I have owned a few performance cars in the past and went through a progression of slowly "down/sidegrading." For example, I went from a 2003 Evo8...
to a 2000 C5...
to a 1994 Miata.
On the plus side, it was a '94 with a hardtop, black on black, had a clean interior and came with some suspension work already done. On the down side, it had rust holes in the usual spot (in front of the rear wheels), hail damage on the hood and was generally a 10-footer.
I tend to name most of my cars, a habit I picked up from a guy I knew that ran a tuner shop in Australia. This one is "BDGR" (badger). Like its namesake, I envision the car eventually being like a bantamweight fighter - tough pound-for-pound, but still outclassed against the big guys.
One of the first changes was the rolling stock. I swapped out the chromies for black Enkei RPF1s in 15x7" with 205/50-15 Kumho XS tires.
At the same time, I revamped the brakes a bit, running some Centric rotors, braided lines and Carbotech pads.
After that, I went with a fresher suspension setup - swapping out the Tokico Blue and spring combo (of unknown age) for Tein Basics, keeping the Racing Beat ARBs.
Underneath the steering wheel cover, the leather was peeling pretty badly. The headunit in the car was an older model with no aux input and the shift boot was torn and cracked.
I don't really have any "piece by piece" shots, but here is how the interior sits now:
Used Sparco Ring
Sparco Speed2
Delrin shift knob, fresh shift boot (which matches the stitching on the seat) and "amp handle" door pulls
As you can see from the lack of a passenger seat and the removal of the soft top, I am trying to keep weight in mind when modifying - but I am not making it an obsessive pursuit. If I can remove something without significantly impairing its utility to me, I probably will. Or, if something needs replacement and I can find a lighter alternative, I might.
Exterior-wise, I eventually plan to add a splitter, some smaller mirrors and a flushmount headlight setup. After that, it'll be a full respray as the current paint is very thin and poorly executed. I'll probably have the body guys do a cut rear bumper at the same time.
I also need to tidy up the engine bay a bit and get some pictures of that.
I like the direction that you are going. Good luck with everything. Hate you had to go from such nice cars to this. But, the miata is great in its own way too.
:lol: Don't feel too bad for me guys. There were a couple of non-performance oriented cars in between the Corvette and the Miata (A4, V6 Mustang, etc). Part of it was a financial decision to save more money and part of it was a decision to go from having one compromised "only car" (with a car payment) that had to split time between commuting and the track to having a dedicated daily driver ('06 G35 Sport) and a "fair weather/track" car (BDGR). Both of which are paid for.
95MerlotM said:
[...] but anywho, i think the RBII nose and TSIs are the perfect front end for a miata....... keep up the clean work man!
Thanks. I just recently added some APR carbon fiber mirrors. I want to add a Trackdog splitter (if nothing else, just to help minize damage from the occassional scrape on the front bumper). After that, maybe tint the windows and the exterior will be done.
i thought you said slowly downgrading! evo8 to c5.... not too bad. c5 to miata.... thats just a damn slap to the face. but anywho, i think the RBII nose and TSIs are the perfect front end for a miata....... keep up the clean work man!
I agree, but I can't take credit for it. I either found the idea (and the internet vendor's site) here or on M.net. I then went to my local hardware store and picked up some flat black allen head hardware to finish it off. Since my interior materials are largely synthetics - vinyl and Delrin vs leather - these fit the concept well.
They are also a little less bulky than the factory handles. I still consider myself a driving novice and there are a couple of what I consider quite good drivers at the handling events I try to attend. I like to let them drive my cars to set a benchmark for me to work toward. A nice bonus of these pulls is that it should help free up a little bit of knee space when they get in the car (both are closer to 6' and 200 lbs).
They are also the reason I am running a slider on the seat vs having it bolted lower to a fixed position.
I finally got it back out to a track event. The car had too much oversteer in most conditions which was bad for lap times but good for knocking the dust off my car control skills. The pictures did not turn out great due to distance, mediocre camera and shrinking down in size.
So I realized I never updated this thread after my last track outing in February. It started as a beautiful, clear Florida day. There were only a few of us at Ivor Wigham's European Motorsports Park.
A buddy who gets lots of seat time in all sorts of cars brought out the MX-2000 (an S2000-powered Miata):
He drove it to the track, along with some tires he was testing:
My first session went well.
But I never got significantly quicker and felt I was really struggling. The driver of the MX-2000 took BDGR out and confirmed the setup was fine. As I remember it, his advice was:
"Use all of the curbing and don't lift."
I tried that approach, but ran out of talent.
I ended up dropping the right rear wheel off the pavement during track-out and spun, hitting a wall on the inside of the track at about 35 MPH. I think DAQ recorded a combined lat/long of ~5 gees?
I was really lucky that the radiator did not bust and there was no damage to the oilpan (or me!) so I was able to drive it away. I used the wooden handle of my 5-lb sledge to roll the fender off the tire, pulled the hood off (as it would not latch) and drove it to a shop owned by one of the other guys at the track day.
We tried unsuccessfully to straighten things out and then ended up spray-painting the bumper cover and zip-tieing the hood down. Then, I drove it ~120 white-knuckled miles home.
The car then got towed to BSI Racing in Ormond Beach where it is now, getting put back together. It should look a bit different (no more Racing Beat front nose for one thing) and I won't be running tracks with walls for the rest of the year, per my wife. XD
Bummer man! However, I think this will be one of those incidents that you will eventually look back on and view as a bonding experience/adventure with the car. Best of luck patching her up!
It'll be one of those experiences where you think "gosh, I'll never do that again!" and then you'll remember that you meant to remember it the next time it happens.
These pictures really don't do them justice - I don't own a DSLR let alone a lightbox - but I'm looking forward to seeing these RevLimiter.net gauge faces behind the KG Works panel:
Sorry for not getting these pix to you before the gauges actually got there. But better late than never, eh? Enjoy them! And be very careful not to get any moisture or oils on the faces before they're hidden safely behind the KGW panel.
I wore the provided nitrile gloves when handling them for the pictures and have them stored in the zip-top bag.
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