As for stuffing a turbo-charged rotary under the hood of your Miata, Rotary
Engineering did it a number of years ago with a Turbo II motor.  Cost was
$10,000.  Motor Trend did a large article about tuned Miatas featuring this
one, along with many others.  The V8 otpion from Monster Motorsports is
cheaper, and to my knowledge, R.E. never sold a single unit.

Regards,

Richard Dekker, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, M-CLUB #90, MCofA #41997
Founder & President, Wild Rose Chapter – Miata Club of America

1990 MX-5 Miata – Mariner Blue with double white stripes
Team 1:1, 1:10, 1:18, 1:24, 1:60, & 1:87 Miatas

: I’ve been reading a book about the design of the Miata.  They indicated
: that the rotary wouldn’t fit.  I must admit I find that hard to believe,
: considering they are stuffing V8 engines in there!  

        A few rotary Miatas have been built, but they come at a price.  I
believe Mazdatrix built one of the first with a 13B (maybe a 12A) in the
early 90′s.  I think they charge around $10K to insert a 13BTT-REW and it
does take a lot of modification because the engine is a little tall, so to
fit under the hood, it sits very low on the car.  In a last issue of Turbo
Magazine, they had a pic of a white Miata with 13BT (maybe TT) that was
running 11 sec quarter mile times.

        LaterZ…

        * GReddy * Autopower * Trust * Eibach * GREX * DC Sports *
        P                      Andrew Platt                      R        
        I                    ’91B Mazda Miata                    a
        A                    SCCA Solo II CSP                    z
        A                                                        o
        * SSR * Magnacor * GAB * Racing Beat * Repco * ThermoTec *

–
Pedro A. Vera-Perez
RF/Orbit Operations
American Mobile Satellite Corp.
’91 Red A
http://www.primenet.com/~pvera

>I saw a Miata Roadster prototype once – *VERY*
>nice looking – the windshield only came up about 18" or so, the rear view
>mirror was mounted on the dash, the rear deck was eliminated; instead,
>the metal in front of the trunk went all the way up to right behind the
>seats (and sort of contoured up to them). I think it had about 200 or so
>supercharged horses…I think the world is very much ready for a
>hopped-up Miata.

I had a ’93 B-pkg and picked up the ‘Speedster’ cowling. It was a three piece
(fiberglass? can’t remember) unit that slid into the rear like the tonaue and
snapped into place. It put the pair of bubbles right behind the headrests (like
the Porsche 911 speedster) and had plenty of underneath storage. It broke down
to 3 pieces and pretty much consumed the trunk when you didn’t need it.  It had
a few advantages: Lower wind noise, unique apperance (only saw one other car and
that’s the one that showed me it existed!), and a little taller underneath
storage with no risk of the wind pulling it out. Three major disadvantages: if
it started to rain, it took up the entire trunk, it took a bit of time and
fiddling to get it INTO the trunk and it was expensive.  Quite frankly, I’d
happily put up with the 3 problems again!  With a mild aero kit (nothing tacky,
just a subtle rocker kit, mild bumper facias, etc) and the speedster canopy, you
can have one very pleasing car to show off while actually having some benefits!

Good luck and MORE POWER!

Due to morons with auto-spam, remove * from reply to adress
for E-mail.

: According to an ariticle done by Sport Compact Car magazine, the Miata
: is no competition for the Corvette, or the Viper, or the Porsche, or
: the Diablo, etc.  It kicks their asses!  At least it does in everything
: but top speed and fuel economy (I think the Corvette beat it on that
: one).

Funny….a little 2-seater roadster that has very strong ties to the
British sports cars of yore…with a big honkin’ Ford v8 stuffed under
the hood…sounds like something Mr. Carroll Shelby played around with
about 35 years ago…with a little-known sportster called the AC Ace…
later to be known as the AC Cobra (or Shelby Cobra or AC Shelby Cobra or
whatever…) It’s a tough formula to beat. I’d love to see Mazda come up
with a high-power Miata…I saw a Miata Roadster prototype once – *VERY*
nice looking – the windshield only came up about 18" or so, the rear view
mirror was mounted on the dash, the rear deck was eliminated; instead,
the metal in front of the trunk went all the way up to right behind the
seats (and sort of contoured up to them). I think it had about 200 or so
supercharged horses…I think the world is very much ready for a
hopped-up Miata.

–
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
|James D. Brockman  || "I never learned to read or write. What else  |
|brock…@wfu.edu   || is there left for me to do but make money?"   |
|Founding Miscer    ||      -Richard Kowalski, Polish black marketeer|          
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\          

>I think the company your looking for is called Monster Motersports but I
>don’t have any info on how to contact them. They have transplanted many
>5.0 V8s into Miatas and were the first to do it from what I have read.
>They call their conversions Monster Miatas. Amazingly, they can shoehorn
>that huge engine in there!  

AND a supercharger! I saw one this weekend at an autox in
Greenville, SC. The car was shown by John Finger Motors, a local
Mazda dealer. In addition to the supercharged 302, it had huge wheels
(fenders had to be extended), a body kit, and racing stripes.
It hardly looked like a Miata anymore (especially with the
hardtop) but it was still cool. The price was around $37,000…
unless the conversion messes up the handling a lot, it
sounds like good competition for the Corvette.

–
Dennis Brown — Carrboro, NC      1995 Trans Am Dark Grn Met/Tan Convertible
brownde @ cs.unc.edu              1995 Dodge Neon Brilliant Blue Sport Coupe

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

l…@my.sig,News2 writes:
>In article <3336124B.5…@airmail.net>,
>William Curran  <curr…@airmail.net> wrote:
>>I think the company your looking for is called Monster Motersports but
>I
>>don’t have any info on how to contact them. They have transplanted many
>>5.0 V8s into Miatas and were the first to do it from what I have read.
>>They call their conversions Monster Miatas. Amazingly, they can
>shoehorn
>>that huge engine in there!  
>AND a supercharger! I saw one this weekend at an autox in
>Greenville, SC. The car was shown by John Finger Motors, a local
>Mazda dealer. In addition to the supercharged 302, it had huge wheels
>(fenders had to be extended), a body kit, and racing stripes.
>It hardly looked like a Miata anymore (especially with the
>hardtop) but it was still cool. The price was around $37,000…
>unless the conversion messes up the handling a lot, it
>sounds like good competition for the Corvette.

>–
>Dennis Brown — Carrboro, NC      1995 Trans Am Dark Grn Met/Tan
>Convertible
>brownde @ cs.unc.edu              1995 Dodge Neon Brilliant Blue Sport
>Coupe

According to an ariticle done by Sport Compact Car magazine, the Miata
is no competition for the Corvette, or the Viper, or the Porsche, or
the Diablo, etc.  It kicks their asses!  At least it does in everything
but top speed and fuel economy (I think the Corvette beat it on that
one).  Though it didn’t win in top speed, I think it did something like
160+ MPH, which is faster than I’ve ever driven.  Acceleration,
braking, and handling are awesome.  The engine/tranny from the Ford
weighs similar to what the miata engine weighs so balance is nearly the
same.

Mark Polansky
mpol…@emory.edu