I just spent this weekend teaching driving at Thunderhill at an
event put on by a Miata Club. I certainly have mixed feelings
from the event.
I drove up on Friday afternoon with one of my coworkers that was
also teaching. He owns a turbo charged Miata that puts out something
in excess of 250 hp. On I505 we got some clear, straight road with
little or no traffic. He was leading and brought the speed up over
90mph. I thought that this would be a good chance to find top end
on Jasmine and was passing him at about 105 when he put his foot on
the gas and took off like I was chained to a tree.
It was definitely cool being able to see 6000 RPM on the tach in 4th
gear. It was even cooler to be able to shift in the overdrive at that
point and wind her out until she ran out of steam at 5500 RPM. My speedo
was bouncing around somewhat over 110 at that point. The shop manual says
22.3 mph / 1000 rpm. I've got 195/60/14 tires on it, so I'm certain that
she did an honest 110, maybe 120. I actually saw this speed twice, at
least once was on fairly flat terrain.
I was also pleased that the stock 1600 Miatas were not that much faster
than I down the straights. I had several people asking me about my motor,
not believing that it was basically stock. For the record, it's an 1800
out of a '69. The bottom end has been balanced and nitrided, Venolia pistons
that match the stock High compression pistons, Elgin IT cheater cam (stock
lift and duration, just a steeper ramp) and it has the larger of the
stock pistons. It is not running smog, has the stock manifold, a fairly
free flow exhaust and I'm running the "rich" needles in my HS4's with
K&N air filters. I'm also using ARP fasteners. My ignition is via
a Pertronix with a Mallory coil. I haven't dynoed it yet, but she seems
to be a reasonably strong motor and should be quite solid. I'm guessing
that the bottom end should be good for 8,000 RPM, but I rarely run her
much over 6,000.
The Miata owners remind me a lot of the MG crowd of 20 years ago. Granted,
by definition, the group I met was a select few of the people who own
miatas, but I think that we would have a hard time finding 80 MG owners
willing to spend $325 to thrash their cars on a race track for two days.
The students ranged in age from 17 on up, with the majority probably from
their late twenties to mid thirties. Very similar age demographics to the MG
club I was involved with 20 years ago. Miatas are now 10 years old
and the "beaters" are starting to come down enough in price that college
kids will be able to buy one when looking for a "cheap sportscar".
This weekend, I also came to the realization that not only are Miatas faster
than MGBs in a straight line, they also probably handle better as well.
Everytime I think of what I can do to make my nearly stock MGBGT handle better,
I realize that I'd be doing something that Miata already has. Rear disk brakes?
Limited slip diff? That really trick IRS from England? Tube shocks? The
Miata has them all. It's biggest performance disadvantage over the MGB
(and I'm comparing it with the '67-72 vintage) is weight, and must of that
seems to be from luxury features that are easily removed. The springs,
swaybars and shocks are softer than one would want for a track, or even
a dual purpose car, but even an MG benefits from uprating those.
It wasn't long ago that MGs had a major price advantag over Miatas. You could
buy an absolutely cherry MGB for $3,000 and a "runner" for $800. Nowdays,
I think that a relatively straight collection of MGB parts that are
more or less bolted together will set you back over $1000. The price of
a decent running Miata has dropped from $6,000 to about $3,000, about the
price of a decent running MGB. I've seen estimates for building a race car
for the new "Spec Miata" class at about $6,000. I've seen used SSC Miatas
for under $5,000.
Am I looking to sell my MGB? No, she runs well, is fun to drive, and there
is definitely a coolness to driving a 30 year old sportscar that you just
don't get from driving a 10 year old sportscar. Am I going to spend a
lot of money fixing it up even more? Probably not. By the time I was
done fixing up the rear axle, replacing the shocks, porting the cylinder
head, installing a fuel cell, getting new paintjob and all the other things
that I'd like to do to Jasmine, she wouldn't be a lot faster, wouldn't be
legal for any race class and I could have built a competitive spec miata
race car for less than the mods to Jasmine would cost me. Would I be willing
to sell her to finance another toy? That's a hard question. Someone would
have to offer me more than it would cost me to duplicate her, probably far
more than she's really worth, and I'd probably want them to promise me
that they'd take her out to the race track, if not race her. To me, it
is far sadder to see a sports car bread and built for the racetrack become
a garage queen than to eventually get wadded up into a ball of abstact art
on the race track. Remember, only the warriors that die in battle go
to Valhalla.
Larry
--
I regret the mistakes I've made less than the opportunities lost from
risks not taken.
lrc@red4est.com http://www.red4est.com/lrc
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