Turbo Miata owners, need your help!!
 

Hey all,

Grassroots Motorsports is holding their first annual Ultimate Track Car Challenge a bit later this year and we're needing your help to get a Miata in the show against some of the best cars in the world.

Entries for the Challenge are being posted on Cardomain.com and they're taking the input from people who log on to the site and rate the cars/post comments to determine who gets in.

There's only 40 spots available, and we can use all the help we can get.

Please, if you get a moment... visit our entry page, check out the car, and give us five stars (if you feel so inclined!) and post a comment. We're looking forward to seeing how the little Miata stacks up.

Our entry page:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2576076

For general information on the GRM UTC:
http://www.cardomain.com/features/grm

Thanks!!
Shane
AIM Tuning

Rock on bro. Good Luck!

Good luck. It's a super competitive event. FM spent years and tons of money, got a professional race car driver and didnt even come close to winning their class.

Was that "Elvis"? Yeah they really dropped the ball on that one.

Good luck AIM!! Kick some ass !

FM competed in the car and driver event if i am not mistaken not the GRM one. Still the fish looks pretty fit to roll em up GL man.

man I love this car! I've been trying to find a pic of that front ducting for a while now!

goood luck!

Full bore IMSA corvettes entered? Doesn't that seen to run against the "Grassroots" philosophy?

Track Dog competed in Open Track Challenge... in 2003 they finished 3rd in class, and were close to the 1st and 2nd place cars.

VRTSid, I'll be posting more pics of the undertray/ducting at our website soon.

This is the first year for the GRM UTC and it's going to be a crazy mix of big $$ machines and low buck/homebrew stuff. Ours falls in the latter category compared to a lot of what we'll be up against, but the Miata has always been a great bang for the buck car. An IMSA race car beater? Probably not... but we think the little Miata will hold its own and surprise a lot of people.

Track Dog is an obvious inspiration, the entire FM crew have been very supportive in our efforts. We studied TD closely, picking Bill's brain the entire way, while building the car for the $2004 GRM Challenge.

That said, the Fish differs from Track Dog in a number of ways, but having a car like that to guide us has certainly shortened the learning curve.

Did I mention you need to rate us? Please hit us up with 5 stars and some guestbook comments at http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2576076 That's the only way we'll get in this thing! It will require you to set up an account, but there's a lot of cool Miata stuff there to check out as well.

Thanks for all the help!

Shane
AIM Tuning

Voted. :bigtu: Good Luck!

I personally think a turbo miata is the wrong car to win at OTC but I'd be glad to eat my words.

This is my biased and only mildly informed opinion. I think the three major problems with the miata platform overlap and they are
1) aerodynamics
2) maximum tire size
3) gearing

Fundamentally, the miata was designed as a low speed, low traction car with great controllability.

The powerplant is really solid and can overcome the aerodynamics in a straight line given enough power, but I strongly suspect that the miata gives up a bit in high speed corners and straights to cars with good aerodyanmics. The elise, s2000, corvette and porsches all readily come to mind.

Only being able to go up to 225 width tires hurts traction as well. The usual suspects have a sizeable advantage over the miata here. I understand the front suspension and body really gets in the way of giant tires.

And I think the gearing is plain wrong for a high powered road racing car. The gears should probably be farther apart on the average turbo car and the overall ratios should be longer.

A miata with porsche aerodynamics, tire width and gearing wouldnt be any heavier, but it would be a ton faster around a race course I suspect. Dunno how to do that.

Their cardomain says they're running 275/35-15 Hoosiers and they have an "enhanced aerodynamic package". Dunno about the gearing they used.

Dunno, they're running some sick...

- Power Station "Hella Fast" 15x10 3pc wheels
- 275/35-15 Hoosier A6 Meaty Dogs

edit: Maybe some BFH mods. It's not really a "street" car anymore, so there are many possibilities. F-ing bad-ass at any rate.

Give em hell guys..

Voted and comments left. Best of luck guys - bloody impressive machine

I'd like to know how they got the 275's to work up front without rubbing on the inside. If it is a streetable approach, I'd like to copy it.

As for aerodynamics and gearing, I've had a bunch of ideas but none of them are remotely affordable.

Ok, i think i have seen enough over the radiator setups to be convinced that its what I would have done had I been more well informed and confident in my fabrication skills 8 months ago.

I was just thinking the same thing... how difficult would that setup be?

Very good analysis, these are some of the biggest problems we have had to overcome.

1) The aero has been developed here since the pics were taken; full underbody panels with rear diffuser and wing in addition to the splitter you see. We've paid very close attention to the details here. At Mid-O last year with a 3.9/5 sp combo we buried the speedo easily on the back straight. Datalogs were showing well past 150 MPH.

2) Mechanical grip was a huge disadvantage last year and probably the biggest reason we only finished 5th at Nationals. Stuck on 225's, the little Miata was a handful compared to the 295's on the Evos and 315/335 Vette tires. The 275's will go a looooong ways towards evening that up.

3) The car is equipped with a 3.63 rear end; theoretical top end with the 5 speed is 170 MPH with our redline and the 275 tires. Don't think we'll see that on the track, but might get close (especially since we have ~80 more HP on tap)...

This is a huge part of the fun... owners of really high end machinery don't quite know what to make of it when we blast past with the little "chick car". The Miata's factory underpinnings are quite race inspired and very capable. We are still tapping into the potential...

All these mods are very fresh, we're still waiting for the snow to clear so we can get on the track and start tuning the beast again!

Our radiator is custom mounted, is canted and sits farther forward, which makes the over-the-top plumbing relatively simple, but a different route than most people/kits go (cutting/fabrication).

Shane

So what was required to get your 275's to fit in there?
-Michael-

In the rear it wouldnt take much but the front had ot be a nightmare right?

275s require cut fenders and flares, and a 15x10 wheel that doesn't go any further inboard than a 15x8 +40. Something like a 15x10 with a +15 offset.