For Sale: 1997 Miata Track Car (SOLD!)

For Sale: 1997 Miata Track Car – $1997 (This car is SOLD!)

Note: The quoted price is just a mnemonic to help remember the year and the price; yeah, we’ll take $1995. Please contact me through the site which led you here (craigslist, Tejas Miata, etc.)

Summary:

Front-end damage from street accident, some frame damage
Clear title
86,535 miles on un-rebuilt original engine and transmission
Stripped and caged with Spec Miata legal cage (miatacage.com)
Konig Rewind wheels with Falken Azenis tires (good tread left)
Everything else is stock (engine, brakes, suspension, exhaust)
Aligns to spec, drives straight, and runs great!
Located in Austin, TX
No seat or safety harness is included or available. You will need to tow this car away.

Description:

This is my 1997 Miata, which I was using as my daily driver, until it was totaled in 2009. The car was 100% stock and unmodified in any way (except wheels). I bought it back from the insurance company and my team built it into a LeMons racer. We stripped the car (including HVAC), installed a Spec Miata legal cage (from miatacage.com) into it, added a cutoff switch (included), a fire extinguisher (not included), racing seat and harness (also not included) and we went to one LeMons race. The car drove brilliantly. If we hadn’t had any penalty laps, the car would have placed 12th out of around 122 entrants. Unfortunately, we did get penalty laps (500 of them), because the judges don’t like Miatas and that’s why we are selling this car.

The front end damage does include some frame damage. Photos are below and in the gallery. The front rail folded-in on itself and set everything back a couple of inches. This was in front of the suspension, so the car aligned to spec and drives straight. The frame MIGHT be able to be pulled-out or you MIGHT be able to use the front subframe from another Miata.

The only things this car needs in order to be street legal are headlights, front turn signals, and seat belts. Stock seat belts cannot be used, because the cage interferes, so a racing safety harness will need to be used.

Obviously, the car is LeMons legal (after addition of seat, harness, fire extinguisher, and a fender) and probably legal for Chump Car as well. Chump Car is nice, because they don’t have the same deep hatred for the Miata, that LeMons judges apparently suffer. Other sanctioning bodies will probably make you replace the front fender, bumper, and bumper cover. You also might need to run a hard top. But, the car should be able to be made legal in any form of racing open to Miatas. You might be able to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports $2011 Challenge. Check the rules for yourself! Honestly, I think the car would make a good HPDE beater. Then you don’t have to do anything to it.

What comes with the car?

A clean title and whatever you see in the photos, except for the seats. You will also get a couple of extra bars that came with the kit, but that we did not weld into the cage.

Video

This in-car video shows how well the car was running at the LeMons race. You can see it pulling on another Miata (admittedly a 1.6 liter). The car will run the same. After the race, the car has sat in covered storage and hasn’t been driven since.