How many S2ki dork points do I get if the title of this thread immediately reminded me of long-banned former member "BITSA"???

 

those seats look like they were made for the miata!

 

​​​​​​They kind of are, track dog racing has ultrshield make them to specs that fit the Miata well.

 

A couple of updates. Been having a lot of fun working on the miata (although it's been a few weeks since I got down and dirty).

Got the coilover conversions done, ride is firm but not too punishing (pretty tall sidewalls certainly make a difference). Slipped in some modern multi cellular foam bump-stops to replace the OEM hockeypucks too. Still spending a bit of time on the bump stops but at least they give a little now. Also replaced the super stiff rear sway bar with OEM NB rear sway.

Replaced the stock seats with the TDR numbers which included drilling out the rear seat mounts on the driver side. Unfortunately I am still not low enough to pass broomstick. Going tomorrow to a local shop who does work on spec Miatas to see if a drop seat pan/taller rollbar will solve my long torso woes.

Replaced the stock header and catalytic converter with carb compliant high flow replacements. Butt dyno says I picked up at least 3 hp. I have a mega-squirt ECU sitting under the guest bed, but kinda holding off until I figure out the height issue.

I found a SUPER cheap 4.3 ratio Tochigi Fuji limited slip diff. Stock ratio is 4.1 so I picked up a nice 5% in acceleration in each gear. Speedo reads a little high but oh well (it can be fixed, I am just too lazy). The TF diff is way less desirable than the Torsen units but still, I got it for less than half what it should have cost. Installed it a couple weeks ago.

Also, my son turned one and he loves the Miata. He likes to stand on my seat/lap and pretend to steer and shift.

Other than that, finally got to spend some time driving it. Aluminum seats and a stiff clutch wore me out after only a couple hours of driving. I guess that's okay, but it makes me appreciate modern compliant cars (like my Golf and Corvette) a lot more!

 

I guess I never posted these, got my first track day in the books (Thunderhill West). Nothing went wrong, had a good time, hung out with friends, would do again. In fact, doing again on Thursday for SCCAs Track Night In America. Hoping this time I will feel confident enough in the car to stop lifting/braking in places where my light, slow, grippy Miata doesn't need to. Hard to get used to not having a lot of power. Pretty much need to relearn the tracks.

 

Awesome long lens photos! Love the compressed shot of that S-curve.

 

gee, I just noticed I skipped a bunch of updates. Essentially....

I paid a bunch of money to have my seat pan lowered and an extra tall roll-bar put in so I could pass broomstick with my weirdly long Torso.

I had my friend detail my car so it's super shiny on the outside but also underneath and the engine bay.

I bought a cheap 99-2000 engine, which has a better flowing head and higher compression. It also came with a Carb Legal Jackson racing supercharger and a flying miata clutch and some other goodies. None of that is installed. I am still holding off on putting my MegaSquirt ECU into the car to unlock more horsepower over the crappy stock tune.

It's been a lot of fun so far, my only regret is that the car is parked a few blocks away so it's hard to just tinker with it when I do get some free time.

 

Looks like a fun project. That new engine will probably be a great addition.

I am considering a Golf R /ND miata combo. You sent me some thoughts on your R a while ago. Do you think they make a good combo? And how has the R been reliability wise and are you appreciating it more?

 

I think that would be an awesome combo. The Golf R makes a good daily, reliability has been good I guess, it's never left me stranded. It did have a flat dead battery in the garage last week though which is odd for a car that's less than 2 years old and under 11k miles. I guess the batteries they put from the factory are crapping out around 2 years, ours lasted less time probably because our car sometimes sits for weeks without use.

If I could go back, I would probably pick the DSG. It just seems like a better fit for the car. The manual is meh, nothing I have done to improve it has changed that for me. I took my JB1 (piggyback ECU) off since it was just making my clutch slip.

I like the ND a lot, it's a great looking car, for me it'd be hard though since I had to modify my NA a lot to fit, and the ND is as bad or worse for me height wise. I would have a hard time hacking up a new car to pass broomstick!

The other concern I had about them had to do with the manual transmissions losing gears... but it seems like that has quieted down, so maybe Mazda was able to implement a fix.