I too looked at STL long and hard. I decided that I should not build a car for STL not necessarily because of Miata, but the miata did influence a lot of it. I bought a engine, high end simulation software and did as much homework as I could. I knew the bogey car and times (RWD mazda product or K20 powered Honda).

After many many hours of simulation I found that even with nearly infinite money I could not build my small RWD (non Mazda) car to compete against the top level bogey cars. I found that the big role is my choice of low displacement. From a power to weight ratio it was right on or even exceeded, however the larger displacement cars had torque. Something the rule set does not directly address.

I mentioned that I believe this class is turning into a displacement class and basically you take a chassis and throw the biggest motor you can. The results seemed to support this fact with the exception of the 1.8L miatas. They were the exception to my belief and was thrown back against me.

They addressed some of the 2.0L cars and added more RWD weight, due to the success of the mazda products. This only hampered the other RWD cars more, putting me farther behind. The percent difference between RWD and RWD DWB is less than the adder I got on the engine I requested due to it’s unknown.

I still believe the weight/displacement factor is off.. There is a full built 1.6L down here in the South east run by ISC. I would consider that a well built car by a team that knows miatas.

Simulations showed that I would be running times only marginally quicker than ITS times with my 1.6L car, no torque, engine adder due to JDM, and the fear of RWD cars that are mainly focused at Mazda have affected my car. I ran a few races this year, but unless things change, which I assume they will a non Mazda STL car is not in my future. I did look at FDRX7 prices was shocked what just a rolling chassis cost!