The Blackbird Fabworx Morpheus Miata!

The Blackbird Fabworx Morpheus Miata!

by Mike Kojima

The cars created by Moti Almagor of Blackbird Fabworx have always caught our attention. More for less has always been the theme his creations. The Blackbird Fabworx cars have always eked amazing speed out of stock, very low powered engines. Lightweight, meticulous care in chassis setup, balanced brakes and carefully thought out aerodynamics have had a harmonious interplay in developing incredible speed from very little horsepower.

Moti hails from Israel, and growing up as a little boy, he always had a love for traditional sports cars of the small, two-seat, open top roadster variety. However, in Israel, there is a 140% tax on new cars, so most people's choice for transportation centers around versatile and practical machines. Sports cars are frivolous and people don't want to pay the huge vehicle tax for something that is a toy to be only driven for pleasure. 

In 1998 Moti bit the bullet and bought a used NA 1995 Miata to fulfill his dream of sports car ownership and fell in love with the lightweight and nimble platform. In 2000 Moti moved to America and purchased another 1995 Miata, since he was familiar with the platform. Soon, Moti got bit by the track day bug and started modifying this car- soon to be known in the Miata world as the Blackbird.

Moti's skill as a driver, fabricator, and mechanic grew, and soon Moti bought a newer NB Miata to both sharpen his driving skills and to experiment and develop it into something faster. Thus, Creampuff was born. Creampuff soon became a very sharply honed weapon. With only 101 wheel hp, Creampuff was able to negotiate Buttonwillow's Configuration 13 CW at an amazing 1:59.6, faster than many cars with more than 3x the power! With Creampuff, Moti also developed Blackbird Fabworxs into a viable full-time business building and maintaining race cars. 

Although Creampuff was fast and well developed, it was not the end. Moti wanted a new car, a car that he could apply all the tricks he had learned from Blackbird and Creampuff to develop a new platform that had the headspace for more power and blazing serious speed.  So was born Morpheus, Blackbird Fabworx latest creation.

Morpheus is fast. Fast enough to best BW #13 CW time of the finely honed Creampuff, turning a 1:59.3 time on its second outing with no development or tuning of the suspension, dead tires and not having a clean lap. 

There is a Blackbird Fabworxs custom cold air intake as well as a phenolic heat isolating intake manifold gasket. The coolant flow has been reworked for better cooling and a Setrab oil cooler keeps the lubricant at the proper temperature. Morpheus rocks a lot more power than Creampuff's 101 whp, holding down a whole 131.6 whp and 122 lb/ft of torque! The power is transferred to the stock 6-speed transmission via an ACT 4-puck clutch and Prolite 9 lb flywheel.

Engine management is handled by an MSLabs Megasquirt MS3 ECU monitored by an Innovate LC-2. The tuning of the Megasquirt is handled by Shawn Church of Chuch Automative Testing. Everything else is stock!  We are pretty sure that Morpheus was the lowest powered car entered at last year's super lap battle!