Camping On a Miata? The Story of MIEEP The Off-road Miata with A DIY Roof Top Tent!

           From time to time at car meets, people would ask me: How did you come up with the idea of creating MIEEP the off-road Miata? 

          The answer was honestly shallow; I just went with the flow... I knew nothing about off-roading, and I never cared. 

          Back in Fall 2021, COVID was still a thing and car prices skyrocketed. I was at work, browsing on Facebook Marketplace and saw this 1992 1.6 Green Miata posted only for half an hour. My gut told me that this was a good deal, I immediately told my boss about it, clocked out before lunch and went to see the car, and I got it for $5,000.

Big Bro and the newly acquired MIEEP. Also this driveway = my garage.

         The Miata came with a hardtop, type 2 LSD, coilovers, a set of Rotas and stock Mini Cooper wheels on the side. Originally red repainted to green, with lots of scratches on the sides from PO's dogs. Driver side mirror was chewed. Lol. Considering that hardtops were being sold for $2000 at that time and I sold the Rotas for $500 soon after, it was still a pretty sweet deal. 

Backshot of MIEEP before it was lifted.

            At that time I also owned a 99 EX Civic as a daily driver and Big Bro as my project car. I didn't give much thought to what to do about this newly acquired Miata. The civic was a great car, got it for $1000. It had a D16 engine, stick shift and AC blows cold! But the idea of owning TWO Miatas really grew on me. The market was hot and it was a good time to sell the Civic so I sold it to a friend.

The 99 Civic EX. It was stolen three times after it was sold! 

          I came across a YouTube video of Nsxtra, where the owner Mr. Chris Cut put a roof top tent(RTT) on his red NSX, camping with his S2000 buddy who ALSO put a RTT on the S2000. The tent was secured on the roll cage of the S2000. My face went 😦 and I thought to myself: If this guy can put a RTT on the S2000, why can't I put one on the Miata? 

          I didn't like the idea of putting a RTT on the roll cage as my cars aren't stored in a garage and, what if it rains when one is camping? So I researched on how I can mount a RTT on the Miata Hardtop. I looked at Yakima RTTs. Damn, they're expensive. I cannot spend $1500-$2000 on a roof tent when I didn't know if this whole thing is going to work... 

          I started looking at DIY solutions. I came across Mr. Patrick Remington's DIY roof tent video. I didn't have to spend $1,500 for an RTT, it was freaking awesome! 

Planning stage: putting a pop up tent on MIEEP to get a feel of it.

Around the same time, I again randomly saw a paco 3" lift kit for sale on Facebook for $175 shipped. As soon as the DIY RTT took shape, I threw them on the Miata. 

Funny squatted MIEEP picture taken in the middle of lift kit installation.

         And the rest was history. Ideas flowed when I saw MIEEP lifted. I started seeing how I wanted the car to look. I got some bigger street tires just to see how the wheel clearance looks like. Found a bull bar on Offerup from an older Jeep and fitted it to the car, still detachable btw. Got a free LED light bar from work, bent my own light brackets with sheet metal.   

Video on how I build the roof tent

           As I build the car I went on many more adventures. I got myself some A/T tires, built a spare tire carrier, added a winch, fabricated a functional snorkel, etc. And with the help of August at Black Cat Racing Garage, a pair of DOM sliders was added to MIEEP!

Spare tire carrier made from scrap metals at home with a flux core welder.

Spare tire carrier done.

MIEEP coming down hungry valley 4x4 practice track.

DOM tubing sliders being fabricated at Black Cat Racing Garage.

In 2022 I went to JCCS as a visitor and I thought to myself: Next year I am going to bring my car in here! In 2023, MIEEP attended JCCS and won 3rd place in Best Miatas! Something that I've never dreamed of! 

MIEEP at the 18th annual Japanese Classic Car Show.

          I actually went to JCCS with another lifted Miata owner, Matthew and we parked next to each other. During the day we were approached by Take San, a photographer for Daytona magazine Japan. He told us that he would like to shoot our cars! My guess was that Take San saw both of our lifted cars parked together and thought this was a very American thing to do! He later invited us to a photoshoot and MIEEP was eventually featured in a later edition. One thing led to another! Good things do happen when you go out!

Matthew and Jimmy doing photoshoot down in LA River.

MIEEP on Daytona magazine. A bit sad they spelled my last name wrong...

Special thanks again to August @ Black Cat Racing Garage for being such a good fabricator and a good friend!

A 2.5:1 Reduction gearbox installed on MIEEP at Black Cat Racing Garage once again!

          If space and money allows, I would love to build a matching half Miata trailer and continue travelling around the US off-roading. See you out there in the wild!

A photoshopped picture of the half MIEEP trailer that I envisioned. No need for another tent on MIEEP.