So I've had my fair share of high HP cars to daily drive:

387awhp/407awtq Stage 3 Audi S4
405rwhp/367rwtq Single Turbo RX7
423rwhp/393rwtq Headers/Cam Pontiac GTO

But now I am looking to move these cars to my "weekend driver" and I want to pickup a new daily driver. That's where the Miata comes in. I've though about picking up a S2000, but for the extra $6,000 cost to pick one up against the Miata, I don't think it is worth it.

My question is, how do these Miatas feel FI'd? Are these legal cars that will pass CA smog? (CARB Certified)

 

Good luck with f/i and CA inspections.
99% of the folks around here just go back to stock to pass every 2 years.

 

For the car to be CARB certified and turbo'd, I think you'd have to get one of those Greddy kits with the CARB sticker. I don't think they make then anymore, so you'll have to fund a used one. The alternative is taking the car back to stock whenever it gets an inspection.

 

Hi HardHitter, enjoy your stay :)

 

I've been trying to find a NB (N/A) but it seems as though most of them are going for way more than what they should be going for. From what I heard, the only CARB certified FI is the supercharger? Turbos setups only certified on the NAs.

 

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Rick, I think I posted this in the wrong forum. Do you mind moving this to the 'General Miata Chat' forum or whichever one you believe is appropriate?

Do you think it to be a hassle for having to install and uninstal these kits every two years? I'm going to have to do that for my GTO now with my LT headers and catless mids, but maybe I'll get lucky with a smog tech here. The car will pass the sniffer, just obviously not visual.

 

Best advice if you want minimal hassle and an FI miata?

1. buy an MSM

or

2. buy a 2012, slap on big turbo. sell in 6 years when first smog is due.

 

Thats probably your best bet.
IDK if this would fly in Commyfornia, but it would net you more power:
http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?dept=68

 

Are MSM really hard to find? I literally haven't seen ANY for sale. I think the main thing is that since it is just a daily driver and a car I want to beat and have fun on, my budget was around $5,000 to find a clean and decently low mileage NB Miata. However, if I increased my budget a little I'm wondering if I could find an already FI'd Miata.

 

If your budget is $5K, you aren't going to be able to find a MSM, so for forced induction your best bet would either be the overpriced Greddy kit, or the CARB ok'd thupercharger. Unless of course you want to reinstall your stock stuff every 2 years, in which case you can probably save $ and diffidently have a better preforming car.

 

Would it be possible to pass in ca if you have some sort of cat pipe with 4 cats u can swap on? What kind of stuff do they check?

 

I think it all depends on the mechanic you go to. First, the car obviously has the pass the sniffer test, but I think the big part is the visual check. They will check for cats. If you don't have cats it's a fail. They will also check for CARB numbers. For example, on my Stage 3 S4, I had cats and everything, but they wouldn't pass the car because I had an air intake with no CARB number. The SMALLEST mod on the car and they wanted a CARB number.

I've usually sold my cars "as-is" before smog became an issue, but I am guessing that as long as the engine compartment looks "stock" and the car passes the sniffer and has cats, I really don't know what else they would be checking for. I highly doubt they would know if a turbo is stock or not and what they would be looking for.

 

It wouldn't pass a visual check, there gonna wonder what that snail shaped piece of metal is hanging off the weird looking exhaust manifold and why the exhaust is so much wider then the factory exhaust. You'd think they would only care how clean the exhaust is, and if that where the case I imagine your plan would work, but legislature has a weird way of not conveying the spirit of the law.

 

An angry corvette driving california representative was passed by a turbocharged miata on track/the strip and decide he had enough. So he included the visual inspection bit. True Story. hahaha, wishful thinking, but it sounds cool

 

Thanks for joining, HardHitter!