Congrats on the NASA championship!

 

Thank you! Getting the miata ready for Sonoma in November. Putting those shocks to good use 💪🏻

 

I built a new car, does anyone want an update since its still not boosted :(

 

Yes! Show us!!

 

Of course we want to see.

 

Alright, so last year at Global Time Attack Finals at Buttonwillow the engine broke a retainer, dropped a valve, then absolutely destroyed the engine. Had a small oil fire, burnt up some stuff. I was already planning on building a replacement car with everything I have learned over the years but this kinda sped up my process.

Car started as a wrecked 1.6 roller. My brother and I began pulling it apart to get ready to build the cage. We started building in December of 2023. Built the cage, pedal mounts, interior sheet metal, and other fab stuff pretty quickly. This was my first full engine harness that I built (so far so good!)

I designed the motor plate up front and had my good friend CNC it out for me. Came out really sweet. There so much stuff going on, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures along the way.

But here's the basic run down:
430HP LS3 crate engine with a cam, valve springs, and push rods
Holley single plane intake
TA2 style headers
MS3Pro ecu
AVIAID 3 stage dry sump
7.25" triple disc Quarter Master clutch
QM Magnesium reverse starter mount bellhousing
Tex Racing T101 4 speed dog box
Winters IRS quickchange
DSS axles
Custom subframes, control arms, and Wilwood BBK
Springfield Dyno fenders, hood, and rear quarters
JRW 15" x 11" wheels
BroFab front hubs
DSS billet rear hubs
KSE 72" carbon wing
Plywood splitter



The car has been out 4 times and set 3 Miata chassis records;
Buttonwillow CW13: 1:43.004
Laguna Seca: 1:27.052
Sonoma Raceway: 1:37.157

We got some cool things happening over the winter, hopefully 2025 will be another year of going after those Miata records

 

Ryan out of nowhere with this. This car is ******* insane and those lap times beyond comprehension. Not just slightly faster that the old records, but a leap forward. The videos look sped up, lol. Awesome.

 

I am soooooo here for this.

Cats.

What a wild machine Ryan.

 

This is normally the part of the build thread where I say "...so when are you going to make it fast?"

but...

uhm...

yeah...

Nice job lol

Purely curious, I've seen a lot of people considering the NC chassis lately. From my high level viewpoint, it seems a large advantage that chassis has is tire options and relative ease of tire fitment in the 18" diameter size. Passey is going through a grossly huge pile of work just to fit 18's on his NA (for example)... Is there a reason you kept to the NA chassis when starting from a clean sheet? Obviously you are killing it on lap times, but are you experiencing any pitfalls or lessons learned where you would have done things differently in hindsight now that you have this beast together?

 

I just had no desire to start from an entirely new platform. I've had a NA Miata for 17 years now so I feel like I'm pretty confident about the ins and outs of them. As long as Hoosier continues to make the 295 A7 in a 15" wheel I have zero desire to go to a larger wheel. And aesthetically I think it looks stupid on a NA Miata. If Hoosier stops making that tire, I'll go build something else like my 2016 Mustang. Better geometry, more room, massive brakes, already a v8, etc.

Only issue I have with this new car is I will likely switch to a Tilton underfoot pedal assembly. I have Wilwood pedals in the car now with the masters facing forward so I am losing a couple inches of leg room. It's not the end of the world, just an ergonomic thing. Also, the giant air filter is quite hard to see over, but damn does that intake manifold make great power!

 

BIIIG Fig Newtons energy.

 

Are there 8 velocity stacks under that filter? Please tell me there are 8 stacks....

Amazing work, sir. Just...amazing.

 

negative. It’s a single 4150 style throttle body on a single plane high rise intake. This intake makes more power than the ITB setups that are in the same price range. If I wanted to spend 5k on proper stuff then the ITB would make more power. But this works well enough for me

 

Well that is sick anyways. Looks like two of those runners are the size of my car's ITBs combined . Good stuff, and interested to see what else you do with it.

 

Show us the headers in the cabin, please. I tried to sneak a peek at GTA but all I saw was the paneling.

 

here it be. Dual 3” to a single 4”

 

Nice!

Is that a straight-through muffler or are there collectors? I swear I saw pipes merging just inside the door.

 

there’s two collectors. One for each header, then a Y pipe that steps up from 3” to 4”. Yeah it’s a straight through muffler. It does a good job at knocking the noise down. Sonoma and Laguna I’ve had no issues with sound

 

Gah Dayum.... so much space for coil packs in convenient locations when your exhaust goes up and into where a passenger normally sits, you molest your firewall, and you use an engine plate for engine mounting...

I need to make more serious compromises on my street car to enable things like this

 

Do you happen to hang around a bunch of TA2 cars? Looks like a lot of design similarities. Or at least as close as you can get.

Tube frame? No, I've seen enough that I know it's not. Miata? Eh.....sorta