There I was six years ago; the perpetual serotonin-inducing idle video search had landed me at something really special. And that was TV’s own Matt Farah driving on the canyon he always did his One Takes, And this time he was driving a Miata. But not just any Miata.
The idea behind the Flyin’ Miata V8 was neither new nor especially revolutionary. After all, what are the AC Cobra, Sunbeam Tiger, and most Corvettes but iterations of “Take very small roadster and fit comically oversized V8 on it”? The idea is proven and it works. And in the Flyin’ Miata, it really worked.
Thanks to its compact size and relatively small weight, the LS engine fitted perfectly. And that would’ve been fine if they’d stopped being there. Plenty of people stop there, and then their gearbox explodes or discover their sweet little sports car is now rather more of a sports brick. Perhaps not the best idea if you are a making a business out of selling the things. So, as aptly demonstrated on that seminal video, Flyin’ Miata went and made sure the experience of their turnkey vehicles was as close to “mass produced” as possible.
So in went the T56 and the Fox suspension and the Wilwood brakes. And everything so carefully prepared that if you didn’t knew, you wouldn’t consider for a moment that this MX-5 didn’t leave Hiroshima this way. Of course it would be expensive, but ask anyone who looked at it or something made by the methodical geniuses over at Icon and you’d see that it is worth it.
Unfortunately, and as a fake all-powerful being that took the corporeal form of John DeLancie reminded us: “All good things must come to an end.” And so it was earlier this week, when Flyin’ Miata announced that they would no longer be offering either V8 turnkey vehicles or the parts to make them. In their announcement, they confirmed that they did this because of “[…]questions about the federal legality of the conversions, and [they] have limited resources to build cars and do R&D.” Fair enough I guess. And they of course continue to offer performance upgrades for Miatas, except instead of an LS3, you get a turbocharger for the 4-cylinder engine. It will surely offer similar performance, and yet it’s simply not similar at all.
It should perhaps be pointed out that Flyin’ Miata isn’t being strongarmed into doing this. They are just expecting that they will be in the future and they decided to cut their loses here. After all, how many people actually did pony up the cash for a V8 Miata (or a 124 spider)? Stopping must seem better than having the Federal Government going “Nice shop, would be a shame if a closure happened to it.”
At the same time, it seems like one of the least environmentally-damaging auto businesses around. After all, how many people actually did pony up the cash for a V8 Miata?
