weight of minimalist miata

Keith Tanner wrote: A stripped out interior certainly does make a statement of intent. It comes with the price of noise and heat, and given the weight of the Miata carpet that has to be a deliberate decision.

I'm half leaning toward carpets. Just really thin ones. It's hard to find a old car that doesn't have some basic metal coverings on the bottom. And when we trimmed the Spider challenge car- we did find some good, light, but throwback materials available. Just adding that will prevent shoes from melting, and much metal resonating.

NickD wrote:

calteg wrote:

alfadriver wrote:

I like that quite a bit. As others have said, street legality will vary state-to-state. In Texas you have to have wipers, but not a windshield. Yay, bureaucrats!

Damn, now I really want to do that with my interior too.

That would be a really cool look with some coco mats added with no carpet.

My '94 chumpcar weighs 1910 fully wet without driver. It has bumpers, pop up headlights, wipers, sprayer. It has half a dash bar (but no dash), the doors are as gutted as can be while still retaining the impact bar. The trunk isn't hinged and I've tried to remove everything else reasonable possible. Being a chumpcar it has a full cage and 5lbs fire suppression bottle. A competitor indicates they weigh 100lbs less, but I'm not certain how that's possible without removing things that affect structure, airflow, etc.

In reply to Robbie:

I like that.

I run skateboard grip tape for carpet in the mr2, it works great.

sesto elemento wrote: I run skateboard grip tape for carpet in the mr2, it works great.

Great idea! You can even get that in a bunch of different colors to match up with your color scheme.

I know it's been asked before- but what's the reason for the steel cross member under the dash, and why is there a reinforcement that ties it to the trans tunnel?

Could it be replaced with a aluminum tube and does the trans tunnel reinforcement have to be there?

Not that it looks bad or anything- just a reminder why it's there.

^ The steering column attaches to it. All semi-modern car dashes seem to use a similar setup, I imagine it's simply to support the dash.

In reply to Snrub:

Ah- thank you. Totally forgot.

Snrub wrote: ^ The steering column attaches to it. All semi-modern car dashes seem to use a similar setup, I imagine it's simply to support the dash.

It's probably there to add some rigidity to the cowl too.

I'll bet you could get away without the center leg if you replaced the cross bar with a beefy enough one, but that's a bad place for flex. I tied mine forward into the firewall as well.

It's a noodly looking bar. On my car, I leave the bar in place and simply take the skin off the dash when I need to go back there.

Note that the crash pad on the dash does not go all the way across - the red car that keeps popping up has some bodywork going on behind that suede cover both in the center and where the outer eyeball vent goes. It's nicely done, just don't expect to get that look without some effort. I'm also assuming that car has no hazard lights

So it looks like under the dash there's a pretty big metal structure? Interesting to see it that way.

Kinda shows why cars like my Alfa- the dash will shake (broke a radio once going over a bump), whereas the Miata is stiff.

The basic idea is without any weather protection, so no real need for a heater. If a really small one could be found- the thought of warm feet is a good one. But no real need for defrost or front heat.

What's kind of interesting- in a minimal look, it's possible to make a white car look sharp.

You mention work for the dash- the door would have to take some good fabrication to allow a small door card and visible surround. The Sprites shown above had a similar look. That would be some tough work.

Here's another idea- for the Alfas- the front face of the dash is recessed a little, and then body color.

calteg wrote:

alfadriver wrote:

I like that quite a bit. As others have said, street legality will vary state-to-state. In Texas you have to have wipers, but not a windshield. Yay, bureaucrats!

Honestly did not know that. What a stupid state I live in...But that interior is A-OK in my book, now I haz a sad about selling my Miata...

I really like the red Miata above... I'm kind of in the middle of this but mine currently looks like this...

The inside of the door isn't all that pretty, it was never intended to be exposed. A full door card is probably worthwhile. Note that the stock door cards are another minimal weight item.

alfadriver wrote: Here's another idea- for the Alfas- the front face of the dash is recessed a little, and then body color.

Easy enough to do with an NA6 (1990-93) dash. Take the crash pad out and you've got your recessed area. You'd have to add some finishing.

alfadriver wrote: So it looks like under the dash there's a pretty big metal structure? Interesting to see it that way.

It's not all that heavy, but it's well placed and designed. There are some weights in that Targa Miata link I provided earlier.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

That's plastic, right?

Interesting that the air vents are in the same place as the stock external guages on a Spider. It's reasonably possible to do that.

The car was totally designed by Mazda, right?

On the Alfas, the earlier cars had a radio hole block off plate like this (which is the Pininfarina logo on a plate)-

So it would be kinda cool to have something like that on the Miata.

It is REALLY interesting to see how close one can get to a retro dash doing some fabricating on the Miata. Very cool.

edit- on the door card- I know they don't weigh much, just like the carpet. Just a retro theme thing.

BTW, this is an interesting discussion- it's highly unlikely that I'll start a new project like this, but the idea of taking a modern car and doing the equivalent of a "cafe racer" look back is pretty cool. Especially with the current crop of minimalist cars. This would be that, just with a body. And not quite as light.

Looking at some of rev-limiters gauge options- you can make the car look very retro.

alfadriver wrote: Looking at some of rev-limiters gauge options- you can make the car look very retro.

So, I just thought - "You should be able to grab some MGB smiths gauges and hook em right up to an early NA (cable drive speedo, find some ignition signal for RPM, get the electric oil pressure and water temp, etc). You can even re-gear the speedo to match if necessary."

Then, I searched google for an image. Then I found this thread. Haha.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/1990-miata-interior-rework/62195/page1/

I need to update that, I did an update that incorporates a rare Smiths boost gauge, voltmeter and clock and is a bit cleaner.

Yup, plastic behind the crash pad. The eyeball vents are logically placed, the question is how the Italians got to that point

Keith Tanner wrote: The inside of the door isn't all that pretty, it was never intended to be exposed. A full door card is probably worthwhile. Note that the stock door cards are another minimal weight item.

I like the look of this one but I don't agree with the removal of the safety bar.

I've done that to race cars with NASCAR bars. Very light, but they don't support their own weight anymore.

Stampie wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: The inside of the door isn't all that pretty, it was never intended to be exposed. A full door card is probably worthwhile. Note that the stock door cards are another minimal weight item.

I like the look of this one but I don't agree with the removal of the safety bar.

With most of the bumpers of the world at about your shoulder level I'm not sure the factory bar is doing much for you.

Keith- that door has most of its structure left, would it really be floppy? I can't see loosing the door bar and inner webbing causing that.

So we have some very interesting body and interior changes.

Next, the engine.

Having heard flyin Miatas exhaust, I like how they lower the high pitched sounds of a 4 valve engine, but what about the intake?

And since this is a minimalist idea, swapping and removing, etc, all on the table.

I'd lean toward an MS pnp swap, mostly due to the great support from here and them directly.

And I probably would stick with the full manifold for ease.

What about others?

(And I would retain some emissions hardware so that I don't suffer as the driver. $