A miata pictorial tale of Irony

Hard to see in the picture, but the mustang's bumper sticker says "LS Swaps are WhiteClaw for Car Guys" next to my LS3 miata. It made me chuckle. 

I also chuckled while passing him on the chip ... sideways. 

In reply to accordionfolder :

You can't fault what works. At the end of the day, there's a reason why so many people are stuffing LS V8s into so many things.

Also: Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws

What does that even mean?

In reply to Racebrick :

It means he is slow but has an excuse of thinly veiled toxic masculinity.

Yep - Drink, love, and drive whatever ya' want ! 

I still thought the irony was delicious. 

The real question: How is an LS3 breathing through a tail pipe that small?

Also, trunk is notched for a wing...where is your aero?!?

I was mainly instructing that day so I was a bit on the back foot, too bad I didn't have video going for the session I took it out. No aero, no hood, eyeballed alignment, and on old 245 rs4s w/ ~420whp @ 2475lbs.

I walked up the banking with it pinned it 4th because it wouldn't hook, what a riot.

In reply to calteg :

Seems to breathe ok, probably could make more power with dual or single 3", but 2 to 1 2.5" fits easy and power isn't a problem yet.

I went to a local cars and coffee with the Targa Miata and there was a kid with a turbo Miata with the plate "V8 who?". I was so tempted to park beside him...

Kid claimed to be making 400 whp out of a 2560, which, well, let's just say we didn't talk about it much more after that.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Felt a bit similar - The mustang crowd seems fairly sensitive to the idea of an LS in a mustang (which is a swap I love), but everyone loved my s***-box miata. It's REALLY rough right now, this was only the second time on the track. A lot to do, but it's already a riot. 

I went out in HPDE2 because it was the only gap I had - so I was pretty much the boogey-man. Just making a menace of myself - in a faster session I would've been in a bit of trouble, between the overwhelming torque and the older rs4s I was more just hanging on. I was overslowing in some and underslowing in others - missing apex left, right and center. Though during lunch I had pretty much every corner work over talking about the car - very fun.

A much more accurate analogy would be :

"LS swaps are IPA's for car guys."

In reply to Driven5 :

I like LS's and IPAs! 

But I also just love beer and cars in general - I'm easy to please. 

accordionfolder said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I went out in HPDE2 because it was the only gap I had - so I was pretty much the boogey-man. Just making a menace of myself - in a faster session I would've been in a bit of trouble, between the overwhelming torque and the older rs4s I was more just hanging on. 

Everyone likes the whole "slow car fast" thing, but there's something to be said for riding herd on an unruly overpowered beast :)

Colin Wood said:

In reply to accordionfolder :

You can't fault what works. At the end of the day, there's a reason why so many people are stuffing LS V8s into so many things.

Also: Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws

Troof! And you can just send monies to GM performance and they send you 430hp or 525hp brand new motors for the cost of putting together an OK turbo setup. Kinda hard to beat. You can all but gurantee they're better at putting them together than you or your local builder....

accordionfolder said:

Colin Wood said:

In reply to accordionfolder :

You can't fault what works. At the end of the day, there's a reason why so many people are stuffing LS V8s into so many things.

Also: Ain't no laws when you're drinking Claws

Troof! And you can just send monies to GM performance and they send you 430hp or 525hp brand new motors for the cost of putting together an OK turbo setup. Kinda hard to beat. You can all but gurantee they're better at putting them together than you or your local builder....

This is really the under rated part. Turbo miatas are the "cheap" option...until you actually want to beat on them at the track. Then add in another $6-7k in reliability mods, hope your tune is decent, hope the underhood temps don't cook anything, hope, hope, hope.

Or buy an LS. 

In reply to calteg :

Yep! 
This one is going to be in GLTC next season - so it's going to be very, very understressed, but I like the turn it up, turn it down nature w/ the DBW throttle. 

calteg said:

Or buy an LS. 

And a transmission and a differential and all the mounting and wiring, etc, etc.  Reliable V8 track Miatas aren't cheap either!

The least expensive option depends on your desired power level.  Turbos make a lot of sense in the 200 to low/mid 300 rwhp range because of the ease of using Mazda drivetrain parts.  Go much above that and the turbo car needs the same sort of transmission and rear end as the V8 car.

In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :

Ha - definitely not debating that it's a lot no matter which way you slice it. If you're looking to make 400+whp (hell, even 300+ is very dangerous all mazda) in a turbo you're doing nearly the exact same set of changes for less hp, and more heat. I can go from ~400 -> ~500whp by just changing valve springs and cam. My transmission is good to 700, my diff, axles, and driveshaft in the same region. Literally nothing drivetrain related on my car is strained, right now I'm having trouble keeping the engine in the temp range, it was cooling too much w/ my initial electric water pump setup.

https://youtu.be/jmKonzqm-Kg?si=1LcOez8Y1ibv3ByV

Personally if you're staying all mazda, just go TRD rotrex! Street car that just sees occasional rips, sure you could **maybe do 300whp on all mazda depending on the torque and how it hits, etc, etc.

I always figured the crossover was at around 400 hp, but that was assuming you're not doing any fabricating on either kit. That was also assuming street car, not hard core track abuse, so it was assuming a Miata gearbox.

The big advantage to turbos is that you can take baby steps to be there. You can start with a bolt-on kit, then add standalone engine management, improve cooling, etc, etc. Makes it a lot easier to build over time, especially if you have an overall plan so you don't go down any dead ends.

The big advantage to a full drivetrain swap (engine, trans, rear) is that they're seriously overbuilt and were engineered by the factory with a pretty big budget. The end result is better IMO but it's a much bigger leap to get there.

Love the Miata! Any info on the white BMW in the background of your first picture? Kinda looks like a 1M?

Yep - agreed on all fronts! Cars are hard, LS are a BIG bite to take, but the end result is something that's barely jogging when you're ripping on it

In reply to dyintorace :

Thanks! Sorry, he was a newer guy w/ an instructor. I **think it was non-M, but I'm not a bmw person so I didn't look super closely. 

accordionfolder said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Felt a bit similar - The mustang crowd seems fairly sensitive to the idea of an LS in a mustang (which is a swap I love)

I run into so many people that love my car until they find out it has an LS and then many more that love it because it has an LS.  People need to realize it's just a chunk of metal that makes horsepower and cool noises.  Who cares what got stamped on the block.

Keith Tanner said:

The big advantage to a full drivetrain swap (engine, trans, rear) is that they're seriously overbuilt and were engineered by the factory with a pretty big budget. The end result is better IMO but it's a much bigger leap to get there.

The most daunting part is the one where you strip out everything from the engine bay and interior, scrape off a bunch of the undercoating, and modify the transmission tunnel with plasma cutter and welder. :)  I've seen the photos!

Sure in principle it's not that big a deal, but you can build a 350 rwhp turbo car with just wrenches -- no welding required and only a very small amount of cutting to clearance the shelf.  That's appealing to a lot of people.