why the **** are they so expensive?

its a shell with a cage, a seat, stock motor, and essentially stock suspension.

there is a guy asking 12k for a NA spec miata. seems ridiculous to me. I know that like the average prices but still it bothers me.

 

Who told you it's a stock suspension?

Beside the cost of the actual parts, there's usually a lot of time and effort sunk into a good SM to make sure it's getting its full potential within the rules.

 

I know its not stock suspension, but its not like they have the best that's out there either.

Most of us put just as much time and effort into our cars, and they have much more done to them, and are 10x faster.

Yet they regularly ask and get $10-14k, and we can barely get $7k on a good day.

 

Demand and quality. A lot of turboed cars including mine aren't put together all that well. The spec assures some level of quality control and quality delivery.

There is also a captive market for spec miatas. There's not one for turbo'd miatas. Those people that race probably also have a little more money to put into thier cars than ricers like us, considering that in there's a good chance thier car will be fucked up in each race they enter. That probably drives the prices up too- they have more $ to start with.

How many threads on this board are about doing things with a cheapness? Scrimping and scrounging over recycled intercoolers, used rods etc. Competititve spec miata racing requires top quality builds. Who here goes all out on thier builds? Maybe 1% of the forum members. Spec miata is probably a lot higher.

 

lol at stock motor.

The "good" cars have so much money dumped into their "stock" motors to get the best tolerences possible. look up how much a sunbelt spec motor cost

 

My friend's sunbelt spec miata 1.6 motor just dyno'd at 120hp. He also just sunk $1500 into a shop to bring the alignment, chassis, breaks, etc, up to spec.

What kind of spares did this $12,000 SM come with? That same friend bought his for $11,000 but it came with 6 sets of wheels and tires, all mounted with RA-1 (R888 hadn't been brought in yet)

They have $300-$600 seats, $175-$300 seat belts, $2000 roll cage, $200-300 break pads, $500 or so in fire extinguisher units, $480 wheel sets plus whatever a brand new set of R888 costs, this stuff adds up fast.

 

The price range is actually much broader. I've seen dogs for $7k and national contenders upwards of $20-25K. It's all based on demand and quality.

You want to go spec racing you can buy a street car, strip it, cage it, rebuild the motor and rear end, replace every seal, gasket, hose and bushing. Buy several sets of wheels/tires, common spare parts, sort the car, work on suspension tuning and alignments, etc. You'll tie up 20k pretty quick and a hundred hours of work. Or you can buy one already built, documented, sorted hopefully with some spares for 10-14K.

 

Have you seen how much money people dump in so-called "stock" cars in autocross let alone spec miata?

 

In SM, a couple tenths costs you $5k. Rumor has it that the SM record hot-lap by Saini was in a $30k SM.

 

A friend and i bought a 26 foot enclosed TPD trailer a few weeks ago. I went back to the previous owners house shortly after that for a party he was having and invited me over too. Apparently he was willing to sell me his spec miata for 6k with an extra set of wheels/tires. I just about jumped on it..

Spec miata can be expensive with all the maintenance/repairs let alone the prices of building one. If i ever got into spec miatas i would buy one already built to save me alot money and time.

 

Pro-SM motors are $10,000 affairs. Wheels and tires, cage, data acquisition, safety equipment, suspsension, setup time, etc. The parts to build one are around $10k, without a motor (IIRC).

 

toyo is making 205/50/15 ra-1 again just for spec miatas

 

good. The Dallas crew will keep buying those while you, john, and I run nt-01's and rape.

 

average spec guy spends close to $30k/year on basic maintenance of their cars. builds themselves go north of $30k most of the time.

 

i understand they cost a whole lot and lots of time and energy.

I was just venting thats all.

 

Wrong on both points.

 

how so? info came from my buddy who races in spec

 

Your friend is wrong, then. Change both numbers to $10,000 and you'll be much closer to the mark.

 

More like 15, but definitely not 30. It's about 1k/weekend to race, and it definitely does not cost 30k to build even a national winning car. Sure, it may sell for that due to heritage, but it doesn't cost that to build.
If anyone wants a winning SM, we can build you a tub up car for $20k.

 

yep after these 225/45/15 ra-1s die at hallett it's nt01 time