A friend of mine had an interesting idea, but i'm not sure if its possible, but it would be cool if it was. Is there enough engine room in a miata to drop in a 20b engine? Because that would make a miata ridiculously fast considering how light a miata is.
Does anyone know if anyone has tried this?

 

I beleive that one of the regular contendors for the E-Mod Solo II championship drives a 20B Miata. I know nothing about it, but it would be one crazy car.

 

So much power for such a light car, good luck on traction go go slicks and a mini tub.

 

A friend of a friend built one. I've never seen it. I beleive he's located in Oklahoma.

 

The Miatas with the 13BT conversion already had problems keeping the chassis from twisting.
I wouldn't want to try and re-engineer the entire unibody just to be able to handle the 20B torque!


-Ted

 

theres enough room for an ls1 so there should be enough for a 20b

 

There's people out there with lots of power from Ford V8 swaps, so chassis rigidity is not as big of an issue as one might think, that said, they are pretty flexy, and you would definetely feel it more with extra power. With a street car you'd definetely have problems containing all that power, as there just aren't many wide tires available in the kinds of sizes that fit a Miata properly.

 

i rode in one with a litley moded turbo II engine and it was scary it only had like 250hp and it was fast

 

You might be able to find some info on this car if you ask around on www.Ok-speed.com forums.

 

There's far more turbocharged and supercharged Miatas about than one might think. My dad's got a 92 (1.6) with a Flying Miata turbo system on it and it puts down 220hp to the wheels (so figure ~260hp at the crank), and it's pretty darned fast. I've driven it a few times and ridden in it a bunch of times. At the track he was chasing down modded M3's when he still had a stock suspension and stock sized all season tires. Those cars don't need a bazillion hp to be fast.

 

A few years ago, I saw a website for someplace in Australia that offered a 20B-powered Miata, as well as 13B-powered Miatas. I don't know if they are still in business. The following link is a profile of someone who claims to own a 20B-powered Miata:

http://www.nopistons.com/forums/index.php?showuser=8393

 

i have a 20b and a miata, but i really dont think they need to go together. there is definately enough room, i measured. the only thing is, the BP is a really bulletproof engine, and is capable of a reliable 400hp. it just seems like a huge job for not that much benefit, especially in a flexy car like the miata. the 20b is going in the 7 where it belongs.

 

I am putting a 20B into my FD3S now and after its finished Im going to put the Single turbo FD engine into my 90 Miata. It should be about 450 to the wheels.

 

What problems with flexing? I have never driven a 13BT but my 99 Miata makes close to as much torque as my 3rd gen RX-7 did and I have not experienced any problems with chassis flex. The PPF and rigid engineering keep the car pretty tight despite being a convertible. I just autocross the car but I do a lot of pro solos which have hard launches, especially from my wife who keeps up or beats a lot of the other SM2 cars at the lights and we haven't seen any problems. I also have not heard any problems of chassis flex on the Miata.net forums from the LS1 or 5.0 V8 guys or from the people with 20B miatas at nationals.

 

my friend in northern jersey has a supercharged miata and a jeep cherikee with a 350. also have seen a miata in delaware with a 350 in it

 

It's dependent on which model you start with. Obviously the newer cars have less flex; with the NA Miata, Mazda even added in some bracing after a few years.

From what I've been estimating, taking off the turbos and putting an N/A 20B in the Miata should be a bit lighter than the BP engine, with the right choice of manifolds and such though. I think I also added A/C deletion in the 20B's favor (it's a convertible) since I was considering building the whole car at or less than the stock weight and maintaining balance as much as possible.

 

No, I'm not a Miata expert, but I do recall a magazine article talking about a 13BT swap that caused headaches trying to keep the chassis from twisting.


-Ted

 

I have a 91 miata and with 330whp. no twist, but i have a cage and all kinds of drift happy braces.

 

My wife owns a 2003 Miata. It's a great and fun little (emphasis here) car. The first thing I noticed when driving it, however, is the chassis flex. You can literally see it flex when you drive. I know I'm biased to my 20B FD, but the thought of dropping a 20B into a Miata just doesn't seem like a good idea. The Miata was meant to be a great handling, scooting around town kind of car. Just add on a turbo or supercharger and call it a day. Put the 20B in a real car

 

Well I guess I must not know what flex is. After having raced an 03 Miata on the 16"s for a season, which is the only possibly competitive miata model on the national level besides the 99 sport and maybe now the 06 IMO for CS autocross, I have never experienced (serious)chassis flex by feel or visibly in any of the Miatas I have owned or raced which includes a 90, 94, 95, several 99's, an 03, and an 06. I would think they would exhibit chassis flex in a way that would be noticeable in hard cornering, especially on 180 hairpins, low and high speed slaloms, and post turn arounds that we frequently use at schools for instructing beginners. I would think I would be able to base an opinion on this since I have raced and ridden in a wide variety of cars besides Miatas even on the came courses but maybe I am just comparing that the Miata feels rock solid when you compare to racing a convertible mustang or camaro.

 

I certainly don't have your experience so maybe I don't know what flex is. When I drive the Miata though, the car is not nearly as solid as the RX7. Maybe it's just me

 

"when compared to convertible camaros or mustangs"

well? what the hell do you expect? were not comparing to a convertible mustang, were comparing to an rx7, which handles infinitely better than a convertible camaro or mustang, and has a very solid unibody. nobody here is saying that a miata is a bad car, hell ive got 2 of em. we're just saying that it isnt the ideal chassis for a big power high torque engine like a 20b, especially one that is so rare and expensive.

 

I don't know. I've spent some seat time in the Miata, and yeah it did seem to be flexing. But at the same time, it didn't really negatively impact the handling at all. In fact, the handling of the car (a '99 10th AE) was so great that I'm still thinking about getting one. Since this car was mostly stock, I'm thinking that some chassis bracing would be a great help.

I wish Korbach would make a set of Frame Locks for the Miata. I've heard great things about them from the Honda guys that have used them.

 

Driving to the weekly autocrosses in my dad's Miata takes us over an angled railway crossing and his car shakes quite badly there, you can really feel the chassis flexing. He added the Flying Miata frame rail braces and the butterfly brace and it helped, but it's no where near as stiff as my FC coupe.

 

What year Miata?