Built to Perform: Shane Cabral’s Corner Loving Mazda Miata

Through the years I have seen loads of builds some favoring form and while others went for function. There are car enthusiasts across the globe that would rather have form over function. Well Shane Cabral, the owner of this sick Miata, would have to disagree and show people why they should choose function over form for themselves.

Shane started his build on this Miata just for daily use since it was his only means of transportation. It all began when he came across a thread on Honda-Tech about a Miata that inspired him greatly. After reading through the thread he put his Civic up for sale and luckily enough a week later his brother took it off his hands. With cash in hand, he began his search for the perfect Miata. Shane then stumbled across a Craigslist post with a rare 1991 British Racing Green 1991 Miata car number 3573 of 4000 produced. It was shipped to Montreal where Shane then drove the car home from the shipping yard, and that’s where it all began.

Deciding to go with a Miata for this specific build was due to the fact that it wasn’t as common to see an aggressively stanced Miata in comparison to seeing the same stance on a 240sx or Honda. Now that the car has reached a point to were he is happy with it, Shane says his favorite part on the car would have to be his exhaust which is a RSR EX Mag II system. As for the most difficult part of the whole car it had to be the wheel sizing and the mounting of the tires, since the original tires he had tried to install were 195/45/15 Toyo t1r. Since that didn’t work out to well he had to go with a 195/50/15 Falken 912 which were a lot easier to deal with.

If he was going to go back and do anything differently it would have been that there would be stock fenders with no flares and 15×9.5 all around and tucking. The VW scene has inspired me greatly and I think it reflects a little on the car and the way it looks today says the owner. As for the future of the Miata, Shane says he might turn it into a track car and make it even more functional then it is now.

Shane would like to thank his friend Patrick Amaral for helping me figure out things when he needed any help and his girlfriend Pia Cutillo for supporting his hobby.