A few years ago, I received a phone call from a guy named Bob Boig. He got my name through the Miata grape vine, he said he was building a Miata race car, and would I be willing to help? Well, I've never worked on a real race car, and Bob was new to Mazdas, it seemed like it may be a fun thing to be involved in. The best part was Bob lived in the same town as me, and was only five minutes away. After meeting Bob, I found out he previously raced a Fiat X-19 (he also raced a Spitfire and a GT6+ before that). The last 12 years he has won the SCCA National Runoffs 3 times, and came in second 3 times. Mazda had just given him a new white Miata to make an E-Production race car out of. This was the winter of 1993. When I first saw the car it was totally stripped (Bob had driven the car on the street a couple of weeks prior). No front fenders, no hood, the whole car was gutted, even the gas tank was gone, and the windshield posts were cut off.

Over the winter, this shell was transformed into a race car. A roll cage was added, fiberglass bodywork was designed and produced, new suspension pieces replaced the stock parts, and a race motor was built and tested. We spent many winter nights putting the car together, right into summer.

The end result is a serious E-Production Mazda Miata.  Bob's car uses suspension components from Huffaker Engineering.  Minor body work was also required to house Panasport wheels and 22.5x9x15 Goodyear racing tires.  Incedently, the rear-end and brakes are all stock Mazda parts.  Various engine modifications, which are limited by SCCA rules, allow the cars original 1.8L four-cylinder engine to produce about 220 hp.(1)

Leo Van Glabbeek, Bob's crew chief, is an engineer, like Bob (they work for the same company). They have been racing together for many years, Leo is the crew chief and Bob is the owner/driver. Leo's thing is suspensions, and Bob's is engines. It is very interesting to be apart of the process in improving the cars performance. It is a very methodical testing of different components and tabulating results (must be that engineering back ground), but still being open to suggestions and gut feelings (experience). The first race was at New Hampshire, and a few of the members from Mass. Miata tagged along to cheer Bob on. It was very exciting, especially since Bob won his very first race in the car. All that time and energy paid off. The car has been in development for the last two years trying to improve its performance. It seemed like we were tearing the whole car down after every race, changing this, modifying that. One of the major items that Bob installed which really helped, was a data acquisition system. It is an onboard computer that records G's in the corners and under braking, it also keeps track of engine rpm and steering input, all this combined with an automatic lap timer. This information is down loaded to a laptop computer, and a graph of the individual items can be seen and analyzed. All this information helps greatly in setting the car up for different tracks.

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(1)  SPORT COMPACT CAR:   Feburary 1999, William C. Mitchell, "Valvoline Runoffs '98"

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