FOR SALE: 'Senna', our 1995 Miata Elite Project car and development vehicle
For many more details about his build including cost to create him, review these 3 PDFs:
Senna build Part 1, Part 2, , and Part 3.
Senna has been a terrific Elite Project build and multi-purpose street / autocross / track / development vehicle for our Fat Cat Motorsports technologies. I had so much to say I ended up creating 3 PDFs of 10 pages each to share my history and love affair with Miatas and how we came to acquire Senna then turn him into the unique machine he is.
He would be an excellent open track / HPDE car, could be built into a competitive NASA TT/PT car (much work already done), a fun autocross, hill climb, or even a drag car. He is not 'polished' but I focused on all the changes that would support whatever final direction he might take (obviously the FCM Elite suspension, roll protection & chassis stiffening via Blackbird cage, and customized aero being essential ingredients). You likely have your own preferences in terms of further customization. Senna and I took first place at a City Tech track in their Roadster cup on Sept 14, 2013 @ Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I ran him both with the 205 Hoosier R6 and the 275 Hoosier A6 autocross tires which was RIDICULOUSLY fun! With more power, those tires would be pushed more efficiently but it was a damn good time finding the limits!
Those seriously interested in giving a reasonable offer can contact us through the email link or call the shop. I'm open to a high-value trade for a Porsche 911 (996), Porsche Boxster S (986), or Chevrolet Corvette C5 Z06 in good running condition.
Note that Senna does not currently have the wrap, except for the Brazilian flag we kept as tribute to his namesake.
Lucky, or well-designed?
As Carroll Smith succinctly said, quoting Branch Rickey (the originator) - "Luck is the residue of design." I know it! Otherwise I'd never have intuitively felt confident avoiding a squirrel in the middle of Turn 6 at Laguna Seca! (By the way, I comfortably passed that Porsche 964 a lap later on the inside of Turn 9). I have found that the window where you can achieve excellent handling is very close to the window where you achieve ultimate grip. There is an orientation in many (but not all) factory suspension engineers toward 'adding more damping' to get tighter transient control when more is not necessarily better. I've seen this for years with our elegant, non-active controlled FCM Elite suspensions. By focusing your DESIGN on maximum grip, maximum road-holding, maximum comfort, you get the LUCKY outcome of having a very well-handling, responsive, confidence-inspiring vehicle. Again, read Sean's comments to see how my assessment here is totally justified as I did not focus on handling in his case but on getting the most grip from the tires given the rest of the components (springs, sway bars, ride height, alignment) remained the same as before. I do speak about this at length in the 'Playing with Knobs' video which totally relates to electronic suspensions in that the computer is 'playing with' various knobs that may or may not be delivering an optimal ride - for a microsecond!
We've proven that through keeping it simple - designing for efficiency, durability, and harmony - we also get the best road-holding. We demonstrate that our suspension has better grip and better ride quality than the factory C5 Z06 suspension which was lauded as being exceptionally well-tuned on a rough road course (the Nurburgring in Germany). We did this without our KBO technology which I also know is another technological advantage over standard digressive or linear pistons which are common through the automobile industry. I would be very interested in a back-to-back test of all our best FCM Elite technology and tuning methods against a more expensive semi-active damping system! Perhaps we'll be able to test that hypothesis out sometime soon...!