Mazda built a great chassis, but it needs Honda K24 power to really shine
After over 120 years of building cars, the automotive industry has provided us all of the puzzle pieces we need to build the perfect sports car. Honda $HMC really knows its powertrains, and Mazda really knows its chassis and handling. If you take the peanut butter and the chocolate and put them together, you get the perfect sports car. This K-swapped NC Miata is ready to completely embarrass a lot of much more expensive modern sports cars.
A lot of people would look at this and say that it would be better to just go buy a Honda S2000, but I actually like the balance and size of the NC Miata better than either generation of S2K. And by going to a K24, you’ll actually get more power than an S2000 delivered from the factory anyway, without losing the revs. It’s also a whole lot cheaper to buy an NC Miata than it is to try to track down a decent S2000 these days. This is a real sports car engine, and now it’s mated to a real sports car chassis. And the swap could have been accomplished for less than a good S2000
Compared to the buttery smooth power delivery of the Honda engine, the Miata’s stock 2.0-liter is practically agrarian. An NC Miata made around 170 horsepower from the factory, but this K24 is pushing just shy of 250 ponies to the ground.
This whole build from start to finish is just under $40,000, but that included a bunch of bodywork, paint, suspension, race seats, and more. They bought the car for $3,500 and the budget for the swap was just around $15,000, so you could theoretically accomplish all of this for under 20 grand. There isn’t much sports car you can buy for 20 grand anymore, and certainly not as fast as this guy.
This is a good build, man. The whole series from Speed Academy is incredibly fun to watch. Go check it out!
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