2001 Mazda Miata MX-5

[thx712517]

My first car was a 2003 Saturn Ion 1, purchased new on May 5th of 2003. The lightest body with the biggest engine and a stick shift transmission. $6000 later, it was loud and torquey, but it was missing something. I wanted a rear wheel drive car, something that had disc brakes on all four wheels, something that revved high. My interest in Japanese cars was growing.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/InitialDumbass.jpg

I drove an old '95 black Miata we had on the used car lot at work and I found what I was missing. When I tried to buy the car though, the used car sales manager tried to put me into a bidding war with another employee. Considering the ragged nature of the 95,600 mile Miata with a hole in the top, I cursed him out on the showroom floor, told him where to put it, and walked 200' up the street to Jim Ellis Mazda.

This is what I bought.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MazdaMiata002.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MazdaMiata003.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MazdaMiata001.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MazdaMiata014.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Kevinsgarbage004.jpg

Learning from my mistakes last time with the Ion, I immediately set a baseline with the car.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Hugefan.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Spinningup.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/106HP.jpg

[thx712517]

As a claim to fame, this same dyno (Forged Performance on 41) had an R34 GT-R strapped down a few days before. Since I'm a Skyline freak, I was happy. With a baseline established, it was time for mods.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MazdaspeedMiataMuffler.jpg

I bought a muffler off of Miata.net that had come from a Mazdaspeed Miata. It sounded better than stock. Then I went racing.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MonsterTires.jpg

No, not drag racing. Autocross!

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Racingnumbers.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Autocrossphoto.jpg

[thx712517]

Of course, in stock form the car rolled like a Buick and oversteered like crazy. Time for more mods, again with the help of the Solo Atlanta C-Stockers and Miata.net.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Mazdaupgrades002.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Latestphotos002.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn021.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn022.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn024.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn026.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn027.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn028.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn032.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Saturn034.jpg

[thx712517]

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Latestphotos004.jpg

The Mazdaspeed headlights were too pretty to resist. With the car in great shape, things began to change. I wasn't finishing dead freaking last anymore. Fifteen seconds behind the leader became ten, then seven, then four, then two seconds and sometimes even less. After all my hard work and money, this is what I ended up with.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/RamblerandMazda005.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/RamblerandMazda006.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/MyCAR.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Mycar2-2.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/21CSMarch30.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Points4.jpg


http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Points621cs.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Points621cs3.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/Points621cs2.jpg

[thx712517]

So, even though I gave up 0.4 liters and 41 lbs.-ft. of torque, I'm happy. I picked up four wheel discs, a 7250 RPM redline, rear wheel drive, a 50/50 weight balance, wishbone suspension, and kept my sense of humor.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q28/thx712517/LowHorsepower.jpg

[caseyfoster]

Wow kevin nice write up, you just need to throw a roll bar in there and maybe a turbo kid :)

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

A turbo kid would just get messy in the engine bay.

That's a great write up mate. I need to get one up soon. That's got to be one of the cleanest best looking NB's I've seen, and I'm normally not a huge fan on the styling but that just looks great.

[thx712517]

I'm torn on the rollbar. If I was going to get one, it'd be the Hard Dog Hard Core, but that requires cutting up interior trim pieces and it'll add a bunch of weight. Since I can't do much to my engine to pick up horsepower and improve the power to weight ratio, I'm real hesitant to add weight in any form. That and I'm not sure I'd like driving around with a rollbar near my head all the time, you know?

As far as turbo stuff goes, here's where I'm a wuss. I'm a goodie-two-shoes when it comes to emissions, so it'd have to keep the OBD-II (which I'd lose with an FM II kit with the Hydra) but at the same time I don't want to lose throttle response or risk the engine with a piggyback like the Voodoo. I learned in the Ion tuning world real quick what happens when you boost with piggybacks and then romp on the car, and I'd hate to blow an engine now. I talked with Flyin' Miata about a C-Stock spec engine, but that's about $6,000 for maybe an extra 5 HP over what I'm making now, so I'm just leaving the engine completely alone for now. In the future I might do something, especially if tuning changes, but right now I'm just happy with what it is.

In the future though, maybe the RB 4:1 header, a Flyin' Miata midpipe, yet another muffler, some Enkei RP-F1 wheels in black.... who knows. Wallet's the only limiting factor, right?

[Jack-MX5ATLanta.com]

How about a supercharger? I think they're alot more emissions friendly. And I'm fairly sure you'ld be able to pass emissions with a piggyback like the greddy e-manage line. The only downfall with those systems from my Subaru days were that they could only tune open loop mode (WOT or Xrevs).

As for the rollbar... They look great. I tried to keep as much interior as possible with my install. The only pieces that got sacrificed were the plastic columns around the seat belts.

[thx712517]

Some new photos of the ride, courtesy of Points #9.

[JDM88]

Looks great, the painters tape striping is always good, should have matched the racing stripes on ours. I need to sort something out because I'm always in the same group as the photographer!