While the Ariel Atom takes the prize for open-everything motoring, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe minimalist Miata will give it a run for its money. It’s up to you to say whether this mad Mazda is worth running for your money.


Yesterday’s TV show remnant the Astroghini turned out to be the lastroghini thing anybody’d drop eight grand on, evidenced by its overwhelming 90% Crack Pipe loss. If it follows the path of other has-been TV celebrities then its next step will be a series of incomprehensible tweets, unfortunate selfies culminating with a stint on the creepy Dr Drew’s Celebrity Rehab show. Or maybe just a junkyard, it’s all good.


If today’s 1993 Mazda MX5 were to appear on TV, it would most likely be on AMC’s Freakshow, beside persian carpet-like Marcus “the Creature” and lightbulb snacking Brianna Belladonna.

Described as “Precustomized” this MX5 takes everything you love about Mazda’s little sports car and then diamond plates it. Building this custom, it must have been tough to give without taking, and hence while imbued with a carpet of steel plate, this Miata’s dashboard and most of its windscreen have been tossed in the hopper.

Along with those parts, so have gone the doors and a good bit of the front fenders, replaced here with what looks to be plywood. Other notable precustomizations include a pair of high-back racing chairs, pretzel roll bar, hood-punching air scoop, and weirdest of all, a speaker-housing plexiglass fairing behind the driver’s head.


Mechanically, the car appears to be pretty stock, which means a 116-horse DOHC four and 5-speed stick with nirvana-like actuation. Big-ass six spoke alloys allow easy viewing of the brakes, which also appear to be stock.


Taken as a whole, you might wonder whether the builder simply had a lot of time on his hands, or dropped a lot of acid, or perhaps both. Maybe a better answer to the conundrum of this car’s existence would be found in its location, as it is offered up for sale in Trampa Florida.

As yes, Florida. That's where elderly New Yorkers go to complain about the heat, invasive pythons eat formerly fashionable shitty little dogs, and every freaking wackadoodle batshitcrazypants car known to man is created. Seriously, I want a show of hands of all of you Floridians here, because you have a lot for which to answer.


I mean, what the hell is going on down there? First you literally vote BatBoy to be your governor, then you give the world face-eating hobos, because apparently we needed those. Now precustomized MX5s are a thing. Is it the heat, the realization that the state will soon be mostly underwater, or the fact that it looks like a giant dingus that drives this kind of crazy down there? Inquiring minds, people.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh. After all, whomever created this Miata was generous enough to pre-customize it. That’s sort of like Ikea being nice enough to check and make sure the entertainment center you carted home and have half assembled actually had all the necessary hardware in the box before selling it. That’s a solid, am I right?


You now need to determine if this mad as a March Hare Miata is rightly priced at $1,900. And as a further indication of the seller’s munificence, he’s willing to work out a payment schedule. What a nice guy. Do you also think he was nice in setting his price? Is $1,900 a deal for this precustomized MX5? Or, does the car deserve a price that’s as stripped down as it is?

You decide!


Tampa Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Deadspin Tim for the hookup!

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