Miatas are like rabbits....

So, I have a pile of Miatas.

Right now, the fleet between my fiance and I consists of her '99 10AE SCCA Time Trials car, my NASA TT6 '02, an '06 Winning blue "fun project" car, and my 2019 SCCA autocross STR car. Also have a Sequoia that gets the occasional project done. Seems like this place is the last neat spot to do build threads, so why not do one, I feel like I'm always doing something. Also do a bunch of little projects with 3D printing, arduinos, etc. Have a long list to do over winter on all the cars so this will be a good way to keep track of all of it. I'm happy to share (almost!) everything about the cars and some stuff I've learned on all of them, but probably won't go super in depth into all the stuff I've already done unless someone asks (or if I think there's a total information void for it on the internet).

The '06 is the most recent acquisition. 

We picked it up last December on a whim. $6K with a hardtop. Hit a deer in the rental car 5 miles away after flying in to Louisville and driving to IN to pick it up. Got caught in a monster of a snowstorm on bald tires driving home. Fun times.

The NC has stayed pretty simple so far. The idea with this car is to build a fun to drive regional autocrosser to use the take-off tires from the STR car as they cycle out, or "test slower" than whatever I'm using for a benchmark. It has revalved Godspeed Monomaxx (yes really) dampers, valved similarly to the other cars (the shock bodies allow for a lot of great valving options, they just really suck as delivered), a progress front sway bar + karcepts endlinks, and presently working on getting some offset bushings for the front upper control arms to maximize camber. I ended up buying a couple sets of cheap wheels for it in 17x9, one set of autocross wheels (Kosei K1-TS), and some Wedsport TC105Ns for street wheels. 

The 10AE was purchased in 2017 as a daily. As I started doing more track stuff with my prior NB again, we started to convert Michelle's car into a light duty track car. It saw it's first track day about a year ago at NCCAR. This consists of a Blackbird Fabworx roll bar, Whitener Racing shocks with 800lb front, 600lb rear springs, lower offset camber bushings (swapping the ELBJs over from my TT6 car this winter), a giant Racing Beat front bar, and some cheap exhaust that came with the car. Half of the effort with this project has been un-berkeleying stuff the prior owner did. The winter projects will be predominantly maintenance, but with some prep for SCCA T5 for next year (header, midpipe, ECU, and a custom intake, since all of the off-the-shelf options are either really terrible or not legal), along with some safety work. 

The ND2 was mostly just migrating parts over from my prior ND1. Covid and related shutdowns have made it so it's only run a couple of events this year. A few local PAX wins, and a second place at the Dixie Champ Tour after some terrible driving are all this has really accomplished at this point.

The ND2 setup is not typical for STR, with very different spring rates and shocks (and valving) than many. It's using some Bilstein AS2s a friend built for me, on 800/500 springs. Very digressive valving. I'd run MCS, JRZ, Penske 8300s, and now run specially valved Bilsteins on all of my cars. Otherwise, it is using a Karcepts .250 wall front bar, OS Giken rear end, Karcepts offset bushings, JDL midpipe + header, racing beat rear section exhaust, Karcepts 2PC front rotors, a Sparco Evo seat on a fixed PCI mount, a Paco Motorsports lowering seat rail for the passenger side with the stock seat (very close to minimum weight), Flyin Miata front LBBK, and the "nice" wheels for it are Titan 17x9s. Typically running Yokohama A052s, although this may change for 2021 as new tires come into the fray, and I have some other silly ideas to test. 

The focus on this car, with the setup being pretty well nailed on the ND1, was to get it as light as possible. While mine isn't *quite* there yet, it is possible for an ND2 to get to 2150lbs in STR trim. 

The TT6 car is a long-running project, also consisting partly of moving parts over from my prior NB1 build, but most of this car has been developed independently. This will *probably* be the bulk of this thread since it is the vast majority of my project time, but the other cars all need some love too. 

It is indeed always the answer, huh?

I have a couple other project ideas in mind, but too much to do on these to want to start another. My hope is to finish my last few ND and NB1 projects in November/December so I can focus on the other two cars in Jan and Feb.

ND2 just needs a header blanket and some rake testing. 
 

NB1 needs its power stuff. Ordering a header for it this week, using a Goodwin midpipe I still have laying around, designing an intake for it, then I scrounged up a Greddy E-Manage and Boomslang harness for it really cheap, so will get that on the dyno sometime over winter to tune. The SCCA T5 rules are funny and this was easier and way cheaper than turning an MS3 into a piggyback. A few other minor suspension tweaks (Front right lower control arm is bent, moving all the stuff off the NB2 and replacing that with new), fixing some front bar bind typical for racing beat sways, then putting in a race seat and harness. Waiting for aero rules to actually shake out for tuner. Hoping they don't add the rules as written, as it's a wing big enough to be a "must do" but so small that it won't do a *ton*, and will likely have to be custom. This also isn't really my car (I borrow it and run it in the occasional session to provide data). 200TW tires for SCCA (A052s are fastest by a bunch in that ruleset) burn down pretty fast too, so I don't really want to run it in "max prep" trim very much either.

The NC really just needs the offset upper bushings done and an alignment / corner balancing. I might play with Versatuner on it but I have two other tuning projects with the other cars so that is likely to wait. This car is a total toy and no competitive purpose anywhere. Just a fun car to drive.

My NB2 is probably where the bulk of this thread will come from on my end. Tons of little projects. I'm still kicking around ST6 versus just optimizing for TT6 next year. Doubling up on contingency would be really nice. The major projects for it are a major suspension overhaul / maintenance (all bushings, hubs, etc), putting a quieter (not Spec Miata) exhaust on, putting a 4.3 OS Giken rear in place of the stock 3.9 Torsen, playing with the Megasquirt a lot to get driveability better, and chasing down some reliability issues. Lots of little stuff to do too, and maybe caging it and painting the interior if time allows. 
 

First winter Trackcross of the year is on Sunday in the NB1, still stock power and the car is very much an underdog in its class anyways. I've managed to win the bulk of the winter series events the past couple years, but some much better prepared cars with competent drivers seem to be showing up now :).