[Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Grassroots Motorsports.]
You can hear the whines all across the country each weekend as racers struggle to wrap their minds—and fragile self-esteems—around the fact that they just got beat. A serious whupping can prompt a lot of justifications and excuses, as well as a bit of secretive research on …
Spec Miata
Spec Piñata, Smash Miata, Spinning Monkeys: Call it what you will, Spec Miata is the road racing success story of the decade. The first prototype hit the track late in 1998, and today Spec Miata features packed fields of closely prepared Miatas battling lap after lap for the win. Credit cheap donor cars, nimble chassis designs, judicious modifications, and just enough power to be fun. A bonus is that the guys in Mazda’s glass tower also care about the class.
The Spec Miata rules for car preparation are well thought out, starting with a suspension package that’s readily available from Mazdaspeed Motorsport Development, the company’s competition arm. Bilstein shocks, Eibach springs and Mazdaspeed anti-roll bars are all called out by specific part numbers.
From there, participants must run 15×7-inch wheels that weigh at least 13 pounds apiece—a rule designed to eliminate the need to tie up five grand in a dozen 10-pound wheels. Tires, which are usually a budget-killer, must be 205/50R15, usually an inexpensive size.
Most SCCA and NASA groups specify either a Toyo, Hankook or Hoosier, but both of the year-end finales call for Toyos as the spec tire. Surprisingly, tires are one of the simplest parts of the equation, since racers have found that shaved—but not fresh—Toyos are the way to go; well-worn examples were on all the top cars at the season-ending championships.
You’ll notice that we mentioned both SCCA and NASA in the preceding paragraph. That’s right, Spec Miata is a popular national-level class with both sanctioning bodies. The rule sets for the two groups are essentially identical, making Spec Miata a stellar class for racers in just about every area of the country. (In fact, several independent regional groups have also adopted the class.)
The rest of the Spec Miata rules are simple and easy to understand: open exhausts are okay; 1.6-liter cars can run a high-flow air intake; a limited-slip…
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