Neat details gathered in one place:
https://sites.google.com/site/miata00508/
The changes in the engine bay are interesting:
Club Roadster show car; must have been built off a prototype, given the ramshackle nature of the engine bay
One of the 1988 pilot production cars, note change in camcover breather, and stamped metal airbox, and different top mounts.
Reworked preproduction; looks more like the final iteration, but not quite (the breather pipe is still different).
I think we should call you Prof. (for professor of Mazda knowledge!) Nice one Saz.
I’ve been reliably told there is a reason why the shocks are different on the blue car, and that’s because the owner changed then, although retains the original prototype shocks. Unbelievably, this preproduction car somehow escaped the crusher (it was illegal to road register in the US), and somehow ended up in the hands of a Dutch enthusiast, who finds the car is perfectly legal to operate in the EU. And that car is for sale. Apparently the car was built in November 1988, as part of a batch of 40 cars, intended for crash testing, photography and so forth.
The look like NB top mounts to me.
Yes, they were changed. Note the metal airbox, not plastic
Original shocks
Wheels made in 1988
Original coin tray