Could the Philippines be home to the lightest fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 in the world? Thanks to a collaboration between Mazda Philippines and Angie Mead King’s Car Porn Racing, they’ve taken an already lightweight Mazda MX-5 ND sportscar and had it undergo a full carbon fiber diet.
Made in the Philippines using a vacuum infusion progress, it helped cut the weight of the MSCC Mazda Miata MX-5 down to 950 kilograms, wet. Effectively, this is the fighting weight with all the fluids—engine oil, coolant, and even a full tank of gas—factored in. At its debut at the Philippine International Motor Show, King says she was able to shed some 30 percent of the MX-5’s weight resulting to a curb weight of just 700 kilograms. It’s all the more impressive given this all-carbon fiber MX-5 does have a full roll cage (it’s a racecar, after all).
By comparison, a stock 2.0-liter MX-5 soft top runs at around 1,058 kilograms and 990 kilograms for the 1.5-liter sans fluids.
Just how fast does it go? Still rocking a stock 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine and a 6-speed manual, the super lightweight roadster lapped the 4.189-kilometer Clark International Speedway Circuit in 2 minutes 10.703 seconds in qualifying and 2 minutes and 11.138 seconds during the race—that is around six seconds faster than the spec series Mazda MX-5. It also makes it one of the fastest production car-based vehicles to ever lap the Clark International Speedway beating a Nissan GT-R and even a McLaren 650S.
More than just its raw pace, the platform itself proved to be so reliable the MSCC Mazda Miata MX-5 finished both the 4- and 8-hour Makabayan Endurance Cup races in first place thanks to the collective driving efforts of King, Tyson Sy, Juha Turalba, and Milo Rivera.
What’s left for the #55 Endurance Race Car? Well, King says she plans to run it again next year with some improvements, including a sequential gearbox. Moreover, they plan to improve on the build as they’ve noticed some buckling, particularly on the hood.
For the general public, Car Porn Racing is studying plans to offer the carbon fiber kit for the MX-5 ND along with a fastback-shaped roof canopy also made of carbon fiber (the current one they’re using is constructed out of fiberglass reinforced plastic).
Photos courtesy of Car Porn Racing.
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