New to me Mazda Miata, what should I look for?

[JCH13]

my miata stuff is arriving next week:

hard dog hard core hard top roll bar
four wheel little big brake kit
FM stage 2.5 suspension package.

FUCK YES!

:awe:

 

[GTaudiophile]

My NA still puts a smile on me like nothing else.

Such a pleasure to maintain as well!

 

[Fenixgoon]

:awe:

exactly :awe::awe::awe:

My NA still puts a smile on me like nothing else.

Such a pleasure to maintain as well!

the whole reason i bought an NA miata and decided to sell my genesis coupe. sure it's not as nice, but good god it is FUN.

 

[Jeff7181]

You guys are making me want to buy the first one I come across. 🙂

 

[phucheneh]

The 6-bolt 4.3 diffs just can't hold it all together from what I've read, but I don't know the failure mechanism. The 5spd transmission cases aren't stiff enough to keep the gears happy at very high power levels. Once one gear loses a tooth or cracks the whole shebang grenades.

I hate it when my shebang grenades. =(

When I first read this, I was thinking...sweet merciful poop, surely 4.3 does not refer to the ring gear size. Heh. Is that rear gear ratio? Google seems to indicate a lot of them are 4.30:1.

And apparently it's a massive six inches of ring gear on the 1.6's, or 7" for the 1.8. Makes me wonder about the 'monster Miata' kits...IIRC they are just engine/trans and have no provisions for a rear end upgrade.😵 That seems like not a terribly great idea.

What do people swap if they want to keep IRS and something at least close to the factory suspension setup?

 

[JCH13]

Ya, the 1.6L has a 4.3, the 1.8L NA used a 4.1, then the NBs used 4.3s with 5 spd transmissions, and 3.909s with 6spds. Anything other than the 1.6L 4.3s are pretty good.

Mine has a clutch-pack LSD from an RX7 with a 4.1 ratio and a conversion to the 1.8L rear end and axles. There are VLSD, Torsen, and open differentials on stock Miatas AFAIK.

More info: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/gearing.php

V8 cars have a number of options for various rear differentials:

http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?deptid=5675&parentid=0&stocknumber=26-08002

http://www.monstermiata.com/ (click store -> differential)

A number of Ford and Getrag options from FM for simply insane amounts of power. It looks as if the driveshaft options are around 500hp...so 500hp in a 2500lb car -> 1hp/5lb... that's about a 600cc sport-bike power:weight ratio w/ driver.

OP, have you ever driven one before? It would be worth test-driving a few to see what they're like. That way you'll know if something is off when you go to buy one.

 

[tonyfreak215]

Monster Miatas don't use the stock rear ends; they swap out the entire drivetrain.

Check out Mazdaspeed Motorsports. You can get good discounts on OEM parts. You only need to do 2 SCCA or NASA autocrosses a year to be eligible.

http://mazdamotorsports.com/wcsstore/B2BDirect/Motorsports/membershipinfo.htm

 

[iamwiz82]

One more thing I forgot about on the MSM, the gearing is stupidly low. First gear redline is under 30mph, second gear is under 50mph.