***I have a stock miata and 2k+ in my pocket help me blow it***
 

Hey

Just sold one of my cars tonight to help fund my miata project. Its a 1999 NB base miata.

The car is completely stock except for some raceland coilovers I'm in the process of installing at the moment. The ultimate goal for the car is a fun 'fast' street/track car. I want to be able to drive on the street but still hit a couple of track days a year.

So I will need a set of wheels/tires and brake pads that wont shit the bed at the track as well as some roll over protection. That takes a large chunk of change out of the 2k if not all of it. BUT....

I mainly want the car to be fun on the streets for now. If I don't make the track this year I'll survive and I always have my other car to take to track events to 'get me by' til next year. I have extra money coming in to throw at the car but it isn't a lot of money by any means.

Basically if you had the ultimate goal of a 250hp +/- 50 hp while keeping it fun on the streets but capable on the track and had 2000 to start how would you go about it? I'm a newb with miatas so school me.

Wheels/tires and rollbar . Drive it hard on track. Then boost later.

Put the $2k into a rollbar, fresh brakes and suspension. Then spend the next $1k on wheels and tires, then the next $1k on a good seat and harness.

With your budget, turbo shouldn't even be on the list yet. Sorry to say it, but you're going to need a lot more than $2k just to put together a track ready turbo setup, let alone the required supporting mods (radiator, oil cooler, etc etc.).

+1

Later, if you're still trying to keep it on a budget, a proper TORBOCHARGER is in order!

250whp that will be reliable on the track is triple your current budget any way you look at it assuming you buy new production parts... and that's just to MAKE the power reliably. Putting it down can be done for about what you currently have or perhaps a bit more.

If you buy used and know what you're doing, you might be able to put 250whp it together for double your budget for the street, but just start reading through some of Savington and Hustlers threads about the shit they break every time they go out and you'll see that tracking a turbo Miata is EXPENSIVE!

as is tracking just about any car.

I think OP needs to do a bit of reading...I guess you could do a very basic/entry level turbo setup for 2k, but it would be SUPER slow and you'd want to make it faster within 2 weeks.

Save and get a decent turbo kit

Your #1 thing should be ditching the ricelands if you're going to think about tracking the car. Ricelands are softer than your stock suspension (my friend just installed them and they look good slammed but will suck donkey$%!# on the track).

Then follow the steps Savington mentioned.

I will say that buying a turbo kit first (if you come across a deal you can't pass up) is excellent motivation for completing the rest of the work. My BEGi kit has been sitting in my office for months and months, while I finish the rest of my prepwork (done so far: suspension, rollbar, frame rails, door bars, soft top...soon to be completed: wheels/tires, 1.8 rear end, ACT HD clutch).

No they're not.

Sorry, they feel softer on my friend's na...altho he did get the racelands for an nb and utilized nb top hats...they feel like absolute shit :(

(And keep in mind, while I say this, I use raceland springs hahaha)

I don't expect anything great out of the racelands but it was a cheap upgrade for wore out OEM suspension. Further down the line I would like to pony up for something nicer but money doesn't grow on trees. Sounds like the consensus is no on a turbo. I kinda figured but wishful thinking. I guess I love the way the car handles already but the speed is so lacking in the straights it makes me want to do something about it.

I don't plan to make this a regular track car. Maybe like one or two events a year.

I don't expect anything great out of the racelands but it was a cheap upgrade for wore out OEM suspension. Further down the line I would like to pony up for something nicer but money doesn't grow on trees. Sounds like the consensus is no on a turbo. I kinda figured but wishful thinking. I guess I love the way the car handles already but the speed is so lacking in the straights it makes me want to do something about it.

I don't plan to make this a regular track car. Maybe like one or two events a year.

Yep. If you want a car to compete with corvette and Ferrari street cars you need to spend about $20k realistically. That last 3-5 seconds is going to cost you about $10k...but its fun.

I'd be happy embarassing C4's and Mondials.

I say fuck the suspension and just spend the $2k on someone's used turbo kit. You may need to pay a little more but you can get a total package for around $2500 including EMS. Maybe.

I learned how to drive fast around turns in my old 83 Mercedes 300SD. Talk about having to maintain momentum..

My roommate owned a 240D automatic for a year. You don't know what momentum is. :giggle:

how do you figure 2500 WITH ems?
find good deals on used stuff you're still looking at:

mani 300
dp 300
exhaust 300
fmic 400
turbo 300-900 depending
ems - 600-1000 depending
injectors - 200
other miscallaneous shit (and there WILL be that) 200-500

for a solid 250whp on even a MEDIOCRE setup 2500 isn't going to cut it. (and in that list I omitted quite a bit of other stuff required actually)
for that price you're looking at a bare bones bandaid system at 5psi good for 160-180whp

UNLESS of course you can diy half that shit. which would make it almost possible for 2500

I drove a 240D grease-conversion for a couple weeks. You could put the pedal flat to the floor and it'd get slightly noisier. Seriously, that thing must be like 30 seconds 0-60.

You should look at my build I took my stock NB and prepped it for the track and auto x. I will say this 2k is not enough my build was around 4-5k. Then again I didn't buy cheap stuff so. Also I know it been posted but building a TRACK turbo miata is going to cost lots of money. I am loving my stock power NB on the track so keep the power stock for awhile. Also have fun

I agree with roll bar and suspension upgrade.

You can have a lot of fun going slow with a nice suspension.

I'm surprised no one has mentions a MegaSquirt. Cheap, within his budget, and good for down the road when he does have money for a turbo. If it were me, it'd be wheels, tires, MS, and roll bar. Might have to find a few deals on used equipment to get all that for $2k though.

FWIW, I pieced together my own turbo kit (intercooled, 2560, brain-built MS and FM mani/BEGI dp) for only 1,700-some.

I'm with faeflora though; if this isn't a track car just buy a turbo kit and have fun with it, do the suspension and tires later. And spend whatever you have left from your turbo on a rollbar, that's the first thing I did to my car.

Just because you spent $20k to get your car fast enough to play with those types of cars doesn't mean that's the only way.

I had less than 10k into mine and could keep up with most cars on track.

I'm with rider. I planned on doing suspension and everything first, but after getting the car, the stock suspension is damn good, and it's slow. I put together the whole turbo setup for a little under 2k, but i made everything myself, including mani and dp and charge piping. If you really plan on tracking it, do the suspension stuff. If you want it faster, and basically can romp on it in the hills in your area (like i can in the bay area) then turbo it.

Did no one mention a torsen? That would definitely be my first purchase.

My Miata with crap tires in the rain was handful at times. I can only imagine the trouble you can get into with a stock car outputting 200hp with the stock tires and suspension but hey your car will be fast going straight :jerkit:

Throttle modulations, brudda.

lol you got me there.

buy my old begi manifold and DP in like new condition for $500 shipped. Talk fast before I break the pair apart.

We've had this debate endlessly. A 2200lb car with 120whp is not as fast on any given track as a 2200lb car with 250whp. If the same driver is not going faster in this scenario, there is a problem.

I'm probably going to run anywhere from 0-2seconds faster than Johnwag who has 200lb less and more skill in a couple months at Hallett which of 1.8-miles nad 10-corners...the power helps you on 3-straights. We have very similar suspension, almost identical suspension tuning, and he's 200lb skinny, I'm double the power. It will be interesting to swap cars back and forth on the open track day.

I could go to a track like TWS and murder every NA car on the track my first time out becuase there's lots of places to put down the power.

In hindsight, after all the time and money, sometimes I wish I had a 140whp 2100lb track car and a nice, modest turbo street car. I'm really enjoying the car now that its dead-nuts reliable on the track, but my lap times aren't as good as they were in comparison to the slow days in a shitty car. This 10% wieght penalty is RUINING my times, but its fun on the street 2 or 3 days per month. Its definitely the weight and not the driver. Definitely not the driver. Right now a voice is telling me to pull the soft top, pull the unused wiring, remaining AC parts, remaining airbag parts, and see how much faster I can go from 2335lb down to 2275lb.

Listen to the voice. Which do you really care about more: The lap time or the 2-3 days per month on the street? You are way past the point of "I should have a fun DD for the street."

Buy it! so he can buy my pistons.

corner scales and alignment plates are next.

:crx:

I don't know, its pretty refreshing to drive the car 10-days per month in the fall, winter, and spring here with the top dropped. Although I guess I could do that with the other miata...be-it slow, ugly, and gay; its not a ticket to jail every time I get in the daily.

This.

I don't know when the budget will allow me to think about a track car, but my plan is a beater NA, stripped as far as it can be, all tires and suspension and whatever silly, inexpensive bolt-on mods we all make fun of (cowl intake and the like). I just missed an $800 1992 in Huntsville...it was reasonably clean with super-minor mechanical issues (cracked radiator, etc) and it had a hardtop. Frickin' pissed that I missed it.

I would love to have a 90 NA with a JDM VVT, looking at 1950 wet without driver and 155 whp. That would be a fun car.

This was the first thing that came to mind for me as well. Best money spent.
Then rollbar, some sport/MSM brakes with good pads (I like HP+), and save for some decent suspension. Those will cover your bases for when you decide to go turbo. Somewhere in there I'd pick up some decent 15" or 16" wheels with some kind of decent tire...you can find people selling used wheels/tires on the cheap.

I took off my Torsen. Did not like it at all. Broke traction and got sideways like a dorifto faggortWAY too often for my liking..
Its a 100% street car though.

Get a used or basic turbo kit and have fun.