ndemeis

Decided to log this here as I’ve read through a few of the other ST5 builds that have been a bit of an inspiration to go down my own path.

I’ve been back and forth on where/where I want to go long term and had an incident that helped shaped where I want to go with the car but I’ll get to that later.


Background:

I’ll start that I know about 1/10 of what most of you know when it comes to cars. So feedback is always appreciated, especially when I do dumb things. However reading here, other forums, facebook, and picking up a few books along the way I’ve learned a wee bit more than I knew back in 2018 when I randomly decided this would be a fun thing to do.

So back in 2018 I bought a 2013 FRS drove it in the fall and put it away for the winter. The clutch needed replacing so when I heard about the valve spring recall I decided to do both together to save some money…this was 1.5 months before my first track even with NASA in spring of 2019. Well the car died due to the recall and I missed my first event. After going back and forth I picked up a 2002 Miata with hard top and 57K miles for $6K. banked the rest of the money the dealership paid for my FRS for wheels, trackdays etc.

2019 - Finally got my first track even with NASA Great Lakes in May an instantly fell in love. Sadly I wasn’t driving that far to additional track and didn’t have a trailer yet so only 1 NASA event in 2019. Did two events with Auto Interests at Nelson Ledges.

2020 I planned on doing 4 NASA events…covid changed that and I got to do only 2 events, Mid-Ohio and then Pitt race. Also got one Miata day in at Nelson Ledges. Plan was to move to HPDE 2 but couldn’t get a check off ride at the Mid Ohio event so had to wait until 2021. Ended up buying a trailer which made getting to Pitt and additional tracks much more manageable.



The car as it stands today:

2002 Miata

• Xidas 900/400 w/NB mounts
• SM rear sway
• Racing Beat front sway bar
• Energy Suspension bushings
• ELBJ’s
• Sport brakes R10’s front/R8’s Rear
• Flyin Miata Coolant reroute
• Supermiata Cross Flow radiator
• Goodwin Header
• Cobalt Midpipe
• 225’s RS4’s and R88R’s
• Various Konig wheels
• OMP THE-400 seat
• Sparco Spring passenger
• Sparco Wheel
• Hard Dog Roll bar
• Factory Hardtop
• Semi interior deleted – rest coming out this winter