Under the Hood: V8 Miata with Camaro Nose!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YAlKI3PDt64

Curtis Baldwin shows off his LS3-powered Mazda Miata track monster.

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Oh nose! 

I clicked expecting some mini '69 Z28 abortion. That's actually not terrible looking though.

I was hoping for an early mk2 nose but that works okay as well.  I wonder how much that setup reduced lift vs. the original Miata bodywork.

Daylan C said:

I clicked expecting some mini '69 Z28 abortion. That's actually not terrible looking though.

I'm intrigued to see this car once he does the back. Like he says, yeah, I can see it looking like a baby 935.

It looks better than the badly-proportioned 5/8 scale '65 Mustang-bodied 5.0 Miata.

But I'm still not a fan.

That's pretty brilliant. Well done! 

I saw a photo of this recently on the GRM forum. I assumed that it was photoshopped.

Pretty cool.

slowbird said:

Oh nose! 

I read noise. Not entirely disappointed either way..

Its some plastic that covers the front tires and the engine bay.. looks like it does the job fine.

What the actual berkeley

Nope...not feeling it for the looks of the front "sheet metal". But as a V8 Miata, it will be fun to drive no matter what.

Pete

Well, that's different...

Daylan C said:

I clicked expecting some mini '69 Z28 abortion. That's actually not terrible looking though.

Actually, there's a guy who was adding 60's Camaro parts to a Miata. The in-progress pics looked pretty darn good. 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Consider me skeptical but curious.

I'm my mind, love it or hate it, the fact that it provides a unique and distinctive look is merely a byproduct. Necessity is the mother of all invention. It's sounds like the car needed new front panels anyway. This is not only probably cheaper (<$500) than any competition worthy 'Miata' based set of panels, but most likely has (considerably) better track aero too.  Now that they actually have 'cool car' bodies in circle track, it's almost a no-brainer when backed by the appropriate performance/drivetrain

Holy cow, I missed the fact this was Curtis' car. I accidentally set a lap record when doing some of the pre-delivery setup of that car :) Here he is meeting the car for the first time on our track. Camera car is the Targa Miata, which has the same engine but a lot less tire. Curtis had never seen the track or driven the car before, so be kind when looking at his lines :)

Here's the build diary for the car. It was a truly terrible machine when we started.

https://www.flyinmiata.com/V8/racecar/

Thanks for the update, guys. We don't hear from Curtis much, just "oh hey, I won another championship". Also, check out what he used to tow it home to Illinois.

Also, here is the car getting the Camaro rear. There's an LS7 up front. The picture's 3 years old, I don't know how it's progressing.

I kinda want to see the inverse of this too. A Camaro with a Miata engine, and Miata nose! Oh the horror!

I created the Mazdamaro,  my lemons Mazda with an F-body Z28 front and z28 tail lights.  Did it in 3 days, because lemons, so stuff pretty rough.

Made some improvements on it for the Buttonwillow race, don't have latest pics though.