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I went the route of getting one of the '05 Mazdaspeed miatas, already with factory turbo, suspension upgrades, anti-sway bars..etc.

I'm looking to drop about $1600 or so, to get rid of the factory air restriction...using the Flyin Miata upgrades...basically the little enchilada...to get to about 200HP true rear wheel horsepower...which will be pretty fun.

I'll likely keep it at that, and use this for my ragtop, and possibly get one of the new 580 HP ZL-1 Camaro that should come out some time next year...to get my 'muscle car' jones taken car of.

Lots of good serotonin between those 8 wheels.

No sorry this is what they should do...

http://flyinmiata.com/V8/

I have a 2002 LS6 and a '93 smurf ... a work in progress

The Corvette ZR1 has more horsepower and is less expensive than any current Ferrari.

I love Ferrari... but the Corvette needs no apologies at all!

Especially when used as a donor car for something fast!

http://flyinmiata.com/V8/

Actually...with a little mod work...a miata can be a screaming fast car. Put a turbo or supercharger in them..whew.

A car that little with like 230 true RWHP....is damned fast. It will surprise a lot of cars on the road. Take a look at Flyin Miata. Prices aren't that bad either.

A slightly modded' miata could give an Elise a run for its money I'd guess.

I dunno about that. At the very least, you will need lawyers and deep pockets to get them to uphold the warranty if at all. I know it doesn't work that well for cars.

In my case...I'm speaking of common mods to the '04-'05 Mazdaspeed Miatas...the factory turbo'ed ones. There are neat kits that will let you start out by changing out the air intake system, and exhaust system. These mods really should not affect the factory turbo warranty.

However, on the boards...there are stories coming in now that the factory turbo's are blowing up...on both modded and 100% stock cars. Well, on cars that have any exhaust changes, etc....Mazda is flat refusinig to replace the turbo under warranty. Now...if you want to try to battle them...get some lawyers and $$...and put your car in the garage for a couple years I guess.

So, while the act is a nice thing to try to protect you from warranties being voided by any 3rd party mods, in reality, it is hard to do anything as a consumer when the BIG company sayd No!

I'll give it to you, that the Mustang GT500 would be a good one for today, if you could actually get one for the sticker price (about $42K?). But, the Solstice and WRX...they're fast and handle good at speed, but, don't give you that torque loaded smoking tire off the line thrill.

A Vette is s good one, but, even the base version is near $50K I think.

I'm saving to get a house here pretty soon...I replaced my '86 911 Turbo that I lost to Katrina with what actually has turned into a fun car for now...an '05 Mazdaspeed Mx-5. I'm gonna swap out the intake, downpipe and exhaust in it...which should put me over 200 hp at the rear wheels. A later mod of swapping injectors out, new ECU and a modified stock turbo..should get me to about 240 true hp at the rear wheels . Fun for a little ragtop, but, after getting the house...I think I'm gonna shop for a used Z06...try to find a garage queen.

But largely out of the list you gave, I'd say only the Mustang GT500 would be in the ball park of what I was originally talking about....powerful torquey cars that aren't outrageously expensive. I wish there were more of them out there available to the public like there was in the older original muscle car days.

I needed a car pretty fast after the storm, and got a good deal on an '05 mazdaspeed miata...the turbo'ed on. It is quite fun, and handles very well. I'm about to swap out the exhaust and air intake, and probably put on a larger intercooler..that will put me just over 200 true HP at the rear wheels, this is from Flyin Miata . That will be a pretty serious little street burner. Later, I plan to do the rest of the package which will take it to nearly 240 HP at the rear wheels.

Anyway...fun stuff. I've only owned one car in my life that had more than 2 seats, and that was the 911 turbo. I do make sure that I have friends with trucks for when I need to move stuff...and I just swap out keys with them for a day or two.

I lost the Porsche in katrina and for temp fun now...I got an '05 turbo miata. Now with such a small car...the power to weight ratio is pretty decent, and bone stock it gets about 178 rwhp. But, I gotta tell you,from what I'm used to driving...it is bone slow. I do like the convertible top tho...a lot.

Now, with an exhaust and air swap, I can get it to just over 200 rwhp, which will be nice for awhile, but, still a bit slow. I'm looking at mods after that, new ECU, larger injectors, and mods to the stock turbo Like These . With this I should be near 265 rwhp...in a car that small, now that will be fun.

Anyway, just trying to give you a close picture to what I'm interested in. 150hp in most contexts...is not very powerful. I'm looking either for something with over 350 hp at the crank, or if it is lower, there really has to be a very high power to weight ratio.

Anyway, on a side note, with this ,Mazdaspeed MX-5 being the absolute weakest car I've ever owned...it is quite fun. It has anti-sway bars and shock tower bracing from the factory..and it looks to be pretty easy to modify. I do look forward to keeping it in the future for my rag top car...and get another higher performance car to go with it for when I'm in the mood to rip up some pavement.

Wow..that is impressive, unfortunately it is also butt-ugly as far as cars go. Geez...can't they make it efficient AND good looking? The new Vettes have a very low drag....why not shoot for cars that have good eye pleasing shapes in addition to low drag?

Also...how do you survive in a car with only like 58 horses?? I'm surprised you don't get killed trying to pull out on the freeway. My last 2 cars had like 350 and 400+ HP. (I lost the 911 turbo in Katrina, rest its soul). Just to get something quick, I got an '05 turbo miata..it is rated 178HP and is probably really about 158 rwhp...and man, that thing is slow. But, I'm gonna mod it...new exhaust, larger injectors and new ECU.. parts here and I should be close to 260 RWHP...now that will be ok in such a little car. But, man...how do you do it in such a low powered car.

Sigh..I guess there are lots of people out there that consider a car to ONLY be transportation....I don't understand...to me they're fun. Each day I ride is a new adventure!

I stand corrected...I was just spouting off anecdotal stuff I'd heard offhand about the modd'ed mx-5 mazdaspeed. Is that weight correct? I thought it was more about 2450 lbs stock? I did go back and look at the FlyinMiata site...looks like their final on the MSM was about 274 rear wheel hp. Fast for a little car none the less. I'd have to guess it WOULD give some Mustangs, and Camaros a surprise at the red light, eh?

I had a C5 vette for awhile..it was fun. I got this MSM to putt around in for a bit and pay off some debt (Porsche generated)...but, will look for maybe one of the Z06's in a year or two...or maybe the new Mustang GT500 when it comes out. But a souped up MSM will be fun till then.

Anyway, thanks for the corrections...not as fast as I thought....but, pretty fun and zippy...and could surprise SOME people out there if they don't know what they're up against.

:-)

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ric er&r=d

There's a list of current possible definitions of the slang term "ricer." You'll notice most mention modifications that don't actually make the car faster, and many mention that a car doesn't have to be Japanese to be considered rice in popular culture, now.

The Track Dog is certainly not a ricer. It's a highly modified Mazda Miata that's used for racing and the promotion of Flyin' Miata performance parts. Because the car is actually fast (significantly faster than the stock version), it's not rice.

Additionally, if you look at lots of these aftermarket mods, they're marked for track use only. Installing them means your car is no longer street legal.

That's not necessarily true. That's usually just a disclaimer. Some aftermarket parts that are for "off road use only" are perfectly fine for street use (as far as safety goes). I have a very hard time believing that most parts (actually, not claimed) meant for the track are any less safe than their street counterpart. (This falls back on my ideal that track cars are generally safer than street cars -- they're usually built with crashing, rolling, etc in mind...unlike a street car, which is built for convinence). My feeling is that the manufacturer doesn't want to deal with the liability of some dumbass crashing his car and suing Garrett, KKK, or Greddy because their turbo (or turbo kit) made their car too fast for them to drive. Some parts, like stainless steel brake lines make the brake feel better (arguably, adding a margin of safety to a skilled driver) -- but usually aren't recommended for street because they require more maintenance (replacement). OTOH, some products, like great big driving lights aren't street legal period. ...now emmissions are a different story, although many will guarantee that you'll be able to meet CA's emmissions. For example, see Flyin' Miata's page. Anyway, what it really comes down to is your common sense for example -- don't use a pure track brake pad on the street: unlike a street pad, they need to be warmed up to work, are grabby, and don't work in the rain (unless they're special application). OTOH, a turbo or supercharger kit may be find for your needs and safe/legal on the street (unless it requires 103 octane race fuel)...or a fuel cell which is for "track use only".

It's a pretty cool way to get supercar performance from lesser (read: cheaper!) vehicles. My daily-driver Miata has the factory 1.8L engine, force-fed 15psi boost by turbo. It puts out 250hp/250lb reliably (up from factory 120hp or so) and, thanks also its low weight, it outperforms 'Vettes -- except for top speed, and excluding the awesome Z06, of course. But then I paid about $20k for my car, not $50k... (Check out Flyin Miata for more info, no affiliation except as a happy customer.)

I'm not using the MegaSquirt (using Flyin Miata's Link ECU instead) but the concept is the same. There is a HUGE need for an affordable programmable ECU among us automotive tinkers.

Do you have the 1.5L or 1.8L? If it's the 1.8, you have a really great starting point for a small car (under 2400 lbs.). I'd recommend a turbocharger instead, but you can probably get some good advice at http://www.flyinmiata.com/protege/default.asp. (Bah. After looking at their turbo kit, it looks like it would only work on the newer 2.0L.) If you have the 1.5L, perhaps a swap to a more potent four cylinder would be a good choice.

Good luck with the project. I've done some mods to my Civic Si (mostly suspension) and have spent a good deal of time researching performance modifications. Feel free to email me if you want any input.

A couple other good links in case you haven't seen them already:

• HowStuffWorks automotive section
• Sports Car Club of America. Check out "Solo II" if you really want to learn about your car. :-)

What he's talking about is so far behind the definition of "new" or "cutting edge" that it's kind of absurd. He talks about "monitoring the network" and essentially replacing the relatively static firmware with something that can be manipulated by the user. This is not even new technology, and is universally employed by "tuning" enthusiasts (a la "The Fast and The Furious"). Laptops are used to log data about what is taking place in the car and the engine, and a programmable ECU replaces or overrides the stock one. Without this, it would be impossible to do things like add turbochargers to cars that weren't intended to have them in the first place. The examples I have in the links above are from just one store that caters to Miatas only; there are many options from many manufacturers for many cars.

I've participated in conversations where someone is essentially trying to debug their "map," or set of engine configuration options in the software, and where others chime in and offer to help. I've seen disucssions of which software is better, and so on. And again, this is all old news, not even cutting edge.

What he's talking about is so far behind the definition of "new" or "cutting edge" that it's kind of absurd. He talks about "monitoring the network" and essentially replacing the relatively static firmware with something that can be manipulated by the user. This is not even new technology, and is universally employed by "tuning" enthusiasts (a la "The Fast and The Furious"). Laptops are used to log data about what is taking place in the car and the engine, and a programmable ECU replaces or overrides the stock one. Without this, it would be impossible to do things like add turbochargers to cars that weren't intended to have them in the first place. The examples I have in the links above are from just one store that caters to Miatas only; there are many options from many manufacturers for many cars.

I've participated in conversations where someone is essentially trying to debug their "map," or set of engine configuration options in the software, and where others chime in and offer to help. I've seen disucssions of which software is better, and so on. And again, this is all old news, not even cutting edge.