27cameron

First drove a miata in high school and fell in love. Enjoyed working on cars and helped a friend install a v8 in an old muscle car about the same time. Always wanted a v8 in my nissan pickup truck. I've always though small car big engine was a good philosophy. As soon as I saw the monster miata I knew it would always be my dream car. Many years and life experiences later im finally at the point in my life I think I'm ready. A lot has changed, but miata is still the answer. I will be starting December 1st. This is my first time posting on a miata forum, but I have probably spent more hours researching and stalking than it will take to finish this project. I hope to start posting on here regularly. This first post should hopefully keep me motivated to do that. I will be going the v8r route with some slight changes in an NA. Wish me luck im going to need it.

Frog

Welcome to the site. I have not posted in years myself and may be working on the longest build in history. I started gather parts for my own build in late 2015 and had everything mechanically together for the last test fit prior to tunnel welding when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in the fall of 2017. The entire drivetrain (new LS3 525Hp crate engine, new T56 Mangrum, and new CTS-V differential) were sitting on the grange floor with the car on the lift when the house flooded. 34 inches of water in the house for two weeks. Took 14 months to get the house rebuilt during which time the flooded parts in the grange were inaccessible due to constructions storage. Needless to say, the drivetrain was significantly damaged when i finally drained all the water out Just got all the parts back together again last month and started the build again last weekend by bolting on the first part i will never have to take off again -- the Woodward emergency brake cables, Fuel tank is now ready to go back in. I also got the differential mounted in the subframe and the entire rear suspension together yesterday. I hope to mock up the engine and transmission to confirm fitment before finally welding the tunnel over the Christmas holidays. Point is what is needed to complete the project is perseverance -- not luck. (A stack of Benjamin's also helps). Best wishes with progress on your own build and perhaps we can both start posting to get some traffic back up on this site. It was a real help and inspiration to me back in 2016/17 and remains a great repository of information for all.

engineer

Hi 27Cameron and Frog,

I wish you all the very best with your builds. Please post up what you can to help keep this forum going.

I had a similar experience. I saw my first v8 miata in a magazine about 32 years ago. It took me almost that long to realise my dream of building, owing and driving one. I now do it every day and I love it. It is the coolest thing

Looking forward to seeing your cars posted up

cheers,

27cameron

2 weeks in I have the body split from the subframes. having my 13 year old nephew help out as well. we work about and hour and a half roughly 5 days a week. i have some major differences from the normal v8 miata builds, but that will be for my build thread. i will be posting the first part of that coming up soon. tomorrow i will be ordering the engine. thanks for the replies, and good luck with your builds as well!