Last Thursday I had the opportunity to test drive the newly supercharged Miata by Cosworth. The system was designed by scratch and should be released toward the end of summer finally. As with many projects, we are currently behind schedule, but good things come to those that wait right? Anyhow, we are finally in the calibration stage and having a tuning background, I was asked to cruise it around and take some notes. A couple of rough spots in the calibration will be smoothed out very soon. The blower system is designed to be 50 state legal and should see EPA laboratory testing in the very near future.
Admit it: the stock Miata is slow. You have to keep the revs over 4000rpm or it feels like a dog. Even with the engine and exhaust system 100% stock, I can say that this intercooled blower system gives the Miata some much needed balls. It is way quicker now and you can steer the car with throttle which makes any rear wheel drive car fun to drive. This particular car is one of Mazdaspeed’s development cars so it has a 1G suspension package on it. That’s right: it pulls over 1g on Advan Neova street tires and still rides pretty damn good. Dave Coleman previously of Sport Compact Car magazine fame is the man responsible for the 1G setup.
The car makes 210hp at the wheels and feels like the torque curve is a flat line from 2800 – 6500rpm. It’s a good thing the air/water intercooler kept the charge temperatures down that night because I was in boost nearly all the time. I got up to about 120mph pretty quick by just flooring it in 5th gear. Try that in a stock Miata and it might take you a full 60 seconds to achieve 120mph. Anyhow, we’re working on it as fast as we can. I can’t wait to build the stage 2 car with more boost, header, cams, etc. It should be pretty damn fun.
Is that OEM looking or what?
This is the first article installation so some of the hoses are not routed in their final locations. Notice the “COSWORTH supercharged” on the air inlet casting. How cool is that if you pop your hood and show off to your Miata buddies?
Pretty low profile, but ready to smoke 95% of the NC Miatas on the street. Sorry, I mean 98%.