MIATA TRACK CAR
MY FIRST PROJECT CAR!
I was saving up for my own car since high school and while I was looking at a few options for my first project car, Miata's really caught my attention as being very reliable vehicles, easy to work on, and had a decent enthusiast community. Living in the Midwest, rust was a common issue with old cars, so I tried to find one that wasn't too rusty, but most importantly with lower miles and minimal mechanical issues since this would end up being my daily driver. After a few piles of junk, I found a steal of a 1991 Miata with only 82k miles and a manual transmission! She wasn't in perfect shape, but proved to be a very reliable vehicle for commuting and cruising around town.
FIRST TIMING BELT JOB!
I didn't have any maintenance records from the car, so not long after getting it I began doing some preventative maintenance. I did the usual tune up: filters, spark plugs, fluid flushes, etc, but also figured it was worth it to replace the timing belt and water pump since they were probably the original 24 year old parts from the factory. I only had basic maintenance knowledge before this, so this was my first attempt at a project of this scale. This did not discourage me though, since I knew I was a quick learner. With some research and the help of a friend, I was able to complete it successfully and it seemed like the car ran even smoother afterwards! I replaced all the relevant gaskets while I was in there to prevent future leaks. Of course once I had the car all back together, I found a pretty big leak from a rusted through coolant pipe. At this point I just needed a car to get around, so I used some JB weld to seal the leak for a few days until I was able to properly replace the coolant line.
RUST IS THE ENEMY
I had an unlucky incident one rainy night where I slid into a curb. I was lucky in the sense that I had managed to only smack the front passenger wheel into it, but it had badly bent my lower control arm so badly that wheel was about 30 degrees off when the other was straight. During this repair, I quickly realized that the combination of bent parts and 25 year old rust meant that almost none of the suspension was coming off in one piece. A lot of bolts needed to be cut off and replaced, as well as the control arm and shock cut into pieces just to be removed. Since this repair took much longer than expected, I decided to replace the squealing brakes. I found that later year Miatas came with larger brackets that allowed for a larger rotor, so I upgraded mine to those.
AFTERMARKET RADIO AND SHIFTER REBUILD
While I was installing the aftermarket radio and speakers, I noticed the shifter rubber boots were disintegrated and there was some transmission fluid leaking. I had felt the shifter was notchy sometimes while changing gears, but had not thought much of it until this point, so I looked into a shifter rebuild kit and replaced all those components shortly after the radio install. The results were MUCH smoother shifts and less heat entering the cabin from the transmission tunnel.
FINALLY BOUGHT A HARDTOP!
I was on the lookout for a reasonably priced hardtop since they greatly decreased noise in the cabin and increased visibility out the rear window, as well as reducing some chassis twist. My friend had sold his Miata, so he offered to sell me his hardtop for a steal, since it was just collecting dust in his shed. With my newly acquired hardtop, I needed a proper stand to place it on when not in use, so naturally I gathered some scrap wood, bought some caster wheels, and built a DIY rolling stand for just a few bucks!
MORE RUST...
Not long before the third winter I owned the car, I realized the car had some pretty major rust issues. The front and rear rocker panels were known to rust prematurely on Miatas, due to a poor design leading the drains to get clogged there. The previous owner had filled the rockers with Bondo and painted over them to make it LOOK like they were not rusting, which only made them rust faster from the inside out. I decided to tackle this repair myself over winter, since the car would be parked anyway. I purchased a cheap welder and began teaching myself how to weld to prepare for this project. I got the hang of it pretty quickly, so I cut out the rusted sections until it was mostly solid metal left, coated the inside of the rockers in a rust sealing epoxy, and formed some patch panels out of sheet metal. Once I welded these panels on, I coated the outside in epoxy too and sealed it. The floors had some major rust too, so I patched and sealed those while I was at it. Overall, it came out very nice for a rust repair with no prior experience.
THE MAJOR OVERHAUL
I had been planning a major overhaul of the car for quite some time and I finally was able to afford it the summer after performing the rust repairs. While I had the interior pulled apart, I installed a bolt-in Hard Dog roll bar which made a HUGE difference in chassis stiffness, as well as adding safety in case of a roll over and passing track regulations for a convertible race car. In addition to this, I disassembled the entire suspension and rear drivetrain. As expected, a majority of the suspension was rusted together, so I had to do some more cutting (and swearing) to get it apart. I sanded any more rust I found on the body, subframe and all control arms, coated it all in rust sealing epoxy and painted on top. I replaced every rubber bushing with much stiffer polyurethane bushings for more predictable steering and suspension feel. All the shocks were replaced with Fortune Auto adjustable coilovers, with adjustments for ride height, shock travel, and dampening. I also replaced the sway bars with Flyin' Miata sway bars and end links with adjustable 949 racing links.
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READY FOR RACING!
As a result of all these upgrades, there was a DRASTIC increase in handling to and already great handling car. I also replaced the stock wheels with ones about 2 inches wider and stickier summer tires. Some fine tuning was needed to get the car to a low ride height while also still being functional to drive on the street.
AUTOCROSS!
I managed to finish the car in time to do one autocross event towards the end of summer and it was a blast! This was my first racing event so it was a major learning experience, but the local Miata club was very friendly and helped me through the first couple laps until I got the hang of it. I was able to race a couple more events the following summer and hope to do many more this summer!
A NEW BUILD!
I stumbled upon a hell of a deal on an unfinished 1993 turbo project Miata with a MUCH cleaner body, so I jumped on it. I had most of the parts to revert my silver Miata back to stock, so I swapped all the aftermarket parts to this new one before I sold it. This new build had most of my plans for the old one in the works, including a motor build to handle up to 400hp, so it is a much better base for a track car. I purchased the car mostly in pieces so I have been slowly assembling it over this past winter.
IN THE WORKS
Most of the motor was assembled when I bought it, but here are some pictures of the build process. So far I have swapped in a much stronger differential to handle the power output, and am in the process of installing the turbo kit. I plan to use an aftermarket ECU and learn to tune it myself to run the car. I am still in the process of obtaining proper racing bucket seats to pass regulations and a MAJOR brake upgrade needed with the new power upgrades.
