Decided to make a build thread for my 2002 Miata project that will literally never materialize. Now I can always come back here and relive bad choices! It started as my daily driver after graduating and quickly became a weekend and autocross fun car. Then I got into HPDE and time trial. It spiraled when I decided I wanted to prep to the limit of NASA TT/ST4 rules and then life happened. I've finally admitted to myself that I won't have the time to finish it in the next decade, so I'm parting it out and making garage space again. Here's an old pic from my first season autocrossing it back in 2008, complete with all the body roll!

-Justin

 

So... here's what the car currently looks like...

My original plans for the car were to strip it down, seam weld and put in a cage. I wanted a passenger seat for my special lady friend. Good suspension was obviously on the list. Power plan was Trackspeed turbo kit and KMiata BMW 6-speed swap. Because I overthink things, I wanted to add a ton of complexity to shift some weight rearward, so I decided I also "needed" a dry sump oiling setup with the tank and cooler in the trunk. I was going to run a wing at the size limit of the rules, and some fairly standard front splitter arrangement. Since build threads are best told with pictures, I'll make my way through getting them up here. I don't really have much from when it was an autocross car, but that's okay because it was pretty boring then anyway.

 

That body roll is something! Was the Miata a C street car back then or was it misclassed?

 

It was C Stock. On horrible no-name street tires that were on it when I bought the car.

 

A bit more car history - I bought this 2002 SE back in 2007 after graduation. I've always loved karting and driving, but never really got into it competitively. After doing FSAE for the last couple years of school, I new I wanted to autocross regularly, so the Miata made sense. I ran it very stock for my first season. I was running in C Stock on street tires. Looking back I had a weird relationship with my budgeting and spending. I stayed on street tires to save money and so I could drive to the events. But before my second season, I added the typical racing beat front ARB and Fatcat revalved bilsteins, specifically setup for stock class autocross. My driving slowly improved and I had a lot of fun. The Kansas City region SCCA hosted a national tour event at Arrowhead lot L (I can't remember if it was 2008 or 09). I stubbornly stayed in the normal CS class, even though I was on street tires because I was looking at local seasonal points. I would have finished first in the "street tire" PAX indexed class. Guess all I'm missing is a cheap little wooden trophy. Pretty sure that there were some questionable choices throughout this though.

At some point I added a bolt-in rollbar, Tein monoflex suspension, and stripped out most of the interior to save weight. Still on street tires, my choices put me in XP class for autocross. Where I was not competitive at all. But I wanted to also get into track days - at least I think that is why I went the direction I did with the rollbar and such. I don't have pics from any of that, and if I did they would have been taken with a potato phone. Fast forward to most likely right after my first HPDE event and I was hooked. I learned my way through NASA's HPDE program and into TT. And finally I have some pictures! I needed a transponder and cooler brakes, so I added a hardwired transponder and Singular's 2.5in brake ducting kit.

Yay zip ties.

Also added some wire mesh from McMaster to cut down on the larger debris trying to play Plinko through the radiator fins. I foolishly mounted the transponder just above the radiator inlet/opening in the front fascia, right around the factory horn location. I think I was able to run one or two events before I had issues at Hallet with the loop not consistently picking up the signal. Lesson learned, put the transponder down low and still as much forward as possible.

 

And then I needed cooler oil to go with the cooler brakes. So in goes Trackspeed oil cooler with the Setrab heat exchanger.

Got permission to use work's mill outside work hours. Nothing special, but fun excuse to overthink things and machine some brackets for mounting the aluminum angle that the cooler is mounted to.

Hose routing and loop clamps to keep it in place, but loosely for movement.

Adding weight with rubber hose outside braided hose. Also zip ties.

More loop clamps

It's busy in there with sandwich plate and inline fitting for temperature sender. At some point I started using the K&N oil filters because of the nut on the bottom and my arm not having Inspector Gadget abilities to snake around all the crap in the way.

 

Modeled up a sheet metal gauge mount for the a-pillar. Two-axis NC on an I can't remember the brand knee mill. Programmed on machine, so ordinate dimensioned drawing makes that much easier.

Cut and bent.

And riveted in place. Used a Longacre AccuTech SMi oil temperature gauge. The thin aluminum bracket didn't weigh much, but it also liked to flex and resonate like an airplane's wing.

 

Not enough negative camber...

GoPro housing rock carnage! Had this mounted in the front facia "mouth".

And requisite photo of my cat. Apparently soft top is a good resting place. Better than boxes or things on the floor. Also the tiny *** one car garage I used to work on the car in. Better than no garage though.

 

Ugh. Some goober with a Miata and a very short lived NASA Central TTE lap record at Brainerd. Cigar is probably the best thing in the pic.

 

Don't be so hard on yourself. The journey is the purpose.