13,000-RPM Mazda Miata Has A Screaming Honda Surprise

Regardless of which generation, the Mazda MX-5 Miata can be regarded as the unanimous darling of sports car enthusiasts, mainly because of how engaging the driving experience is, from the chassis balance and peppiness of the engine to the slick operation of the stick shift. However, YouTuber Reed make car has decided that some of those ingredients can be improved by an engine swap, and although an alternative engine is nothing new in the Miata community, the Japanese power plant of choice in this second-generation (NB) MX-5 certainly is; it comes from a Honda superbike.

Some high-displacement enthusiasts have gone as far as shoehorning a BMW V10 into the tiny engine bay, and others have gone the Hellcat route, but Reed decided to downsize with a 1.0-liter four-cylinder engine from a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade, creating a 13,000-rpm build the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

More Power, Less Torque

The rev range is nearly twice as wide as the NB’s stock 1.8-liter 7,000 revolutions per minute, and according to the factory numbers, should make 180 horsepower at the crank, or 40 hp more than the original motor. It’s also worth noting, however, that drivetrain losses may lessen what that means at the wheels. That being said, in one of his videos, the bike-swapped roadster was shown hitting 60 mph in first gear, though how quickly that was achieved remains a mystery.

To measure how much performance actually reaches the wheels, Reed put it on the dyno for some tests. He got 160 hp and 80 lb-ft of torque on the wheels via two tests (one in fourth gear, the other in third), though he might need to adjust the tuning since the air-to-fuel ratio was slightly rich. That’s impressive, and when you factor in the lighter weight of the engine and its ancillaries, this build must be an absolute riot. But there’s more to come.

Not The Final Form Yet

By numbers and sound alone, Reed’s Honda-powered Miata is already remarkably impressive. But like any dignified tuner, he wants to extract more from the car and has discussed adding a turbocharger. Two of his latest videos discuss the fitment of a Garrett GT2560R, which sounds small for a car but is huge for a bike.

Turbocharged bikes are simply terrifying, but in a car-sized package, such a powertrain would be wild. Our only concern is one of load – how long can a motorcycle engine, designed for something that tips the scales well below 500 pounds, handle something that weighs triple that? We’d love to know what became of the Miatabusa we came across 14 years ago…

H/T:
TheDrive