Hi everyone, like many, I've been lurking, reading and studying for some time and thought I should make an introduction as I start getting active. I'm in my late twenties, finished grad school and am working in NYC. I got into the Miata first as I was looking for an inexpensive track day car. Many of the people on Subie forums suggested giving Miatas a good hard look because of inexpensive consumables, light weight, and of course fun.

I purchased my car from a miata enthusiast three years ago for $1200. The previous owner had already installed a roll cage, (blown) japanese coilovers, a set of RS watanabes, a set of winters, FM sways, a racing beat exhaust header and a dragon intake. The body was a "bit" rough. The rear bumper was primered but never painted and became bubbly, much of the body was dinged, oxidized or chipped.

I purchased a set of non-damping adjustable FM V-Maxxes which the PO helped me install. I sent the car for bodywork and paint, got some Porterfields, cross weighted and aligned, got some NT-01s and promptly started tracking the vehicle. I am on the east coast so that means NHMS. After moving to NYC for grad school and selling my subie, the Miata became my "at home" family car. This is 30% a summer cape cod clam strip family car and 70% a learner vehicle both for track dynamics and wrenching.

While I am learning to be a better driver, I yearn to not be passed as often by M3s, Mustangs at HPDE. I figure a little bit of HP won't hurt.

Example of getting passed:





In the past month or two, I finally pulled the trigger on parts after scanning the forums, and pricing out new parts and kits. I decided that half the fun of the car is the time spent customizing it to my liking so I decided to go the DIY route. It is more wallet friendly as well. This will be first car I've ever tuned as the most I've done on the Subaru was to change axles and brakes so I have lots to learn. The idea that I'll be able to iterate the tuning based on track times is very exciting and that there is a forum of seasoned tuners to guide me gives me confidence.

I've obtained most of the turbo hot-bits from a part-out by Baron (TD04, his DIY TIG exhaust Mani, his exhaust) and am polishing off my DIYPNP. A MTX-L is also ready to go. I will megasquirt the car first NA, then with rx7 injectors which also came from baron, then the kit and kaboodle.

I am not looking for top speed so the goals of the build are "faster" and "reliable". I will be picking up:

nissan iconels
duct the rad
driver headlight naca
coolant reroute
FMIC
Ducting
hopefully a well priced 37mm koyo
rebuild one of those OBX lsds
eventually move to a six speed with a happy meal clutch
a/c delete
ps delete
weight reduction

hello world, you guys are great. See you in the forums.

 

Thanks for joining, chitty chitty bang bang!

 

Winning noob. Welcome.

 

Looks like you've got it all sorted out, what do you need us for? lol

Welcome.

 

Ha!! Thanks Erat. Now all I need to do is buy, install, route, tune and test. What DO I need you guys for... No prior experience should be ok right? In a LONG time I hope I can give back.

By the way... what's the deal with this forum and cats? (You, Brain, Random mentions of cats)

One of my Trubo Cats ("I WISH I has trubo")

 

What do you mean?

 

You got a problem with cats?

 

 

Welcome to the forums budeeeeeeh.

 

Of course not, below should be a sticky

http://www.wikihow.com/Overcome-Feline-Phobia