1996 Mazda MX5 – Miata – Double Deuce (#22)
Race History
- 2017 LeMons at Inde Motorsports
- Finished: 16th place
- 2016 LeMons at Inde Motorsports
- Finished: 37th place
This vehicle was purchased in San Diego California in November of 2010 for $1250 and driven for several years with only basic maintenance and upkeep. In early 2015 with over 165,000 miles on the odometer and an overheating condition, the car was deemed unsafe for road use and taken out of the regular driving rotation.
The old girl was in need of a new soft-top, tires, exhaust, suspension, hoses, and fluids all around among rather a lot else. The cost of these items was far and above the actual value of the car and so it sat parked in a back yard until we could figure out what to do with it.
Eventually, she would get turned into the car you see below. But it was a long and difficult road to go from clapped out street car to legit track toy.
Somewhere around September of 2015 a couple of race fan co-workers were discussing how much fun it would be to do a 24 Hours of LeMons race and decided they might just be able to use this car to make their dream come true. The minimum number of drivers for a LeMons event is four, and Eric was able to round up a couple of other geeks who also thought racing this little crap-can would be fun. Our team was was born.
Talk about a crash-course in brain surgery. (“Five hundred dollar car, my ass.” – Larry’s wife) We’re not going to go into details here but let’s just say that the mandatory roll cage alone was $1500 and another $1000 to install.
We got to work straight away by charging the battery to be sure it would still run and then stripping the interior down to the bare metal. Anything that can burn and not critical to the functionality of the vehicle had to be removed.
After gutting the interior we had to start buying and installing mandatory safety gear so our car would conform to the rules of engagement:
Equipment:
Full roll-cage.
Full race suspension kit.
Hankook RS4 tires.
Kirkey aluminum racing seat w/cover.
Six-point camlock harness.
Simpson arm restraints.
Engine kill switch.
Fire extinguisher handheld.
Fire suppression system engine bay & driver.
Rugged Radios IMSA communication system.
Sparco tow straps.
Racing exhaust with cat-delete.
We did a LOT of work on this car:
Chantz at Chantz-It Racing did our cage welding:
The New suspension setup is sweet:
Fire Suppression system installed but our unofficial motto is “Safety Third”.
Drinking beer in the painting tent with no respirator or eye protection.
This team is a class act all the way.
And finally a team photo in the paddock at Inde 2017