Easy Miata mods everyone should do

13 Dec 2016

Now everyone might not agree with me but this is just my opinion. If your budget is tight I recommend doing all of your maintenance first before doing any of these. You want to have a reliable car before you modify it.

EVEN THOUGH A ROLL BAR ISNT IN EVERYONES BUDGET I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS TO ANY MIATA OWNER AS THEIR FIRST MODIFICATION FOR THE CAR. A ROLL BAR WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE IN TR EVENT OF A ROLL OVER. PLEASE ADD ONE OF THESE TO YOUR CAR IT IS KEY TO THR SAFTEY OF THR VEHICLE. MOST TRACKS REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE ONE FOR YOUR MIATA.

Wheels and tires
I think getting a set of high performance summer only tires is one of the best ways to make your Miata handle better. Getting a wider tires such as a 205 or 225 will help along with some grippy tires.
Intake
While an intake won’t really add any power to your car it will make it sound a little bit better in my opinion. With a intake you get a nice roar under acceleration and it sound very good
Alignment
A simple alignment can really change the handling characteristics of your car. 949 racing has some great alignments on their website. They serve as great starting points for everyone. I use the dual duty alignment and I really like it
Timing bump
The 14 degree timing bump is something know to almost everyone in the Miata community and there are many people who have done it. You will have to use premium gas but you will also get more power. For the nb Miatas it requires getting an adjustable trigger wheel. They are $35 at 5x racing
Exhaust
An exhaust will actually give you more power and it gives the Miata a nice sound (as long as you don’t go the $50 autozone special muffler aka a fart cannon). Racing beat and roadstersport sell great exhaust that won’t break the bank. I would also recommend buying a header. I have a rb header and it is very nice. Changes the tone of the Miata a little bit but adds some nice power in the midrange and especially in the top end.
Sway bars
The stock sway bars are very wimpy on the Miata and I would recommend adding some aftermarket ones. I think it really tightens up the handling of the Miata

Comments

And I’m here trying to guess what car is on the left.. 🤔

lol it’s my winter beater. It’s a 1991 mercury capri with snow tires

Can you do the timing bump on E85?

I would think you could but you would have to do a lot more and spend a lot more to get your car to run on e85 the timing bump is just a cheap easy way to get a little more power

EXCUSE ME A ROLL BAR WILL NOT SAVE YOU EVERYTIME BECAUSE WHEN.IT ROLLS IT CAN CRUSH THE MOUNTS OR THEY ARNT TALL ENOUGH AND YOU NEED TO BE SHORT FOR RHEM TO WORK

I’ve seen pictures of Miatas that have rolled and the roll bars were still perfect

The moduli of elasticity for steel is 29,700,000 psi, this means it starts bending permanantly at that force, all less then this force will barely bend it. So if you install your roll bar correctly It will certainly be strong enough for a rollover. Obviously it’s not the other guy but you that knows nothing about physics.

For countries where the 1.6 mk1 is sold a good mod is changing to 1.8 brakes. There slightly bigger and have a bit more feel to them.
Also with the roll bar it can help providing it’s one designed to help. There are a lot of cheap chromed style bars out there that are being sold as a safety device. These will just fold over in a roll and might even be the thing to kill you.