The Answer is Always MIATA

• How each of you came into “the world of miata”... and briefly give us your motorsports bio
• Miata or MX-5 … which is it? What does “MIATA” even mean? 
• We hear all the time “Miata’s are slow” – fact or fiction? How do you make a Miata fast(er)? Tips/Tricks thoughts on going faster with a low hp/momentum vehicle.
• Miata’s are CHEAP; that’s what we always hear at least, what’s the TOC (total cost of ownership) really like? And where to go for Miata advice and parts? What are some of the best “life hacks” for Miatas? 
• What’s the best/worst parts about owning a Miata?
• In an alternative universe where there is NO MIATA, everything else being equal, what would you choose to race? If you had to start all over again, would you stick with the Miata you have?
• Which generation is the best? Which one *should* people buy? Or why not? Thoughts on the ND1, ND2. What do we think about the Fiata? (124 Abarth). Rumors or whispers about the 5th gen Miata… Bueller, anyone? 

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motorsports podcast, break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motorsports related

for every four out of five petrol heads surveyed when asked, what car should I buy? The answer is always Miata. Many folks would argue that the Mazda MX five known to many of us as the Miata is a great option for a number of reasons. It’s well-made efficient and is surprisingly affordable. Some would say the Miata is one of the most popular roasts of all time beating out all the British cars that inspired it, and it’s a formula that has worked for years with others trying to imitate, but never quite capturing the magic created by Miata.

Is that true? Is there more to the Miata mystique than meets the eye? What’s it really like to be a Miata owner? That’s right, Brad, in our first ever double crossover episode, we aim to answer those questions and more as we chat with returning guest and drive through news sponsor Dave Peters from h hpde junkie.com, along with [00:01:00] Jim Montano, founder of No Money Motorsports blog, as well as their friend Bill Snow, founder of the Late to Grid podcast.

Welcome to Break Fix, gentlemen. How about we get into it? Thanks for having us. Hey, thanks. So, so this is like podcast Inception. It’s a podcast within a podcast. Within a podcast. Absolutely. I mean, I’m gonna start off with, you know, we talked about, the answer is always Ada. I’m wearing this t-shirt from Blip Shift, which I love that says, the original answer is Lotus Ilan.

Many will say that Miata was. Born in California. Built in Japan. We actually had somebody on the show not long ago that was on the original design team for the Miata, and that was a super interesting story and whatnot. But we talked with him about its British inspiration and he said, oh, well it’s really a combination of cars.

They stole from Alpha. They stole from Lotus. They stole from here. They stole from there. So let’s talk about how each of you came into the world of Miata and briefly give your Motorsports bio. You know, talk about what you do and things like that. So why [00:02:00] don’t we start with Jim from No Money Motorsports.

All right. Hey, uh, so I’m one of those people that 15 years ago, you would’ve never guessed I’d be in a Miata. I, uh, grew up in a muscle car household. We had mopars chargers and challengers, my house, and I had a muscle car. And then I got a Mustang, almost got kicked outta my family for it. I had it and I started motorsports with that.

I started autocross and then one of my buddies bought a Miata, and he is like, you just have to drive it, man. Like, just, just try it out, drive it. Got in the car, drove it, and within like two or three miles was like, all right, the Mustang is for sale. And that’s really how I got a Miata. Ended up buying that exact car from him cuz he found another one he wanted to upgrade into.

That’s really how the, the Miata thing started. What year? Mustang. I had two at first, so I got a 95. Started auto crossing and that the, yeah, the last year of the 5.0 sold that for an oh five, which is the first year of the retro body style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I’m not surprised you got rid of those for the Oh, I dunno.

I, I miss ’em both though so much. I don’t [00:03:00] regret selling ’em one bit, but I miss them every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I’m there with some of my cars too. 200 horsepower of five liters of Awesome. Yeah, that two 15. Two 15. Oh, okay. Yeah. You must have the GT model. One of the times right before I like decided to sell it, I was at a stoplight two-lane road.

No one inside except for right behind me was a minivan. And I just plastered. I took off from that light as hard as I could, you know, second gear. And I’m halfway with the second gear and I look in my mirror and the van is right on my bumper. It’s like, oh, this isn’t gonna work. From there, just started track days where I had been auto crossing to that point.

Uh, and then basically jumped right into track days with the Miata. Started doing volunteering and working with nasa, doing a lot of days with them. Really just as time went on, just then I started instructing. Then I started time trial, and then I started racing. It’s just kind of the way the cookie crumbled there, and through all that, I got into doing track days, like right outta college basically.[00:04:00]

So I had absolute mountain of student loans and a teaching job that paid. A lot less than my student loans we’ll say. So I started this whole thing on an extreme budget. The, with the Miata, I was living in apartments, I was working on it in the apartment parking lot and all these things. And with that I got a lot of kind of strategies and tips to really do it on the cheap and do it easily.

That is where my whole No Money Motorsports thing came out, cuz people kind of could see that I was making ends meet and making it happen. And I was getting the same questions kind of repeatedly, like, oh hey, how do you do this? How do you do that? So that’s where the idea for making a whole blog about it came out.

So as many of our guests may remember, Dave Peters was on our show during season one and he told us about how he started life in a three 70 Z Nissan. But Dave, how did you end up in the Miata? Again, mine was budget reasons as well. The, uh, three 70 Z just, it was hard on the Expendables tires were maybe two weekends and they were big.

19 inch, three oh fives on the [00:05:00] back. So full set was, I think it was about $1,500 and it was a staggered setup and brake pads went about as quick. It just wasn’t a great track car had fuel starvation problems and overheating problems, and not of the engine, but like the clutch would overheat because the clutch line was next to the catalytic converter.

And, but it really was more about money. You know, I did it a couple of times and realized a couple of times a year wasn’t gonna be enough and I couldn’t afford to buy three, four sets of tires a year for the Z and you know, of course you see a 50 Mez Miatas at every van out of a hundred cars sometimes.

So I knew there had to be something good there. And a buddy of mine got into it and, and he kind of wanted to know what car to buy, and I was like, I, I think he wanna buy a Miata. I mean, it just seems to make sense. And he did, and I still had the Z and he let me drive at once and I was like, Yeah, at first it was just kind of a like, yeah, I, I can suck it up and do this and have this little horsepower thing.

Once I had it [00:06:00] on the track, and then the more I drove it on the track, the more I was just hooked on the way it felt driving it, and yeah, I never thought about the three 70 s z again. I probably, after the first time I tracked the Miata, Well, well, maybe not then. Cuz it broke down the first time I took it out.

And I think I got three laps in a weekend. But, um, that was my own dumb mistake, you know, that that happened. So yeah, it really just boiled down to instigation was financial once I got in it, I, I really don’t want anything else you’ve told me before. The more time you spent behind the wheel than Miata is what inspired you to build h hpd junkie.com as well, because you were dying to go to more events and drive the car.

I did start the website with the three 70 Z but again, you know, I, I mean I, I’m an honest guy and the whole reason for the website was to get on the track more often and, you know, kind of help the budget. Yes and no. I, I did have the three 70 Z when I started out. I, I probably only had it for [00:07:00] a year before I got the Miata.

Well, we’ll attribute the success of hpe junkie.com to your Miata, not the Nissan. How about that? That sounds fair. I can live with that. And last, but certainly in the La least. Bill, tell us about late to Grid and your Motorsports past. Thanks very much for having me on. It’s great to see Dave and Jim again.

Yeah, so Bill Snow, host of the Late to Grid podcast where, you know, the idea is to get people together to, to share stories and inspiration for. You know, grassroots motorsport and, um, share the stories that might, might inspire some folks. And my motor sports background started, um, gosh, probably in in middle school, I would get dragged to sports car races and IndyCar races with my dad.

And, and he was a spectator and really started to enjoy that. And I, at one point in high school, I thought to myself, well, shoot, I could probably be doing this. So my first car was a two 80 zx and I joined the S C C A and I started auto crossing and just fell in love with it. But then after college and marriage and kids, you didn’t have fun cars anymore for a while.

And I got [00:08:00] in a 76 Triumph Spitfire just a tool round in, and, and I had a mini Cooper s that I got back into autocross a little bit, but I, there was a time when I was at a corporate meeting and we, and our name tags, we had to write a little line under our name. Something interesting about us. And I, I still remember what I wrote.

I love small cars, so I always enjoyed, you know, the mgs and the Spitfires, things like that. The Mini Cooper of course, being a small car. So, fast forward to, uh, just a couple years ago, one of my employees has a, an Amy Atta, of course, he’s turbo swapping it and it’s a blue car with a red hard top. And of course it’s got these 2 25 sticking out.

He’s doing all this other stuff and he runs these circles. I said, listen, I’m getting the itch. If any of your friends are selling them, Miata let me know about it. Not necessarily saying I could pull the trigger, but, so he comes to me a couple days later, he says, Hey, my buddy just got a type R and he just bought this Miata from the south.

He’s got mad dog Rollbar for it. He’s got oline coil overs, stainless steel lines. He wants to sell it. I said, well, all right. So I drove it [00:09:00] and man. Immediate smile. All those parts were still in the box. So I negotiated to buy the car and I said, you know what? Let’s work out a deal to buy all the parts too.

After having it on track a couple times, I’m hooked. So what inspired the podcast? So the name is, so like 20 16, 17, and 18, we did, uh, some endurance racing. I got the race for free if I stored, transported and wrenched on the car. I mean, there, there were days I was loading the car up on the day we were leaving for the track and finishing like simple things like oil changes on the car.

So inevitably we were getting to the track at the last minute, getting through tech last minute, getting to grid, realizing something’s wrong. Inevitably, I was always late to grid. It was my fault. So I kind of thought if, you know the podcast, we could kind of maybe help people not get late to grid. So what are the some tips and tricks and uh, you know, we had an episode where, uh, Gabe Gutierrez, who races a Mustang in, uh, NASA events, he’s all about checklists.

So he shared all about that, and that’s how he’s never late to grid. Gabe is such a great guy. Yeah, I love his wife too. Anne Anna. [00:10:00] I just, I I had to say something. No, that’s great. Yeah. So it’s sharing stories like that to help people realize, okay. You know, part of it is I can do this, I can get on track.

There aren’t a whole lot of obstacles. It’s somewhat easy to do, but the other thing is, What are the tips and tricks that people can share with us to make sure that we can get safely on track, not be late to grid, and still have a great time at the track? We need to test your guys Miata subject matter expertise before we really dive deep into this subject.

So we have a question that needs to be answered, inquiring minds. Want to know. Is it Miata or MX five. And what does Miata even mean? I always say Miata, but mine I think was technically still called a Miata. I can’t remember, but, uh, someone told me it was something middle age, something, something, but I can’t remember.

Maybe the guy that was on the design team can has told you and you can fill us in. I’ve always heard it means reward. Oh, you’re being rewarded for driving Miata by the driving experience. I could see that, correct? I could. I could [00:11:00] see that You’re not rewarded by the horsepower though, but that’s a whole nother story.

No, definitely not. I think it has some. It has. So one of those names sounded cool. Yeah, I think the Amy Miata actually had a Miata badge on it. It wasn’t MX five. It was, it actually was a Miata, the tic Tac. Yeah. But I believe it was always known internally to Mazda as the MX five, and then it got badged as a Miata, wherever that came from.

We’ll leave that up to our listeners to write in and let us know where this little bit of trivia comes from. You know, as we were just joking, we hear all the time that Miatas are slow. So is this fact or fiction? And if it is fact, how do we make a Miata faster? Well, let’s talk about some tips and tricks on thoughts on going faster in a low horsepower momentum vehicle.

Look, they’re slow. They’re always slow, and that’s why they’re good. Uh, once they become fast is the problem. But the trick is to not ever slow down. Home track to me is New Jersey Motorsports Park Lightning. I always tell people you hit the brakes twice on that [00:12:00] entire track, and like one of those is kind of a lighter breaking anyway.

Uh, so really the biggest trick for Miata to go fast is not to add a turbo. It’s not to add power. It’s just don’t slow down. Isn’t that the same theory as when you’re driving a go-kart? Yeah, basically. Oh, I have a go-kart, which is much faster than my Miata though. So that’s what I tell people all the time when we’re carting.

Just don’t use the brakes. What, what? So with that being said, thoughts, tips, tricks, things that people can do to take a stock Miata and make it better. Number one. Seat time. That’s the only way any driver’s gonna get faster. I don’t care if you’re doing turbos, you got nitrous, you got rockets, you need seat time.

That’s that’s number one. Number two is tires. So once you get some seat time and you get a feel for what your current tires feel like, you put new tires, grip your tires, stick your tires on there, you’re gonna get a little faster. Third brakes. If you can go a little deeper, carry that momentum a little bit further, just touch ’em and have ’em grab quickly my opinion.

Brakes. Then you can look at [00:13:00] steering suspension stuff. If those four things aren’t putting a huge smile on your face around the track, then maybe you start bolting some stuff on. But those four things I think will make you faster and let you have a lot more fun around the track. That’s what you were gonna say.

Maybe find a new hobby if, if the bills aren’t working, other sports beck in. Right? But then you actually bring up a really good point Bill. When you get to that part of the equation and you’re in a Miata and you wanna go faster and you start bolting things on, is it really worth bolting them on? Or do you do like Jim said, and kind of just walk away and maybe buy a different car?

You know, I got some advice. Uh, when I had the Mini Cooper, I wanted to do some bolt-ons because the track where I was going, man, I’m really struggling with this one turn. And man, if I could have the supercharger sort of gimme a little bit more power more quickly, I can get off that turn faster and have a little bit more.

He said, you’re thinking about this all wrong. You have to get more seat time, you have to drive more, you’ll get faster. You don’t need bolt-on parts. So what did I do? I ordered all the parts and both of ’em up. And uh, [00:14:00] it wasn’t until years later I realized, you know what? He was right. It is about seat time.

If you’re not getting faster, not having fun with the basics, especially with a car like a Miata, then maybe this isn’t for you. There’s always the, uh, lotus philosophy ad lightness, simplifying ad lightness. Um, and, and I, uh, I’m victim of adding power, but I didn’t do it at the beginning and it’s not, it’s not boost, it’s just more air through.

It’s not a huge game. But Eric, you were still faster than me. You had a little more horsepower and my car was how much heavier than yours. I’m just saying. I don’t know. But you did, but you did have slicks on. Alright. You used slicks though. Used slicks. It’s true. I wanna say, I wanna call it even I think you had, I think you had a little more power.

You, you were gaining like, I don’t know, six to 10 feet a lap on me. It was fun though. That was a good, that was a good run at Carolina. It was a fun run. One thing also that I, I found for really making me outta more fun, if you’re struggling with the power, is go racing with one. Or even if you’re not going racing, find [00:15:00] somebody to really do a session with.

I personally got to a point where I was starting to burn out a little bit. I was like, I was looking at Mustangs again. I’m like, I want something with more power. And then I got fresh tires and my two of my friends started showing up with the same car and just us driving together was like the total refresh that I needed.

Like, this is so much fun, you know, who cares? We’re pointing, my Corvettes in the straightaways we’re our door to door in the corners, and it’s a blast. You just reinforced that misery loves company, right? Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And, and I’ve heard that and, and it’s true. I’ve run some Miatas myself. We had an SSM here at GTM for many years and it’s one of those things that it’s not that fun when you’re the only one at a de and you’ve got bruises on your left arm because you’re given a point by constantly, especially a place like d i r and the Glen and things like that.

But when it’s you and 40 of your best friends that all make 105 wheel horsepower, it’s a whole different ballgame, right? It’s, it’s to bill’s point, they’re micro cars and it’s like NASCAR on a small scale, right? You’re all there together, bump [00:16:00] drafting. And since you’ve raced Jim, that brings up a good point.

We’ll talk about ev everybody’s experience on track. With the Miata, but I’ve heard it said before that a lot of the Miata races are nose to tail waiting for somebody to screw up. And if you do stick your nose out at the wrong time, you get sent to the back of the pack because there’s no way to get back in.

Yeah. Uh, that’s really it. I mean the, especially on bigger tracks, if you watch some of the videos from Daytona where NASA chances was last year that actually even more so at Daytona, when the global MX five cup cars were there. So they’ve got a little bit more power, but they still drive just like ours.

The last lap of one of those races was three wide Three. And there wasn’t three cars. It was three lanes wide. No, not that one actually. But that was wild too. That one. That was same way. Yeah. Well, no, but this was three lanes wide. And the leading car went from first place to God. I think he finished seventh in one corner.

He just got freight train by two other lanes [00:17:00] and was just like, oh, oops. It’s an extra level of chest that you have to have beyond driving. I’m sorry. I must mistook it for the seing grace because it was pretty much the same ending last corner. I think whoever was in third came out of the corner in first and ended up crossing the line in third.

Yeah. Oh, that was a great photo. It was milliseconds between the three cars. It was amazing. In spec racing, there’s a lot of still one sixes out there, a mixture of one eights. You don’t see too many NC or nd third and fourth gen Miatas every once in a while, an NC with a penalty and things like that. Why is everybody still sticking with the older cars?

Are they really the best and especially for the racing, or is the SPEC classes just designed around the NA and the nbs? Yeah. Well, spec Miata is only NA and b. Actually you can’t run the NCS or nds in our class. There’s a lot of noise I’ll say coming up now that smx, which is the NC cars, there’s a traveling race that’s gonna be happening this year.

It was supposed to happen about two years [00:18:00] ago, but you know, COVID. So we’ll really see this summer how those cars take off. And if they do, to me it’s not the same car, it doesn’t have the same magic as ours. It’s very similar, but there’s not nearly as many. So they won’t ever be as cheap parts won’t be as plentiful.

I hope the racing will be just as good cuz our cars are getting older and older by the minute it’s, yeah, they have their own, their own playgrounds. Because there’s other spec series out there, spec E 36, spec E 46, uh, spec, boxer Spec 9 44, you know, things like that. So there’s other spec races for people that don’t want a Miata that are still interested in doing that kind of racing.

But those classes are some of the fastest, most grueling racing out there. To Dave’s point, let’s talk about some of your experiences with Miatas on track. And maybe if they’re not, eh, okay, you know, they’re all right. But maybe some of your biggest oops moments, maybe those learning moments, something that the Miata taught you as a driver, something you still carry with you today.

You know, the first oops moment came at a track day I had with the Miata. I pointed by a [00:19:00] C eight ducked in right behind him. So this track day was supposed to be filtered for people that had previous track experience. So if you had previous track experience, you can bring anything you want, you wanted to, except for race car, but you guys came out with C eight.

They just bought him. Point him by, I duck him behind him because now we’re at the end of a straightaway and he slams on the brakes, the nimbleness of the Miata right out of the way. I have it on GoPro. I, I’m hesitant to, to post it cause I don’t wanna stir anything up with, with the CA driver. Yeah. Um, but I thought, oh my gosh.

Just, you know, the horsepower difference between the two cars. The handling of the Miata was just great though. And then I realized, you know what, we’re gonna back off a little bit. We’ll throw a lap away, put some distance the next time around. But those C eight guys gotta talk into at lunch. So we didn’t have any the afternoon.

Well, yeah, I guess one other quick thing at the Miatas taught me about, it’s just, it’s trying to find the limits a little bit and, you know, getting a feel for that. And it’s, what I found about the Miata is you can, you get such a great seat feel. And you can start to feel when things are gonna start to break loose or, or give away just a little bit and you can [00:20:00] dial it back and try it a little bit further.

That’s true with a lot of cars, but I feel with the Miata, for whatever reason, it just, maybe it fits me a little bit better. You just get a good feel for yourself in the track. Do you find that it translates to other cars, or do you feel that you have to relearn if you take another car on track or to a motor sport event?

Uh, if you’re moving to a front wheel drive, you know, there’s a little bit more adaption to that, but other rear wheels, for me it feels similar. We used to race an E 30. I feel like the handling is, I won’t say similar, but the feedback seems similar to me. Between the two. We call that fun wheel drive, by the way, it is a totally different driving style than you guys are.

I like that fun wheel drive. Yes. That’s not the one I heard. There’s another one that I heard. You must be referring to the nine 11 drivers that wheel drives going backwards. Yeah, those guys, I mean, I can say that I, I definitely think it made me a better driver than I if I’d have kept driving the three 70 z and, and kind of to what Bill’s saying is, I think what it is that makes it magical is the balance.

I. Front to [00:21:00] back. It does. It gathers up super easy. You know, you start feeling the the as end come around and then a little flick of the wheel and it comes right back under you. I can’t really speak for driving other stuff except the z I. Honestly, I think I’ve just driven another Miata on the track, couple other Miatas on the track.

I’ve never driven anything else, so never lift really is a big one. As you progress to get faster and faster in a Miata, you know, it’s easy to drive a Miata decently because of the low speed, but if you really wanna go fast, you need to be on the limit. All the time. Full send. Full send. Yeah, full send all the time.

I mean, I’ve got some clips I keep on putting up clips of, mostly turn one at NJ Motorsports Park, just sideways. Hold the gas car and like, oh, you’re good. You know, just steer through it and keep your foot planted. And that’s translated pretty well to other cars. I actually, I got to drive at E 30 at Limerock last year, which was really exciting to not have a dry session until the race started at a track like Limerock, if you’re familiar.

But I looped it in my first wet practice session. But you know, you have to find the limit, so [00:22:00] you have to cross it to find it. Things translate, but those cars like to move around in the tail a lot quicker than mine does. I feel like all the paddock jokes suddenly come out when you say that. Like what’s it like to drive a car with torque, you know, compared to your, I was afraid.

I was like, this car feels like it’s got so much power and you know, Maybe I had 30 more horsepower than my Miata, but also 300 more pounds. But eh, it was fun. Bill sort of alluded to something that I want to touch on that comes up at every driver’s meeting, especially as a coach. You hear it all the time, students complaining this and that.

What are your pet peeves as a Miata driver on track? What really gets you hot and boiled? Corvette guys, the ca break check, you know it, it seems to happen to me every time I’m at v i r you chase ’em from turn one to Oaktree and they should point you by and they don’t. And then you kind of catch ’em going down rollercoaster onto the front straight.

They probably shouldn’t point you there, but you know, you’re right [00:23:00] back on ’em and turn one. And I can remember once probably doing six laps behind the same Corvette. I was so frustrated I didn’t go pull in for extra space. I just pulled in and stayed in. The pet peeve is the uh, faster car that that ride you, you know, you give ’em the point by they pass you and then you’re right on their bumper and the turns, I think we talked about this earlier or something like that.

You chase ’em through a couple turns, they’re way ahead and you catch ’em in a couple of turns. Yeah, just cuz they have five times more horsepower doesn’t mean, uh, they’re necessarily all that faster on the, the track. I think it boils down to egos honestly. Um, they don’t wanna let the 120 to whatever horsepower Miata get by their 500 horsepower, whatever, actually, and I shouldn’t have singled out Corvette guys, cuz it’s not just Corvette guys.

It was just easy to say after. Oh no, no. It’s the Mustang guys and the Porsche guys and the, uh, Viper guys. And you can anybody, anybody with more power than me? Pretty, pretty much. So, and I’ll, I’ll preface this by saying I’ve never actually done it, but I have very much tried in [00:24:00] advanced de groups to push cars outta corners.

You know, they drive off before I can actually push their bumper. But I’ve tried, I’ve gotten close’s have, there’s a nine 11 where if there was air between our bumpers, I’d be shocked you got away from that. Is that is the good side of it is freaking out the guys with the a hundred to $200,000 car by being on their ass.

Yeah. That usually will get you the point by too. Yeah. Uh, if it doesn’t, the, the thing that I learned that helps is the next corner. Instead of being in their mirror, following them, be in their mirror sideways. Uh, and then usually you’ll get a very fair point flag cause or a black or a black flag, one or the other, you know?

Yeah. It depends. Just pass them in the dirt hunch style and you know, to your, to your point, I feel your guys’ pain. I run the low horsepower car as well and you know, it’s a lot heavier than Dave’s, that’s for sure. But yeah, you’re there, you’re glued to somebody, you’re like, oh my god. And you know, being an instructor, I, you know, I tell my groups, [00:25:00] especially if I’m a group leader, I’m like, Hey guys, these Miata guys, they didn’t transport themselves.

Here they are on you. And their foot is to the floor, like get out of the way. You know what I mean? Be respectful of it and whatnot. And a lot of people don’t respect the momentum cars and how much work it takes to drive one, because we don’t have the horsepower. We don’t have 5, 6, 7, 800 horsepower on demand, like some of these Camaros and Corvettes and, and Vipers and whatnot.

So it is a struggle. The struggle is real, but I always like to remind people to be respectful. And you know what else? Tuck behind the Miata because they are hauling ass and you might learn something. That’s the other thing I try to remind people, follow their lines, see what they’re doing, see how you can carry more speed because that low horsepower momentum car is gonna demonstrate that very, very quickly.

I’ve actually gotten a lot of. I’ve given point buys the fast cars coming up on straights and they wave it off and they’ll follow me for two or three laps and then they’ll present and go the next straightaway. And it’s, it’s pretty cool that they’re trying that. The one thing that I have noticed, [00:26:00] if you are in a Miata and you’re tired of not getting point buys, make your car look like a race car.

Like sticker it up. Cuz since I’ve been in the spec Miata, people let me right by. I mean, maybe it’s because my comfort level for space between cars has gotten a lot shorter, but, so I’m, I’m closer than I used to be, but I don’t really get, I haven’t gotten hold, held up much lately. How many stickers do you have?

Oh, I can’t count. There’s a lot. I mean, there better be a lot of h p D junkie stickers. Well, I mean, if you got much horsepower. Well, that, that’s my point. If he’s got like 20 stickers, that’s an extra hundred horsepower. You’re Oh yeah. Immediately faster. Oh, of course. He’s fired alone. There’s quite a few.

So Dave brought up the a hundred thousand dollars, the $200,000 cars. We know that the Miatas, at least maybe in previous markets, not the Covid post covid market, that, that they were cheap. At least that’s what we hear all the time. So what’s the true total cost of ownership really, like for H P D and for collaboration?

Um, I, I mean that’s, it really depends on what you wanna do with it. I think you can keep it really cheap and throw [00:27:00] some coil overs and some little wider wheel and tire and a roll bar and some racing seats and roll with it. But you can be like me and. Go down the rabbit hole and just do everything you possibly can to it.

Which a lot of it, you know, that was part of the hobby for me too, was I didn’t really wrench a whole lot on other cars working on the Miata. I felt really comfortable. So I just kept doing more and more and, you know, I liked fiddling with little fabrication things and so it, it really depends. And, you know, as far as cost, I, I paid I think 2,500 for mine.

But you know what? You could, I would think the same car now would be six grand and I’ve probably put 10 to 12,000 in it. But again, a lot of it was, you know, not necessary just cuz I wanted to. And it wasn’t all in one shot either. It was over the course years. No, no. It was o over, yeah, over probably five years.

And, you know, it could be anything from put vents to a different shifter to things [00:28:00] that absolutely aren’t necessary. They just make it a little nicer or cooler or whatever you wanna call it. If we all look back over time and, and start calculating how much money we put into our cars over the years, we would all start crying that, that, hey, that’s verboten.

We don’t do that here. It’s, yeah, only if you wanna be depressed. Even still, you know, 12 grand invested into a track car that is fun as hell. It’s still nothing. Right. Exactly. You know, comparatively, you know, you guys can relate cuz you’re in lesser expensive cars, but you go to a chin event and every car there is a hundred thousand and up.

Yeah. So, you know, you’re, you’re nowhere near that and you, you have just as much fun if not more fun than they do. Exactly. And, and there’s definitely the fun of running one down and kind of laughing, thinking what you’ve spent versus them. I’ve seen Dave’s car in person. It’s very nice. So good job. Well thank you.

Thank you. One thing that was wild was my consumable budget for, I think it was the two years before I started racing. So I was instructing and with my club they had a [00:29:00] special where you could do time trial for just $50. It was like a little, like a bump up for the instructor group. There was very few people that would run in my specific class and time trial, but there was enough to get.

Max’s contingency and hawk contingency. So for two years I didn’t spend any money on tires or brakes. Nice. Um, brake pads were completely covered. Uh, and I was only going through a set a year anyway, tires were, so that was 30 bucks, right? Yeah.

And then the tires was, were given to me too. So I would run ’em for a year and then just replace ’em with contingency tires and sell off the old ones. And it, it worked out, uh, pretty well. So I bought mine a little bit over two years ago for the car. All the, uh, the stuff that he had new in box and then a set of, uh, wheels and, uh, re 70 ones.

I was still just under 10 grand. And the only thing I’ve had to do in the last two years is we pulled the motor over the off season here just to reseal every gasket. The rear main was leaking a little bit, the front crank a little [00:30:00] bit. I mean, so seals and a couple bearings and a new pulley. And I did some upgraded voter mounts and upgraded Kevlar timing belt.

So I’m probably right where Dave is probably 12 grand total. The Miatas, they all come in different colors and flavors like Skittles, right? So, but there’s like a base setup. A lot of people say, I run the SSM package, whatever that means, means something to you guys. But I, I don’t know what it means. But I guess the question is like, how similar or dissimilar are your guys three miatas, which are, you know, all n N A and B series cars.

What’s the setup like, what kind of parts would you recommend other people buy and where are you getting ’em from? Like what’s, where’s the best place to source this stuff? So mine is a spec Miata. I have to run what I’m told to run. I don’t have a choice in it, which I’m fine with the current setup. About three years ago, we switched to Penske Shocks, and when I say that everyone I see their eyes open.

They’re like, it’s a spec class. They’re so expensive. They’re actually not, they’re $200 each. For the shock. The total shock to buy [00:31:00] ’em the first time with the amounts and everything’s like 1200. And then the full suspension package, I wanna say, including the shocks is like 2,500 or so. And it, it is absolutely not the best possible suspension from Yadas.

There’s better options out there, but the cost is really low. I mean, that’s what some people are paying for shocks on BMWs. So the cost for the suspension package is low. And the good thing about the Spec Miata package, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of them running. So if you’re at a track day and you’re like, Hey, my car is handling like crap.

You can go talk to a Spec Miata guy and say, you know, what setup do you have? What’s your alignment? What’s this and that, I mean, you know, it’s not gonna be the same if you’re on Street tires versus Toyos or Hoosiers, but you’ll be able to have that kind of baseline of knowledge. That’s really helpful. If someone asked me what to buy right now, what I would say is try and find an old spec Miata suspension.

Most of us took ours off. We had the bill Steins were the old style, we, most of us replaced it with the Penskes. And you can get the Bill Steins for [00:32:00] so cheap, you still have to pay for this, the amounts and the springs and all that. But really to get a very, very competent track suspension for very, very little money, there’s, you can’t beat it.

Yeah. I think the best advice is what Jim said. You talked to other owners, you walk the paddock at a track day and hey, what do you run? And you look, you look like you’re handling pretty well, or what advice do you have here? Jump forums can be good and bad. When I’ve got asked from advice, I’ve mentioned one of my employees has a Miata, so you know, he’s been good to.

Say, Hey, run this, run that. A bunch of the parts we just bought, we went to Fab nine and X five for a lot of that. But I’ve heard good things about flying Miata as well. You know, being track. I think it’s definitely a whole different ballgame than what Jim’s doing. Bill kind of said it at the beginning, start out with tires.

I kind of think brakes are probably the first thing over tires, but they’re kind of right there together too, is gonna make the the biggest difference. Again, it’s such a different market between racing and track day. It’s you can kind of do what you want or what you can afford, or. Which you’re able to do yourself.

And as far as parts, man, [00:33:00] I’m kind of all over the place. I mean, I, I buy some stuff from Rock Auto, I buy a lot of stuff from a spec MEO guy. I can’t remember exactly where he is. Somewhere in the central part of the country. It’s, it advanced, advanced auto Sports. Yeah. I mean, you know, the way I look at it with him is he might only sell one wheel hub type, you know, brand or one brake master cylinder brand.

But I feel like he’s probably figured out which one’s the best and his prices are amazingly good. I, I, I got a, um, clutch, the hydraulic part rebuild kit, and I think the master cylinder, a stainless steel line and slave cylinder altogether was less than a hundred dollars. So, you know, he’s definitely been a go-to for me, I bought some stuff from flying Miata.

To me, they’re a little more of a street car site. Not fully, but to me that’s the feel I get that they cater a little more to that agree. So what’s your setup like, Dave? What suspension are you running on your Miata? You know, I, I have a coil over suspension. It’s nothing crazy. It’s [00:34:00] a, I, I would call it an inexpensive, it’s a Vmax is, is what I have.

And I, they have several different levels and I have the Vmax Extreme Track Pack and, and actually got those from Fly Miata. And at the time, and I think you still can, if you buy Coilovers and their Sway bars at the same time, you get a considerable discount. They’re probably in the 12 to $1,300 range at this point.

With the sway bar. I wanna say I paid nine something, but that’s been five years ago. And you honestly, I’d like to be able to speak on, you know, is there a huge difference between a a thousand dollars coil over and a. I think some, you know, Olins, I think can be almost three grand bill. I think you got a lucky score behind that car with a set of olins again.

Um, but, you know, honestly, I’d really like to, to drive a car with them to see is there $2,000 worth of difference in, in these shocks, or am I, am I a good enough driver to feel the difference in [00:35:00] $2,000 worth of shocks? I don’t think, I don’t think I am. That’s a very good point. And I think there’s a, there’s a fallacy a lot around some of these parts.

I tell people all the time when they ask my opinion, you know, let’s say with Volkswagen stuff, I’m like, start with this and work your way up. Never build the car past your ability to drive it because that’ll get you into trouble. So yes, there is some, why spend the money three times. But I’m also telling you, don’t waste your money on these 12 things.

I’ve already wasted my money on those. Yeah, here’s 11 of them suck and there’s one of them That’s good. Go start with this one. Right? Go from there. So it is a progression and a lot of people just want to go to finished product and then the car is undrivable. And it kind of leads me into another question about the different kinds of types of Miatas.

I’ve seen ’em all right From the track cars to the ssms to the stance bros with like negative 12 degrees of camber and bags. And then you’ve got the square Miatas. For a lot of people that don’t know what that is, tune into our autocross episode where we talk to a Miata Autocrosser where he’s running [00:36:00] like 2 55 square.

On an NB and it’s like how is that even a thing? But they’re all, oh my had 90 fives. I mean it’s insane, right? They look like steam rollers and they stick out eight inches from the body, but they’re all set up very different. But it also seems like the community is very tight and there’s certain things to get and not get.

My question coming out of this very long ramble is can you build a Miata that does everything? Is there a combination that works for the track four autocross for the street so you can have one car and not three. I know you end up with three miatas over time, but I have a somewhat, I’m sure answer they yes.

Every Miata can do all of these things. When I started doing this, I had a bone stock mi, all it had was a front sway bar cuz it was initially by the previous owner built for estock autocross. That was it. Front sway bar. And I tracked that car for two years and daily drove tracked with the occasional autocross for two years and it was perfect.

It was amazing. I mean, I was scraping my mirrors. It was [00:37:00] leaning so hard in the corners, but that was good. I learned how to drive in that car. Short answer, yes, they can leave it stock. So what are some of the best life hacks for Miatas? Things that you’ve learned Make waste to cut corners and save money and, and bring down the total cost of ownership.

One thing that I do, that I get a lot of hard looks for is the biggest weak point on our cars is the front hubs. The more grip you have, the more likely they’re to fail. It’s not an if, it’s a, when I’m looking right now at my shelf, in the garage, I have six pre-packed hubs cuz I bring at least three of the track with me.

Sounds familiar. My hack for that is buy the $25 hubs on the GMB hubs. They’re junk but they’re all junk and they’re all gonna fail. So you might as well buy ’em and repack ’em with good grease. And then in the meantime, once you have those, keep your eyes out for cheap deals on OEM hubs that are old off desert cars, off part out cars.

If they’re still good, if they don’t have movement in ’em yet, you can still [00:38:00] take ’em apart and repack ’em. That’s my one hack cuz that’s worked out well. Uh, I have a. Pile of hubs. That hasn’t been an issue in quite a while for me. Now, the other street hack was actually kind of fun. I, you know, I wish I had a picture that I could hold up to the screen here.

But Miatas get very hot and a lot of us take the air conditioning out or the air conditioning is junk or it’s, doesn’t work anymore. I took a, a gutter downspout, the little 90 degree turn from a gutter pipe. And attached it right after my sail window, cuz even when the windows open, no air gets in this car.

And I had it attached there so it would take air from right behind the mirror and throw it right at me in the driver’s seat. I swear it saved my life on hot base and I’m talking street track, whatever. It’s, it was a, it was great. All for $4. It made me think of, I love when I can buy something from my car at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

I don’t know. I get such a charge out of it. One hack is something Jim brought up earlier. You know, there, there’s such a huge racing [00:39:00] community and such a huge core culture around MI is there’s always gonna be a good deal on something used or a part out car. And no matter where you live, you know, you’re in the Facebook groups, there’s constant, Hey, I’m looking for this, and 10 people chime in with, hey, I have one.

Or just part out. Yeah. Being able to, you know, get stuff from the spec racing community or from the car community. And you bring up a really good point, bill. Where are some of the best online communities or forums for miana owners if people are looking to get in for the first time? Obviously if you’re in the know, you’re in the know, but where, what’s some great resources for folks?

So I’m in Ohio and there’s a couple good Facebook groups, um, Miata Owners of Ohio. To me the Facebook groups are a little bit better than the forums these days. It’s just, it’s, it’s more real time. It sometimes I think it’s easier to search wherever you are. Do a couple of searches for some Facebook groups.

That, uh, are Miata focused and geography focused. I don’t know if I’d call it a hack, but there’s a myth about brake rotors that you need slotted or drilled or whatever. Don’t spend a bunch of money on your [00:40:00] brake rotors for a Miata Rock Auto, $80 for all four shipped to your door. Um, that’s all you need.

That’s it. It kills me when I hear someone say, yeah, I’m gonna go get the big break package, and I’m like, Please don’t, please don’t do it. You know, your, your stock brake become the big brake package when you take 500 pounds out of the car. Absolutely. If anything, upgrade to the, uh, I have the sport brakes on mine, which are a little bit more brake than what Jim probably has on his car, but I mean, they’re more than enough.

What is this? I, I thought Miata owners didn’t have breaks. They, they never used putting money into them. We, that’s in front of us. We have to reuse. It’s an emergency thing. Breaks. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what good are breaks? All they do is slow you down after. Exactly. Yeah. Whatever. You know, as Miata owners, longtime Miata owners, now in some cases, what’s the best and worst parts outside of the driving experience?

It, it can be either or. [00:41:00] So what are the best or worst parts about owning a Miata now that you know? Oh, you honestly think of a bad, anything bad. I mean, I mean, I’m sure there is the best is just, it’s so fun to drive. It’s cheap. Everything’s cheap for it, and plentiful and. I guess the downside is they are getting more expensive.

If you wanna get into a Miata, price is definitely gone nuts. My call for the best part is I wouldn’t be able to afford doing this if I didn’t have a Miata. I don’t know if there’s any car that had, I can get a consumable budget this low and a parts budget this low. The worst part is that coming out of every tight corner, I can’t just drop my foot and go completely sideways and be a hero.

Like, I, I really want that on like a de day. If I, you know, going for a ride or if there’s, you know, look around, there’s nobody on track and you want to have fun. I do wish I had a car that could do that, but the trade off to me is still not worth it, not happening. The best part, always fun to drive, always puts a smile on your face no matter what.

And there’s always people that wanna talk to you about your car. You’ll [00:42:00] be. Pumping gas. Oh, I remember I had a Miata, or, you know, so-and-so had a Miata. Is that your girlfriend’s Miata? You know, all those sort of things. It is, did you just come, did you just come from the haircutter? Yeah. You know, all the jokes, but the, uh, the worst part is, it kind of goes in line with what Jim just said.

Yeah, you’ll be on the freeway and, and I’m not advocating for street racing or saying this would be street racing, but, You’re on the freeway and you know, a charger challenger or an s t I rolls up next to you and you’re like, man, I, I wanna play a little bit. And you can’t hang with them if they drive you.

I wanna do some MythBusters. Um, but it’s probably directed more at Jim. So in a lot of these racing series, there is a conspiracy theory that in order to be competitive and to win all the front guys are, they’re, they’re, they’re spending a lot more money than the people at the back of the pack. Is it the same for the SM and SSM guys?

Is that part of the game? You’re Mr. No Money Motorsports. Are you competitive racing and are the front runners putting in more [00:43:00] money than the back Backmarkers? Bradley, are you, are you referring to this mythical 1.7 liter Miata that doesn’t exist anywhere? I 1.9 I would like to invoke my Fifth Amendment rates.

That is the best question. That is not just a good question. That is the best question. That’s kind of been my own personal journey. This is my fifth season racing now. I’ve always been doing it very cheaply, but each year I kind of ramp it up a little bit more, or prep or what I’m doing. Last season we average 19 cars a race.

And I ended this season in, was it either fourth or maybe fifth for points? I didn’t win any races yet, you know, well I had I think a couple thirds this year and a lot in the top five, top six, uh, which kind of stinks. Was it? A lot of six is because that’s right outta Toyo bucks. But, uh, I was able to stay right up there in the front of the pack on the engine that came in my car when I bought it six years ago.

One set of sticker [00:44:00] tires per season doing alignments. Basically myself, my friend David, t Z Auto did my alignment like two years ago when that’s the last shop alignment I had. If you spend more money and more prep on these cars, you will be able to go faster, but. Having the spec series, the spec roles, and the prep, you get a lot less advantage spending more money in spec Miata than you would if you’re spending money in an open class like a, like an ST class or an unlimited class.

So it still makes a difference, but not nearly as much as anywhere else. We are at Watkins Glen in like three weeks for our first race of the season, and I just bought a new engine, new used engine. So ask me this question again at the end of the month, now that I’m making power, that should be right up with the top boys and girls.

We’ll see how I can hold up. We’ll see if that extra 10 horsepower is worth the money. What’s the displacement of that motor? Did you say? It’s uh, I believe it’s 1.9 liters though. Oh, okay. It is actually an overboard, you know, 1.81 and I have to take a, a 15 pound weight penalty, which is good cuz I already did [00:45:00] that with Covid and how I learned how to bake bread.

So I’ve been preparing for this. Congratulations on being like right in there with the, with the top guys. It’s, it’s pretty admirable. Thanks. And five years racing. That’s, that’s really good. It’s an alternate universe. The Miata, the MX five does not exist. What do you drive? Everything else being equal.

What is your track weapon? Your race weapon? Ooh, that’s a really good question, Brad. I’d probably go E 30, E 36. I’ve only tracked an E 36, but we raised an E 30. It just, I really, really enjoyed it. Plus, although the E 30 pricing’s going through the roof like everything else and parts, but you know, E 36 or even E 46, they’re everywhere.

Parts are available everywhere. They’re somewhat reliable. So that’s what I would go with. I like how you emphasize somewhat. That’s good. Yes, they’re reliable. Yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell you what really makes me curious for some reason, is the B R Z F R S Toyota 86 i, I driven one on the [00:46:00] street. My dad had one for a little while and it was a nice driving car, but that was prior to me ever driving on the track.

So I don’t feel like I really drove it. I’m very curious about those cars. So that might be my choice. I have a two part answer here. So for racing it would be 30, it got to race the spec E 30. It was a blast. I didn’t rush to sell my Miata after doing it, but they’re a lot of fun in my opinion. They’re more fun to drive, they’re slightly less fun to race, if that makes sense.

Just cause the handling characteristics. But thanks, none at all. Yeah, right. But if for a, for tracking the 86 cars all the way, The B R Z FFR s, the 86. I mean, that to me is about as close as you’re gonna get to a modern Miata. I know they still make Miatas their formula’s a little bit better, in my opinion.

I mean, to not have to worry about a roll bar that you can’t even really easily put in a new car, a new Miata, the glass transmissions that they put in the new Miatas. Right now I’m leaning towards the 86 cars, plus there’s so many that they’re selling. That might be our next big spec class. Do I get a vote?

Brad? Can I [00:47:00] throw one in? Uh, you cannot say E 36. It, it’s definitely not gonna be a bmw, that’s for sure. I’m gonna, I’m gonna stick to my roots and I would say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I would say 9 44 for all the previous reasons stated, 50 to 50 weight distribution. The whole nine yards. And they’re quicker than an E 30 technically.

So I, I think I would go with a 9 44. See, we had one that being an option every time that I’ve seen one on track, I mean, there was a two year spread where every time one showed up for our race group, I was like, when’s the red flag gonna happen?

Oh. And that’s how we feel about it was a terrible joke. Cause it was like, oh, there’s there, uh, he’s out of the car, but it’s on fire. Oh, there it is. It’s parked over here. It’s just like, ah, man. To dovetail off of what Brad said and bring it back into reality a little bit. If you had to start all over again, would you stick with the Miata you have or would you do something [00:48:00] different?

I want pop up headlights. I definitely would not do anything different. You know, obviously didn’t know then what I know now, but I think I made the right choice. I would do the same exact thing, street me out for a while, then suck me out when I can. Two of you having nbs and one of you having n na, I have to ask the question, are those the best generations?

The original two? Do you have any love for the NC and the nd? If not, why not? Let’s talk about the newer ones as well. We don’t, nobody seems to really focus on them. I’d like to drive. I’d like to drive both. I, I’ve ridden in an ND on the track and it’s, it, you know, it seemed pretty cool, but driving in riding’s two different things.

And I don’t even think I’ve been in an NC on the street, but I’d be very, very curious to drive both. I do like the NA and MB styling. I know the NC isn’t too much different. Some people say, I just don’t necessarily like the lines of the NC or nd not saying anything negative about ’em. But the one thing is, um, I’m a fan of simplicity and the more complicated a [00:49:00] car gets, The more expensive it is to repair, the more things that can break simple, to me is better.

Bill kind of nailed my, uh, why I like the NA NDS so much. They’re so simple. They’re reliable. They’re so, the NCS had some early engine issues. The nds are having transmission issues. They’re still great, fantastic cars. And maybe it’s just me sticking with what I know. I would love to get in one. I’m not ruling them out for the future as our cars get older.

You know, we might have to start moving up sometime soon, if nothing else, just to keep up with the, the general speed of track days, cuz they both have a good amount more power. They’re great cars. I, I would love to track ’em and street ’em, but I’m definitely not selling mine anytime soon. I hear you on that.

I got, I’ve got the opportunity to run a couple prepared NCS on track and I really like them. I would choose them honestly, a because they’re, they’re a little bit more comfortable. They’re bigger, but the swap potential, if you’ve got that mentality Yeah. Is huge. You could put a two, three, A2, five. There’s a lot of power options for the [00:50:00] nnc, nnc, turbos they have over Europe, you know, making 300 plus horsepower.

I, I just like that chassis and having driven the older ones as well. When I got in the NC it was a little less twitchy. Because it’s a bigger car. Mm-hmm. Which actually leads me into my question to you guys about maybe your gut reaction to the ND because it went smaller again, right? The NC is the largest Miata by far.

Mm-hmm. But then they went backwards and they said, let’s go back to the original size. So when that car debuted and you guys got to put eyes on it, what did you think? And what do you still think about it today? Really lot. I liked it. I mean, I like the, I like the way it looks. I mean, not stock right from the showroom.

I think the wheels look a little funky and a little small on ’em, but, I like the lines and you know, like Jim was saying, I’ve thought about the NC and ND option as the future of what happens when you can’t find any more NAS or nbs or God forbid I ball mine up, would I go that route? So yeah, I’m curious about ’em.

Barry, the [00:51:00] only hard stop I have for really the ND I think over the NC is the roll bar is so tough to put in those cars. Right now the only solution I, and I could be wrong here, but I believe the only solutions are like over $2,000 for a like one specific company that makes a rollbar you can go on track with and it’s not ready for that compromise yet.

Uh, what about the rc, what about the RC edition? You have to have a rollbar in those too. Yeah, it looks like it’s a regular target car, but the back of the car actually lifts up to put the target underneath. So it’s, there’s no fixed roof portion. I’ve heard just recently heard that some clubs do let you on track with that.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable really wheeling a car like that without some sort of protection in it. Because to your point, some clubs allow the N C two, the one with the convertible hard top to be run just with the factory hoops. Yeah. Instead of a roll bar. So that’s kind of interesting cuz the NC one and NC two soft top to hard top, all that kind of thing.

A friend of mine just bought a, um, And the I, what do they call ’em? Rf. Yep. And he bought it [00:52:00] specifically to track it. And evidently when you put a roll bar in one of those, the top never goes down again. You have to actually, you know, disconnect it. It is what it is. It’s track off. Yeah. Well I spend the extra money for the fixed roof.

When looks so good though. He did have, I think there was something that the chassis better or it, it handles better or there was a reason, and honestly, oh, I know what it was. If he bought a soft top, he wanted to put a hard top on it and the hard tops for them are like, Insanely expensive. He kind of did the math and figured out that, well, I might as well just buy an RF and go that route.

Yeah. I was glad to see that it came back to the closer to the original size. You know, if you look at the mini Coopers lately, you know, if you took, you know, an R 50, R 53 when they came back in early two thousands and looked at where they are today, they’ve gotten fatter, the Maxi, that’s what we call ’em around here.

Um, yeah, I haven’t, I haven’t been up close to one. I haven’t been in one, so I can’t, I can’t speak to that. [00:53:00] But, um, I was glad to see that it kind of returned back to. The original idea of, hey, it’s supposed to be a, a small, nimble car. So that leads into another variant of the Miata. I, I often call it the Fiat, and that’s the Fiat 1 24 bar, which is very similar in some ways to the NC Miata.

Although it shares the ND chassis, it’s actually physically larger. It’s more comfortable to sit in and things like that. So what do you guys think about the 1 24 spider? It’s ugly Blas femur. You know, it’s, to me, it’s almost like they tried to copy an nb, definitely lines that look like an nb, but then especially the back.

Yeah. Yeah. But then there’s some lines that just look like they’re slightly out of place. To me, it just, I don’t like it, but I think that it’s just very minute things that they did that make me not like it. So let me ask you this. If they rebadged it, changed the sheet metal and brought it back as an Alfa Rome, hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, [00:54:00] nudge, would that change your opinion of the piata?

No, definitely. I mean, it, it really, it’s a, it’s an aesthetics thing. I’m, I mean, I just don’t like the way it looks. And, and then it is got, what, a 1.4 turbo in it. One’s gotta be faster or drive better than the other. But I, I really don’t know. So I’ve read in the tests and even they did a review on the grand tour.

Richard Hammond drove one and basically, because the piata weighs more than the nd but it makes more power. They’re basically equal. But the difference is the tunability of the piata is huge because there’s people like Euro compulsion that make turbo Kitts for ’em and things like that. You throw ’em on, suddenly you have 300 horsepower.

You have a rocket ship, right? Mm-hmm. So I think the flexibility of the Abarth motor is great. If you want to go back to what we were talking about earlier in the episode where it’s like, I want that need for speed. I wanna fulfill and satisfy that, but I don’t want something that isn’t a Miata, right? To me when I was, I was looking at some of the pictures again before the call.

You know, it kind of looks almost video gamish. I don’t know why a lot of [00:55:00] the renderings I saw, I read an old article from 2016 Road and Track or MotorTrend or something that did a comparison. And just like you said, Eric, they came out about even, I have not seen one on the road though. Have you guys, anyone seen?

Oh, they’re all over the place here. Yeah. Yeah. Not here in Cleveland. I, I fell in and outta love with it or I guess out and in the first time I saw one in person, I was at New York Auto Show and I was not a fan. But then when I started to see ’em, I, I like it. It kind of has that old Fiat Roadster look, which is like a little bit awkward.

But it works. It definitely has that look. Personally I am not a fan of Turbo CARSs though. I mean, I know I’m gonna have to change my opinion cuz everything is turning into turbos. I’d rather have the normally aspirated Miatas and then I know the ND two Miata, I think they bumped it. What, like 40 horsepower.

Maybe not four. They there was a huge bump for the second generation of the nds. I like ’em and used car market. I’m not gonna say no to one, but I’d still rather stick with the Miata version. It’s a PA thing. We get it. You know the whole, [00:56:00] yeah. So you didn’t see the guy off camera holding a cannoli saying, you better say you like the fiat.

Yeah, right. Especi as a Chrysler person too. A Mopar guy. I have to like the Fiat, you know? Right, exactly. Amen to that. Amen to that. I’ve got a lot of texts. Why are you racing Miatas when you can race that? I’m like, I can’t though, but you’re close and the price on those things is, has gone nuts to Oh, has it.

To Brad’s point earlier, used car markets going through the roof and things like that and, and you know, when you start looking at what a used six speed fi would cost, you can buy a ragged out Alpha four C and have a mid-engine fighter, jet war power and all that kind of stuff. So it’s kind of this weird balance when we start talking about again, what should I buy?

How do I spend my money in today’s market when a used car from five years ago is 30 grand? You’re like, well, do I buy. You know, a Mach E for 40 and it’s a brand new ev. I get all excited about that. Or do I buy an SSM for that price? Cuz a lot of ssms, you know, [00:57:00] especially you want a front runner, they’re expensive, right?

So there’s a lot of different things to consider when you get into that. That being said, since you guys are the community, any rumors. About a fifth Gen Miata coming out. I mean, the nds getting a little long into tooth as well. It’s been around now five, six years. I haven’t heard anything there. Was talking of an ng, wasn’t there?

It’s rotary powered. It’s never gonna happen. Oh yeah, yeah. If you know me, you know my opinion on Rotaries and I’ve, I’ve hurt some feelings, but I’ve been very Right. I’m, I always say if the Germans thought it was a good idea, they wouldn’t have given up on it. Right. Just, just let’s take the nine 11 as an example.

Yeah.

What I’ve heard is that everyone that blew up, they just were driving it wrong, and it’s simple tricks that you’d ha Oh wait, they just blew up. It’s a two stroke. Yeah, a hundred percent. So I’m really curious to see what the future of the Miata is like. I mean, we’re talking about now, it came out in 19 [00:58:00] 89, 9, although it was as 90 model year.

Yeah. As we talked to one of the folks that was on the design team for the Miata, they were developing it. Years earlier. Right. And we joked on another episode, it’s one of those cars that was designed in the eighties, came out in the nineties and now has lasted forever. We’re talking a 30 year run and so it’s, it would be curious to see what the next decade looks like, especially as we move to EVs.

Do you think there’ll be an electric Miata or is the Miata maybe on its way out? Definitely be an electric version of some sort. I’m excited for it. I’m about 10 years before I can really get behind electric stuff. Maybe five years. But I’m excited for that too. That’ll be fun. You just want the e tork.

Yeah. Well the only thing is I also want to be able to do a 35 minute session at the Glen the whole way through, but we’ll, we’ll see. That actually brings up a, a great question. Best Miata swap you’ve ever seen, or one that you lust after. There’s always that guy that’s got that car best that you want.

Yeah. Well I dunno that that’s on you, right? It’s subjective. Yeah. I mean, the best Miata swap I saw was an [00:59:00] NC that had a two five in it. And you know, I. I think like most track Dam Miata guys, you go through the like, oh, I’m gonna put a turbo on it. And then no, I’ve decided I’m gonna supercharge it. No, I’m gonna do a, a ecotech swap.

No, I’m gonna do, and you know, I kind of went through all that and went back to, I’m not doing any of that. Cuz every time I see one they’re broken. I wanna try a k swap me out. I wanna drive one. Cause my daily driver is, I love to drive one too, but you know, to do a case swap, it’s just insanely expensive.

It’s too much money. We have somebody in the club that’s got one Ah, perfect. Send it my way. Yeah. My daily is at oh seven Civic. I, I have that K every day and I love that engine. I just, every time a minute I hit B Tech. I’m like, I wish the Meda had this. So, no, no Ls or coyotes or filos? No, it’s too much.

Too much for the chassis. It’s way too much. Buy a Corvette. You see guys doing it all the time, right? Fire breathing. Dragon v8 Miatas, right? Yeah. [01:00:00] Yeah. Jim, cover your ears. I have a collection of of RX sevens, which end up, it’s, it’s still a pile. And, uh, but, but I’m gonna end up with extra rotaries. I just thought, man, love the stick of rotary in there.

Why? I’ve seen a Miata with a rotary and I’m trying to remember when and where it was. I mean, it, it, it’s on the side of the road. No, no, it was actually, it was a robing and it did break down. I mean, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna argue with Bill. It’s cool. Yeah. But it’s sort of like other people’s kids like, yeah, I’ll play with you for a while as long as I get to give you back.

You know what I mean? Like that’s me and Rotaries. I’m all good, man. That sounds like one of my projects then. Yep. Yeah. I do think though, the coolest I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure you guys remember this one, it was out of Southern California where they put the Hellcat engine in the Miata. Dude, that thing, I’ve seen that.

Awesome. Let’s see. That car went into a ditch shortly after it was [01:01:00] built, and I haven’t heard anything since. Yeah, there’s no more videos about the Hellcat Miata, but it was cool for all of eight seconds. Yeah. We have somebody in the market for a Miata. They’re six, four and 300 pounds. What Miata do you recommend you did?

You pulled this on me the first time around.

All right. I got an an NA or an B because you can drop the floor. There’s a readymade kit. You drop the floor two and a half inches, and you just get an aluminum seat on the floor back. Planet Miata claims they built one for a six foot eight driver. Were his feet coming out the pop-ups or what? Right. Well, it really depends.

6, 6, 4 might fit depending on how your torso size. It’s the 34 inch engine. I do not fit in a, in an na in stock trim. Uh, if you come to one of our events, I want you to try and sit. Oh yeah. Not stock. There’s a car too you might fit into. There you go Brad. You could wear it, wear it, find as event you can, [01:02:00] you can wear that.

Miana, the latest accessory my friend has when he, he built, he’s got a drop floor of the seats on the floor all the way back and he built a eight or nine inch steering wheel extension cuz it was the only way he could get his knee. The arch in his knee is to fit. He’s very comfortable in the cars drive with T-Rex arms, like, yeah.

Oh yeah. So that said, Brad, I think we should do maybe some lightning round pit stop questions. What do you think? Sure. Let’s go for it. I’m gonna, I’m gonna start with my favorite, so I’m gonna ask. Bill sexiest car of all time. Uh, late sixties GT 40 oh oh Dave, you, you got me on. This is a s Are you testing me?

Uh, it was, the answer is not Miata in this case. No, no, no, it’s not. It was, it was Jaguar X K e, hard top. Nice. The typey Jag. Yeah. Jim, I’ve got, so it depends on, my definition is sexy that day. Honestly, I always go back to my 1969 and a half Super bee in the green. The bright green [01:03:00] metallic. Woo. One of these days.

Mopar, man. So see that leads into the other, the other pit stop question. A favorite, a classic on this show, which is what we call the Million Dollar man question or the million dollar garage question. So since you started with the Superbee, you have a three bay garage, what do you put in the other two bays?

Oh, that’s easy to spec me out because if I have that kind of cash in the beginning, There’s no way I’ll make it through a weekend without crashing one of the spec beyond honest. When you have a second one in the garage, you will win a lot of races knowing you have a second one in the garage. It’s called No fear.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Dave, what do you put in the other two bays in your garage? I really want a. Spec spider, you know, uh, that’s a five 50 spider copy. I just love that car. And, and it’s attainable. Not at the moment, but I think at some point I could afford one. And then, um, oh no, I probably want a late seventies, early eighties portion, nine 30 or [01:04:00] 9 35, something like that when I was a kid.

That was the car to me. You guys reminded me. I totally forgot about the Alpha four C. I think it’s a, it’s a fun car to see on the street. It sounds awesome. And, and I’m not one of these guys that’s gotta have a million dollar car. So throw one of those 50, 60 grand in the garage and then again, not looking at crazy expensive, but something I would love to have is a GT three 50 R.

Which year though, like late sixties. Oh gosh. Um, no newer, sorry. Yeah, good point. And the third bay full of tires. Right? I was gonna say, well he’s got ’em suspended over the cars. He’s got a loft up there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Tire tires and fuel tanks. Yep. Ugliest car in the world other than the fiat. I was gonna say, I already told you.

No, I don’t feel that madly about it. Madad door. Ooh. I haven’t had, I haven’t had anybody pull that one. That’s a good call car. That was the ugliest car ever. The wheels were like a foot in from [01:05:00] the fenders. Um, and it just had no style whatsoever. Had that long two trying to, it wanted to be a Buick Riviera, but it didn’t know how.

Right, right. But it was an ammc. Terrible. Yeah. One of my neighbors as a kid had one and yeah, I just remember that being, so that’s, that’s, uh, that’s 10 points to Dave for the pool.

I can’t remember the model number, but it’s a Hyundai. It’s got a weird front nose. It’s got a weird rear end. I think you’re thinking of the one where they were like trying to copy a Mercedes Jag look. Yes. Yeah. I don’t know the number of it either, but yeah, those are really ugly. That’s what comes to mind for me.

Oh, it’s like the Genesis G 80 or something like that. The big one? Yeah. It wasn’t, it Genesis, it was like nineties. Oh, that part. The size of an accord. It’s like a, I thought, I thought you were gonna say like the Veloster, the funky one with the, the [01:06:00] weird slope. Slope back and the, well, that’s pretty funky sauce in the middle too, you know, and all that stuff.

Not that one. Yes. The wish.com. Jaguar sonata, the wish.com. Jaguar. Yeah, right, exactly. It looked like, it looked like, you know you’ve seen some of those Chinese knockoff cars. Yeah, they tried. That’s kind of what it looks like. A knockoff jag. Especially when JA went to those smaller Ford bottom and they went to those smaller jags, but they tried to keep the same headlight look.

That’s what that Hyundai looked like. I know. I know exactly the one you’re talking about, bill A, yeah, it’s a Hyundai Sonata. Is it a Sonata? Maybe it was the first years of those. Yeah, early 2000. I just did a quick web search of Ugly Hyundai Hyundai and that’s what you had website he was talking about.

That’s awesome. That must be a popular Google search. Yeah, it’s still loading. Hold on. It’s still loading. You got that AOL Morgan. So did Jim give us his answer or did he go? I didn’t yet. Oh. I’ve got so many good [01:07:00] answers for this, but I’m gonna stick, if I want to go modern, just give myself some criteria.

The new W R X. What are they doing? They’re not bringing in ti I believe, copied the Honda. Yeah. Each generation of that car has just gotten uglier and uglier since what? Like the oh six s the last year. They look good and it just, but doesn’t everybody say that about every Subaru that’s come out with, with the bugeye came out.

They were like, oh, the one previous was better. And then the one came after the bugeye. The bugeye was so great. This new one’s awful, but the 2.5 Rs was a nice looking car. It it, yeah. But that was 30 years ago. No, no. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it was. I do have a two part question. Dave might be exempt cuz he’s already probably answered it, but any car on any racetrack.

Do I have a reset button in my life? You sure? Like if I do an F1 car at Monza or Spa, we’ll say like as long as I can reset when I crash at 195 miles an hour, [01:08:00] I mean, yeah, this is, this is Forza and you can hit the rewind button. There’s my answer. Yeah, that’s what, that’s what mine was on the previous Formula one F1 car at in Monaco or Mon?

Yeah. I don’t remember which track I said, but F1 car, uh, I want one of the Mazda DPI cars at uh, road America. Ooh, nice. That’s Road America. Nice track. Yeah, that’s a good one. Yeah, that would be mine. That’s a great segue into our final Miata question, which is if you could drive your Miata on any track that isn’t one of these ones you already mentioned, what’s your like bucket list track to take your Miata two and go run it v i r Patriot course.

I’d probably, I’ve never been to Watkins Glen. Yeah, you have to go. So you got mid Ohio in your backyard. I’m jealous. And I’m 35 minutes from Nelson Ledges too, so that’s great. You only break in one turn at that track. Yeah, yeah.

Thunder Hill [01:09:00] really has gotten like interesting to me and I really didn’t pay much attention to it till maybe last year and, and part of it was seeing how many events are held there and I was like, there’s got to be something great about this and watched a couple videos. So I’d like to, I’d like to do a full like cross country tour at some point and hit a bunch of ’em, but that would definitely be on the list.

I’m probably gonna have to say Road Atlanta. We have a little sim league that we, and we do a lot of Road Atlanta and that just seems like a really fun track. It is scary. We’ve done it. It’s awesome. It’s awesome. Don’t put hair on your chest, that’s for sure. Oh yeah. I’ll call Scary You mature quickly as a driver at Road Atlanta.

That’s a hundred percent. Yeah, but I would say I would drive any of y’all’s Miatas at Brands Hatch. That’s my vote right there. I need something low horsepower. So Miata would be perfect for track, but on that bombshell, Guys, I can’t thank you enough for coming on here and sharing some of your Miata expertise with our audience and with our listeners.

So if you’re out there and you’re looking for more [01:10:00] information about Miatas, I think you just put Miata into the Google and tons of things will come up. But if you want more than that, you can tune into Late to Grid, which is a podcast about motorsports and getting on track. Bill Snow, our guest interviews, guys and gals who work hard all week to be weekend warriors.

He also interviews professionals in the Motorsports community that can help you and your racing. His audience includes members of S E C A and nasa, which is the National Auto Sports Association, and those that participate in track days, H P D E and Endurance Racing Bill’s Goal is to share the stories and inspiration that will continue to help grow our sport.

You can search for their show on all your favorite pod catchers or on social media at. Late to Grid, Jim Tra Monano created No Money Motorsports a site with the primary goal to get folks on track as much as possible by spending as little money as possible, which is near and dear to my heart. He started auto crossing in 2007, started track days by volunteering with NASA [01:11:00] in 2012, and moved up to H B D ranks in his daily driver Miata.

He’s in his fifth year racing spec Mi Auto with NASA Northeast and you can check out his work over@www.no money motorsports.com. And last to Grid, but certainly not least a shout out to Dave Peters and the folks over@hhpdejunkie.com for deciding that something needed to be done to promote high performance driving events h BDEs across the country.

So he created a website with a goal of turning h PDE E into a household name. And now h hpde junkie.com is the most inclusive and most current listing of H P D E track days and open track events for the United States and Canada. You can check out HBD junkie h hpd junkie.com or follow them on all your favorite social media platforms at HBD chunky, and you can chat with Dave Peters also over on Garage Riot.

So we wanna thank Bill, Jim and Dave for joining us tonight on our episode. What should I buy? The [01:12:00] answer is always Vianna and wish you guys all the best in the 22 and 23 season. And by the way guys, what should we buy Miana seat time.

If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to check us out on www.gt motorsports.org. You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.

We’d love to hear from you. Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that G T M remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. [01:13:00] As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies and GTM swag.

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