MX5RACER
04-23-2013, 08:30 AM
How a Rat gets its name.
A few years ago I heard that a race Miata was for sale locally. I heard about it from the usual channels, a friend of a friend, who had a cousin, who had a neighbor, who had a racecar sitting on the side of their house and wanted to sell it. I went over and found the little racecar sitting there all sad and sick. You see this was a 1990 Spec Miata that had built and raced in two races before the short-nose 1990 crank went South. The little car sat on the side of the house ever since. Surprisingly though, the car ran. It looked like hell, but fired right up, bad crank and all. My Dad and I bought the poor little car for $4500. Included with the car was boxes of spares and most of the parts removed to make a racecar. Now, what does this have to do with how a Rat gets its name? Well, we decided to drive the car home as it was only 3 miles to my house. We turn onto the main road and I sort of "got on it", which must have scared the rat that had taken up home in the rear bumper. He dropped out from under the rear of the car and took off running across the street; and since that day we named the little car, the Track Rat.
Lots of changes have taken place since that day. The little broken 1.6 has been replaced twice with 1.8's. Once with 1996 1.8, and most recently with a '01+ VVT motor. The stock ECU has been replaced with a DIYPNP megasquirt. With the 1.8 motor swap, came a header; first a Raceland which died a horrible death at Sebring after a few years of useage. Then with a Jackson Racing header that also died on track; which, I found out, was caused by broken exhaust hangers. The Jackson Racing header was repaired and has been in use ever since. The Spec Miata suspension has been replaced with a set of Koni shock and coil-over sleeves, with 700ft/lb springs in the front and 350ft/lb springs in the rear. The roll cage has been revised and painted.
I am happy to say that the Track Rat can be found running lap after lap after lap at FL tracks like Sebring and Homestead at Chin Motorsports events.
Here are a few pictures from the track, with the original paint job.
738473857386738773887389
Here is a picture from Miatapoolza with the new paint.
7390
Here is a picture of the cage after a refresh and paint.
7392
Here is one from when I was swapping the VVT motor in.
7393
One last attachment, the latest dyno test, the red line is my current set-up.
7391
A few years ago I heard that a race Miata was for sale locally. I heard about it from the usual channels, a friend of a friend, who had a cousin, who had a neighbor, who had a racecar sitting on the side of their house and wanted to sell it. I went over and found the little racecar sitting there all sad and sick. You see this was a 1990 Spec Miata that had built and raced in two races before the short-nose 1990 crank went South. The little car sat on the side of the house ever since. Surprisingly though, the car ran. It looked like hell, but fired right up, bad crank and all. My Dad and I bought the poor little car for $4500. Included with the car was boxes of spares and most of the parts removed to make a racecar. Now, what does this have to do with how a Rat gets its name? Well, we decided to drive the car home as it was only 3 miles to my house. We turn onto the main road and I sort of "got on it", which must have scared the rat that had taken up home in the rear bumper. He dropped out from under the rear of the car and took off running across the street; and since that day we named the little car, the Track Rat.
Lots of changes have taken place since that day. The little broken 1.6 has been replaced twice with 1.8's. Once with 1996 1.8, and most recently with a '01+ VVT motor. The stock ECU has been replaced with a DIYPNP megasquirt. With the 1.8 motor swap, came a header; first a Raceland which died a horrible death at Sebring after a few years of useage. Then with a Jackson Racing header that also died on track; which, I found out, was caused by broken exhaust hangers. The Jackson Racing header was repaired and has been in use ever since. The Spec Miata suspension has been replaced with a set of Koni shock and coil-over sleeves, with 700ft/lb springs in the front and 350ft/lb springs in the rear. The roll cage has been revised and painted.
I am happy to say that the Track Rat can be found running lap after lap after lap at FL tracks like Sebring and Homestead at Chin Motorsports events.
Here are a few pictures from the track, with the original paint job.
738473857386738773887389
Here is a picture from Miatapoolza with the new paint.
7390
Here is a picture of the cage after a refresh and paint.
7392
Here is one from when I was swapping the VVT motor in.
7393
One last attachment, the latest dyno test, the red line is my current set-up.
7391