Renesis MX-5 (NC) Build

Having sprint raced a 13B Turbo powered 1982 Mazda 626 and a supercharged 1996 Mazda MX-5 for a number of years it was time to build myself a pure track car!

Both cars have their pros & cons and as they are quite tidy (many, many hours spent on them) registered cars, the last thing I'd want to do is have a red mist moment and damage them.  Neither of them have a full roll cage or harnesses so that also held me back from getting the most out of them when on the track.  They are two completely different vehicles, with the 626 having ample straight line speed and braking capacity, the MX-5 having fantastic poise and balance.  The brakes on the MX-5 are perfectly OK as the car doesn't have a particulary high top speed that may require larger items.

So the recipe for the track car was quite simple, take all the good points of both cars and put them into one vehicle.  So the chassis choice was quite simple....MX-5....but which series..NA, NB or NC?.  I'm quite partial to the rotary engine, so which chassis would accept a 13B the easiest?  Having done plenty of research, it was obvious that the NC was the best solution.  The main issue with installing a rotary in either an NA or NB is the lack of room available for positioning the engine and gearbox where it really should be without substantial modifications.  This is primarily due to the high centreline of the rotary's eccentric shaft (crankshaft) when compared to a piston engine.  The other reason for going NC is that it is a current model.

Anyhow, having now decided on the chassis and engine combination I'd better start acquiring the necessary items.