Greetings everyone!

I am making the switch from high-horsepower straight-line cars, to my very first low-horsepower turning car! I'm very excited for this build. My last car was a 630rwhp 03 Cobra, and I'm excited to be setting up this 03 Miata for HPDEs.

Let me catch you up with where I'm at:

Last month I bought the car, a 2003 with 58,000 original miles.



A week later, I picked up the hard top for $850



Then added Team Dynamics 15x7s and Kumho XS 205/50/15



Over the past few days I've been working on stripping out the interior... still a work in progress. I'm going to get a full roll cage installed with NASCAR door bars. I've also ordered two Kirkey 47 Road Race seats w/ covers, 6pt harnesses, a Momo 78 wheel with QD, and full SM suspension.





This tar is a major pain to get off!!!!








And finally, just a few hours ago, the UPS man showed up with my suspension. Pre-tuned for a 180lb driver, 2400lb car, on a CCW course (I'll have to fine tune it, of course.)







I'm still waiting on the Sway bars and adj. end-links to show up.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hello! I'm not sure what I plan to do with the car yet (SM or HPDE). I'm used to having so much horsepower, I can see myself going the turbo route. What do you guys think?

 

You seem to be off to a good start, is the car much louder with the tar removed? Mine currently has no carpet but still has tar. Didn't know if the tar stopped resonance at highway speed or what.

 

Welcome to the site daydark, thanks for joining up!

 

 

Nice start on the miata. Looking forward to it's continued build. That cobra is jaw dropping, and I don't usually like that body style at all.

 

I love Termi Cobras, the new project looks good too. Plenty of good options as far as going turbo goes.

 

So I decided to do something "easy" after work today, so I pulled off the passgenger side door cover. Only to find more FREAKING TAR *nooooooo*

Spent 1.5 hours getting the crap cleaned out!

I'm going to spend as long as it takes tomorrow to finish cleaning out the rest of the Tar sound deadening from the car. Then I'll probably install the coilovers on Sunday. More pics to come!





On a positive note, UPS delivered my Sway bars. Just waiting on the adjustable drop links to show up, and then I'll have all the suspension components.

 

nice nb looking forward to seeing more upgrades

 

Big update here.

Worked on the car from 7am till 6pm today. Finished getting all of the tar sound deadening out of the car (YAY). That took me until lunch time.

Then I installed the coilover kit and rolled my fenders. I'm exhausted, but stoked by how it turned out. The back could go down a tiny bit more, but I'm too lazy to mess with it right now



Clean!
Fingers... so...sore
:irritated: :irritated: :irritated:


Pretty stripped out!
I've still got some stuff to do
(removing the door windows and motors, and all the wiring)




Okay, time to start working on the coilover install.
Here is the stock suspension setup.
The install was pretty straight forward,
a bit more involved than my Mustang, but essentially the same thing.


Disconnect upper A-arm, drop links, and sway bar,
and the lower control arm just falls down,
giving you room to remove the assembly.


Pop in the new assembly and button everything back up!


Here is one of the rears, in case anyone is interested. Pretty similar to the front.


Now, since I'm running a really wide offset,
I've got to roll my fenders or else the lip (shown below)
will chew the crap out of my tires.


Attach the 'ole fender roller and go to work.
I used a heat gun to heat up the paint before bending it.
No cracks or chips in the paint that way.


Here is how it looks after rolling the fenders.
Notice the lip is curled up nice and snug.



Pfew, that was a crapload of work. I didn't feel like doing it, but I threw my Drivers' seat back in the car (with 1 bolt), and drove to a parking lot to snap off a few pics of the car. Like I said, I think the rear could go down a little, but honestly, aesthetics don't mean as much to me as performance.

I'm going to get the car professionally aligned & corner balanced, so the ride height will change (up or down I'm not sure).








Filthy car! Will wash it tomorrow

 

Badass! Looks great my friend. Rollbar soon?

 

Yep! The car goes in a week from this Thursday for the install of a hard core cage. I've also ordered 2 seats, 6-pt belts, and 350mm steering wheel, along with other misc. parts. I'm excited! I'll be sure to take plenty of pics and update this thread.

 

I might as well spill the beans now. I've ordered the following parts:

Full roll cage (custom fab'd)

2 Kirkey Road Race seats:



2 HANS-ready Schroth 6 pt seat belts



HANS device



Momo 78 (350mm) Steering Wheel w/ quick disconnect:



SFI certified window net



Emergency shut off switch



And a bunch of other small miscellaneous stuff. I'll update this once I start the install of all that stuff! After this, I'm going to just drive the car for a while and try to make as many HPDE events as I can.

 

I would have kept the Cobra, lol.

 

I guess this thread is boring.

 

Im amused.

 

Let's try one more update.

I installed the sway bars this morning. It's pretty cool because there are 3 different settings on the bars (soft/medium/tight), and the end-links are also adjustable for track-specific tuning. I'm running the front sway bar tight, and the rear one soft. This keeps the car very well balanced.

Here is the front sway bar.
You can see the cotter pin that allows for quick adjustability at the track,
without even having to jack the car up.


And the rear sway bar! :thumbsup:



I took the car to the track today. Results below!





So, here is my review of the suspension:



It is a BLAST! The car reacts to every tiny input on the steering wheel. It doesn't body roll at all. It's on rails! It feels like a completely different car.

I'd say there is a tiny hair of understeer left in the car, which I can eliminate through continuing to adjust the setup on the suspension.

I drove a few laps and had a fastest time of 38.96 (video below). I then let one of the instructors take it for a few laps, and he ran a 37.97!!! Holy smokes, I need driver mod!

Here is a video of my best lap of the session:

 

souds good . nice build, im excited to see where it all ends up. Any turbo plans ? i think it this car would be a good test bed for the TSE track turbo kit onces its out...

 

Sick! Nice choice on suspension, car is coming along quite nicely. Judging by that video you need to work on that understeer first, though it sounds like you already know that.

 

Great job so far man! Im hoping once i get station in the usaf ill be able to start doing more work on my miata but i do have plans for a turbo set up while im going through training.

 

Update:

Today I dropped the Miata off at the cage builder's shop. It was really clean and just an all around awesome shop. He pulled the dash and is getting ready to get started on the install!





Also, this car was absolutely jawdropping. It has an all aluminum big block, something like 530ci, that dyno'd at like 700/700!



After leaving the shop, I dropped by the track and got to ride in and watch some really cool cars, including:

'04 NSX with 20k original miles


911 -- this thing cornered like a BEAST and was bone stock.


Ferrari California -- this thing sounded like heaven!