Hi I'm Manuel
I'm Italian so forgive my english
Previously I owned a '97 90hp Miata
Started as haidresser car, ended as slow track car and (sadly) sold in 2013 for a Fisher Fury

Here at "Variante Alta" - Imola racetrack


After crashing the Fury and buying a 1971 Alfa Romeo Giulia GT, i started to realized how much I missed my Miata
In 2015 I bought my 2nd Miata from a friend

1995 1.8L 130hp






Here below some "original" specs
Exintake cams
HKS Air filter
4-2-1 Unknown header
100 cell catlytic converte
MS Gen 1 ECU

Medium brakes with EBC yellow pads

Homemade Roll Bar
Energy supension bushing
D2 550/450
Flyin Miata sway bars
Yokohama AD08R tyres
Basset rims 15X8 et-12

Fixed Hard top
OEM lip
Ducktail KG Works
Fender Autokonexion

Stripped interiors (no heating radiator)
VTR seats

 

After 1st track day I noticed that the car was quite fast (for a N/A Miata) but very slow on the corners due to continuos oversteer (but very funny to drive).


This was caused (in my opinion) by shitty dampers (D2) with wrong heights and alignment (and also too wide rims).
My Miata is a budget track car so I started with cheap modifications

Went to racing specialist (Mondiale Racing) fo height and wheel alignments


with this alignment values as results
Camber FR = - 2,6°
Camber FL = - 2,7°
Camber RR= - 2,3°
Camber RF= - 2,3°

Caster 5°

Front and rear toe = 0° 0'

Corner weighted with rear slightly lower than front

995kg with 3/4 fuel tank

Tested following day on track, car was so much faster on corners with lot of grip

I'm not a fan of high power cars, so I'm trying to focus on improoving handling, safety and weight (even if I still have basset wheels).

4.78 final gear ration has been installed (instead 4.1)
After some trackdays (car is not a road car) I noticed how miata brake pads (EBC pads) are fast consuming and costly!
In order to reduce costs and possibility to use better pads I installed wilwood powerlite calipers on my 255 grooved discs with Ferodo DSUNO pads
This is a cost comparison (prices are reffered to Italy)
wilwood/OEM
EBC Greenstuff 74/77€
EBC Yellowstuff 104/101€
Ferodo DS2500 84/160€
Ferodo DS UNO 99€/Not available

Brake is still well balanced between front and rear
Brake power slightly higher (not considering better pads)
Good pedal feeling


However Powerlite calipers are not compatible with Basset wheels so actually I'm using borrowed ATS DTC 15X8 et 30 with 30mm spacer (double lugs)


Yokohama tyres where too thin for 8" rims so I ordered 225/45/15 Dmack trackday tyres.



I did not order R888 tyres because they were too expensive. In addition they're out of production from 2015, so still available tires are with old DOT.

2 English VTR seats were installed on the car, together with "fake" 4 point harness (I can't even find pictures of it)


Too much unsafe!

Swapped the 2 VTR seats for a FIA Cobra seat and 6 points harness installed
shoulder harness rolled and fixed to roll bar harness bar
waist harness attached to original holes with FIA bolts
5/6th point attache to floor with FIA plate and counter plate


However harness bar is too low, so I'm currently searching an OEM harness bar

 

Actually the car is competitive on its class, always just after 200HP+ NC Miatas (performances comparable to stock NC MX-5 more or less) and this how it looks to drive it

Sorry for my driving, i'm not a professional racing driver(neither amateur,I go on track just for fun)

Next steps
1) Bilstein based custom suspension package
2) Improoved Aero (front splitter)
3) 270 or 280 front dics
4) Lexan hard top glass

And some questions
* With ca. 1000€/$ budget should I go for bilstein based custom suspension package or is there any other alternative?
Which SR should I choose (only track use - No road)?


Thanks for your helps (and for the patience of reading all the posts)
Bonus pic from "Centro prove Fiat Balocco" - Italian proving ground of FCA group
http://www.fcaspace.com/it/prove_in_pista




Manuel

 

Yesterday I took the car back on track
I went back to Cremona circuit

It's a 3450 mt track with ca 900 mt of straight line.
I went there last year in Dec with 195/50 tires with a timing of 1.54.0 and a top speed of 171 km/h

Yesterday was the worst track day where I joined: full of conceited people that can't accept that one 20 years Miata can be faster than their brand new CLA AMG or Focus ST so they were obstructing me on track
I could complete only 1 or 2 "good" laps without interference......
However, I achieved 1.52.4 lap time with 163 km/h as top speed
almost 10 km/h lost due to 225/45/15 tyres!!!
This is a comparison between the 2 trackdays
(is just a referenfe, my Lumia has a crappy lap timer installed!)

 

Welcome to the forum. Where in Italy are you located?

I'm happy you did not use 4 point belts. They are very dangerous.

 

Ciao!
I live in northen Italy, about 10km far from Arese (I'm an Alfista) and 20km from Monza circuit.
The 4 point belts that I found in the car were terrible!
They were attached to the car with only 1 (ONE!!!!!) bolt to the car. They're so horrible that I can't even find a picture of it...