Thanks Jason.
(sorry it took so long to respond)

I think the cherry bomb mufflers and the cam really give it some attitude.

 

When I first started autocrossing the Miata, I had many doubters that believed that I had messed up an otherwise perfectly balanced sports car and it would oversteer like a classic muscle car.

The car has turned out to be WAY better than expected and I have proved them all wrong. I have been able to come in 2nd in my two autocross events this year and 3rd on the road course event that I competed in. This is in the Novice classes of each but there were 9 to 14 competitors and most had very fast, capable cars. Most notably, I was up against two Corvette C7s (with their incredible track mode nannies) in the two events and the drivers had equal amounts of seat time as I have.

The point is not to brag about my driving skills, it is quite the contrary. I aspire to be as good as the car itself. If you are wanting to make a super low budget canyon carver then I highly recommend my setup:

I have very used (and slightly beat up) Tokico shocks and Flying Miata springs. The shocks are set to max stiffness. I upgraded to some very used NB brakes front and rear. The back brakes are whatever came with the used brakes but the front are an open-box set of Hawk HP plus pads. I have 15x9" Mirra wheels with Nitto NT01 225 wide tires. I do not have front or rear sway bars. Yup, it's true.

The alignment is an amazing (borderline miraculous) thing of beauty. When I cut, channeled and boxed the front subframe I did it all while it was still bolted in the car. Since all of the rear comes out with the subframe it was relatively easy to mod. I was careful not to disturb the front/rear geometry and in doing so I have not had to align the front or rear of the car. It tracks perfectly straight and has the right amount of camber even with the added weight. Below is a picture of the car in one of the most upset brake/turn/accelerate out of it situations on the track. The tires are right at their limits and so is my son. lol

 

I am now trying to get the car prepped for the $2016 GRC. I have named the car FrankenYata (Frankie for short) due to the wild variety of parts used in the build. My son and I have painted it's first emblem and hope to do 3 more as well as paint the car green (if time/budget allows):

 

I has been over 2 years since I posted last on here. I still have the car and started an EFI conversion on it but life has got in the way. Going back through my build thread (memory lane) has definitely renewed my interest in this car. Hope to start back on it after we are done with hurricane Florence or should I say, she is done with us.

 

 

I just read through your whole build process, as I'm getting ready to do a 5.0 swap. I was planning on a carb'd build, like yourself. Question? Why are you swapping to EFI? I'm no fabricator, so I'm planning on buying everything from Martin over the next year and using a 95 Cobra 5.0/T-5 setup.

 

That sucks.... I'll probably need some help when it comes time to do my swap. I'm a supporter at Miatanet, but I don't find much info to my posts over there...

 

I'm on daily. Feel free to read through my build thread, I've definitely run in to some problems/headaches along the way and am very close to completion.

 

Cool! I believe I have read your thread at least once...? Only thing different for my build is, I'm using an SN95 5.0/T-5 and from what yall have told me, the T-5 from that body style is longer than a Foxbody T-5 and the driveshaft would need to be shorter than normal?

 

The longer transmission will require a shorter driveshaft, but that is no big issue. The good news is that the shifter will line up almost perfectly with the hole in the floorboard.

 

The SN95 bell housing is much bigger however and the firewall will need a lot more "messaging" than with the older versions of the bell. At least that is my experience. I wound up using the earlier bell to avoid the firewall mods and added a 5/8" spacer between the T5 and bell to accommodate the longer SN95 input shaft.

 

Correct. Make sure you have matching bell and tranny due to the longer input shaft on SN95, can't use fox bell with SN95 without some sort of spacer or changing input shaft which defeats the purpose of having the longer tranny. As Mike said, will require extra clearancing in the trans tunnel.

 

On my SN95 build, I got a new Fox Body bell housing so I could use a new off-the-shelf T5z transmission. Also, I didn't have to modify the trans tunnel any more than usual to get adequate clearance.

TM

 

Correct, as that is a complete Fox setup. The SN95 bell and trans are larger/longer. Fox is easier fitment in tunnel area, SN95 gives better shifter location.

 

Talked to the fella the other day about the SN95 package and he's decided to keep it, after having it for sale for 2 years... So, as they say, back to the drawing board...

 

Bummer