You are not going to knock off 3/4 of a second off your 60' time with slicks, but you will knock 3/4 to over a second off your 1/4 mile time with slicks.

Racing to 60 feet is no different than racing 1320 feet. The more power you have, the faster you will go. An 11 second car will never go a 1.3 60'. Expect to be somewhere in the 1.6 range. You will have to have a car capable of 9's in the 1/4 to attain 1.3's typically.

Sometimes its just about doing what you like. That kid in the civic is having just as much fun and doesnt care what he spent. How many people here are actually in competition? most of us just do track days, or drift events, or test and tune at the strip.

Slight tweak to point out the contradictory nature of this thread.

Yes, Damn this forum and it's practical, logical approach to solutions!


You asked why there aren't more drag racing Miatas. The answers are here being laid out. It's simply not practical.

Yes, you can have fun doing it. You can have fun autocrossing a 1983 Chevy Caprice. But when you spend loads of time and money and never win, it stops being fun real fast.

Whoa whoa whoa. This one is news to me!

As a drag racer of an American V8 who does mostly fun runs at the strip and the occasional NT grudge match, drag racing is NOT a cheap form of racing.

I look at SCCA TT/Hillclimb events. I'd say a good 75%+ of the cars there, especially all the CSP/Spec Miata cars, have less in their entire car than I do in my motor (and this is not to downplay the cost of their cars, either). My $250/ea. tires last LITERALLY 60 seconds before I can't launch on them anymore. My cheap gas is $7.50/gallon if I'm making an all motor run. My spark plugs last a weekend on motor, one pass on nitrous.

Road course/TT/AutoX you can race on the cheap in spec/heavily rules-limited classes and still be competitive on a budget if you can drive. Drag racing is all about who can throw the most money at equipment and tuning.

Now yes, there is bracket racing, but you're not going to be winning any big money bracket races in 5 or 6 speed equipped IRS car, either.

Most of the big import races are FWD classes.

If you get into the RWD classes, you're stacking up against S2000's, Supras, etc. Big $ cars which made, relatively speaking, a bunch more power from the get go, with a much higher ceiling.

You go into "real" racing, be it drag or turning, you're going to build whatever car is going to win the class, or whatever you're PAID to build.

So as to why you don't see a bunch of drag Miatas? Marginal return on cubic dollars, with a fraction of the aftermarket parts availability.

That said, by all means, go out and run one! I run a stock suspension Malibu Wagon because I like wagons, even though I'd be going marginally faster in a gutted Fox Body chassis.

I think you are missing the point.

If you go to Sebring do you think you are going to outrun an Indy car? Prototype? How about any other higher level car? Yet the Miata is a capable car for its class.

Same thing at the drag strip. Just a few well placed mods will make the car go much faster than stock. Maybe not outrunning the bigger boys, but you are not competing against them anyways. You are out there to run other Miatas or cars in a similar class or platform.

Yea, like I said, a 1.3 is not going to happen. From my friend's that are into drag racing a lot more, an LS swapped s13 went 1.55 60ft and 10.99@126. The only 1.3 60ft out of any of us is from a 8 second camaro that ran a 8.81@155.

I'd be happy with a 1.6 60ft with a good tire but I'll see what happens in the spring time when I actually have slicks. From what I heard a slick will gain you half a second. If I could indeed get 3/4 to over a second off my 1/4 ET with slicks I would be amazed and really happy since I could be doing a flat twelve or high 11 come spring time which is where I'd like to be at some point, but figured that'd be after a built motor and bigger turbo.

Im not suggesting a civic, that's the point, if a civic can be a popular and mildly successful drag car, and circuit car, and hillclimb car, than a miata can do all of those things also.

Thats all.

Dann

I'd like to build a drag car someday for fun. It never even occurred to me to start with anything other than a Fox-body.

I love how a 1.39 60ft is not attainable, a FWD can pull a 1.45 60ft with 300hp. Yes that car is light, but its also driving the wrong wheels, FWD is not known for its ability to get off the line. A 800hp dragster cuts 1.1 60 ft. While 1.6 in a miata is still a good time. There is no reason that cant be bettered with the right tire and suspension setup.

A stock s2000 is rubbish at the drag strip to, yet people make them do 9's.

I love how V8 muscle cars get brought into the mix every time. If you have ever been to the drag strip, or to a drag event you would know the sport compact and V8 are two different realms of drag racing. They are never ran together except for import vs domestic shit. When i talk about sport compact drag racing, i mean racing other cars similar.

Even if you go to a test and tune, they put the imports in a different staging lane from the domestic guys.

Not when I used to go with my camaro about 5-6 years ago... There was always a crowd of hondas trying to snipe some cash out of the domestic guys. Anyways, my car was an 02 police camaro (B4c) so it looked like a 6 cylinder down to the ugly stock 16" wheels but it ran 12.5@112 on street tires without the 100 shot. 3 or 4 different times I left the track richer... Never lost to those guys lol

I think 1.3's is obtainable in a Miata. It is just going to take one that is capable of running 9's. And to be honest, 9's will not be all that hard to crack. Most people are trying to do it with the wrong mix of parts.

Drag racing on 2 wheels is fun, other than that, you need a 10sec car or it becomes boring fast. At least for me anyway.

You can buy a stock 1000cc sportbike, lower it, drag radial and run 9s all day long.

You also get the pucker factor because if you fall or hit the wall the odds of a serious injury or death is quite large. Can it get anymore exciting than that?

Unlikely since you're traveling parallel to the wall vs perpendicular like coming out of a corner on track.



But everyone has a different risk tolerance......

Drag racing is neat and all, but most of the "regulars" at the local track are inbred morons. That is the impression i got from drag racing, and is part of why I never went much.

There are some pretty smart drag racers out there. Most of the smart ones run chassis or engine shops

Yeah, the mouth breathers are just the fanbois.

ctdrftna...I feel like you are trying to justify drag racing to the crowd here. I think you will get a lot further if you just do it and post your results as you go.

All I am saying is, its your miata, enjoy it the way you want!