LOW Budget Miata For Auto/RallyX and General Bombing Around

Hi Fellas, I snagged a nice deal on a high mileage '92 Miata with a hardtop and some decent bbs wheels. The goals for this car are to keep it cheap, have a fun weekend driver, occasionally autoX and I'd like to also give rallyX a try. I plan to eventually sell off the bbs and hardtop to get the total investment as low as possible.

I've already got an S50 swapped e30 track car and am working with a team to prepare a '94 Miata for Chump racing, so this one is basically an exercise in frugality. I'd like to bring it to some future $2k challenges.

I found it on Craigslist in Ft. Myers advertised as a '95 for $2,000, which appeared to be an insane deal. I got to the car lot to find a '92 and was pretty disappointed. However, I decided to make some lemonade and offered the dude $1500. He didn't flinch, making me wish I had offered even lower.

The first order of business was some new oem front brake pads $43 on ebay and some new fluids.

The tires that came with the car were totally shot, so I hunted on the local Miata forum and found some oem 7-spokes with Hancook RS-2s with some decent life left for sale at $100. This also gives me an opportunity to sell the bbs. The seller had some koni yellows in his shed and offered to sell them for another $200.

Here is the lot for $300

The konis are not yet installed.

Fun progress so far. Its time to sell some stuff and recoup some budget! Thanks for looking and feel free to throw out any fun ideas.

Your 2 choices or GTFO

Lol welcome and you will find all sorts of knowledge here

In reply to JtspellS:

You mean, his one choice? Put both together of course

I really like this build, watching with great interest.

Good buy!

Great score. A low mileage 92 for $500 considering the hard top is usually a $1k part.

You gonna rallycross like us?

I do plan to rallycross, but my car will be nowhere near as prepared as that one!

Unfortunately, the mileage isn't low, its high, at 170k. But it does run very well. No smoke or bad noises and it pulls pretty strong (even has working a/c)!

I'm thinking that I will be going with FM springs. The Konis I bought are from an NB - should I be looking at NB springs or NA springs?

JtspellS wrote: Your 2 choices or GTFO Lol welcome and you will find all sorts of knowledge here

or this:

maybe that too

or some combination of the 3/4 options

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you'll need NB rear top hats as well.

In reply to beans:

I've got 'em.

Lof8 wrote: I do plan to rallycross, but my car will be nowhere near as prepared as that one!

That doesn't look rallycross-prepared at all. There's no bottle opener anywhere to be seen.

Knurled wrote:

Lof8 wrote: I do plan to rallycross, but my car will be nowhere near as prepared as that one!

That doesn't look rallycross-prepared at all. There's no bottle opener anywhere to be seen.

It has the factory installed bottle opener...the door latch striker.

170k? BAH! That's broken in. My first Miata that I tracked at Summit Pt and VIR has 230k on it. Never a failure.

$1500 aint bad considering the hard top is worth half that.

$200 Konis were a good grab as well.

EvanB wrote: It has the factory installed bottle opener...the door latch striker.

Wow, there really is nothing a Miata can't do.

I traded the BBS that came on the car for some rough oem 16s that came with pretty fresh tires plus some cash in my favor. I'm prepping them for some fresh silver paint.

The Grassroots $2k challenge is coming up on Nov 15-16 and there's also a rallycross event coming up at Eastbay raceway (Tampa) on Nov 17. Now, I don't expect this car to particularly excel in either event, but I think it would be a hell of a good time to hop in the car for a long weekend of driving, racing, and rallying. I hope to have the super budget suspension of used koni yellows, new civic bumpstops, and stock springs in place soon and would love to give it a good beating! I haven't fully committed yet, but I'm liking the sound of this road trip.

I also found out the hardtop is required to participate in rallycross, so that was a bit of a budget bummer.

Those are NA Koni Sports with NB tophats. I can tell by the lower perches. I bet they have 3 snap rings?

NA springs seat flat while NB springs have an open coil (if that makes sense). You will need to use NA springs. IF you do go with FM springs, you're not supposed to run the springs on the lowest snap ring due to the potential for coil bind.

I have NB Koni Sports with NB FM Springs and NB OEM tophats. I really like that combo even if Flyin Miata doesn't exactly recommend it.

Paging Keith to the courtesy desk.

Thank you for pointing that stuff out. I should have updated the thread after my initial question. I've found that the shocks are NA. I plan to use stock NA springs with the pictured NB tophats. Should leave me with stock suspension travel while sitting about 3/4" lower than stock, correct?

It depends on what snap ring your perches sit on. I'm not sure, but I believe the NB top hats do lower the car something like 1/2 inch. I was up to snuff on this after reading, reading, and re-reading on miata.net, but my memory seems to have failed me.

What bump stops are you using? I'm using fatcat 46mm rear and 36mm fronts and love them. They are not very budget friendly however at around 100 bucks for the set. I believe you can use stock honda bumpstops that are around 46mm that are something cheap like 8 dollars per corner. Again, read up over at miata.net.

yeah, I ordered some of the cheap civic bumpstops. I'm not sure of the length from the factory, but from my reading, I've gathered that you're supposed to cut them to your desired length. I'll probably start around 55mm and trim them further if it seems fitting afer some driving.

I am using the same FatCat bumpstops. They seem to work well but I would not recommend buying them after the experience I went through trying to get them along with the price.

Disconnecting both swaybars works well. When I put in the NB suspension it did not lower the car any but I am not using NA springs.

(Shameless pic whoring)

EvanB wrote:

yes, yes, yes, YES!!!

I'm thinking tread depth is pretty important for rallyx. The 14"s have RS2s that are about to the wear bar. The 16"s have almost new tread on low quality tires and they're on wheels about 5 lbs heavier each. Which set am I better using in a rallyx scenario?

Use whatever has the most tread. Pump up the pressure and have fun

Here she is with some nearly free OEM 16"s that came with decent tires. Wheels have a fresh spray bomb coat. I hope to get the konis and NB hats on this weekend to massage the ride height. My Dad (co owner) loves these wheels but I'm not a big fan. I think they look to big and bulky.

I'm going to clean up and use the 14"s while the car is in my possession. I would love to find a deal somewhere on 15x7. That size just looks right and has a much better tire selection.