So now Christopher owns his own Miata. What will he do with it?
Well, before he could even drive it (legally) by himself, my dad and him took it to the 2018 Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge. If you’ve never heard of it, it is a very cool event. In short, you must build a car for $2000 or less, and have it compete in three events. Autocross, Drag Race, and Concourse. Sounds easy? Think again. There are some budget rules that you can play with, regarding safety items, and recoup if you sell off parts, but your car has to start with a starting price of $2000 or less, and total cost spent including that purchase can be no more than $2000.
There are people that bring INSANE cars to compete, with 9-second drag times, and insane autocross speeds. This was not going to be an insane build, after all, this is Christopher’s daily driver.
Christopher and dad started off with a good base. The 94 Miata had an engine that ran well, and also already had a lightweight flywheel and stage 1 clutch if he ever did go for extra power. As far as suspension and brakes, it already had FM V-MAXX Coilovers so it already handled fairly well. To be sure everything was in good shape for the event they went through and refreshed most of the fluids, and cleaned it up well.
Since they weren’t doing anything crazy for power before the challenge, they decided to do a paint job so that it would at least look decent. Christoper went into Forza Motorsports and designed his own color scheme, which they then carried out with some sanding and spray cans. All things considered, it turned out pretty well.
Dad’s NC Miata, My NB Miata, Christopher’s NA Miata
Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the 2018 GRM $2000 Challenge, but Christopher and dad took the car down and it performed very well. No issues to speak of. They placed #26 out of 38 cars, not bad at all for a stock Miata!
I don’t know about a deep state of neglect, but Christopher and dad definitely made it a lot shinier than when I had it.
Since the 2018 Challenge Christopher has been daily driving this Miata. The plan is to bring it back to the 2019 Challenge this October. Stay tuned to see what’s next as we prepare for that! (I’m actually going to join them this year.)
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