About a year ago I bought a miata shell off craigslist. $500 to clear a guys garage out, and it included 2 shells with bills of sale. Unfortunately, one of the shells was damaged beyond repair, so we scrapped it. The other was a 1993 LE that had been most of the way stripped. The body was completely straight, and had no damage what so ever. Most of the body panels were missing. There also were numerous other parts that came with the car, but not quite a full vehicle. I sorted through all of the parts, threw away all of the trash, and kept what I needed. Between the parts I already had, and the parts I had collected from his garage I thought I had everything to put a car together. I called up a miata part recycler to get most of the body parts, got the car to the point of being a rolling shell, and let the car sit on the side of a buddies house for the past year while I got a plan and some parts together. Here was the car after a bit of pressure washing the day I got it.
I knew I wanted to build a race car. I already had a turbo miata that I was switching in and out of DD duties. A buddy back in the day had a miata that I saw make 405hp on a dyno in 2009, and made 500 before he decided to completely part it out. I decided I wanted a miata that would be comparable to that. I wanted a fully built motor, big turbo, 3" turbo back v-band exhaust, Megasquirt, Coilovers, all the bracing in the world, and some wide wheels. No expense would be spared. Basically, I wanted the build about 90% of the intro threads on miataturbo.net described, but never ended up happening. I assessed the useable parts on the miata I had been driving, and realized my dreams could actually become a reality.
The biggest expense of my whole project was going to be getting a motor built. I bought a 1.8 block from a local craigslist ad, and brought it to Bud's Machine Shop in Tacoma. They ordered all of my internals for me and started cleaning the block. Once cleaned, they realized that the block wouldn't be useable, and sourced another one for me. I provided an oil pump and an ATI damper, and 3 months later they had my motor ready to go. Fully built top to bottom, nothing overlooked. Overbored pistons, h-beam rods, valves, springs, balanced, ready to go. 8500 rpm rev limit and capable of handling more boost than any of the rest of the drive train.
Now it was time to get my parts list together.
Power:
Built Motor
Fab9 Motor Mounts
BEGI Intake Manifold w/ 70mm Throttlebody
Turbo kit from Red miata
FM Fuel Rail
ID1000 injectors
TSE COP kit
Fab9 Stage 2 intercooler 2.5" hotside piping 3" coldside
Fab9 25 row oil cooler
6 speed transmission w/ miataroadster short shifter
3.63 torsen
FM Big Fuel Kit
Coolant reroute
FM Crossflow Radiator w/ 12" SPAL fans
Suspension/Brakes/Bracing:
FM VMAXXX Coilovers
All new bushings
Chase Bays Brake Booster Delete
FM Wilwood BBK w/ prop valve
FM Butterfly Brace
Frog Arms
Hard Dog Double Diagonal Rollbar w/ harnessbar
15x9 Wheels either 6ULS or Advanti Storms w/ 225 Hankook RS3 for DD
15x10 6ULS w/ 275 Hoosiers for autocross or track
Sparco Sprint V Seats
Schroth Harnesses
We moved the shell indoors, and got to work, first prepping brake lines and cutting for air exchangers.
We sanded down the engine bay, and got rid of the rust, then painted it a satin black
The last picture is how it sits right now. We had a problem with the intake manifold not clearing the injectors, so we sent that back to BEGI and are waiting to get it back. I also am waiting to get my differential back from the transmission shop. If everything goes to plan the car should be running by the end of October. Still have a lot of work to do. Hoping the first tune will produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 300whp and as I get used to driving the car I will slowly turn up the boost until I either hit 500, or start breaking things at a rate that my wallet can't keep up with. Can't wait to get this beast on the road!