I saw a nice looking NC on the interstate today. It was black with wider black wheels, dark tinted windows, obviously some suspension mods, and exhaust.

The car looked right, sounded right, and I would bet felt right. It gave me that feeling when I see something I have to have.

Who here owns an NC?

What do you think of the potential for awesomeness?

 

I don't own one. But the NC is one hell of a performer once you get off the ridiculous stock suspension. Plus Playboy cup cars are faster than spec miatas.

Give me one of those cosworth supercharged NCs, and I will have a ------ blast on my DE weekends.

 

http://flyinmiata.com/index.php?dept...20%205%20SPEED

do it! Although I still have some beef with the NC. It's got multi-link in the rear, makes it a bitch and half to adjust height on coilovers. Probably why FM went with shocks/springs instead. Lots of F1 teams are supposedly converting from multi-link back to double wishbones. I'm guessing there's some sophistication in simplicity.

Here's another really cool NC build.

http://www.mazdatalkforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1721

 

Well, I think generally speaking multi-link is preferred for its ability to absorb bumps and still provide the performance of a double wishbone. with that said, I have heard that double wishbone is still the preferred method performance wise.

multi-link seems to have movement in 3 dimensions, which is a bit odd. Thats about all I could glean off a quick skim on google.

Either way the NC, as cushy as it is in stock form, has a nice 2.0L, keeps the great basic suspension setup (shocks+springs need be thrown out), and has a stiffer chassis than the NB. The only shortcoming is of course weight, but that hasn't stopped that racing team from getting the NC down to ~1850 lbs WITH a cage AND a supercharger.

 

I wouldn't put too much into the NC's added stiffness. It still benefits from chassis stiffening so its not super stiff. The price difference from a clean NA/NB is way more than enough for rollbar, door bars, Fm frame rails/butterfly brace, and frog arms. I doubt the NC would still be stiffer after all that. The NC may be a better starting point, but its aftermarket has too much catching up to do.

 

well, all I am saying is exactly that. its a better platform.

 

Well, imo, it will be the better platform eventually, but I don't think its there yet. Lack of aftermarket support atm makes it inferior as a track weapon. So does lack or understanding how tuning effects it. For example if you read the build thread for the NC light goodwin built. Cutting its weight too much has the strange effect of making it difficult to brake. Not sure if Brian goodwin got it sorted yet, but he had issues getting it to shift enough weight under braking to actually load up the front tires and brake.

 

^thats silly, because you don't really want that. thats the point when you get some rear braking going on.

You know, you don't have to do all your braking in the front right? thats just the "safe" way to do it. The zenith of that would be your good ol' F1 cars which are running 55% front, depending on the KERS collection.

Its silly to say the car is too light to brake. but yea, I guess weird stuff like that comes up. Its certainly faster though, look at the MX-5 playboy cup times compared to spec miata.
RA:
Spec miata- 1:44
playboy cup- 1:40

Laguna Seca:
spec miata-1:46
playboy cup- 1:40

Lime Rock:
spec miata-1.02 record
playboy cup-1:00 flat

 

I'm not denying that the NC is faster when all things being equal. I'm just saying, things aren't equal when you factor in aftermarket, and all the things people have learned about the NA/NB over the last 2 decades. Also, I don't think we can discount the fact the na/nb have extremely cheap consumables.

 

What about the fact that you can get a Cosworth cylinder head and other Cosworth goodies for an NC? No aftermarket heads for the BPs.

To say that the NC has no aftermarket parts is silly. It maybe more expensive, but they are there. They have been racing the MZR motor in high end motorsports for years (NHRA import series, WRC, as well as others). Many engine component manufactures have parts because of this developmet. Plus the fact that you can swap taller deck blocks and crankshafts!!! It does not get any better than that.

I would agree that suspension and other chassis development is in its infancy.