The Turbo Miata

In spring 2005, I bought my second Miata. It was older and cost more than the one I sold, but twice the horsepower will do that to you. Although I would NEVER usually buy a pre-modified car, I knew the guy and I knew the car. This was certainly an upgrade from my two winter previous miata!

This next section has been taken directly from the previous owner's existing CarDomain website. This is just a direct archive from here to the end of the post...

Summer 2001

What can I do, I love the smell of burning rubber!



Here's a view of the front and rear. You can see the RB Exhaust.








AutoX Summer 2001

Seems like all this time spent smokin' doughnuts paid off. I didn't lose it on this one...but it was close.

Here's a better way to take a turn...


Thanks to Flyin' Miata sway bars and Eibach springs to keep the car quite leveled under hard cornering. There's still some body roll, but it's way better than stock.


Just before entering the stop box.




Summer 2002

New mods for this summer include a 8lbs Fidanza Flywheel and Max-5 Clutch good for 265lbs.ft of torque and a AVO stage 2 Turbo good for 175rwhp or around 210hp!


I decided to break into 1,0g territory, so in order to do that I needed some sticky tires. I went with Yokohama's A032R tire in 205/50-15. Those tires being a bit larger and heavier, I decided to buy larger and lighter wheels to go with them. So I set up my mind on the 11lbs OZ Superleggera. You can see the new Brembo slotted rotor as well. Here's how it looks.


Finally here is a close up look at the roll bar. It's a Hard Dog Hard Core with double diagonal. In my opinion, everybody driving a Miata should have one of those.



AVO TURBO STAGE 2

The turbo is now installed. This is how it looks. I have 7psi of boost. The fuel and timing are managed by a TurboLink piggyback and extra fuel is provided by a 5th injector. Kit comes with an AVO bypass valve and intercooler.


Here you can see how the fuel is managed. The stock fuel line is spliced and provides the fuel to the 5th injector.


You can see on this pic where the turbo sits. The steel line coming out of the heat shield is the EGT probe. It sits between cylinder 3 and 4. The turbo is hidden behind all the piping.


Here's the only hint there's some serious power on the car. The front grill can't hide the big air/air intercooler. Another pic at the right from inside the engine bay.









A shot of the bypass valve. Even though it recirculates the air to the intake, it makes a nice tsssttt sound when shifting.


Here's a gauge pod I bought from OMORI. All the gauges are from AutoMeter. I chose to go with all black gauges in order to stay as stock looking as possible.


Acording to my G-tech, the car can now accelerate from 0-60mph in 5.91sec and I run the 1/4 mile in the low 14sec. Next step will be to add some boost. This should allow me to crack into the 13s.

I have since added the FM mid-pipe. It is mandrel bent is 2,5" wide. It comes with a high flow cat. The mid-pipe helped the spool up of the turbo. It also gave some more hp. I don't have numbers, but I'm even faster now. Sorry, no pic.


Here's some pictures from an AutoX event in Boston.

In the start box...


Off I go with a clutch drop!


Those guys in the US, they really like cones, there was about 500 of them on that course. It is tougher than what we have here in Quebec...


Here I am with my friends, Wello and vinceroy.


A shot while coming back to the pits.




Summer 2003

Plans for this summer are to add power and cooling to the engine. I have already bought an Electromotive TEC3. It is one of the most advanced Engine Management System on the market today. Kit comes with a 60-2 crank wheel, Direct Fire Unit coil pack, Magnecore wires, RC 550cc injectors and all sensors. With this I can run from a mild 220rwhp up to a rod crushing, axle snapping 290rwhp. My goal is in between at around 240rwhp.

Here is a picture of the TEC3 kit. I also bought the fuel rail for safety and better tuning.


RC 550cc Injectors and the Direct Firing Unit









With more than twice the stock HP at the wheels, the car definately needs some more cooling. That's why I have added a Koyo aluminium radiator. It should be enough to keep it run cool.

Guess which one is stock and which one is the Koyo.









The Koyo fits right in. No trimming, no hassle. I highly recommend it.


Lapping day, Spring 2003

Here are some pics taken at the last lapping day.

Me and my friend Wello in the pits. Next a picure of me and my co-pilot of the day.









Here I am in the banking and overtaking a (very slow) Jetta in the straight.









There was some serious HP cars that day. A Viper, 350z and a couple of luxury gave it a shot. That was cool, but they weren't really fast. Who in his right mind would risk to crash a Viper???











Here is the car that took FTD. A highly modified DelSol that competes in GTO. He got in on a trailer with a crew of 6-7 mechanics. Nothing legal on this car. Weighs in at 2100lbs and has 240fwhp. Quite a beast.

The First Miata...

I need to insert this for archiving purposes...

I bought my first miata (also my first car!) on July 12, 2002. It was brand new, a sort of graduation gift from myself. I had just gotten a job at a die casting plant (AMT Die Casting) a few hours from my hometown of Quebec City, Qc, Canada.

*INSERT PICS OF FIRST DAY OF OWNERSHIP HERE!*


The car would be my only car for a bit more than two years, running faithfully for 83000km through two harsh Trois Pistoles winters (thank you Nokian Hakkapeliitta studded tires!). It ran perfectly day in and day out (replaced front bearing, top latch and speaker (all under warranty)).

The car would also become my first motorsport vehicle. In the spring of 2003, I went down to Boston for my first Autocross school & race (April 26 & 27) with the Renegade Miata Club. The school was very helpful, and I did pretty well in the CStock Class for a first timer:

CSL Name Car# #1Best #2Best Avg Pax Paxed Points
Stock/Street tires
CSS Vincent Roy 82 45.056 46.248 45.652 0.814 37.161 100.000
CSS Bill Bradley 7 45.878 45.971 45.925 0.814 37.382 99.409
CSS Becky Hammatt 6 46.831 47.069 46.950 0.814 38.217 97.237
CSS Frederic Roy 78 47.031 47.757 47.394 0.814 38.579 96.324
CSS Todd Tisdale 48 47.339 48.143 47.741 0.814 38.861 95.625
CSS Ernest Grasso 5 47.177 48.522 47.850 0.814 38.949 95.409
CSS Dennis Friedman 51 48.083 49.487 48.785 0.814 39.711 93.579
CSS Melanie Michel 182 47.925 49.678 48.802 0.814 39.725 93.546
ESS Roman Boychenko 65 50.162 50.488 50.325 0.804 40.461 91.844
ESS William Dooley 44 50.182 50.629 50.406 0.804 40.526 91.697
CSS Jill Fontana 131 49.641 51.333 50.487 0.814 41.096 90.425
ESS Ed Reynolds 8 50.971 51.713 51.342 0.804 41.279 90.024
CSS Diana Shoop 31 51.224 51.713 51.469 0.814 41.895 88.700
ESS Ruslana Tsurikova59 52.046 52.329 52.188 0.804 41.959 88.565
ESS Marnie MacAlpine 30 59.568 62.743 61.156 0.804 49.169 75.578

Miata FTD: Rob MacAlpine (Street Prep-CSP) 42.832



More importantly, I had a great time doing it!

Later that year, I would go back down to Boston and run another autocross with the same club. This time the location is Devens (an old airport runway) and the track is much faster. Struggling a little bit more, but still having a lot of fun!

CSL Name Car# #1Best #2Best Avg Pax Paxed Points
Stock/Street tires
ESS Danny Mehl 73 72.362 73.302 72.832 0.804 58.557 100.000
CSS Ernest Grasso 5 77.098 77.140 77.119 0.814 62.775 93.281
CSS Dennis Friedman 51 77.200 77.404 77.302 0.814 62.924 93.060
CSS Frederic Roy 78 76.747 82.696 79.722 0.814 64.893 90.236
ESS Bill Dooley 44 81.175 82.501 81.838 0.804 65.798 88.995
CSS Bob Merrick 54 80.051 82.825 81.438 0.814 66.291 88.269
CSS Jill Fontana 131 81.57 82.226 81.898 0.814 66.665 87.838
CSS Craig Labrie 27 82.364 82.373 82.369 0.814 67.048 87.336
CSS Todd Tisdale 48 80.986 85.127 83.057 0.814 67.608 86.613
CSS Diana Shoop 31 83.918 84.576 84.247 0.814 68.577 85.389
CSS Dick Lyons 76 85.215 88.526 86.871 0.814 70.713 82.809
ESS Denis Bustin 61 91.686 94.699 93.193 0.804 74.927 78.152

Miata FTD: Kevin Camire (Modified-SM2) 67.256


In 2003 and 2004, I did a few more autocrosses (with both the Renegade Miata Club and Club Delta of Quebec City). Here are some pictures from an event at devens:


I also did my first big handling modification on the car, a Tein HA suspension (it was the second major mod on the car, the first being a Hard Dog Hard Core rollbar, but you don't really want to use it ;).

This was made possible since I had left Trois Pistoles and moved to Montreal. I didn't have to drive the car around year round. Of course, this tempted me into doing more mods (more on that later).

The other major event for me for 2004 was my first track day. I ran an event at Circuit Sainte-Croix with a small lapping club and loved it.

In the Spring of 2005, I wanted to put a turbo on the car, but I sold the miata instead. But it was for a good cause, since I took delivery of my second miata soon after. Here are some pics just before the sale of the vehicle:

First Post - Introduction

Hi and welcome to my google web blog!

This space will mainly be for friends and family... I will also keep track of various track days & car related stuff.

I've been looking for a way to easily publish large file pictures on the web and I think that I've finally found a way (click picture)!

See you soon!

Fred