Debbid Does Track Days
Hey Everyone,
I've always wanted to put together a build thread but progress on my car is usually slow, so I never did. But I changed my mind. Here's my build thread.
I'll start with a little bit of background to show how I arrived at where I am now. I started doing track days back in 2002 with my 1991 Nissan Sentra SE-R. I eventually sold that car and bought an 04 WRX Wagon, which was unfortunately wrecked at a track day. I decided that I didn't want to take my DD to the track anymore, so I bought my first Miata. That car never did make it to the track though because I started riding motorcycles at that time. From Fall 2006 to Winter 2012, I got my track fix from motorcycles. They were lots of fun but when my son was born, I felt that risk involved with motorcycles was too high and I sold my bike. But the track bug was still with me. I thought about taking my DD to the track (another WRX Wagon) but I needed a car to get to work and cart my kid around. I considered my options, looked at lots of different cars, and, as we all know, the answer was Miata.
In July 2012, I bought my '96 Miata. It wasn't the cleanest car but the price was right considering I was going to replace many of the worn out OEM parts. The car had 169,000 miles on the odometer, lots of dings, rough paint, and the heaviest 16" wheels I have ever seen.
I had a set of Rota RBs from another project, so I immediately swapped those over and the car was already looking better.
Next step was to give the car a thorough examination and figure out what to do next. The suspension was in pretty sad shape and the engine was pretty leaky, so those were the first things on the list. I replaced the suspension with the Flyin' Miata Stage 2.5 kit, fixed the leaks, and installed a roll bar. Then I replaced the header, cat, and cat-back since they were rusty, welded-together mess. I went with a Jackson Racing CARB-Legal Header (because CA) and Roadstersport Cat-back.
The car stayed in this state for more than a year. I was spending most of my car time doing rallycross with my Subaru and the Miata was neglected. But in 2014, I shifted my focus back to the Miata. My cousin picked up a red NA with a white hard top and no soft top. He loves having a convertible, so I traded him my soft top plus some cash for his hardtop. I had an old, torn up soft top in my garage, so I decided to use it for a ProjectG G-String top. Around this time I also picked up the recently-released Advandti Storm S1 wheels in 15x8. My car looked like this around the end of Summer 2014. Also made it out to the Miatas@MRLS 25th Anniversary Event.
Someone from Mazda snapped this picture of me as I was driving into the Miatas@MRLS event:
Seeing all the Miatas at Laguna Seca really inspired me to get to the track. That was the whole reason for buying the car, right? I realized that if I didn't sign up for a track day, I wouldn't actually get the rest of the mods I wanted to the track. In September 2014, I signed up for a weekend of events in December at Thunderhill in Northern CA. Being 6' tall, I wasn't comfortable with the stock seats and the rollbar. I barely passed the broomstick test with my helmet on in my foamectomied stock seat. I decided to go with and Ultrashield seat and harness from Track Dog Racing. I also replaced the OEM steering with a 330mm Nardi Deep Corn and Nardi QR and Hub. Also rolled my fenders in anticipation of the track days.
I didn't get any pics of the events at Thunderhill. And the weather was really bad that weekend, it rained and the track was damp but it was fun anyways. And I was hooked again. I couldn't wait to get to the track again, so I signed up for a Laguna Seca track day. The weather was perfect and a professional photographer was out there taking pics of us. So here's my Miata as of Jan 25th. I really love this car. It's so much fun to drive and I look forward to many more track days in the years to come.
My pan going forward is to do more track days. From a mod perspective, I'm going to get another seat and harness for the passenger side. I also have a set of frame rail braces that I need to install at some point. Thanks looking at my car! I'll make updates as things change or I do more events.
Mod List:
- Flyin' Miata Stage 2.5 Suspension Kit
- Harddog Hardcore Single Diagonal Roll Bar
- Track Dog Racing Ultrashield Seat
- Ultrashield Harness
- Autopower Seat Brace
- Nardi 330mm Suede Deep Corn Steering Wheel
- NRG Hub and QR
- Jackson Racing Header
- Roadstersport Cat-Back
- 15x8 Advanti Storm S1 wheels
- Replica R-Package front and rear lips
- TSIs
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Originally Posted by Phatmiata
