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2005 Mazdaspeed MX-5 - Project Barbie's Trackster

14213 Views 126 Replies 30 Participants Last post by  85rx-7gsl-se
4
As some of you may know, I have been driving my Miata pretty much on a daily basis for about 2.5 years now. After some thinking, and since I have other cars I can drive, I am going to actually start a full blown project with it.

For those of you that don't know, the car is a 2005 Mazdaspeed MX-5 Miata GT. These came with the 1.8L Turbo mated to a 6 speed trans with a Helical LSD. The factory horsepower rating is 179 at the crank.

My goal is to have a fun car that is decently quick and to be something that I can take to AutoX, Trackdays, and/or drift events. No Herrafrush, no super slammed, none of that JDM madtyte low offset wheels BS.

The car being a Mazdaspeed, a lot of the hard work is sorta done for me already. The Mazdaspeeds come with bigger sway bars, better struts/springs, quicker ratio steering gear, and better chassis bracing underneath.

motor and power wise, I'm wanting to be around the 250-300 whp mark. That way I will have plenty of power for what I am wanting to do and still be easily drivable on the streets.

I already have a few things done as follows:

Muffler delete (Exhaust will be fully redone from the turbo back to eliminate the cat and resonator and to go at least 2.5")
Larger FMIC
Larger charge piping (will be change when big boy turbo goes on)
H&R springs on the front and rear (rates unknown)
Boost cut mod
TPS Mod
Apex'I twin chamber BOV
Turbo XS Dual stage Boost controller
MAF Relocated

Immediate plans are as follows:

un-relocate the MAF (Basically I need to put it back in the proper spot and redo my cold side charge pipe.)

Aerodynamic upgrades, such as, front and rear splitters, trans tunnel cover, adjust the rear spoiler, etc etc

Future plans:

Holset HX35 turbo with a custom made top mount manifold
Full turbo back stright though exhaust
Some sort of EMS setup
Some form of Coilovers (haven't decided on which brand yet)
Full Cage w/ hardtop
more to come as I think of them.

This is the very first picture I ever took of the car right after I bought it.


With the springs and FMIC installed.


Then this happened a few months ago.


I had the entire car painted a fresh coat of Velocity red Mica. Also added OEM "large" side skirts and replaced to rear bumper and added the "large" oem rear strakes.
This is the most current picture I have. Not pictured is the OEM Mazdaspeed Rear spoiler on the trunk.


So there you have it for now.
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Factory msm gearing sucks. Kills it as an autocross car :(
2nd gear is too short for autocross in the msm.
:/ still not loving the SBF, but at least your gearing can't be worse than that with the stock MSM driveline lol
If it works for you, then that is all that matters lol
I have yet to see why a 302 is better to a ls-based engine. Outside of mounting difference. So that is my primary thought.
He asked what is wrong with a 302, not why is it better.....

Nothing wrong with a 302 at all. When you bust out your LS powered Miata, then you can talk about why it's better then this ford powered one.

The OP already said he is partial to Fords, so that's that.
Sorry to bother you Chris :cry:

I have said if it works for him, then it works. I personally would want a newer platform for my engine build, this is still relatively cheap, and has a stronger block... but that again is me.
Yeah you said that with the lol at the end.... if I were him, that would annoy me, especially coming from a mod.
Not trying to start an argument with a lawyer but....:)
It just gets old when people mostly say how they would or wouldn't do it when speaking about other peoples builds.
Well then I apologize to the OP if I offended him. I will butt out now.
Are your referring to the aluminum or iron 5.3s?
I was actually thinking about this car the other day lol and wondered what happened.
Its a secret... most people will think its a terrible engine choice, but ive had plenty of time to do my research on what will work best for me when it comes to power vs money.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut its a secret until the engine is delivered.
Still stuck on a 302 huh? Lol
Yeah, thats a little.more than i want to spend and a little more power than im wanting. Im only looking to push a conservative 350 to 400 hp. I want it to be drivable on the street and not be to much
to handle at a local autox. Other than that its just a fun project for myself.

This is my hotrod, so theres no rush, and i dont need a ton of power. Looking more for reliability and drivability.
Ls6 is only 405 haha
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