Last year I had the opportunity to dip my feet into the Spec Miata world driving someone else’s car. Our partnership plan was to build an all-out Spec Miata ’99 (the car to have in that class) during this past offseason. To accomplish this, we estimated approximately a cost of $16,000 in addition to 165 hours of work by an SM Guru. The labor hours are not included in that cost and I’m sure it’s on the low side as that didn’t even include painting the car. Yes, building a nationally front running Spec Miata quickly adds up beyond the $35,000 mark. Crazy! The stars just weren’t aligning – everything from the shop never having that expected winter lull to me not being able to fit in the Racetech seat that was purchased.
Earlier this year I sold my ITB Prelude to go “all in” on the SM effort. Even without the SM build motivation, it was time for me to do something different. It’s amazing to think that I had been with a Prelude for over 16 years as it morphed from street car to a front-running ITB car.
My son is now 5 years old and even when younger, I truly enjoyed spending time in the garage with him and the racecar. Most of the time was just us playing with the car, using it as a jungle gym, pretending he was driving or even just running around it playing tag. There’s just something about having a racecar at the house. However, with a three month old baby, I couldn’t get myself into a huge project car. I know, racecar! At least these projects will mostly be as a result of wanting to versus needing to.
The adoption papers have been signed for Mackenzie. I’ve been spending time prepping the garage / new home for her, but it’s getting close. Although I say I won’t be working on it, there are already plans for the car including a killer Kessler Engineering tune and potentially aero work.
In the end, Spec Miata just isn’t where my heart is. On June 8th, the new journey will begin as a good friend as well as editor here, Jake Gulick, and I will make the many hour trek to get her. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about racing. My next project is the infamous “Checkered Flag Holder”. Hell yeah!
Stay tuned as the journey continues! We’ll be sharing what’s involved in making Mackenzie even faster than she already is, tuning secrets, and much more. Oh yeah, and what she is.
