The front canards are custom designed and 3D printed in order to fit with the massive Super20 fender flairs. The splitter looks very well sealed to the front bumper; any leaks between the two means loss downforce. The small details matter when you’re looking for hundredths of a second. The fog light hole was repurposed for a brake duct. The front tow strap is red to match the rear. Well, not really, it’s red to be bright and easy to find for the track crew.
The good ole classic Enkei RPF1 hold the 275 Hoosiers. StopTech’s competition level C43 brakes are used at the front with OEM+ upgrade RX-8 brakes at the rear. Gotta love the raiding of the OEM parts bin for upgrades. The StopTech C43s dropped over 20lbs from the RX-8 brakes at the front which is staggering. Lower mass things that spin fast has positive effects on performance!
As with everything else, the interior is very clean and purpose built. A Motec dash works with the Motec m400 ecu. A Motec V2 handles the video recording. Traction control is adjusted by a rotary knob, though the addition of aero has added enough grip to eliminate the need. There are various tuning maps and boost maps controlled by rotary knobs. Boost control is also mapped to throttle position. The base boost mapping is for around 500whp and there’s the high boost scramble button on the steering wheel for the straights where the power jumps up to 700whp. The power steering pump is out of a Porsche Cup car and of course there’s the sequential shift lever sticking out in the middle. Speaking of those straights, COTA has an extremely long back straight where Jenson was maxed out at 180mph halfway down the straight.
Mazda did a pretty good job with the stock pedals, so no upgrades required here. Check out the neatness of the wiring job and also the yellow labels to help quickly identify what each cable does. I’ve been doing a lot of wiring recently and having labels is critical.
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Fun minor point that is easy to overlook – ABS module visible in some of the underhood shots is another parts bin raid. There’s a type of RX-8 ABS module that works without ECU interface and doesn’t have ice mode – it was also done in Pirelli World Challenge NC MX-5s too.
Really do like this build; I feel like people underestimate the NC
With NA & NB’s price being where they are and where they’re headed, and NC just being an objectively faster car, I think people won’t be sleeping on them for much longer.
Thanks for posting this! I saw this car also and had been hoping someone would do an article!!! great build.
slight correction, Goodwin doesn’t make hardtop, he prolly just bought it from Goodwin, but its most likely a DG Motorsports hardtop
I love it, even if I don’t like the look of the NC, this is such a no-nonsense build, lots of easy to source factory parts, lots of ease of maintenance thought put into it.
I have no clue about the MZR swap though, unless he had one laying around or was intimately familiar with that engine. I know it’s related to the duratec/ecoboost so it’s probably a good platform.
A full cage linked up to the front strut towers and a diffuser are probably the only things I would add. Maybe move the radiator to the back if it helps the corner weighting.
MZR/Duratec (same family) is the same family that came in the NC, so it’s relatively trivial to swap – akin to putting a K24 in place of a K20. If I recall correctly, this build evolved from using the OEM transmission. IMO they’re pretty under-rated – they don’t have the evolution of the K series Hondas but they have a lot more potential than people think.
Ah, if it bolts in without much fab it makes sense. Still, when you are putting down 700hp “how hard is it to find X part when it breaks” becomes important.
I’m still shopping scrapyard BPs for my NA mostly because they drop in and the aftermarket is great not because they are better engines.
Aftermarket isn’t as big, but the 2.3 and 2.5L variants were used in everything – there’s millions in junkyards, the production numbers were huge and relatively recent. And the aftermarket does have the necessary stuff covered – cams, rods, pistons and stuff.
700hp means a built engine, but you can do a 400hp stock 2.5 and thats an easy and cheap replacement that can be had for under $500 with low miles.
Great build! Isn’t that mazdaspeed crank one of those without a keyway? Did they machine keyways for all components?
you can use the crank out of the 2.3 ecoboost which is keyway’d.
No OEM Duratec/MZR offers a keyed crank. Many companies offer relatively inexpensive keying services and can also remove the balance shaft drive gear if equipped.
The 2.3L ecoboost crank is great bang for the buck as it’s forged and allows more revs than a 2.5L crank- 94mm strove vs 100mm. They go for $375 new from Ford.
HGT Precision now have a proper bellhouse for the MZR/Duratec engines for their Sequential Gearboxes doing away with the need for adaptor plates.
These cars are underrated. I built a 2012 NC with Ohlins coilovers and a GT3071R turbo for the street. Very lively! With maybe 300 WHP it ran 60-100 MPH in 5.5 seconds.