My '90 Miata HPDE build.....

As the title states, I'm putting together a 1990 Miata for track work, occasional nice weather driving, and possibly the odd auto-x (never done it, and with out cheap track days, the $$$/run time ratio isn't appealing at all).

The last of my parts purchases should be arriving next week and I've already begun some of the work. Goal is to have it ready for the July HPDE, not sure if that's going to happen.

I'm leaving the engine stock for now, and completely redoing the suspension and adding the necessary safety equipment.

Here's a list of mods going into the car, then I'll post some pics, because we all love pics.

Mods:
FM VMaxx coilovers
FM sway bars and poly end links
Prothane bushings in all the control arm locations
V8 Roadster upper control arms
ART balanced/blueprinted hubs
Planet Miata rebuilt rear hubs with ARP studs
FM framerail reinforcement with butterfly brace
Hard Dog Hard Core Double Diagonal Roll Bar
Simpson 5 point harnesses and yet undetermined fixed back seats
Rebuilt NB sport brakes with CarboTech XP8, sport cylinder/booster, and FM adjustable proportioning valve

15x8 Konig Flatout's with 205/50/15 TOYO R888s

Rebuilt shifter

Looking good!

Excellent!

Out of curiosity - why the V8R front upper arms? Bad ball joints up front? Usually, if you're only going to run one specific pair of arms, it would be the front lowers or the rear uppers for more camber adjustment.

Yeah, the upper ball joint was a bit sloppy. I had read of some guys just pressing new ball joints into the upper arms, but seemed to be more against doing that.

Once I priced the stock upper arms, it was a no brainer to just go with the V8 Roadster arms.

Also, yanked the soft top out this weekend. Plan is to go with a Project G bikini top to keep the sun out of the cockpit during track days.

Speaking of upper ball joints..............the V8 Roadster front upper control arms arrived today.

Did the suspension need that much work? What are the advantages of those control arms?

How much did all that cost?

Did it NEED that much? Probably not.

I knew I was going to do coilovers/sways/rebuild the brakes (the 1.6 brakes on the car had a couple of sticking calipers).

If you had seen my previous E30 builds, you would see I have a terrible case of "while I'm in there" syndrome. So that's when I decided to replace the old crusty bushings.

Then I ran across a really reasonably priced set of NB sport calipers on ClubRoadster.net, so I picked those up and had those stripped/powdercoated and rebuilt with all fresh OEM stuff.

Got the Toyo's on a closeout sale. Of course the framerail and safety stuff is pretty self-explanatory.

A lot of the fasteners were pretty nasty, some of the bushings were rusted to the bolts, so I bought all new bolts/nuts for all the suspension. The CV's were rusted so tight to the rear hubs that a torch, sledge, and three bent bearing pullers..................I said screw it and found a set of used CV's and ordered the rebuilt rear hubs.

The advantage of those control arms is a serviceable and replaceable ball joint, I think they are a bit lighter as well.

How much has it all cost? Well you could go look up all those parts, but for instance just between all the new bolts/lower balljoints/brake caliper rebuild stuff................that's around $650.................another $450ish pads/rotors............then stainless steel lines....................

I don't want to add it all up

z31maniac wrote: How much has it all cost? Well you could go look up all those parts, but for instance just between all the new bolts/lower balljoints/brake caliper rebuild stuff................that's around $650.................another $450ish pads/rotors............then stainless steel lines.................... I don't want to add it all up

I kept a spreadsheet totaling costs on my turbo Miata build. Then I stopped. It was too depressing to track.

I was just curious since if I do get a miata I want to do some freshening of suspension/tires/brakes then just drive it and track it hopefully

By the time the seats are in (hopefully my buddies set will work so I don't have to buy a pair) with everything, I think I will be about $3500-4000 into the car on top of purchase price.

Not sure, you'd have to add it up.

Yeah I am debating in regards to the purchase looking for something more cheap, more likely the wife will like it or with some stuff already on it (if it looks like good stuff)

I'd rather do mods myself. But I know doing things in stages can end up costing more money if you keep stepping up the suspension

^I just don't like doing the same work twice, I knew I was going bushings, so might as well do everything else as well. I figure doing everything that we are going, all at once, I shouldn't have to worry about anything but tires, brake pads and fluid changes for the next few seasons.

And an update: I had planned on starting reassembling the front suspension today, but the first machine shop I took the control arms to, to push out the bushings...........used an an air hammer and ruined the passenger front lower control arm.

So, we installed the Hard Dog Hard Core Double Diagnol Roll Bar instead. It was pretty straight forward (granted we already had the seats out, soft top removed and the car up on jackstands), but I'm not really sure why there is so much consternation about it.

No need to cut the trim pieces in half, either.

You have to cut the interior pieces in half with the Sport geometry, also used on the Hard Core Hard Top. Not on the normal Hard Core.

Having the top out makes the roll bar install a lot easier. Otherwise you're half under the top most of the time, it's just awkward. But Miata owners specialize in consternation.

Nothing to big today, no pics.

Starting putting together the driver side front suspension, I'm glad I stopped and read the V8 Roadsters stuff again, something about having to set the last on the ball joint. So I'll need to do that before I get the knuckle back on.

Then spent the rest of the day removing all the under hood A/C stuff and the power steering pump. Will pull the PS lines/reservoir this week.

Still have to install fresh slave/SS line
FM frame fails and butterfly brace
Front suspension installed on both sides
Brakes on
NB Sport master cylinder/booster on, and some fun line madness since it's an ABS master
Bleed clutch/brake systems
Install coolant reroute (the fitting on the back was leaking, so figured might as well upgrade while I'm there)

Then taking the car to a friend to handle the steering rack depower and the Project G bikini top. The first I don't feel comfortable doing, the second, he's much better at detail work than me.

Any updates, I am about to tackle a project very similar to yours since I just picked up a '90 Miata two weeks ago. It will also be used for HPDE exclusively.

J

HEhe, totally forgot about this thread.

Slave cylinder installed, FM frame rails and butterfly brace installed, fenders rolled with plenty of cracked to go along with it (I went slow and used a heat gun, guess that's just what you get with 22 year old paint and the desire for the lips to be flat, no biggie). Also got the coolant reroute kit installed.

Front suspension is together except for the brakes/sway bar/steering rack. Picked up my modded steering rack and Corbeau Forza's this past weekend.

Left to do: Install front brakes, master cylinder booster and bleed system.
Bleed clutch system (both are getting fresh ATE blue).
Install front and rear sway bars.
Fill and bleed coolant system.
Change engine, transmission and diff fluid.
Install seats and harnesses (still need to buy the Corbeau sliders and harnesses, likely doing that today at lunch).
Install steering rack (going to order the FM poly rack bushings).

Then once it's on the ground, taking it to the local exhaust shop to make some more clearance for the butterfly brace since I used the stock 1.6 header and exhaust system.

Then to the Mazda dealership for new tie rods, 4 wheel alignment, and final torque on lower shock bolts, sway bolts! Maybe I'll reverse these last two. But I'll likely not drive it to either and just let it go by way of tow truck.

Have you gotten to enjoy it at all yet?

On the autocross note. I found out that other groups who run autocross locally don't follow the SCCA 3 run setup. For example I went to my first a couple weekends ago now and got 16 runs and their normal setup is 4 runs with an instructor, 2 sets of 4 runs practice, 3 timed laps for a total of 15 runs

It's still not as much seat time as a track day but for me at least its much more local

(aforementioned group was the BMW CCA and I drove the miata)

No, it's been on jackstands since about Feb/early March. I'd only driven it twice in January so the battery was dead then.

I'm hoping to have it on the ground by the end of the month, I don't think I will be ready to go for Miatas at Hallett next month, but the there are still Sat/Sun HPDE's at the end of Sept and Oct.........so I'm hoping to get at least one hopefully both weekends in.

I am waiting for my Evil Genius Rollbar and then to see how much I need to muck with the seat to get below it

Are those the standard VMaxx coil overs or the "extreme" ones?

The braces look nice I was planning on doing the framerails at least on mine. Do you have the front brace?

Standard, I bought them back a few months before the new ones came out. I considered sending them back for the extremems but figured I'd better try to lower spring rates first since Hallett is fairly bumpy/rough in places.

Shock tower brace? No, FM's don't fit the 1.6 intake manifold IIRC. I did do the butterfly brace with the framerails though.