It also has a wicked, charismatic, Cup-Car snarl under load. Mazda designed the ND Miata to be lighter, but it also has a roomier engine bay that accommodates the V-8 with relative ease. So the Mazda transmission is ditched in favor of the familiar Tremec T six-speed manual. A new aluminum driveshaft leads to a rear differential also swiped from a fifth-generation Camaro SS. Up front, a hydraulic steering rack from a Camaro replaces the electrically assisted Mazda rack.
At pounds, this V-8 Miata weighs pounds more than the last stock Miata we tested. The stock MX-5 puts Dipping into the throttle is as satisfying as jumping on a Stomp Rocket. Even with a gentle leave at to rpm, the engine utterly overwhelms the Miata. The entire car constricts around you, a massive crush of torque squeezing the air out of your lungs and cracking the lower vertebrae of your back.
Hold on a bit longer, and the quarter-mile is consumed in Not in the hot-rod-project sense, where nothing is ever finished because you're always futzing with details. It wasn't finished in the engineering sense, with the occasional weird habit. Almost all of them rooted in digital problems. The greatest hurdle in tuning a mass-produced car is now electronic.
The modern automobile is a self-adjusting, government-regulated computer, millions of lines of code watching everything from taillights to tire pressure. Hot rodding is not what it once was, in part because you now have situations where, say, a six-speed manual transmission uses a CAN bus to talk to a powertrain control module, and then to a body control module, then maybe an electrical switching module, and finally, a nanosecond later, a lightbulb glows on the back of your car.
You have reverse lights, and you back up. In the old days, that would've taken a transmission switch and a wire to the bulb. Possibly two. The whole thing is designed to work as a system.
Replace any of those modern components with something else, and various control modules freak out. As does most of humanity. Tanner works for Flyin' Miata, a Colorado engineering company that focuses on Mazda's ubiquitous roadster.
Late last year, FM began selling turnkey V8 conversions for the current Miata. In addition to being the firm's chief test driver, Tanner works in the bubble of a single-car aftermarket. So you forgive him a few blind spots, like maybe not predicting how people would freak out when FM put a picture of a brand-new, Chevy-powered MX-5 on the Internet. I may have watched it at least 20 times, because I am a sucker for America.
Miata V8 swaps are not new. FM has been doing them for years, as have a countless backyard mechanics. The important thing here is the use of the current car, the ND chassis. When it launched almost two years ago, the ND was a wake-up call for the industry—in stock form, it was sharper, faster, and more involving than any Miata before it, but it somehow felt just as pure and simple.
The ND has so much emotional juju that we stacked one up against a Ferrari with a straight face. It is a car with only two valid ownership complaints:.
A stock ND makes hp and weighs around pounds. Fun, if you want a balanced, approachable car. If you want to bite the heads off Corvettes and smile through the blood, less so. FM acquired one of the first American-market NDs early last year. In addition to predictable hardware—gearbox, differential, V8—the car got a new variable-ratio hydraulic steering rack, replacing the stock electric unit; reinforced front and rear subframes; and upgraded brakes. To say nothing of countless other small fixes required to make the swap work, from functional factory gauges to keyless go and a working factory start button.
For this they got almost no help from Mazda, technical or otherwise. But unofficially. God, I love this thing so much. The only noticeable absence is electronic traction and stability control, standard on a MX With the rest of the car, the goal was state emissions compliance and no excuses for drivability or durability. But FM's prototype looks almost factory: parts in sensible places, air between bits of hardware. The fabricated stuff appears sedate and functional, as on any mass-produced car.
Tanner is thus the kind of guy you want to walk a race paddock with, because he has stories of making things fit and work and break. They used a hydraulically assisted Camaro steering rack on the ND swap, he says, because "that big on-rack [electric] motor that Mazda is so proud of is a monster. We had a hard time finding one with the right pivot-to-pivot measurement, pinion location, and the like. GM was happy to provide CAD drawings to confirm. But removing the rack pissed off the headlights, the traction-control system, the lane-departure system, ABS, and tire-pressure monitoring.
Tanner chuckles while he says this stuff, because he likes solving problems. He told me about reinforcing the rear subframe, tying into the suspension pickup points that are "endangered by burnouts. Thread Tools. BanzaiMatai New-tral. The world's fastest MX-5? Find More Posts by BanzaiMatai. Q: What is the approximate top speed of a "stock V8 Miata? The top was down and the car was getting light.
I backed out. The car was supercharged and had around hp. The final drive ratio was 3. The 5th speed overdrive ratio was. The driver was Richard Holdner, a photo journalist who has "huevos grande". Find More Posts by flylow7f Gammaradiation Fifth gear.
Find More Posts by Gammaradiation. Lanny Chambers Lost my brakes. Join Date: Nov Location: St. Louis, USA Posts: 16, Find More Posts by Lanny Chambers. Dragonfighter Supporting Member. Find More Posts by Dragonfighter. Quote: Originally Posted by Dragonfighter the question was if you know of a faster Miata with a Mazda engine. Paulie Third gear.
Find More Posts by Paulie Find More Posts by nfs13b. El Fez Wheels flew off. Posts: 30, Werner Moderator. Quote: Originally Posted by Lanny Chambers Yes, but the project pages are apparently no longer on their site. Find More Posts by Werner. Find More Posts by bmw88rider.
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