Miatas are very popular in the club racing community.
They're cheap (he paid $3,500 for his 1990 with 100k miles on it), parts are cheap and widely available, and they're easy to work on.
He was out there tonight trying to assess if he could go for putting reinforcement frame rails on, or is it a bridge too far for Friday. Yes, it is too far. Some previous owner probably ran it hard up over a curve, and the existing frame rails (visible in the undercarriage) are damaged, obviously weakened. He would want to shore them up for rigidity regardless, but no time left.
Also, he's got a small transmission fluid leak, and nothing will get you track banned faster than fluid leaks. Since buying it in June he's replaced the wheels and tires with upsized versions, raised the suspension (the previous owner had lowered it too far, the tires would rub in high speed turns), replaced the brake lines with metal ones (to mitigate excessive swelling with heat that softens brake response). He's done quite a bit of cosmetic work too, including rust repair and getting the rag top back in working order. It came with roll cage, so he's good there.
One possible inspection issue - apparently it's a thing that people will cut off a portion of the top valve lifter cover to view the belt and gears (cam?) and thus it's open to the air. His Miata guy told his instructor that he had no safety concern so we're thinking that when they find it in inspection, the instructor will relay the lack of concern and they'll let it pass. It is WV, after all. And, the backup story is it allows them to inspect the belt visually.
