18psi

iTrader: (76)

Hi guys, just joined this forum since i plan on getting a miata within the next 4 months or so, and coming from a long list of turbocharged and supercharged cars, it will definitely be force-fed...

I have been thinking about getting a miata for quite some time now, since ive tried all kinds of different setups, i want to step into a rear wheel drive platform and want something small, quick, and easy to work on, not to mention affordable. A miata seems like a great car to start with, and after i drove in a friends track prepped miata and got the feel of it, i was sold

anyways enough chit chat, here are my previous rides:

2 out of my 4 rsx's





before you ask, yes that is real carbon fiber hood/fenders NOT stickers lol


my 2 wrx's (the blue one i still own the black one sold 1 month ago)









and ive been messing with ALOT of different turbo setups on my wrx's:



if anyone even cares about the mods on my cars, feel free to ask

anyways, sorry for the long rant and so many pics, im just bored on a saturday waiting till we go out to dinner and decided this was a good time to introduce myself.. thanx
-Vlad

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Sell drugs to afford car habit much?
Donating any turbos to good causes? Welcome to mt.net

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahahaha beleive it or not i actually sell drugs
legally though...i work in a pharmacy and get decent pay, so i guess it helps my habbit....
dunno if any of those turbo's would work on a miata, they are ALL for subaru's, and have completely different flanges/bolt patterns than regular turbo's.

and thanx for the welcome

SamS

iTrader: (2)

I assume you'll be buying multiple Miatas.

A couple guys have used WRX turbos, though there aren't any bolt-on mani/dp combos available for those turbos.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Clean cars, stick around!

icantthink4155

iTrader: (12)

the white RSX looks hot with that carbon fiber

18psi

iTrader: (76)

hahaha looks that way from my past stable of cars doesnt it.....hopefully one will be able to do it for me
thanx i intend to
thanx man, it was actually equiped (not in the pics but later) with a gt35r turbo and was a beast...though because of all that power and the way it was delivered, it became absolutely un-driveable due to lag down low and nothing but wheelspin up top....it was a highway queen, from a roll on it was nearly untouchable, but from a stop a corolla could pull away from me while i was spinning the tires hopelessly till kingdom come

Trent

iTrader: (11)

i was about to poke fun at you buying multiple cars of each type, but then i realized i used to own two mx6's and i currently own three miatas. lol. maybe i'm not the one who should be pointing that out.

welcome aboard.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

the funny thing is, none of the repeat cars were actually intentional lol
i owned 1 rsx, got tired of it and decided to start new with a different color, trim, etc as well as take a different direction with mods so i got another one, and another one etc

same with the wrx's, i always liked blue, but got black cause it just happened to be there for a good price. then i found out the 06's+ have a MUCH better and bigger displacement engine (2.5 vs 2.0 as well as variable valve timing and MUCH more) and overall the newer ones have better things, so i upgraded.

and the story behind all the turbo's? hahaha LONG story, ill save you the trouble
sorry for the long rant lol

Pseudosport

iTrader: (9)

If you need to find a good home for some of those turbos let me know

btw nice WRX, I'm a fan of the 04-05 tail light too.

urgaynknowit

iTrader: (5)

so heres the break down for you

stock miata -4k, roughly
good turbo kit 3k -roughly
for 7 k, you could blow most cars out of the water

and look completely gay doing it

WELCOME! and enjoy your stay

highroller101

What are your plans for your miata? Goals for power? We can always help you here! There is a TON of support on this website and you will find that most people are out to help you! have you found a potential platform for your setup?

Tell us:
Your budget
Your Power goals
How fast you want it done
What you want to do with the car.

All of these will help you on your quest.. and like urgay said... for about 1/3 of the cash you will make Zo6's look stupid

18psi

iTrader: (76)

ok so im REALLY glad you guys are this responsive, cause i will prolly bore the **** out of yall with questions hahaha.....i like to do research and be set 100% on something before i jump head over heels.

as far as being a street terror or showing up corvettes,im kinda ALREADY doing that in my little suby
the car has AMAZING topend and pulls hard at high speeds, and i dont even need to tell you how low speads and from a stop feels like
HOWEVER, it is time to move on, so

Some of the biggest pro's about a miata for me will be:
1 its affordable - me and the wife are looking for a house, and for a down payment ill be selling my subaru, which means i need to find sometihng for a quarter of the price to drive while we get back on our feet.
2 its fun - rear wheel drive, drop top, good weight distribution, sporty: whats not to like? aside from people making fun of its looks, which will cease shortly once my turbo project is underway
3 easy to work on - you have NO IDEA how much of a pain in the *** it is to work on a subaru sometimes, and even more so to tune it.

there are more reasons but ill save you the reading lol.

budget? i want to keep costs as low as possible, but total would have to be around 7k tops.

plans? i just want an all around quick and fun car. mid to low 13's at the strip is good, as well as good handling and overall good package to drive daily and be able to whoop on that annoying mustang owner now and then

power? i wanna say 220-240 reliable whp but well see...i tend to start small and then get ADDICTED like i did with the subaru. in a year i went through 3 turbo setups in the name of MOAR POWERRRRRR

how fast i want it done? not really crazy about finishing it very fast, so thats not really an issue.

how do i plan on going about it? well lemme tell you and you tell me if this sounds stupid:

i wanna find a running one not in any particular good condition just running and what not. maybe 94-99. my dad is a metal welder/fabricator so i will get him to weld me a NICE rollcage to weld into the car to stiffen it up and, well, c'mon: roll cages are sexy...next ill have him make me something along the lines of the flying miata butterfly brace for the underbelly. then coilovers to drop it LOWWW.......while im doing this and driving it daily i would like to buy a spare engine and start to build it up to be able to hold down some power reliably. i want something along the lines of a gt28rs or gt30r for smooth spool and good topend, im not really big on fast spool and low end, call me crazy lol. when the engine is complete and turbo is bolted up i want to swap the whole shibang into the car and enjoy it. lastly, i want to do some custom body work and get a little creative on the looks. no fancy body kits for me thank you very much, id just want non popup lights, and mold in some fender flares to throw large offset wheels on it and maybe throw on a lip kit. thats about it. exhaust and intercooler plumbing ill make myself, as well as any other metal fabricating/custom stuff.


ok, whaddaya think? am i dreaming or what

ps: tell me if im way off on any of this **** so i can get a reality check or am i on the right track?
thanx guys
-Vlad

18psi

iTrader: (76)

just to give you guys an idea of what kinda **** i went through on the subaru, here's a couple pics of the 18g turbo install:












and shortly after that, my "glass box" tranny took a nice little **** on me:






and this was with normal driving mind you, not even launching it or shifting fast.....the power of the car at the time, about 330whp/tq was just too much for that pos tranny. SOOOOO, i upgraded to a micropolished/cryo-treated sti ra gearset, which was a BIG difference in the amount of power it holds and mainly since the ratio goes from 3.7fd differently spaced gears to 4.4fd EQUALLY spaced gears.....so with that in mind i upgraded to a td06h 20g 8cm turbo (first post last pic on the left) and am quite a bit higher in power numbers now

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Looks like you have a good grasp of what you can get out of the miata affordably and reliably. Your budget of $7 is very high compared to what most people spend on the forum. You see to really like being able to bolt things on and go. There are a couple companies offering that. Flyin Miata and BEGI. Both offer kits though the BEGI kit is preferable and many board members run parts of their kits if not complete kits. The cost varies depending on how much power you're looking to get out of your car as well as what options and engine management you choose.

Now you just need to find a cheap miata to start working on.

ApexOnYou

iTrader: (10)

Whoa a Subaru owner actually upgrading their top mount. Nice. (All my friends slapped the biggest bling-tastic FMICs they could fit on their WRX/STIs, and they all look retarded)

miatamania

iTrader: (9)

I know right...top mounts are your friend until they heatsoak...then it just sucks. But response must me nice.

18psi

iTrader: (76)

the throttle response is VERY significant not to mention its quite a bitt less laggy with the top mount.....beleive it or not, i have NOT ONCE experienced heat soak with this thing, even when taking it to highway 49 for hours of cornering/twisties action. however, it IS starting to get ridiculously hot here in california so im sure during the summer when its 100 degrees outside ill feel the difference. im not too scared of that though, since i usually never even floor the car unless its weeknight(when its cooler) and im on a cruise with friends or up in the mountains doing some corners (where its also usually alot cooler).......i have a "when all else fails" meth injection kit that i was planning to use to RIDICULOUSLY lower temps and raise octane levels to that of race gas but sadly that might go unused since i really dont want to spend any more money on anything else at this point. its not too bad though, ive had QUITE A FEW corvette and porsche turbo experiences after which the owners of those cars were like WTF WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN THAT THING???? lol

my friend has an sti with a much larger turbo and a huge front mount, and let me tell you: while he has much more peak power and a stronger setup, my car has much better response, more torque, and overall smoother power curve that is broader, and i beat him every dime

ApexOnYou

iTrader: (10)

I'll have to ask my friends how they like their throttle response now haha. Well it looks like you should have some fun with a Miata..

highroller101

18,
My car is a track car and I am into it for (mods alone) 12k. and there is still quite a bit to do.

Basically from what it sounds like get a 97-99 1.8L with a torsen 3.9 rear end, (spend the extra money and get the 99 because that is the most sought after head). Remove the engine and get yourself a POS 1.6 for the mean time. easiest way to make power is head work and turbo. If you dont care about low end then a t3/t4 may better suit you. Thats what I am running (I love it and it has almost NO lag). There are not as many ready made solutions for it but you will find that the general consensus is a t3/t4 is a powerhouse. my car is not properly tuned and i have 195 whp @14psi on a 1.6... currently I need to dyno and tune because I am running 18psi..

Once you break 250-300whp you start running into problems... EXPENSIVE problems like a new quaffe tranny $2800.

but besides that.. you can make 240 easily on a 1.8 with no headwork. but it sounds like you want to drag, and given your history, I'd say 240 wont be good enough for more than a few months.

As for beating a mustang.. think about this a mustand it like 205hp and weights close to 4k, miata with a little itty bitty turbo making 160 at ~2500lbs would **** all over a stang.

just food for thought


As for your suspension.. everyone here will recomend a different suspension but you have to remember many people here do autox and track days. If you want to slam it down get yourself a set of ground controls with a reasonable spring rate 400/300 fr/rr and you can drop it on the screws although if you want to put a set of 16's or 17's its already pretty low.