://youtu.be/HMFskx7F-Rg
Next episode: Finding the right car and bringing it home....
. Always been a fan of buying not-quite-new second hand cars, big savings to be made, as long as you can get what you want, or so close the difference is wearable. 
