If I had the storage space, I'd get a miata to thrash. I've only got room for one track car, so it's gotta be the one that gets the most excited.

 

I've driven a couple Miatas on track over the years. I honestly don't see what people see in them. Really the only thing going for them are RWD, cheap, and stout.

They are way under powered and have a wet noodle chassis. Even the great drivers in them put down slower lap times compared to cars with better power and chassis.

The one plus about driving them on track is that it is just a little bit less boring than driving them on the street.

All perspective I guess. If I was young and didn't have much money but still wanted to track a car, a cheap Miata would be a good thing in my world.

I'll admit the new one looks great and I do want to drive one to see how it is.

 

stock, yes, they're not that great... but with some forced induction they're fast, they also have some very effective chassis bracing available for them that stiffens them up significantly... thats why I said for 25k I could have a monstrous miata if I wanted a project, but I don't want a project...

 

Or just drop an LS3 into one.

 

or that... but idk, I don't believe them when they say it doesn't ruin the balance of the car... I'd much rather go the k20 or k24 route

 

Even just upgrading the suspension makes a world of difference.

 

I think I might have finally reached the bowels of evom. Took twelve years.

 

a buddy of mine put about $20-30k into his miata. it had a lot of one-off stuff, turbo charged, etc. it was seam welded and otherwise stiffened. i think it had about 260whp or more which is pretty good. he sold it 7yrs later, still running stong.
it had experimental parts. all kinds of stuff. every suspension piece you can think of. nothing untouched. he's a really good driver. even though i'm not the greatest and have far less experience i would beat him at every autox and track day we did. his car just couldn't keep up with mine. he was on better tire and had aero, didn't help.
i think miatas are great cars... but not the fastest. at all.

 

Yup, I think people that say that really haven't been to many track days.

The faster cars at track days in intermediate and advanced groups are usually:

Porsches
Evos
S2000s
M3s
Corvettes
Old Mustangs
And the occasional odd ***** in a Exige/Elise S or a Ferrari F430 or Mclaren

Of course there are always outliers like a GTR or some other weird car but the above list are the consistent ones. I've been doing this for fifteen years or so now.

Autox I have no idea. Never been into them after the first three I did and got bored.

 

Then youre around the wrong Miatas. Evo's have HP and dig power over Miata's. Thats it.

Theres a reason Evo is a good car for SM but the Miata is a good car for SSM.

Edit: Of course this is a track car not autox car discussion. Where power counts for a lot more than just sustained cornering speed.

 

Glad to see you do so many track days. But man your offs scare the crap out of me. Mainly because you end up stopped on the track. I'd rather keep my car in the dirt than get plowed into.

I don't see evos as comfortable drift machines at the limit. Not like miatas and s2k. My car bites me if I get too complacent with it.

Terrible vid quality but I'm just showing I stay off the track:

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If I don't kill the slide asap it kind of lets go exponentially, as you can see from how slowly I started to counter steer. As opposed to:


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Autox depends. My local events are short, tight, 45-47 sec laps, so power isn't as important. Times between all cars and classes are pretty close. PAX is almost pointless. The Miatas do better there than they did at their last event, which was at Buttonwillow. Those were 65-second laps with speeds up to 85mph, for some.

Autox is okay. It's a 10 minute drive from my house and I don't have to pack a ton of fuel and tools. I also get to throw the car around with little to no consequence LOL

I don't think the cost per seat-time minutes is worth it compared to track days but it gives me something to do in between.

 

evo vs Miata at the same level of modification its not a competition. If the Miata is faster at that race, that doesnt mean the Miata is a better car neither faster, only means the Evo driver suck, period.

 

Did you check this one out yet? https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/5268598041.html

I say, confirm it was a theft recovery with carfax and offer him 15k.

 

the thing is most miata's you see at the track are within 30hp of stock.. so that puts them at maybe 150whp... of course they're not gonna be the faster cars at your average track day...

last track day I was at there was a 260 whp miata with a big wing and splitter.. it was just as quick as a 997 GT3 driven by an instructor... the miata had less than 25k into including price of the car...