Hey baby how you doin? I guess I’m not doing great, but there’s lots of reasons that I shan’t get into here. I’ve made a big BIG decision recently and I think some support would make me feel better about it I guess. See, I’ve talked about this before how I bought the 2014 Cayman S after tons of research, with plans to keep forever, with more recent plans to turn it into a track car after a few years (seats, roll/harness bar, harnesses and engine/suspension mods etc). I really really REALLY want this. It would be likely the best car I’ll ever track in my life and even though I could have gone about it maybe better financially I can at least afford it what I’m doing with the car now and then some. You might have guessed from the title, I’m now building my 99 NB Miata into the track car. Welcome to Project Reality Check.
I’ve been sorta on the fence for future car plans with heavy leanings towards track Cayman, Exocet the Miata, then daily the tow car or something.... but that’s all years away to afford and do all that work and while I could likely pull it off it would require a ton of time/money sacrifice I keep thinking I’m prepared for. The reality check was calling South Shore Autoworks and talking to their amazing guru Justin who is board member I think of my regional PCA, who sponsors many PCA DE track days, and tons of people at the events I’ve been to love him and his company. Thinking he’d give me a good plan to swap my Cayman seats (getting kinda beat up) for some track seats, install the harness bar and harnesses, I called him and referenced previous customers he’d done just that for. They had some hoops to jump through to keep the car “road legal” but I thought it was fine. Justin steered me away. And not just because of the trouble I would have and safety issues (which I knew) but the cost was almost double what I had priced out in estimation for my plans. Certainly I could do it cheaper, but I wanted quality work.
Now, Justin as well as many others have suggested the “Buy a prebuilt racecar and trailer it” option as it’s always cheaper compared to building one from scratch. Good idea, race Porsche 944s, 987s, 996s are somewhat affordable and would be almost as good on track as my Cayman would be. But not only is that a single large purchase which I tend to shy away from, it’s also not doing the work myself which I desperately want to do as I’ve gotten so much further into wrenching. I want to make the car my own. Sure a spec Miata costs about as much as I’m planning to pay just to modify my current Miata I’ve already put some money into, but it’ll be mine. And it might be better than spec....
So if you’ve read this far here’s my general plan:
Step 1: Maintenance and Street Upgrades
- Fluids all flushed
- New aluminum radiator, coolant reroute kit, oil cooler, wires plugs and coils, belt, intake, engine mounts, install aftermarket oil temp gauge
- Brakes get dot 4 fluid flush, new EBC green stuff pads and slotted rotors
- Keep tracking the Cayman S as I’m currently doing and the Miata is still a daily/cruise car
Step 2: Autocross/HPDE Prep and Testing
- Wheels and tires
- Roll bar with harness bar
- Track seats with high head support (I know it’s not good to run bars and track seats with stock belts but the Miata can do it with the seats and bar I plan with.... mostly safe driving)
- Full suspension setup
- EBC yellow stuff pads
- Full exhaust
- Clutch
- Test at my local Autox which is 15min from my house and I can limp home from lol then maybe some TNIA, Cayman still trackable Miata still road driveable
Step 3: Full Trailered Track Toy
- Harnesses, HANS, Fire Extinguisher, Weight Reduction
- Rain Tire Set
- Tow vehicle and trailer
- Miata track only, Cayman just a fun old-ish Porsche daily keeping me in PCA and giving me comfortable fun road trips
Like I said, general plan. I have tons of research to do and questions I’ll ask over time using here and all the forums. I’m going to make occasional big posts like this to update the build until I’m done or Oppo disappears (pls no). I know this isn’t unique, new, interesting, or special in any way to the car world lol but hey it’s all those things to me! Hope you’ll keep up.