“Turn a Race Prepped SM into a NASA PTE/E3 Race Car for Under $2000 and WIN”! Shawn Sampson

How to take a Stock SM to PTE /E3 Enduro Trim This power point is intended to show how you can take a race prepped 1.6l SM w/ a stock Mazda create motor and turn it into a winning PTE car for about $2000. This is only a example of what we did at Sampson Racing Communications with our SM car which was rather old and tired after years of being raced. For the money and the fun factor… it is really hard to beat! Intake SystemMotor Head WorkMegasquirt SystemExhaust Header

Intake System The intake system was pretty simple. Any exhaust shop can set this up for you (see Photo). I used a 3” muffler tube. Weld in a bung for the Vacuum line and the Air Temp sensor, mount up a filter and that’s that. Cost was $25. I did drill out the running lights to increase air flow and mounted the filter in the light bucker on the passenger side.

Head Work The head had less than 20 hours on it. I took it to McKenzie's Cylinder Heads out of Oxnard,CA (Todd is the owner) and had him work his magic. He cleaned it all up for me, did a 3-way on the valves and decked it all for $500. If you know anything about fast cars and head work, this guy is one of our country's best! That being said, your local guy should be able to do a great job as well… Just make sure he understands how to work on race heads!

Megasquirt System You can do a lot here but I went w/ the Megasquirt System and a Wideband LC1. The install was easy enough (some crimping and zip ties). The unit replaces your current computer unit perfectly and was a plug and play deal. In fact, the map from the get-go was not that bad and ran ok on the dyno, just a little on the lean side. After some dyno time we had 120hp at the tires w/ the stock header… Not bad, from 103hp to 120hp for about $1850 including dyno time up to this point!

Header Here was the real kicker… I went with a Raceland Header. It’s a off brand from Germany for a whooping $88… That’s right after shipping it was $112! Figured what the hell, lets see what it can do. Bolted it up to the race prepped head and the SM Springfield Dyno Exhaust on the car and 5 more HP right out the box! Back to the Dyno for some more tuning for torque. Spec Miata MegasquirtIntake Head Work Header

Get Racing and Have Fun!!! What I ended up with was a really fun 125hp lbs car on Hoosiers! I went for the HP vs. Weight Ratio with NASA’s PTE class because honestly, I’m really happy to drive a great handling car that is easy on parts and can kick the shit out of most cars in a technical track section… shit any buddy can go fast in a straight line! Have Fun and Be Safe- Shawn Sampson SampsonRacingCommunications

So after it was all said and done my cost looked like this- Head Work$500 Megasquart Complete system $1100 Raceland Header$115 Custom Intake$25 Dyno Time$250