Mazda Miata (NA)

Crushed ball bearings from the NA Miata racecar wheel bearing.

Failure Points: NA Miata Front Wheel Bearing

The harsh environment of the racetrack pushes a car right to its limit and beyond. As such, racecar failures are bound to happen in many different ways. Failure Points is a new series that dissects these moments and what to…

Screenshot from inside the car at NOLA Motorsports Park.

Welcome Back to NOLA Motorsports Park

NOLA Motorsports Park is one of my favorite tracks that no one knows about. It’s long, rough, scrappy, and flat, built in the swamp south of New Orleans proper in Westwego, Louisianna. Perhaps it’s a little too far for most,…

Feature image for https://driftopia.com/blog/2024/04/02/entertaining-myself-at-the-national-corvette-museum/ featuring cars going four wide into turn one at the race start.

Entertaining Myself at the National Corvette Museum

Entertaining myself is a nice way to say I was racing all by myself at the National Corvette Museum. At least, that is how I felt in Super Touring 6 at the NASA Great Lakes season opener. And my loneliness…

AWR engine mounts in 88 durometer hardness for the 1991 NA Mazda Miata

Installing AWR Engine Mounts on the NA Miata

The little 1.6-liter engine in the NA6 Miata moves too much. This engine movement, combined with soft factory differential bushings, contributes to a lot of drivetrain movement.

Nashville Superspeedway grandstand.

Nashville Superspeedway – September 2023

How’s that for a title? About as basic as I could make it. But that doesn’t mean this event was basic. In fact, through all the issues I endured this season, I still managed to capture the regional championship and…

NA 1.6l Miata MX-5 with the wiring harness and ECU laying across the engine bay for troubleshooting.

Rewiring the 1.6l NA Miata … Part 1

The now ST6 Miata has had some serious electrical gremlins from day one. Intermittent starting issues, random fuel cuts, and erratic idling to name a few. I knew at some point I would rewire the car completely. What I didn’t…

The 944 Spec, Spec Miata, and ST6 fields bunched up at the start.

Converting the Budget Spec Miata to ST6

I spoke about this before in Trying Not to Finish Last at NCM. Although the budget Spec Miata is a blast to drive, it will never be competitive when the expensive equipment comes out to play. That is why I…

Bump drafting the 944 Spec in the Spec Miata at NCM.

Trying Not to Finish Last at NCM

Last place, or almost last, we’ve all been there. At one time, it was a lack of experience. Other times I can point the finger at good ol’ bad luck. And now, it’s an issue I haven’t faced in a…

Back to Barber 2022

I’ve said it a hundred times before but I’ve been very busy lately. Busier than usual actually. So busy in fact, that I am surprised I’ve had a race season at all. Let alone changing series mid-season.

Spec’ish MX-5: Primer Part 2

This will be a less than subtle change for the 08 NC MX-5 build I’ve been sitting on to close for a year now. In fact, this car will no longer run in the spec MX-5 series as initially planned.