So...

I bought a thing:







What's that you say? Another crappy miata?


You bet:









Sorry for crappy potato pics, my iPhone sucks so hard in my garage, but it's just too much work to grab a proper camera.


Here's the CL ad for the car:













Initial plan was to buy said POS, sell off all the good body panels, and build a Ghettocet. Now I'm having second thoughts because the car is actually pretty clean, minus the botched interior shenanigans, awful exhaust fab work, and generally poor paint. That said...it would be pretty easy to build this into a super cheap TTE car. Really it just needs a roll bar, hard top, MS2, and a DIY bilstein setup and I could be having fun screwing around in TTE.


Decisions, decisions, decisions.


More proper content to come....sometime.

 

Catfish

 

Unfortunately with two kids, a stay at home wife, another race car, and an average engineer's salary, I don't think that's in the cards financially.


BUT...it's damn tempting.

















Damn tempting

 

ghettocet is my vote.

 

EFR is my vote.

 

So...continued reliability and durability issues with my stupid Prelude racecar (see fireball pictures in other thread) has me wanting to change direction a little bit.

I think that means turning this thing into an interim TTE machine. I already have a set of MSM billys for it, got a lead on a roll bar, have a seat and harnesses already, etc.. Need a hard top, an MS2/3, some stock sway bars and some 15x9s and I think I can have some TTE fun.

Longer term car will get caged and will be a TTE/PTE/WRL/AER do-it-all car.

If anyone knows of a cheap hard top, or knows of a good deal on a used MS, please let me know. I'm also on the lookout for a set of proper racing dampers/coilovers.


Cheers

 

Does it have to be OEM HT? Willing to buy a parts car with it? Also I sent you a message about the MS.

 

This thread took a good turn. A good turn.











A good turn.

 

Nope, does not have to be an OEM hard top. It does need to be the same general shape as an OEM hardtop though. I.E. Treasure coast or "snug top" brand should be okay?

Also, I love parts cars!

 

Another NASA-SE PTE/TTE car?! yay! PTE typically has low turn outs, but TTE has been pretty consistent the past few years. Hope to see you out there!

 

I wouldn't put any serious money into a TT/PTE build until the 2018 rules come out. If you're just throwing together a fun track car that can also do a few TTE events this year, cool, but right now is a really bad time to go ***** deep into a TTE build. I suspect you already know this... just throwing out the reminder.

 

I have talked to Luke about his plans. They will make everyone on mt.net mad. I think it is so crazy it might just work.

 

Is he going to use the 's-word'?

 

No plans to put a bunch of money in going full tilt PTE/TTE NB points build.

Initial plan is as above, build it into a fun track car that can run TTE.

Rollbar, hard top, put stock sways on, put OEM header on, build MSM billy coilovers setup, MS2/3, 15x8s of some sort and go on my merry way.

Longer term plan is to cage it and possibly some other shenanigans as Lars aluded to.

Any "mods" done to run the car in TTE will carryover into running the car in WRL/AER/whatever so it's not like the money/time spent will be wasted.

 

Cool. I'm currently using my dyno reclassed, aero'd 99 as a dual duty PTE/WRL car. Full power with square top and RB header for WRL, then switch maps and dyno reclass with low power for PTE. It's (probably) not as competitive as it could be for PTE, but it's a ridiculously fun and simple car. Unfortunately a pretty reliable source tells me that the aero miata build is getting killed next year.

 

I've done a similar route with my car. Build a fun track miata that happens to fall into TTE and I don't regret thus far. Hoping to transition it into a multi-purpose ST6 & SPM car next year....fingers crossed the rules play well with each other so you don't have to swap a bunch between those two.

 

So I have a set of 40k mile MSM billies for this and I just ordered a set of Advanced Autosport sleeves. Going to throw together some poverty coilovers for track usage. Not sure yet what spring rates I'll be using, probably the highest I can get away with on OEM valving. Kind of torn on what top hats to use...I've never really liked the ISC ones. I may try to DIY some extended NB hats?

For TTE playtime I need a set of stock sway bars which I currently do not have. I feel like it shouldn't be too hard to find OEM bars?

Also going to pick up a rollbar tomorrow.

On the look out for a cheap hard top...no luck so far. Also watching the classifieds here for a MS2/MS3. Was going to jump on the DIY MS2 PNP that was for sale but waited too long. Doh


I'll post some pics sometime. There is an HPDE event at CMP in a couple weeks (May 20-21) that a friend is trying to get me to go to. I guess that is the current target for some sort of initial shakedown/thrashing/fun having with this turd.

 

Check with Alex Todd with "ScratchnSniff" in Greenville, SC. He probably has quite a few OEM sway-bars kicking around.

 

I have a spare NB2 front bar with bushings, brackets, and end links that I could part with. PM me if interested.

 

Yea, I know Alex, and I'm sure he's probably drowning in OEM sways. He bought a NB parts car from me a while back and some wheels too. I was just messaging with him a couple days ago and should have thought to ask about OEM sway bars.


As for my T(urd)TE car...ordered a set of 15x9 konigs earlier today. Man I love how cheap and readily available wheels are for the Miata. Years of shopping for wheels for a stupid 4x114.3 Honda have messed with my brain.

Also got a deal on a used pair of 400# 7" hypercoils.

I dug through my box of suspension junk last night and found I had a pair of 7" 550# QA1 springs....so I guess I'm running 550/400 on the poverty Billie racing setup, at least initially. Also found some bump stops and some nice spring isolators, so I should be only need to order a couple more things for the DIY coilovers.

Yay miatas