Torque Trends 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata at SEMA - Build Details and Deep Dive
Hey everyone! The Mazda MX-5 Miata is a wildly regarded as a real drivers car. It has been around since 1989 and is one of the diminishingly few options for a RWD Manual car to this day. As a weekend roadster it is right at home, and I can’t tell you how much I look up to to the fearless folks that race them on the track flying around at triple digit speeds. Perhaps the only down side to the platform is that they are a bit underpowered, which has led to turbos and tuning, LS Swaps, and all sorts of solutions. But Torque Trends out of Arizona has just taken the game to another level with their purpose built Autocross Miata EV swap.
Would you drive a 2,600 pound car with 600 HP to the rear axle and 5,000 ft-lb to the Hoosier slicks? That’s good enough for sub-3 second 0-60 which is really just limited by traction - clever EV tuning could get that down even more. Now how about the same without the maintenance cost of an engine? Yeah, me too. This build is in its 3rd iteration and the 2024 Autocross season will hopefully see some broken records.
Torque Trends made this car for fun and as a test mule for their Torque Box. Basically, this car has a Revolt Systems inverter and Tesla motor mounted longitudinally and the Torque Box is a gear reducer between the Motor and the driveshaft. From there, add your choice of batteries and managment (they went with AEM electronics for this one) and the typical systems found on any car like brakes, coilovers, tires, and you are ready to burn rubber.
Mitchell is the founder of Torque Trends and they brought this car to SEMA to show just how much awesome is possible. We were able to catch up during the show and take a deep dive into the build. You might catch at the end that Mitchell invited me to drive the car sometime, so stay tuned because there is no way I’ll pass up that chance.
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