Spending yesterday at the racetrack, I was pretty intrigued by the Spec Miata class.

Anyone have experience with this?

Looks like it'd be a blast.

A Spec Miata is one of the cheapest ways to go racing. They are tons of fun, although they are not real fast. When I get back into wheel to wheel racing, it will be in a Spec class again. I enjoyed the tight competition when I raced a Spec RX-7 more than Vintage Racing my 914.

Spec Miata is now a National SCCA Class, so you can go as far as you want to. NASA and several other groups also support the class.

Mazda Motorsports has GREAT tech and parts support. You can get parts from them at less than dealer cost. There is also probably sponsorship support availabe from whatever spec tire is required in your region. I know there was from Kumho when I ran the Spec RX-7.

It seems like all of my racing buddies (really 5 or so) are going the SM route. It's not quite as cheap (but there's much less development) than IT can be in the ITB or ITC classes.

It's good racing, but you get all types of driver's out there.... and a lot of them.

BTW... a buddy pulled a valve apart on his SM a few weekends ago at Grattan. He called Mazda and ordered a long block and everything else he needed for ~$2200 on Wednesday. It showed up to his house 2 days later. That's cool.

Yeah, I can get a race-ready car with a bunch of tires, and a trailer for about $6K.

So MAYBE I just enjoy my 2.0 914, and take the money I was thinking about using for a 6er, and put it towards a racing career... =)

only thing negative I've heard is that some of the guys consider the Miata "disposable", so body-to-body contact is not a problem for some of them

... and they're a chick's car.

QUOTE (Brando @ Jun 13 2005, 10:39 AM)

... and they're a chick's car.

Yup either it's got a girl in it or there is a roll cage and 225/50-15 tires stuffed under the fenders. But still a girl in it.

I've seen the budget spreadsheets from my buddies SM builds. It takes about $10 or $11k to build the car, assuming no internal engine changes required.

That includes the initial purchase of the car.

Buy a 1st Gen RX-7 and stuff a carbed, ported 13B in it.

Yeah, the SM seems like a real good entry into racing. I looked at Karts, and even THOSE get to $5K.

I can get a used racer to get my license, and jitters worked out for about $8K. Knowing me, I'll just replace everything anyway, so I may as well get something to get my feet wet first.

where do you put your purse? is there a hook on the roll bar?



edit: ok- yes. pretty cool and cheap way to get into road racing. go for it doug

why are so many miata's automatic ? so your right hand can control the AC.

seriously..their engines are unbelieveable... i got one with 165k miles on it and
spec raced it for a whole year and all i did was change the oil...