From: Loren Williams <Loren@kscable.com>
>Turbo Miata goes to EM based on engine displacement with the 1.4x hit
>for turbo power. (under 2.0 liters DP, over 2.0 liters, EM).
Sounds the way I remember it.
>Very small
>and light car for EM...
Really? As I recall, the minimum weight for EM is 1500 pounds. I'd say a
Miata was a porker in that league.
>put enough tire under it, strip it to minimum
>weight
I'm not sure you can do that. Or by the time you do, you might as well have
started with something cheaper, since you would not be saving any street
equipment anyway.
>and crank the boost up, it might do okay.
I've obviously never tried this stuff, but my guess is that an engine-driven
supercharger would be better for autocrossing than a turbo-supercharger.
Better still, maybe the type where the supercharger is actually powered by a
separate motor. Hard to see where that could be illegal in a class with no
size limit on the engine. They sold one in the sixties which was powered by
its own gas-turbine. I never knew anyone who had one, though. That would
be no turbo lag, but what a wastegate!
All of which is not to say that a turbo-Miata might not be fun street ride
and an interesting autocrosser. I just doubt that it would be a
world-beater at high levels of competition in EM.
Not the sort of machine I would build. I can get in more than enough
trouble with the law on the horsepower I have available in my
more-pedestrian cars. And a turbo-Miata for autocross only does not seem to
be as much fun or as competitive as other things I could build for the
money.
If I could afford a Miata, I'd drive it in Stock or Street Prepared. The
one turn at the wheel which I had in a Street-Prepared Miata was quite a bit
of fun. The car was essentially absent of handling vices.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
Lotus Europa, VW Quantum Syncro, Chev Suburban
LOON, TCVWC, MAC
pethier@isd.net http://www.visi.com/mac/
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