The punchline to this MotoIQ story is that while the Porsche GT3 can circle the Nordschleiffe in 7:25, a replacement nose skin is $3,500. That’s the cost of a good Catfish donor car! Set up your Catfish properly and you’ll be passing cars 2 to 3 times the cost on the track, and not have to worry about breaking the bank for your track habit.
Check out the full story HERE.
Good point but why a Miata Cup car? Why not learn in a cheap Miata donor car?
Its a good chance to make sure the parts are mechanically track ready and that should be cheaper than buying an actual race car.
After doing a few track events I look at the Catfish as a way to step up to real supercar performance in the under $30,000 range if you can scrounge a good LS engine setup. I hope I can buy a house with a garage so I could build (and store) one.
Any way, I think its easier to have fun and learn if you are in a car with limits that can be approached without soiling your driving suit and closely matched competition makes it even better. There are so many Miatas at track days that you’ll always find someone to lead or follow.
Once you are comfortable, build a Catfish and start learning again.
p.s. are you going to SEMA? I would love to see a Catfish in the flesh.
To date there have been no Catfish converted from a race car. However, you can see how enticing it would be to shed a few hundred pounds and already have a working engine, suspension and brake package. The Miata Cup portion was thrown in because the story was aimed towards racers. After putting a turbo 1.6 Catfish out on the track, I know that world class performance is just a turbo away.
Of course building a Catfish from a race car would be awesome. I just think a stock Miata would be fine for learning. I think it would probably end up cheaper too unless the racecar has exactly the hardware you want.
Worst case you are out the price of a beater Miata or you figure out racing isn’t your thing for a lot less.
I first saw the Catfish after reading about La Ferrari so my daydream is to match the power to weight and a pretty mild LS3 should do it and have low end torque that a 1.8 with a big turbo probably can’t match.
So LA Ferrari that doesn’t have a light switch of an engine and maybe 5% of the operating costs and 3% of the price tag…
Any way, I would love to see one, will you have a booth or car at SEMA?
We hope to have at least one and possibly two cars at SEMA this year. It’s crunch time…