Project Miatabusa part 16: What's That Noise? 

by Dave Coleman

There's a complicated string of excuses explaining why you haven't heard from this project in a while. They involve lots of things that have nothing to do with Miatabusas, like buying 90-year old homes, filming zombie movies and machining medical devices, but there was one car-related issue that contributed to this big delay: a horrible, horrible noise.

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 15: AEM Datalogging (& Some RC Plane Parts)

by Dave Coleman

As we inch ever closer to getting Project Miatabusa on a dyno, more and more unfinished business keeps revealing itself. Ok, the car starts and runs now, but it still has lots of disconnected hoses, gauges not working, and untested changes waiting to blow things up.

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa #14: The Home Stretch!

by Dave Coleman

Hope you enjoyed yesterday's tasty donuts. Now here are a bunch of details that have delayed the making of stinky donuts

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 13: Sweet Sounds and Donuts!

by Dave Coleman

Project Miatabusa has been dragging on for a long time. So long, that our comment section is filling up with impatient demands to hear this baby run and see some donuts. Well ok, then...  

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 12: Why You Can't Make Aluminum Exhausts... And Why I Did It Anyway by Dave Coleman From exhaust port to tailpipe, project Miatabusa's exhaust system fabrication has stretched well over a year and has followed a circular evolution from brilliant hack job, to exotic race tech, and back to brilliant hack job. From custom-fabricated race header, to a lightweight aluminum tail section, to scavenged RX-8 silencers and hangers made from an S13 power steering cooler, the exhaust system is as awesomely eclectic as project Miatabusa itself.

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 11:

Shorai Lithium Iron Battery (and Lots of Plumbing)

by Dave Coleman 

Shorai doesn't technically make any automotive batteries, but they have a full line of motorcycle batteries. I can't think of any reason why a motorcycle battery won't work in a car, and certainly not one powered by a motorcycle engine and charged by a motorcycle alternator. Shorai's direct replacement battery for the Hayabusa (theoretically all we would need to start a Hayabusa engine) weighs only 1.7 pounds!

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa, part 10:

Tubular Subframes and Engine Mounts, Oh My!

by Dave Coleman

In July, 2010, we posted Part 2 of Project Miatabusa and proclaimed, in a very carefully worded headline, "the engine is in!" "In" was the operative word. Not "installed", or "mounted" or anything nearly as accomplished as that. In fact, we had kinda faked it, hacking away with a plasma cutter to see just what the engine wasn't going to get along with. Now, finally, the engine is actually mounted.

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 9: We Finally Found a Starter!

by Dave Coleman

Somewhere in the great wide world of starters, there's surely something that will fit in the notch between the Hayabusa engine case and transmission case, line up with the Miata flywheel, have the right tooth pitch for a Miata, and have an unshrouded pinion, right? Sure, but where?

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

Project Miatabusa Part 8: Miatabusa Gets the Shaft!

by Dave Coleman

The idea was to take the Hayabusa's relatively fragile transmission and replace it with a shaft that holds a Miata flywheel. That's pretty simple to say, but actually doing it...

What are you waiting for? Holy crap, click on this thing!

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]

 

Project Miatabusa Part 7 - Mounting the Gauges

by Dave Coleman

Last time we looked at cramming the Hayabusa's instrument cluster into the Miata housing, it proved to be a shockingly good fit. There was a very large unresolved issue of how to actually secure the Hayabusa cluster's circuit board, though. Here's how that project was finished:

---

 

[Read the rest of this article...]