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My dear friend Peter has reluctantly decided to offer his gorgeous Laguna Blue NA8C Pit Crew Racing Roadster for sale. While all Pit Crew Racing Roadsters are special, The Blue Potato is the most special to me because of its owner and because it is the one I am most familiar with. Pit Crew Racing parts are very rare in the USA and the vintage style front end conversion is no stranger to controversy: people either hate it or they absolutely love it. I'm one of the many people who absolutely love it.



Peter has put years of effort into perfecting his pride and joy. The details are astounding. The Blue Potato features a veritable "Who's Who" of boutique Japanese tuner parts and this car truly represents la crème de la crème. Peter and The Blue Potato are in large part responsible for my own passionate interest in the Mazda Miata and aftermarket parts tuning and we both share a similar vision when it comes to sports cars in general and the pure joy that comes from driving such finely tuned machines.



I would buy this car if only I could afford to keep multiple Roadsters in my garage. It is sure to provide the next owner with a lifetime of happiness and pride. I can only hope that the next owner will take such good care of it as Peter did. It will surely be missed but it is leaving to make room for a new project that Peter has been dreaming of for a very long time. I can't wait to see how this new project develops. And Peter will remain part of the Roadster family; fortunately, he and his lovely wife own a fine Sunburst Yellow NA6 called The Sweet Potato that they will continue to enjoy.

Good luck with your sale Peter!

90_mx has completed his custom Garage Vary Nostalgic Tail Lamp setup. He retrofitted the tail lamps originally used on the 1975-1979 Chevrolet Corvette. Brand new replacements only cost $50 each and are readily available in the USA. The GV tail lamps complement the NA Roadster the best, which is why I have them on my own car. And while I really like the original AZ-1 lamps, I think this variation looks pretty good, don't you?

John Chesnut of Elizabethtown, NY, USA is building a Mazda Miata based Sammio Spyder. The Sammio Spyder is a fiberglass kit car developed by Gary Janes of The Sammio Motor Car Company in Holton Heath, Dorset in South West England. It is based on the Lancia D24 Sport Pinin Farina Spyder of the early-1950s. See this picture of a Lancia D24 featuring Juan Manuel Fangio behind the wheel at Sebring in 1954.



While the Sammio Spyder was originally intended to use a Triumph Herald or Vitesse donor car, John has chosen to use the robust, plentiful and inexpensive Mazda Miata as the basis for his Spyder recreation. Here is the donor car John is going to use. As you can see, it has been stripped down to the bare essentials.



Because the Mazda Miata is nearly 6 inches wider than the Triumph Herald, John had to have the body widened. This work was carried out in England by Gary Janes before the body was shipped to the USA.









Although this project is at the very beginning stages, John anticipates having the car completed by May 2012 to display at the Import & Kit Nationals in Carlisle, PA, the largest kit car show in the country. John has set a very ambitious schedule but he has previous experience building kit cars, having just completed a Shelby Cobra kit car. Hopefully the lessons learned building his Cobra will help him along with his new project.



John's Sammio Spyder will feature a tubular steel and sheet aluminum space frame chassis similar to the one that underpinned his Cobra replica and will utilize Chevrolet Corvette suspension components.





No word yet on what engine modifications may be in store but keep an eye on his build thread for more details. I have always loved 1950s Italian Barchettas and I hope that John can pull off this project. The key will be keeping the proportions correct and detailed finish quality. As always, I'll keep you posted.

I will leave you with a very beautiful example of a completed Sammio Spyder built by Trevor Bennett to give you an idea of what is possible with this kit.