got this black/grey leather **** from a 6 speed miata. very nice but not sure I like it better then the regular rx-8 one (the one that came on my car had S2 shift pattern, car is S1).
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I like the stereo. Did a shop do that or did you order that trim and do it yourself.

 

did it myself with metra kit and a touchscreen head unit i got on amazon.

 

The Miata **** is the same design as was used in the FD RX-7 (shift pattern varied on application). The look is kind of generic as you noted but works, feel is good, as is the weight; the RX-8 **** styling just suits the car well which may feed your concern with it. I'm not much for backdating the RX-8 **** on RX-7's either, each seems to work best where they were originally intended.

Do you have a better picture of the headunit setup? Looks pretty good from what little is shown. I've worked on a few cars with Metra kits and while they worked well, the faceplate didn't match the rest of the center stack very well.