PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARTIST NAMEING- CAR AND DRIVER. MAR/2017 photography by SCOTT G. TOEPFER
PERVERSION IS THE ESSENCE of American culture. It’s taking
something built for one purpose and supercharging the designers’
original intent, often literally. It’s a 1953 Studebaker Champion that
goes 249 mph, or a 1975 Ford F-250 with flotation tires that crosses
rivers and crushes cars. It’s taking a small country’s agrarian,
18th-century constitution and growing an industrial, transconti-
nental 21st-century superpower under it. So here, in the tradition
of land-speed-record Studes, the Bigfoot monster truck, and
Marbury v. Madison, comes Flyin’ Miata’s 2016 MX-5 with a stonkin’
V-8 in its nose.
Cramming V-8s into MX-5 Miatas is now a classic American
handicraft. Since way back in the early
1990s, Americans have been shoving Ford
and GM small-blocks into the otherwise
unassuming Mazda roadsters. The problem
is that iron-block lumps designed to power
Crown Vics and Caprices play havoc on a
Miata’s balance. Dive into a corner with one
of those nose-heav y squids and it pirouettes
like Oksana Baiul on an all-night bender.
Two things radically improve the V-8
Miata formula. First is the availability of
the compact, lightweight, aluminum
LS-series GM V-8 crate engines. And
second is the introduction of the latest
ND-generation Miata.
Flyin’ Miata bolts the LS376/525 ver-
sion of the 6.2-liter naturally aspirated
V-8 into this ND and nicknames its cre-
ation, appropriately enough, the Habu,
after a species of Japanese pit viper.
Rated at 525 horsepower at 6200 rpm,
it’s basically the LS3 from the fifth-gen-
eration Camaro SS (normally a 430 -hp
affair) but with a camshaft developed
for use in American Speed Association
(ASA) stock-car racing. With longer
duration and greater lift, the ASA cam
makes more power and gives the engine
a nasty, loping, Pro-Stock growl at idle.
It also has a wicked, charismatic, Cup-
Car snarl under load.Pushing Dope
After decades of trying, pushrods finally improve the Miata. This is
Flyin’ Miata’s525-hp LS-powered freak. _by John Pearley Huffman
tech highlightFOUND IN
TRANSLATION
Here’s the problem: The
Miata’s many computers speak
Mazda and the LS376 V-8’s
engine control computer only
understands GM. “The reverse
lights go through three
separate modules before they
can be turned on,” says Flyin’Miata’s Keith Tanner. And
neither GM nor Mazda likes to
share its computer language.
So Flyin’ Miata adds an inter-
mediary—a controller area
network (CAN) computer—
built by Germany’s MRS
Electronic to translate
between the GM and Mazda
hardware. “Most of the trans-
lation is done in the MRS CAN
module, but a little bit of the
GM code is modified,” explains
Tanner. It is, however, still a
work in progress as a fewwarning lights remain lit on
the V-8 Miata’s otherwise
unmodified instrument panel.
Notable progress exists
as a result of FM’s eight years
of work on the V-8 Miatas.
For instance, earlier Miatas
used a GM throttle pedal that
is included in GM’s E-Rod
crate-engine conversion kit,
but the ND Miata retains the
Mazda pedal. “We’re still
working on it,” concludes
Tanner. “We want to get rid of
all those [warning] lights.”Sciatica-
squeezing driving
experience, all
the Miata is not
lost, didn’t break.
Much restraint
required, per-
sistent warning
lights, looks like
any other Miata.TESTED