W hy R ace a M iata?

Words by David Fosberg, Images courtesy of Bare Bones Racing

Choosing a racing platform can be a challenge with many technical, financial, and personal variables to consider. I get asked a lot as to why my teammates and I selected the Miata as our racecar of choice. Let’s be honest, we have Jeremy Clarkson, from the original Top Gear, to thank for the whole Hairdresser’s Car thing which the Miata has never been able to shake. But then again, we see this little car at autoX courses and racing circuits seemingly everywhere we turn. Ian Rae, editor of MotorWerks, asked me if I could expand upon the Miata Mania as it relates to racing, since my teammates and I have had first-hand experience successfully campaigning the platform to numerous class wins and overall podium finishes within grassroots endurance racing series over the last five years. What follows is our assessment on why the Mazda Miata works well for us, and so many others, and why the car’s name has spawned its own acronym: Miata Is Always The Answer.

The genesis of our team, Bare Bones Racing (www.facebook. com/barebonezracing), stems several years ago from a

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collection of friends who were deep into track days at the time and were looking to step up to wheel-to-wheel racing. All of us were tracking either supercharged high horsepower Camaros or LS-swapped imports, so we were not your typical converts to the Momentum Car school of thought by any stretch of the imagination. But when we decided that grassroots endurance racing was the perfect opportunity to build a team around a single car while providing both ample seat time for multiple drivers, along with the ability to share operating costs, we started to take a closer look at the Miata for the following reasons:

Accessibility – With Mazda having cranked out over a

Million units since 1989 across four generations of the Miata (NA, NB, NC, & ND), there are ample chassis and drive trains available for conversion into racecars along with a sizeable number of already race-spec’d examples. Accessibility also has to do with where your chosen platform fits within a given racing discipline, series, and class. The last thing you want to do is invest in a car that is an orphan when it comes to where it can effectively compete. With the Miata, there is never that worry as competition is plentiful across AutoX, Endurance, Time

Attack, as well as dedicated

Miata sprint series such as Spec Miata, Spec MX-5 Challenge, Super Miata, Global MX-5 Cup, and it’s now eligible in some Vintage racing series. Accessibility also has to do with driver ability. For endurance racing we have multiple drivers, with different skill levels and experience, sharing the same car during a race weekend. Being a true momentum car, the Miata is well-renowned for its superb handling, communicative steering, and distributed balance that provides progressive feedback to drivers of all skill levels. The Miata emphasizes a driver’s skill in braking, carrying corner speed, and ensuring smooth corner exits to help maintain momentum and speed. We all became better drivers in the Miata because we couldn’t rely upon a high horsepower engine to cover up our mistakes simply by putting our foot down. The Miata makes us better drivers because it emphasizes racing and car control fundamentals while also making the car accessible to a varying cross-section of drivers with different skill levels.

Reliability – The old racers’ moto, “To finish first, you first must finish”, is no truer than in endurance racing. For our team, we needed a platform that could keep piling on the laps in races that stretch anywhere from 7, to 8, and even up to 24 hours at a time. Keeping your car turning laps is essential to be in the hunt at the finish but it is also important when it comes to giving all the team’s drivers an opportunity behind the wheel. Nobody wants to miss their driving stint because everyone was lying under the car trying to resolve a mechanical issue back in the paddock. The Miata is thoroughly up to the reliability challenge even while utilizing

factory components. The OEM drivetrain has been bullet proof for us in our Miata, “Half Pint”, a 1994 1.8L 4-cylinder with 5-speed manual transmission and limited slip differential. We also run OEM brake calipers and rotors which we have mounted cooling ducts to help maintain acceptable operating temps and we’ve never had overheating issues while running a stock radiator. To enhance our already good reliability with the Miata, we have added an auxiliary oil cooler as well as an Accusump to defend against potential oil starvation issues in high G-force corners. The Miata’s most well-documented Achilles Heel is failed wheel bearings and hubs. These are

easily overcome with either a consistent post-race maintenance regimen, where hubs are replaced or bearings are greased based upon number of race hours, or by upgrading to more resilient aftermarket hub options. Our Miata’s reliability has helped us win several races as competitors often drop-out with a differing array of mechanical issues over the course of a race. In endurance racing, reliability trumps raw speed any day of the week.

Affordability – For a team with the name Bare Bones Racing, you can imagine we are always looking for a way to maximize value for a given cost. For those of us born without a trust fund or unlimited zeros behind our net worth, cost is always a factor especially when it comes to consumable components. The Miata benefits greatly both from its wide production numbers and from its broadbased enthusiast and racing popularity. Parts, both new and used, are plentiful and the Miata is additionally widely supported by the aftermarket. This makes for great racecar economics as higher volume availability generally come with more affordable prices. As an example, OEM brake rotors