Hello,

My name is Albert, and I'm in the middle of building a track Miata. I have added dual-purpose mods to cars in the past, but I purchased a Miata with the goal of building a caged car that I would worry less about tracking from both financial and safety perspectives.

I started off by taking a very gently used and perfectly well-maintained 1992 Base and proceeding to tear it apart. I rent a cheap-o 13x20' shop space in an industrial park for car and metal shop work, so I had plenty of room to tear into things after I got a few packages from 949, FM, and a couple of Spec Miata vendors. Most of the interesting parts are in my signature, but I'm also really trying to attend to all the little things that would waste my days at the track. Lots of McMaster-Carr orders for nice hardware have gone into this car. So far, this is an "everything but the power" build. This may change in the future.

After I got the car put pack together, I did a little initial street testing to make sure everything worked and immediately towed it to TC Designs for a NASA PT-legal cage and a halo seat install (Sparco Ergo). Although I have no plans to W2W the car, it looks like a nice cage spec for an HPDE car. The cage build is ongoing, but there are plenty of items on my prep checklist for when I get the car back.

I have a flat towing setup, and the Miata tows quite nicely behind my Volvo V70R. The 3300lb US tow rating, strong power, and 330mm brakes make this an easy train to drive.

 

How well does the Sparco Ergo fit the car? It is one of the seats on my list.

 

I'm headed back to the cage builder for the final seat fitting within the next week. I previously installed a Tillett B5, and the main issue is managing your expectations of an "easy fit." My Tillett was about the narrowest fixed-back seat around, and it was centered with plain side mounts (bolts under the seat) and a little tunnel relief. The extra width of the Ergo will require it to be a little bit off center.

I can post pictures later, but the seat will be on custom side mounts with the rear "humps" removed from the floor for maximum low.

Basically, pay your cage builder and it will work.

 

afm, congrats on signing up at the best site on the web!

 

Howdy

 

V8 swap?

 

I am in Sunnyvale, ~10 minutes from Tony's shop. I will ruin your plans to not add power to the car

 

Savington speaks the truth.

I love your workshop idea. When I lived in SF I rented a shipping container to keep my car in while I rebuilt it. The 10x20 outer dimensions didnt allow much space though, so I had to roll it out to work on it.

Where is your workshop, and do you mind sharing what the rent is?

 

Hi, I'm in the bay area too. Good to have more locals in on the fun.

 

My shop is actually about 15 feet wide, since it includes a full-length 2' deep workbench along one side. I used to rent a 10x17' garage, and the big benefit for me is that my current space has more-or-less "soft" boundaries: if I need to pull my engine, I can annex some of the aisle space in front of my shop and get about 30' of length, as long as I'm nice about it. There are also a few areas in the warehouse with grinders, drill presses, and benches so I can do things like control arm bushings away from my car if I'm out of bench space.

It's about 5 minutes from the Coliseum, and I pay about $300 a month.

 

And this is what happens after I get a big box from UPS and do a reroute at 2am.

 

Yaaaas <3

 

I'm probably going to get the MS3 Basic pretty soon and run the 1.6 with it; hopefully I can get a little bit of experience for future plans to add power

 

afm, I'd be interested in hearing more details about the shop -- are there more units available at that price?

 

Super jealous. The lady and I sacrificed a garage to live in the Redwoods. I literally work on a bed of pine needles and pebbles.