For years we've been dreaming of building a deathkart, so when we located a wrecked Mazda Miata for $200, we jumped on the opportunity to chop it, fabricate a roll cage, and turn it into a street legal gokart. The result was a cheap, fun, & fast burnout machine that made 'braap braap' & turbo noised until the day we yeeted the rods out of the engine block.
If you've always wanted to build your own Miata Kart (or vettekart, driftkart, etc.) we've broken down the entire process into 8 (maybe not so easy) steps.
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The 8 steps for fabricating your Miata Kart, even if you've never done it before:
1. Locate a vehicle. it doesn't have to be a Miata. You can use a Corvette or really any 2 door, rear wheel drive, preferably manual transmission car.
2. Plan Your build. Are you keeping it street legal? Will you race it somewhere (drag race/NHRA, SCCA, etc)? Find the sanctioning body's rules and follow them when fabricating your roll cage so you will pass tech. How do you want it to look?
3. Gather your tool and materials. At bare minimum you'll need a sawzall and lots of metal blades. A cheap angle grinder will be able to handle most other cutting and grinding. After that you need a tubing bender, welder, and notcher. Then gather materials like mild steel tubing and steel plate for the roll cage.
4. Start cutting. Don't cut too much.
5. Build your roll cage. Start with the main hoop, harness bar, and back bars. build upon that foundation to make it a full roll cage.
6. Wire up the car if needed.
7. Paint and finish the car if you have time.
8. Drive it! Don't get a ticket or get impounded.