These are some of the pictures when I got a tag and took the car for a drive. The blue tape is on the car while fine tuning some of the body fitment pieces.
I don’t love the black wheels. They looked great online and I was able to get some help from a friend to get a killer deal. The requirement was a 17″ wheel to clear the front upper ball joint.
The brakes look tiny but they are more than enough to do the job. For size comparison the top of the roll cage is about 12″ taller than the top of the fender on the Suburban.
When I started I had collected the entire Miata wiring harness and related plugs/modules. First I removed all of the wire wrap and used a gallon or 2 of degreaser to get the years of adhesive off. Using several wiring diagrams I managed to identify and remove over 35lbs of wire and sensors that I didn’t need anymore. Things like power windows, wipers,emissions crap etc all hit the scrap pile.
Admittedly I was afraid because I didn’t know exactly what the engine and ECU would need to run. I left a few extra wires and plugs when I was unsure.
Wiring Harness before modification
For the taillights I did not want to use anytime similar the original or Caterham- both of those solutions use RV taillights. After looking around I managed to find some LED’s that would light up in multiple colors.
First step was to buy some Aluminum blanks.
From there I turned them down to provide a small lip and allowing for a piece of glass between them. The lights are able to light up Red, Orange or white.
The coolest part is they will hold red but flash orange if a turn signal is lite up. White for reverse lights obviously.
Here is a shot of the turn signal on. I mounted them as high as possible and they are very bright which I hope will help with awareness.
With the car being so low I knew I needed to have some form of protection from other vehicles. While the tall front cage is probably safer I like the look of the low front hoop and the “cocoon” it creates.
I wanted to have a low front hoop but side protection. There are some NASA cars running this type of cage and I really liked it. The strength it adds to the frame is a huge factor as well. Cage is built to SCCA Spec using 1.75″ DOM Tubing.
The front hoop mirrors the scuttle almost perfectly. The lower sections are attached via two points to the chassis and provides really strong side impact protection.
