Does this guy know what he's doing?
 

No.

I bought my car about 3 years ago from a guy who'd said he built it to be a track car. At the time, that seemed plausible. I didn't know much about tracking a Miata then (do I now?). It had 15x8 6ULs with 8 (!!!) year old RS3s on them, Koni Yellows, an RB front bar, a Koyo Radiator, Willwood Dynalites, and a Hard Dog Sport roll bar. And a Fast Forward Supercharger kit. I'd never driven a fast Miata, and this one seemed like it was, so I bought it. My plan at the time was to make it a grand touring style build.

2 years later, I finally actually get to go to the track. Now on some FM VMaxx Coilovers, 15x9s, and 245 RS4s. October in Alabama was about 90 degrees, and I got the car hot in approx 3 laps. Yay. No space for a reroute either.

In continuing to learn more about tracking a Miata, I get the feeling the supercharger isn't going to stay. My wife and I did get to take the car to the Dragon this Spring, and hearing the s/c whine off the hills was...magical. About 30 miles of driving after we got home from that trip, the car coughed and died on the interstate. Turns out the main damper pulley bolt had backed out - apparently I did something wrong during the timing belt job 6k miles previous. The Woodruff Key broke, and saved any damage to the crankshaft, so that's nice. I work a full time job and about 30-40 additional hours/week running my own business, so it took me an inordinate amount of time to put the car back together. Finally fixed it 2 weeks ago, and feel underwhelmed by the supercharger now.

I'm going to remove the supercharger in the next month. Plan is to install the 6 speed I've got sitting in the garage that was rebuilt 40k miles ago, along with the 7lb flywheel I got from a parts car, and a puck sprung clutch from SuperMiata (to keep up with any future power adders). I got a hard top this month as well, and some Xidas and 15X10 6ULs earlier this year. The 02SE Saddle interior I swapped into the car is being sold this week, and cloth stuff will be replacing it. I have a Track Dog seat for the driver side, but need to sort out harness mounting first.

In short: I bought a super fun street car, and it was fun for 40K miles. Now I have an NC to daily and want something to get some seat time in without worrying. Love the idea of a K swap for some more jam while retaining the glory of N/A power, but a turbo isn't totally out of mind.

Attachment 227980

Very cool car

For what youre doing I think the K24Z3 swap would be excellent. Im considering trying to pick up another Miata to do just that.

K24z3 sounds like the answer for you too. One of the issues with that supercharger is the lack of ability to run an intercooler so the charge air is hotter than ambient. But at least it isn't on the hotside compressing air.

I do think your choice in clutch is a bit aggressive though. I would run the k swap and use the clutch they recommend with their flywheel.

Another vote for the k swap. Either the k24z3 or the K24a2. You would end up with more power than you have now and can easily add more if you want.

Tom at For Fucks Sake:

"e-CoOl iS JusT aS gOod!"

Also, K-swap. If I could go back and change history that's probably what I should have done (not that my turbo BP isn't amazing and reliable).

Was going to mention E Cool, but will just leave dleavitt's comment instead. I will say, in defense of Tom, he has been nothing but overwhelmingly helpful and kind in supporting the kit. He has provided his personal email to me, always responds within 12 hours, and if I have questions about small parts, his response is usually "I'm mailing some to you, you'll have them in 2 days." If I didn't want to track this setup, I don't think I'd really have problems with it. It's more work than stock, but I think you should expect that when you add 50% more power to your car. Still gonna take it off my car though.

Agree the clutch choice is aggressive. My car has some dumb aggressive clutch in it already (I think the PO said it was the FM stage 2?), so I'm not particularly afraid of that. Mostly just want something that can hold up regardless of where I take the car next. I had failed to consider the fact that the K swap will use a different flywheel anyway, though. That makes it a much shorter term choice. Much less aggressive needed for an N/A BP.

Is there a different recommendation y'all would make for a 1.6 clutch? I do have R Comps for autocross that I'll continue to use til they're shot (got them for $200 from a part out), so it needs to be able to hold up to launches on those.

I'm going to be oddball and say you can have plenty of fun on the track with a N/A BP. Header, exhaust, intake, intake manifold, throttle body, tune, 6spd, and 4.3 final drive and you'll be having a blast for the fraction of the cost of a K swap. Doesn't require much cooling mods (ebay rad, ducting, reroute, and vents) and it'll run great ever session. Given you're location, Barber and TGP are not really "power" tracks and are great fun in a well balanced Miata. AMP is the same, not really a power track. Road Atlanta is, but still fun if you have a drafting partner.

I 100% plan to run the car like that for at least a year. As I mentioned, I've got the 6 speed sitting in the garage waiting to go in. Car already has a full exhaust, 4.30 Torsen, and I plan to use an NB1 intake manifold to avoid the VTCS butterflies (and because that's what I have on the shelf).

Even after selling the s/c, I'll still need to accumulate a good bit of cash prior to a K swap. I just want to drive the car on track. I live 15 minutes from Barber, and my shop is 10 minutes away.

Took the belt off the supercharger last night and drove home from my shop n/a. Car is very slow to me now, and quiet. I'm sure it'll be better once it's not breathing through a supercharger.

Probably not. But they can still be fun. As MidTenn said, if you're just starting on track, BP power is fine. If you want to be a decent drive, I might also suggest some 15x8s instead of the x10s, I don't know what you plan on adding, but on stock power it'll turn your car into a boring steam roller. Some 200tw 205s are great to learn on. 225 RS4s if you must. Run two sets of the RS4s, one year per set, a dozen track days per year, and you might actually come out the other side a decent driver.

If I were op, I would leave the clutch and flywheel that is in the car alone. You already own them and they work well and will handle all the power you throw at them.
I might consider a megasquirt because I like knowing exactly what it is my car is doing. I would pitch the cold side ffs super charger and enjoy na power from the car and I would buy either the skunk 2 intake manifold or a squaretop.

Dangit. I hadn't considered that, other than that the X10s are overkill. I've also got a set of 15X9s that I can mount some 225s on, and 15X7s I can put 205s on. I've done two track days thus far, and a couple of years of autocross (not the same and I know it). 15x8s with 205s probably would be best, though. Ironic that the X10s I was searching for for 18 months are now superfluous.

The car also needs to go on a diet. It weighed 2389 with no top and approx 60 lbs of fuel. I'd like to have it in the 22XX range with no supercharger. I'm extremely fortunate to have my SCCA region's scales at the shop on long-term loan (we use them 2x-3x per year for races), so I can baseline the car again as it sits, and then check progress accurately. So far the weight loss plan looks like this:

Supercharger: -30lbs
Track Dog Race Seat: -15lbs
Lighter trailer hitch: -10lbs
Lighter battery: -10lbs
1.6 flywheel: -10lbs

These are 100% numbers based on what the interwebz say. We'll find out the true accuracy later. PS is already deleted and I'd love to retain A/C because street car in Alabama.

Absolutely.

I've got 2 seasons on our VVT swapped NA and it's still a lot of fun to drive, even on 225 R comps. It will definitely make you work on your driving skills... it's easy to be lazy with power. An n/a setup is also really simple and reliable for the track. I keep an eye on consumables, and change the oil... other than that, nearly zero wrenching since I finished the VVT swap three years ago.

I had originally intended the next step to be a low boost (~200hp) Kraken setup, and even collected some parts, but I'm really leaning toward the stock subframe K swap now. I'll put the turbo on our street NB.

Sold my saddle 02SE interior and put in cloth last night. Why do more people not talk about how much better cloth seats are?

Getting used to driving the car without f/i. I just get to act like a lot more of a tool in it. Needs ball joints, so ELBJs coming soon I suppose.

Lose the softtop, replace with CF hardtop. Much -weight. If cost is an issue, then FG, but check the cost/weight savings equation before jumping.

Carpet is overrated. Also, old, dirty carpet is heavy (and ALL carpet is dirty).

Get lots of seat time. Have fun!

I'm really having a hard time not selling my 1.8/td04 stuff and getting into the K24Z3 thing as well. But I like the character of the turbo and I don't really ever plan on tracking my stuff. I need to get my turbo car driving again before I make that decision I guess haha.

There seems to be quite a few of us around we should all get together and do hairdresser things.

A 7 lb flywheel will make the car want to stall when the air conditioner compressor and fan engage at idle. Removing rotating mass will be very important and stock power but that's going to be too aggressive for a flywheel for air conditioning. I do however agree with the idea of going with the lighter weight wheels and tires. You will most certainly feel the difference in acceleration.

If in your choices you already have access to 15 x 7 and 205 then I would stick with them for naturally aspirated track duty.

So what you're saying is that I *should* just go ahead and delete a/c? ;) Or at the very least, should I choose to go ahead and put in this flywheel, know that I can't run A/C at idle.

As far as the 15x7s, I will need new tires for them soon - suppose I could go with something like RS4s instead of the Conti ECS I was planning on. I still need to wear out my 245s though!

You should at least come over and check out my shop in Leeds at some point, since you're close! The purpose my my presence here isn't to promote my business, but I do run a side-business parting Miatas out, so if you need parts...

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Soft top is already removed - lighter hard top or fastback is on the list. I've got a friend who is close to pulling the trigger on a bunch of CCP parts, so batching shipping would help that a good bit. I'm concerned about how well the lightweight hard top will seal - any experience there?

I had most of the carpet out of my car and was amazed at how much nicer it made the car to put 10lbs of carpet back in. If it comes back out, I'd need to figure out some form of noise reduction for street driving. There's a really great autocross region about 100 miles north of Birmingham, in my hometown of Huntsville, and I like to attend a few of their events a year.

You can run A/C with the 7lb flywheel but it is going to be more difficult. It may require starting with a higher base idle and playing with the compensations a bit to make it tolerable.

Gotcha. Appreciate the heads up, and definitely good info to keep in mind before I make a final decision on using it.

Good times yesterday in the soon to be unsupercharged NB. I had 3rd RAW time at local autocross, and the folks in P1 and P2 were both running PRO. Not bad for a street car masquerading as an SSM car. Got to pick the brain of a local CSP driver who has an amazing CSP 92 Sunburst (VVT swapped, etc) about taking my car back to n/a.

Also finally started using the tire trailer I bought last year. It needed new tires and wheel bearings in one side before I could take it anywhere. Now that I've used it a few times, I have some thoughts on how to "rebuild" it better for my particular uses. Also the wood underneath the storage box gave out at some point during my drive home, so the box is not ideally mounted anymore. That will need addressing before I can go anywhere.

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Registered for a track day at Barber on Nov 25th. Goal is to have the car n/a, coolant reroute, ELBJs, outer tie rods, corner balanced, and aligned by then.

Currently the plan is to buy outer tie rods from Supermiata (along with the ELBJs and reroute). Any others I should consider?

Also thinking I may try to snag an MS3 used in the next few months. I figure if I buy it used, my exposure to depreciation on the ECU will be little/nothing, and it'll be a decent place for me to park some cash until K Swap. $850-$900 is the number in my head - is that reasonable?

Yes, if you can find one.

The SuperMiata tie rod ends are not equal to R-package tie rod ends. Close. Better than stock NA/NB, but not the best for bump stop reduction. R-package are the best for reduction of bump stops.

Got an email last night that Supermiata has reroutes on sale, so I quit stalling and ordered a reroute, pair of ELBJs, and pair of their outer tie rods. Figure since their outer tie rods are better than stock, and mine could do with replacing, it's hard to go wrong. The fact that they're about 50% cost of any R PKG outer tie rods I could find didn't hurt anything either.

I've been dailying the car while I wait for brakes to come in the mail for my NC, so no progress other than driving it. Weighed the car fully dressed with a half tank of fuel, so now I have my starting point for weight reduction (bro): 2,430 lbs.

Work to be accomplished by 11/25:
-Unsupercharge (will start on this Sunday of this week, hopefully - need to clear space in the shop for the car to be worked on )
-Coolant reroute
-ELBJs + Outer Tie Rods
-Alignment
-Mount TDR Seat
-Acquire and install harness

You made it this far, so here is a picture of my shop doge, wishing I'd come and get her out of the car:

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I know this is MiataTurbo, and would hate to anger Trubo Cat, so there is also a stray cat that seems to have adopted my shop. We named her Kevin. My wife is trying to convince me we should keep Kevin. I just wish she'd eat the mice who are too smart for the mouse traps I put out.

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Bought a set of 15X8s off FB marketplace. 2 are cracked from the PO's MIL dropping 2 wheels off the side of the road and hitting a driveway - hoping at least one can be repaired. They were $200 and came with silver 949 lug nuts and the hub centering rings.

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Lazy "test fit"
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Car is pretty close to being corner balanced with me in it. Will get that perfected before alignment.

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Broken wheels are broken

I have (2j 15x8 6UL in Tungsten that will be for sale in about 10 days.

I am ashamed for not seeing this coming.

Sounds like we should talk. Both of my brothers live near Greenville, so arrangements could be made.

I'm prepared for the jokes this question will bring. But I can't not ask:

Why don't I sell all of my NB stuff and 2.5 swap an NC? My math says that my NB plus the parts I have on the shelf for it would fund a pretty great 2.5 NC with Xidas, 17X10s, DG Hartop, TDR seats, etc. Should be able to get the car to a 12:1 power/weight, and 2.5s are stupidly cheap - like there are 13 at LKQ in Alabama and none of them cost more than $600. I daily an NC on Koni yellows and it is wonderful. Driving it after dailying the NB for a week is 50% of what bring this question to mind. Cheap NC1s with bad engines being the other half.

Roast me.

No roasting here...

If I were doing things from scratch now, I would definitely go NC1 and 2.5 swap it to start. Prices are dropping well into NB territory.

We had an NC PRHT Club, and with basic suspension mods and 17x9s it was damn near as fast on track as my VVT swapped NA with Xidas and big brakes. It's a great chassis, and with some weight reduction and a 2.5 should be pretty quick. And you can fit big tires with just a fender roll.

The only thing that bothered me was tuning, but I think folks have the NC ECU figured out a little better now.

Weighed my NC last night - even more bad news for the NB. The NC weighs 2490 with a full tank of fuel. My NB weighs 2430 with a half tank.

For anyone wondering, my NC is a 2007 Grand Touring with soft top. It has 7.5" wide RPF1s and a GWR Street Single muffler.

After talking to my older, more reasonable friends, they pointed out that I could really use a truck for the parts business. So I think the new idea is to build my current NC and buy a truck. This also provides a really comfortable vehicle I can daily, and something useful as a family car. I feel some guilt over leaving my NB behind. Especially since this year has really seen it move significantly farther toward what I wanted it to be. We'll see if something changes my mind in the next month or so.

Think Goodwin would cut me some sort of deal if I ordered like 8 grand of parts from them all at once?

If I had the funds (and time), I'd be selling off all my NA/NB stuff and looking for a NC. It's a great platform that's really starting to shine in the track day market. It's not as heavy as people think. You can stuff more rubber under it. The growth of the 2.5L component market makes it on par with a K swapped NA/NB in terms of value. If you're planning on a cage, you can fine former MX5 Cup cars for around 10-15k depending on condition. I've seen a few for cheaper sans 2.0L, but not as common.

If I was starting from scratch, I'd be building an NC right now... but I'm too invested in my NB to look back (and I still like it a lot) so here we are. NC is high on my "if I ever buy another miata" list

I would say go for it. NCs are great for all the reasons already elaborated; not to mention they are also a better daily drive than any NA/NB.

Cameron is on this same path
 

@vteckiller2000 Can tell you all the right stuff you need.

Nevertheless, PM me if you want the wheels.

The NC is an incredible value and easily has potential with same mods to bury any NB on track. Mine is just an NC3 with FEAL coils, Progress sways, full exhaust and tune and it runs with similarly modded s2000s on track. A 2.5 swap with cams would put it on another level, something I am planning to do as soon as mine starts using oil. Thing is, I have no good reason to swap it since it used no appreciable oil and made 160 whp reliably all 2019 season.

I had a track prepped but full interior vvt swapped NB1 since 2015 (albeit in a few different iterations), and I am not only $5k ahead AFTER my part out and repurchasing NC things, I am running faster times with higher trap speeds while still learning the car.

Here's the list so far. Anything I'm missing? Pricing wrong?

Konig 17X10s $896.00

NC Xidas $2,400.00 (blind guess)

GWR Radiator $500.00

GWR Brakes $1,200.00

GWR Header $629.00

Muffler $399.00

Midpipe $329.00

Roll Bar $800.00

Sway Bars $320.00

GWR Motor Mounts $199.00

Whiteline Bushings $89.00

Diff Bushings $105.00

ACT Stage 1 Clutch $459.00

Light Battery Kit $59.00

$37.00

2.5 Engine $500.00

Xero Limits ECU Tune $199.00

Stage 1.5 Cams $650.00

MZR Oil Filter Relo Plate $49.00

255 VR1s $544.00 (SCCA Member pricing)

DG Street HT $1,750.00

TDR Seat+Pass Rail $487.00

TDR Driver Rail $89.00 (own driver seat already)

Harnesses X2 $378.00

Timken RX8 Front Hubs X2 $277.78

SPEND TOTAL $13,067.00

You will likely need valve springs as well if you plan on sustained high revs. Skip the whiteline bushings and install the mazda motorsports offset spindle bushings. You will also want an oil cooler and filter mount/lines to add to that remote filter plate. Add your name to the BBFW GT3 group buy if you are removing the soft top, otherwise order up a BBFW RZ, both are more than $800. With a 200 whp engine, you will probably also want a better intake pipe and filter. Oh... also, I would consider using PCI brackets and side mount FIA seats instead of the bottom mount ones.

If you are willing to spend $texas on that top, you should buy my CCP top for significantly less :)

Failed to mention:

I have a Setrab 32 row cooler sitting on the shelf and an AEM intake on the car already.

Will look at those mazdacomp bushings. OE seems better than not though.

Any suggestions on springs?

If I move on this before that group buy goes through I’ll look at the BBFW bar. I live 20 minutes from Kirk Racing, so I may also take him money and ask him to make me a bar.

Does your CCP top seal? this would still be sort of a street car, so weatherproof is key. I’d pony up for oem if I had to. Just so heavy...


I have a set of Sparco sidemount fia mounts already. Guess I could just use those.

Poly bushings are not something I would do on control arms unless with bronze inserts for less stiction.

I run 12k/7k spring rate on mine with the yuge Progress bars. It works really well for me, but YMMV.

The CCP top doesn't seal. The DG doesn't seal either. If you want a waterproof NC, an OEM HT is the only way to get there.

I should have been more specific: valve springs.

I'd probably just run whatever fab9 has. I think Bryan sells Supertech.

I will sell you my plug-and-play MS3 for that price.

You get 3% off the total when you order 5k parts or more in one order.

A tune doesn't cost $200. Do you already have an ECUtek set-up? The Xero Limit one is $200 for a custom tune, NOT for all the tuning software and hardware in the first place.

My car has an existing ECUtek tune. Looks like $450 for one from Fab9, since I'll need the cable/associated hardware for the tune.

Got to drive my NB at Barber in November, and Talladega Gran Prix Raceway in December. I definitely enjoyed it, of course. This was my first time at Barber, and I improved significantly over the day. My best time was a 1:52.12 and an optimal prediction of 1:51.84. Not a bad improvement from starting at 2:03.19. Plenty of time left for me to find there, especially at turn 5. An analysis of my speeds also shows that I tend to be a gear higher than optimal the majority of the time. A lesson for next time!

TGPR was a much lower pressure day, since it is a smaller track, and had less attendees. I went with a friend for his "bachelor party." (I may not have done a good job as best man and waited til too late for most folks to be able to attend.) My friend's car is extremely similar to mine but with 15x9s and 225 RS4s as opposed to X10s and 245 RS4s. He also has a less aggressive alignment, less aggressive brakes, and a bucket seat with harness. We swapped cars for a few laps and found that his was about 6 seconds slower per lap in my hands, and the margin grew when he was driving. I was surprised that the difference between the cars was that large.

With the supercharger off the car, it's at least under 2400lbs with a half tank of fuel. If I choose to keep the car (still can't decide on that front), I'll aim to get it under 2300.

Attachment 227967

I removed my fog lights that haven't ever worked and replaced them with factory fog light blockoff plates.I like the plates much better. They tie in the painted headlights nicely. Need to actually mount up the Mazdaspeed front lip too.

Attachment 227968

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I drove the NB to work last week and was reminded that it's pretty dull to drive on the street. At least compared to how it was with the supercharger. Also, the roads I use to get to work suck. I bought a truck and trailer (came with a free Subaru too!), so once that is more roadworthy, I can afford to ruin the car for street use some more. Things like removal of A/C, swapping in the 6 speed with the 7lb flywheel, etc. I'm still weighing stocking out my NB, selling off all the parts, and doing stuff with the NC. We've got a baby coming in May, and I'd love to get something like a Mazdaspeed3 for family duty, so we could go places in something fun instead. And I struggle with leaving the NB sitting in the garage most of the time. Seems sort of pointless. No one told me having a second sports car would be so hard. :D

Le Beige Turd:

Attachment 227970

Anyone wanna buy MT.net's favorite supercharger?

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Finished Installing my 6 speed, 7lb flywheel, and fresh 1.6 Exedy clutch last night. Very much in love with what that did for the car. Maybe it's from DD'ing my NC, but the 6 Speed and 4.30 doesn't bother me too much...yet. I did discover that the OEM 5 speed shifter will go into an early 6 Speed trans and shift just fine. Works out nicely since the MR shifter I had for the 6 spd was missing some bits (bought used), and I had a recently rebuilt shifter in my 5 spd. RPMs were between 3700 and 4000 on the interstate as I drove home. This car isn't a road-tripper any more, so that engine speed doesn't bother me. I suspect the farthest it will be street driven will be up to the Dragon, which is about 5 hours.

This has me back on board with keeping my NB, at least for another year. Need to get a harness bar and then I can install the Ultrashield seat and Schroth harness I've had sitting in the shop for a year. I also will be looking to remove some weight from the car where possible. Soft top has already been deleted, with the hard top bolted in place. P/S has been deleted as well, along with the washer fluid bottle and a few other small things under the hood. I don't currently plan to remove A/C, though I don't even have a belt on to run it currently. I'm thinking about putting in one of the NA6 dashes I've got at the shop, and deleting the center console. My car is a Bose car, so deleting that and moving to something like a bluetooth amp, or just a simpler head unit and speakers would help too, and probably also sound better.

First autocross event of the season is 3/8 at the proving Grounds at Barber Motorsports Park. Looking forward to seeing how the car performs there, and to getting more track time this year!

First autocross of the season was very fun; had a friend co driving with me, which is always fun. The car performed remarkably well, and I had 8th top raw time out of 88 drivers. We should have left the slicks on the car as things warmed up enough that afternoon to get temp in them, but chose to hedge our bets and run back to the shop to put on my RS4s instead. Benefits of having a shop 10 minutes from Barber. The gearing in the car worked really well too - second gear was ideal for the majority of the course, with a single shift to third for the finish. Oh, and the MiataRoadster shifter is of course, wonderful.

Took the car to the hardware store. May have gotten in a bit over my head with purchases:

Attachment 227952

Man, do I love the way this thing looks with the 10s on it.

Attachment 227953

I bought a lift for the shop, which is incredibly exciting. Of course, I can't seem to get anyone to come and help me actually set it up, so it's just sitting in my shop making me sad and taking up space. Soon.

Attachment 227954

Our Spring in Alabama is unbelievably nice this year, so my wife and I took a drive through a national forest about an hour from the house and enjoyed the roads and weather. We took the NC because, as it turns out, women who are 7-1/2 months pregnant don't fit super well into NBs.

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Last weekend was spent helping a friend put a fresh(er) BP4W into his NB1.5. We also deleted A/C and P/S, and cleaned up some emissions stuff. This whole removing excess stuff from the engine bay thing is fairly addicting. The engine bay looks so much better.

Attachment 227957

Obligatory test drive up the curvy road by the shop was a huge success.

Attachment 227958

Then we weighed his NB1.5. Did not expect it, but it only weighed 2,150. Hard top, no soft top, A/C and P/S deleted, raceland header with ISR midpipe/muffler (no cat), 3 gallons of fuel (filled up immediately after weighing to find that out), no roll bar. Given what my NB2 weighs, I'm extremely jealous. With 6 speed and 4.30 diff in my car, I couldn't gain on him at all when chasing on the twisties. His car has 5 speed 4.30s and he had a passenger with him. We're both now totally sold on cutting weight out of our cars. Probably going to encourage each other to do some excessive things. It'll be great.

I was inspired to work on some weight reduction of my own on my car, so worked on that yesterday.

Basline of 2296 (pumped out all of the fuel, hard top off, car has a Hard Dog Hard Core Double Diagonal without the harness bar):

Attachment 227959

Removed the spare, jack, and all tools from the trunk, which I'll do for autocross/track events. That was worth 30lbs.

Attachment 227960

Removed the tow hitch bar for a 15lb savings:

Attachment 227961

Switched from the Special Edition sill plates with metal inserts to base black plastic for another 2lbs:

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Removed front shock tower bar, 5lbs:

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Removed p/s delete tensioner in prep for deleting A/C as well, 4lbs:

Attachment 227964

Total of 56lbs removed from the car without any sacrifices of comfort (yet).

A/C delete, NA6 dash are planned next. I happen to have a few NB dashes hanging out, as well as the NA6 dash that's going into my car, so weighed them too, along with a Track Dog Rally Pro seat. I'll also be removing the front tie down points and rear hooks, and replace them with a single front and rear tow hook. My radio hasn't worked since the last time I took the dash out, and I haven't cared enough to figure out what I did wrong. As my car is a Bose car, I'll be removing the speakers, amp, and head unit. I'll also be removing the antenna from the rear of the car. I welcome input on what else can be removed to save weight. I want to get the car down to 2,1XX lbs with the weight of a half tank of fuel added in (36lbs).

For posterity, weights of dashes below.

NB dash as-removed from the car. That means no stereo, HVAC controls, stereo surround trim, gauge cluster, gauge hood, or glove box. Pass airbag is still in the dash. 41lbs

Attachment 227965

NA6 dash in the same condition. 24lbs

Attachment 227966

Also weighed an NB passenger airbag, to help see if it's really worth it to put in the NA6 dash for weight savings, it's 10lbs. No picture for that one.

Nice seeing some concrete numbers on weights of items! Keep it up if you can! You'll be playing the fun compromise of figuring out what's worth it to truly remove for comforts on a street driven car. I learned my lesson by taking that too far on my previous NA6 lol.

I'm not entirely surprised by the NB1.5 weighs what it does. As memory serves me, a roll bar is worth 45lbs on its own. Every little detail starts adding up quickly if you really get into it. If you skim through my build thread, you'll see I've mildly gutted the doors (still retaining power windows) and added LRB door panels.. During that process, I swapped from an NB1 to an NA6 dash and completely replaced the Bose system with lighter single DIN headunit and aftermarket speakers.. There's a lot of dash wiring that can be removed if you really get into things, but its pretty high effort for minimal weight to be lost here..

3/4 tank on my car with large front splitter, large barge boards, NLR rear wing, hardtop (no softtop), no AC, no PS, BFW rollbar w/ harness bar, complete interior with sparco sprints and 6pt harnesses on both sides, xidas, and 15x10's I was sitting at 2278 last year.. There's a LOT of things I'm working on to improve that for this upcoming year without giving up any creature comforts.. Its an iterative process..

Tell me what you want weighed and if I've got it, I'll weigh it! Having my SCCA region's scales at the shop makes that pretty easy to do. BTW, we've talked on IG before through my parts business, Miata Fix. I'm still waiting to get a black NB1 in so I can bring you the front bumper at MATG for you to make an airdam.

45 is about right on a roll bar from my weight-obsessed friend's spreadsheet. Significant for sure. I've definitely been keeping up with your build! I am curious, where did you put the OBDII port when you swapped the dash?

From now on, I'm going to weigh my car without fuel in it, even though that's clearly not realistic. A fuel gauge just doesn't provide the resolution in data necessary to actually know what's in the tank. My 15x7 Koseis and my 15x10 6ULs are stated to weigh the same amount, so it's just the weight difference in tires (about 2lbs per tire) to be accounted for there. I still want to be able to street drive my car 3 or so hours without hating life, so that's the balance to be maintained with comfort. Mostly though, it's around town or I'll trailer it to other tracks.

The NB OBDII port I just left hang in the OEM location and simply tucked it up into place behind the NA dash skin. I no longer have that port now with the Kswap as its part of what I've deleted with my wiring harness pruning. The new OBDII for the K24 ECU is going to be located above the glovebox.

Gotcha, that makes sense. Once a wild MS3 appears, it won't matter anyway.

Got bored one day while working from home, so removed and weighed the power antenna: 1.75lbs. Weight with an empty fuel tank should now be 2238.

Haven't really done much to the car other than drive it. Had a baby, 'Rona cancelled all events, here we are.

Local tracks are finally open again, there were about 12 cars at TGPR for this event, 6 of them were Miatas. We had a great time, but I think we bullied the rest of the cars off track. Driving my friend's silver/red NB1.5 was a ton of fun. His car should weigh close to 2100 lbs at this point, and was notably faster than the rest of the Miatas. AIM time showed that most aggressive/skilled of us who drove it did a 1:12.0.

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After pulling the AC out of my NB, I came to a conclusion: I don't want to ruin this car. My wife is still mad at me for selling the saddle interior, and I must admit it looked better with that in it. I also had been wanting an NA to be the shop car, so bought a silver 90 that was $500. It turned out to be far more rough than I wanted to deal with bringing back, so it's likely destined to be parted out. A much nicer car popped up on Marketplace a few weeks later, and I snagged it. The pictures make it look nicer than it is, but it's just the right amount of rough. I can be proud of it and put the shop name on it, but not be precious with it. Say hello to the new "race car." A 91 with an NA 1.8 swapped into it, BeGI coolant reroute, GC coilovers using NA Bilsteins, Chapparals, Hard Dog roll bar, and some cool cosmetic stuff like mirrors you can't see out of.

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As-purchased, with all of the extra parts in it still, it weighs a whole 40lbs more than my NB.

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As is the only right thing to do, I immediately began buying parts I didn't really need yet.

First came the airdam a local ITA racer had bought for their NA and decided against using:

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Then a Daikei hub that was too cheap to not buy:

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Made the mistake of looking at Facebook one morning and there was an OEM Momo that looked cool, but will probably be too large:

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A customer needed a control arm and had this prop valve they didn't want to use, so we did a partial trade for the arm+cash:

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Did I mention the car hadn't run in like 7 years? Still didn't run while I was buying all of these parts. Anyway, we got it to run yesterday, and then I pulled out the engine and trans. There's this BP4W sitting in the shop that needs a home.

Autocross on Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park was a really great time. I had a friend co-driving with me, and some other Miata buds there too. I trailed the top CSP drivers by .7 seconds. A good margin, but considering these guys are both actually good drivers in well prepped cars with races seats and harnesses, I'm not ashamed. Ready to get the NA going so that I can have a more competitive car to lose in though!

I told you guys up front I had no idea what I'm doing. But there is money in an account named K24Z3 for this car.

Got the engine running a few weeks ago - it was mechanically out of time. Promptly yanked and sold it.

My dirty engine hole.
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Put my BBFW wing on with a trunk that had already been drilled for said wing. Also scored a Pit Crew exhaust (supposedly it's the one off the Blue Potato) for mega-cheap. It seems light, so that's cool.

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Pretty happy with how this thing is coming together. The back looks ridiculous in all the right ways.

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Ok, this exhaust looks a tad like a peashooter.

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1-10 how douchey does it make me if I like the car sans rear bumper? Asking for a friend...

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BP4W is nearly ready to drop in. Realized I need to remove the front coolant neck, so pulling things apart and taking care of that tonight. Friction material for the Fidanza flywheel just arrived about 20 minutes ago, so have the 8lb flywheel ready to go on as well.

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Got the car together and running in time for MATG, but the engine felt weak. I knew this engine was a gamble, and it looks like I lost. 150-155 psi across all 4 cylinders on a hot test. I need to drop some oil in the cylinders and test again, along with a leakdown test, to be sure that the bottom end is the problem.

Now I'm looking for good compression BP4W or (preferably) BP6D bottom end. I'd prefer to have the BP6D for all the compression, but also want to get the car back together and drive it soon. Looking for 190+psi and little to no variance across all cylinders.

The plan is to shave the BP4W head .040 to .060, install the MS2 I've got for the car, delete the AFM for an IAT, and move to COPs. I've got a BP05 head on the shelf that was reported to me to be bad by the seller, which means I could do an exhintake cam swap as well. Attempting to keep this BP powerplant as affordable as possible so that funds can flow toward a K swap instead.

I realized recently I haven't touched this thread in a while. Short summary:

I haven't driven the NA since I posted last. I'm putting it close to stock and selling it. Cash will be allocated toward other things that don't take up space in the shop and that make money. Hopefully I'll be able to pull out some proceeds from this at some point to buy a 4 door Dad car.

In the mean time, I've been using my NB for autocross/track events. Drove it at TGPR one evening last Fall on the dead RS4s. Couldn't run better than a :13, which is slower than my previous best, and pretty meh. I swapped the 3.90 rear end back into this car so I could put the 4.30 in my NA when I was putting it together, I have installed a BBFGW lexan wing, and race seats with harnesses on both sides. Other than that my NB is unchanged. I picked up a set of 15x10 Dekagrams with new RS4s on them, and also put new RS4s on the 6ULs in November.

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I have driven the car at Barber for JZilla's Friendsgiving, where I beat my previous PB by a couple seconds: 1:49.21. I should be able to put together a lap that's several seconds quicker still. A bunch of us Alabama Miata nerds went to TGPR again a few weeks ago for their open lapping day, and I again beat my previous PB by a good margin. Ran a 1:10.1 on the first session. I had cranked the BBFW wing up to its max AOA, which I truly believe helped significantly.

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I wish I'd gotten a chance to drive more that day, but...heard a lot of engine noise about halfway through session 2. I came off track and shut the engine off, coasting out of the way. Sure enough, the engine was knocking. I'm glad I caught it before things exited the block. Interested to tear it down and see what the cause seems to be. 104K miles on the car, regular oil changes, etc. Fresh oil and plenty of it in the engine when it started knocking. Trailered the car back to the shop and shoved it inside, it's currently sitting off to the side and only slightly in the way.

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I've got a parts NB2 with a blown head gasket in right now, so will be using that bottom end. Plan is to take that bottom end to the machine shop and have it checked over/bored/cleaned, etc. A friend who's a drivetrain engineer for Honda found some titanium wrist pins on closeout for $70/ea and his math/smart guy stuff/simulations say they should make 8 herspewrs at 7500rpm. So I own a set of those to be used in this engine. Only potential modification other than that will be some H Beam rods with ARP hardware if the rods in this bottom end show fatigue (Honda friend is also concerned about that)/for insurance sake. I plan to have the head off my engine shaved .040 and some head work done (following the recommendation from Supermiata for the bowl blend, deshrouding, and port matching).

Hopefully I'll have the engine together in March and be able to enjoy the rest of the season of driving with no drama. The other plans I have for 2021 are to remove a bunch of weight from the car (2240 at last weigh-in with no gas in the tank and HT removed), improve the car aerodynamically, and revert to 5 speed 4.30.