I'm Alex and I'm thinking about Miatas
 

And turbo'ing them, thats probably why I came to this forum - :laugh:

I'm loving the overly-harsh, aggressive, yet still respecting attitude lots of you guys have lol.

Anywho, I ...know nothing about cars, which is lame, because I love cars inside and out - and motorsport is my forbidden love and addiction - watching DTM, GT1, GT3, WRC, endurance race, endurance race, endurance race FTW.

I'm thinking about getting a miata and turbo'ing it. If I want a reliable, safe-to-drive (at least somewhat), powerful (like 25% more powerful than stock at least) ride, then should I - in the future - aim for turbo'ing or a V8? Does turbo'ing mean that little 1.8L becomes an absolute beast? Wouldn't the V8 still stomp all over it? - remember, I'm a newb here for now.


But ya anyways, nice to meet you guys, I already like this forum haha, not so serious!


:vash:

Welcome to MiataTurbo.net sashman15.

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Well im not the best to respond to your question but ill take a whack at it. I think the amount of money you want to spend should determine what you want to do.

Do you want to buy a miata and spend 4K or so on forced induction?

What model car do you want to buy?

Do you want it to burn rubber or actually handle well?

How deep is your pocket..... A LSX swap even from a buddy who has a engine is at least 8k easy in parts alone..... plus labor and ecu, tuner for the LS, ect.... And also lets not forget you will need to most likely do a overhaul on the suspension for this, again unless someone disagrees with me.

A V8 will be a torque happy SOB and will be harder to control on the road. They are also not cheap or easy for a weekend job with your area of car knowledge.....

A turbo miata will still take some time to install and tune, and reliability is something that goes down as you try to push more power out of it... at least by a little bit.....

I will agree that a miata with about 220 WHP on up can be a beast since it only weighs in at like 2300 pounds wet....... so my advice to you is try to find a local that maybe owns a turbo/V8 car and see what you like, and what you want to do with the car....

That's my advise....

(hopefully everyone agrees with me, haha)

This one will do well.


Only 25%? Hell, you can easily double the stock output (that's 100% more powerful than stock) of any Miata engine will still retaining daily-driver comfort and reliability.


By beast, do you mean "unreliable and hard to drive?" Not at all. The vast majority of turboed Miatae are quite civilized. There are obviously folks who like to push the envelope and leave a trail of bent connecting rods and shattered transmissions in their wake, but this is the exception to the rule.

Of course.

But you're talking 300-400 HP (and 300-400 ft/lbs) on the V8, vs. 200-250 on a turbocharged stock motor. And bear in mind that the stock output was only 100-120 HP or so.

Frankly, they're two totally different worlds. An LSx-equipped Miata is a nuclear weapon with a steering wheel attached. ZR1 power in a car that weighs 1,100 lbs less than a ZR1. That's Ariel Atom territory. Saturn V rockets have a lower power:weight ratio.


But welcome aboard. :D

Welcome to the forum.

I like your attitude and the effort you put into your posts. This place can be harsh, but if you contribute you will love it, and be loved (just reject hustler's love, we all do).

The level of power you can make on a stock Miata motor reliably is just what the chassis can handle without extensive reworking of braking and suspension (and some bracing), and it can be done easily. Think 60% of the bang of a good V8 conversion for 20% of the cost.