The Track Cars - The Miata Experiment part 2

Well when we last heard about my Miata, it had puked all its oil all over the track and for all appearances the motor was toast. On my whole 5-laps, although I did run the race line, the amount of oil leaked on the track was not enough for other cars to spin. Thank goodness! You hate being that guy. The guy that puts enough oil on the track that other cars, driving really fast spin out of control. I was lucky, the oil the motor put down was not enough to cause any delays or spins. At least I have that!

Now it was time for the post mortem. I spoke with the shop that did the work and we hoped that it was a minor melt down. Maybe just the top end of the motor. So a few weeks later, I hauled the car over to the shop and turned them loose. At first we thought the budget for a minor rebuild would be about $5K. I prepared my wife for that budget. Although not exactly happy; she reminded me that every time my race car broke, it meant that we could not buy a new professional oven for our kitchen or any new furniture. Yep in the dog house once again. Maybe I should move in permanently. Just call me Bad Dog.

The shop dug in, the calls got more and more serious. Finally the prognosis came in. It had been a complete engine failure and the whole motor needed to be replaced. Now keep in mind that this is not a JDM motor. Meaning that you just buy a stock replacement motor and stick it under the hood. NO…this one is special. Forged everything – crank, rods, pistons, block, head, all the parts that make up the motor are custom. That also meant that the bill started creeping upwards. Well not actually creeping, more like sprinting.

Then we really got serious. Since this had devolved into a pure track car (although barely street legal), we decided to really increase the power. To do that, it meant that a special engine management system had to be installed. Called MegaSquirt, it allows the motor to be tuned to really high levels. When combined with the large supercharger, MegaSquirt can help the motor make more than 350HP. That is a lot of Horse Power, especially for a car that weighs about 2400 lbs. We decided to dial the engine back to about 325HP / 275 HP at the rear wheels so that the motor would last for another hundreds to thousands of hours.

The bill came due. I got a break on the work since I am friends with owner and it probably should have cost north of $9-10K. I paid a little over $8K. I was not in the dog house, I was in the dog basement. No, maybe more like sleeping in the yard with no dog house roof over my head, with just a thin cheap tarp. In the cold and rain. My wife laid down the law. The car had to go.

So the bright red 1999 Miata, aka the Beast is for sale and the new owner of this car will get truly a monster of a track weapon. It has enough power to run with the big boys like C7 Corvettes, GT3 and GT4 Porsches. Yep, in the right hands this car can embarrass a lot of much more power and much more expensive cars. Priced at just $15K, it’s a deal.

I hope to be back in a track car some day. But I have to dig my way out of the dog house and be a good boy for a while.

Wish me luck! Oh and will someone please buy the Beast? You will be very happy with an amazing track Beast.

On and there is a link to learn all about this car above in the menu. Just click!

And on that exhaust note…