Interest in Miata-based kit cars?

+10000000

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Perhaps we're overthinking this. What 4 cylinder car is an icon, has a huge following, a long racing history, is getting harder to find in nice shape and has a habit of rusting when exposed to salt? Start working on a fiberglass copy of a Miata. In another 20 years you'll be golden

That's not too far off my original thought. When I started kicking this around, my goal was something that handles like a Miata but looks much cooler. Miatas are not ugly in my opinion, but they are mundane. The steps in my process would be:

1. Strip Miata down to "naked"
2. Add frame components needed
3. Drop on new "sexy" body
4. Finish (interior, wiring, etc)

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Perhaps we're overthinking this. What 4 cylinder car is an icon, has a huge following, a long racing history, is getting harder to find in nice shape and has a habit of rusting when exposed to salt?

E30 M3.

alfadriver wrote:

Junkyard_Dog wrote: Perhaps we're overthinking this. What 4 cylinder car is an icon, has a huge following, a long racing history, is getting harder to find in nice shape and has a habit of rusting when exposed to salt? Start working on a fiberglass copy of a Miata. In another 20 years you'll be golden

You forgot "and is rare".

If spec Miata continues to gobble up cars, give it a few years

dyintorace wrote: That's not too far off my original thought. When I started kicking this around, my goal was something that handles like a Miata but looks much cooler. Miatas are not ugly in my opinion, but they are mundane.

Maybe something like a beefed up version of the M coupe concepts?

Even this has enough differences to make a new basic tub a better idea than an overlay like the Simpson kits.

Someone earlier in this thread suggested that, since the Miata is a roadster, an interesting coupe might make more sense. I tend to agree with that. If so, then the trick is coming up with a design.

I have thought about this very idea myself, but only with radically different bodies in mind then everything suggested so far. Is it totally wrong to want to stuff everything good about a miata under something like and an omni or rabbit?

This may have been suggested already, but I'd be happy with early Mazda Cosmo in coupe or topless. I could get over the lack of rotors.

tb wrote: I have thought about this very idea myself, but only with radically different bodies in mind then everything suggested so far. Is it totally wrong to want to stuff everything good about a miata under something like and an omni or rabbit?

wasn't there a build thread where someone put Miata guts into a Datsun pick-up?

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/7446-project-mx520-top-secret/page__hl__miata

Yep, right here.

How about grafting on a Miata NB front clip to a FA/FB RX-7 body using a Miata drivetrain and suspension. IIRC, the Miata rear subframe nearly bolts into an early RX-7

Who's got photoshop?

EvanB wrote: http://community.ratsun.net/topic/7446-project-mx520-top-secret/page__hl__miata Yep, right here.

Oh that gives me baaaaad ideas.....I have one of those trucks sitting in my front yard.

nderwater wrote: Good call on the Toyota 2000GT, Ian

This sure feels like a neat idea. It's rare as hen's teeth, much like the real Cobra. It is iconic, if not well known.

Since I bought my '84 Celica for a project, I've been surprised by the burgeoning Japanese "classic car" scene. There is a following and it seems to be growing.

http://www.japanesenostalgiccar.com/

This might play well in that market. I just don't have any idea how big that market is or how many people who like it have the jack to build a full on kit.

If it really looked right, I'd consider one of these myself. That's neat.

One of the points being missed is why people build kit cars rather than buy originals.

The perception is that you might be saving money. The reality, it that a Kit Car offers an opportunity for the builder to build something with a higher performance envelope than the original AND save money. In other words, since styling is a given, you get to feel superior to the guy who has an original.

Based on this, the target clone is going to have to be quite basic. And have a collector value that is beyond the average Joe.

Brings me right back to the Lotus Elan as the only proposed car that might work for this project. Everything else proposed is too complicated, too common or just too quirky to attract a large following.

well, too quirky? yes, but I stumbled across this while googling about...

Ferrari 250 GTE

Sweet as it gets! although there was talk that Ferrari kits kinda attract goof balls.

has it been mentioned in this thread already? Im too lazy to look

OK, stop and think now. The amount of engineering and craftsmanship that it'd take to reproduce that Ferrari - and you're going to put a Miata drivetrain in it? I'm sorry, but the idea's absurd. That car warrants at least a Bimmer 6 if not something better.

Yeah, that Ferrari is sweet, but realistically you would have to stay way from older car designs. The cost to produce small qtys of chrome and stainless trim would be outrageous. And that 250 GTE would look stupid with painted bumpers and trim.

I don't know who would want a kit Toyota 2000GT, but if they did, wouldn't it make sense to put a supra motor in it? It would be like making a Corvette kit and using a mustang drivetrain.

If you were going to just make a light roadster body, I'd think about reproducing the Devin SS. They made bodies for all kinds of chassis, so it could be viewed as more of a continuation than a knockoff.

But, I really like coupes. One that came to mind was slightly scaled up Opel GT. Most of the originals have returned to the Earth and it's recognizable enough to make people smile.

Since someone has to design, manufacture and profit from this potential Kit. It had better be simple and result in fun.

Think Meyer Manx. Single molded piece of fiberglass. Drops over a hortened self supporting drivetrain. Done. Idea was popular enough to spawn many copiers.

Same idea. Pictre some Carbon Fibre single mold stucture that picks up the suspension points on that naked Miata running gear. Style would be secondary to function. The result would be fun by dint of being so light. The build would be very low labour so there might be a possibility of profit. Lots of potential in this approach

My last post was kind of harsh. What I meant to say was more along the lines of what NOHOME just hit on. There's exponentially more work to obtain the detail and tollerances necessary for a full- bodied, doors-and-windows hardtop car than there is for a simple curvacious open roadster. If you're going to all the expense of making a "real" car, you're pretty well going to end up in a rarified price bracket. OTOH a couple of guys with fabrication skills and good design sense can make a wonderfull roadster that can be sold relatively cheaply (or not. The market will tell you what you can get for the thing.)

Alternately, you could start off with a Roadster w/o doors. Get the thing on the road, then if you like it and it's well recieved, start adding detail: Doors, windows, roof, A/C satelite TV, stripper pole, whatever

I'm not a convertible person so a way to own a coupe Miata is very appealing. Others on here have also expressed this opinion.

Ginetta has some very good looking, front-engine, RWD small sports cars, both open and coupes. The G4, G20, G33 and G34 each have some very good styling elements.

David

Pumpkin Escobar wrote: Sweet as it gets! although there was talk that Ferrari kits kinda attract goof balls.

Mostly what they attract is Ferrari lawyers. I'd stay away from the F-cars.

If you want a Ginetta with Miata mechanicals, well, just buy one. Ginetta sold them and I've seen one in the US. It was featured in Forever MX5, actually. The owner of that particular car is a little deluded about horsepower and performance, but it's still a nice car.

The nice thing about doing a replica of an A-H 100/4 is that you can already buy all the chrome trim, lights and other bits and pieces. In fact, one big advantage to older cars is the fact that they all dipped into the same basic parts bin for things like lights.

If you want examples of how much it would cost to build a "real" car with doors and everything, FF is a good example.

Ginetta G-20 article. As I said, the owner is totally out to lunch on his numbers - I've seen the car, and it's not 1300 lbs. 1600 lbs, maybe, which is nothing to sneer at. There's also no way he's making 175 hp with the described modifications, and my (dyno-proven) 175 hp car that weighs a legitimate 1300 lbs goes 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, not "3-second range". But still, you do get to see more about the car.

Take the pic of the rolling drivetrain skeleton used at the beginning of this thread and then connect the dots. Stock brake lines, fuel lines, etc. etc. Basically a miata, sans tub. Something along the same lines as the Exocet, but the structure could easily be better looking.

I would think there is a market for an open air "bolt together" like this. Especially considering how the mechanicals of most Miatas seem to outlast their good looks.

Or if you have to have a body...

Build a 550 Spyder body. Simple and no windows or top to worry about. Bolt it over a miata skeleton, subframes and all. Keep the entire miata layout including the radiator in the front and make it a bottom breather like a C5.

http://kitcar.automotive.com/26652/0711-stuttgart-550-spyder-replica/index.html

A Miata would never work under a Spyder body. The clearance under the front deck isn't even remotely close.