Flyin’ Miata Ready to Convert Your 2016 Mazda Miata to V-8 Power

It was only a matter of time before the mad scientists at Flyin’ Miata put together a V-8 conversion for the fourth-generation ND-chassis Mazda Miata. That time has come, and the muscle-infused minimalist sports car is just as glorious as we could hope for.

Flyin’ Miata has been offering go-fast solutions for the Mazda Miata since 1989 and has been shoehorning V-8s into Miata engine bays for the past eight years. The company says it took lessons learned from previous swaps and applied it to the newest Miata, addressing weak points from earlier conversions to make this one “the best yet.”

The Flyin’ Miata V-8 conversion endows a 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata with a GM LS3 6.2-liter V-8, offered in three flavors. The base kit sources a stock engine found in a previous-gen Chevrolet Camaro or Corvette and is good for 430 hp. A step up from that is the LS376/525, a crate engine with a hotter camshaft. Lastly, an LS3 E-Rod equipped with emissions monitoring gear is offered for customers in less hot rod-friendly states. All engines come backed by a T56 Magnum six-speed manual transmission with a custom shift lever. Flyin’ Miata says it can also perform the conversion on the upcoming power targa-top Miata RF and the Miata-based Fiat 124 Spider.

All parts used in the conversion are new, and Flyin’ Miata says it tries to use as many OEM parts as possible to make future part replacement easier. As you might expect, the V-8 comes with some extra weight. The conversion adds roughly 250 pounds to the Miata’s curb weight, but the tuner says the car maintains a similar weight distribution (53/47 front/rear versus 52/48 stock). Flyin’ Miata says the conversion will produce a “fully integrated car and not just a big engine rammed into a little car.”

To that end, the company strived to keep the Miata’s handling characteristics intact. It also hopes to improve feel by replacing the standard electric power steering system with a variable-ratio hydraulically assisted unit. All other features that come stock with the Miata will continue to work, including the push-button start and original gauges. Traction control, however, has been removed.

How much will this marriage made in heaven cost you? The turn-key conversion starts at $49,995, not including the car. You could argue that you could almost buy a new Corvette Stingray for that money, but Flyin’ Miata believes it’s selling more than just a Miata with an engine swap. “The guys buying them aren’t buying a Miata, though,” company rep Keith Tanner told us in an email. “They’re buying a hand-built V-8 sports car based on an excellent chassis.”

Below is the company’s full list of specs and options for the Flyin’ Miata ND conversion.

Specifications

• 430 hp 6.2L LS3 V8 engine with a two year warranty – a 2015 Camaro SS engine
• 6-speed T56 Magnum transmission with a custom shift lever
• FM spec Moroso steel oil pan with baffling
• LS7 clutch and flywheel
• AAM differential from a 2015 Camaro
• custom-built dual pass crossflow radiator
• dual Spal fans on a custom shroud
• new aluminum driveshaft
• heavy duty halfshafts
• stainless steel headers and dual exhaust with a lifetime warranty
• Magnaflow high-flow dual catalytic converters
• upgraded fuel system
• new GM-built engine wiring harness and engine management
• Flyin’ Miata custom engine dyno tune for more power and improved drivability with our specific parts
• OE-style motor mounts for good NVH control
• custom air intake system with hot air baffle
• rear mount Odyssey battery with kill switch and engine bay jump start terminal
• Corvette C6 starter
• fully functional stock gauges
• FM sway bars front & rear with adjustable end links
• Flyin’ Miata FOX Racing suspension
• ABS
• FM four wheel little big brake kit
• air conditioning
• Hydraulic steering conversion
• relocated washer bottle
• many custom stainless brackets required for a clean installation
• Flyin’ Miata alignment

Options and upgrade prices:

• LS3 E-Rod engine (better emissions compliance), $640
• LS376/525 (525 hp, 489 ft-lb), $1780
• carbon fiber driveshaft, $520
• aluminum oil pan, $70
• 6-piston front, 4-piston rear brake upgrade, $725
• Swain Tech White Lightning ceramic coating for the headers & cat pipes- $925
• Hot Rod Therapy DBW cruise control- roughly $1000, price TBD
• wheel and tire packages – please speak to us for recommendations and pricing
• Hard Dog roll bar – please speak to us for recommendations and pricing

The post Flyin’ Miata Ready to Convert Your 2016 Mazda Miata to V-8 Power appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2aqyM2a

Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Model Y, Elaborates on Plans for Electric Minibus

It’s long been rumored Tesla would name one of its vehicles “Model Y,” and now we finally know what form it will take. Taking to Twitter over the weekend, Elon Musk revealed plans for a Tesla Model Y compact SUV that will sit on the same chassis as the Model 3.

In its “Master Plan, Part Deux” announcement on July 20, Tesla made no announcement on the Model Y. But it did mention plans for a “future compact SUV.” The plan also touched on electric buses, and Musk elaborated on that subject on Twitter, confirming that Tesla is working on a minibus that will sit on the same platform as the Model X SUV.

“The Tesla Minibus will be built on a Model X chassis,” Musk revealed. “People density potential is surprisingly high.”

Tesla said that the new “high passenger-density urban transport” vehicle is currently in the early stages of development. Tesla hinted it would feature autonomous driving capabilities and would be able to take people all the way to their destinations unlike current buses. Alongside a heavy-duty semi truck, the passenger bus should be ready to debut next year.

After one Twitter user suggested Tesla should name the bus “Model B,” Musk hinted the vehicle would take a different naming direction. “I think we should be inconsistent in our naming conventions after Model Y,” Musk tweeted.

Source: Elon Musk via Twitter

The post Elon Musk Confirms Tesla Model Y, Elaborates on Plans for Electric Minibus appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2apdbKc

2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Diesel Arrival: Lucking Out With a Colorado Duramax

To say that I was merely excited to take delivery of our new long-term 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Duramax would probably be a bit of an understatement. I very nearly fell in love with this oil-burning midsize pickup during our 2016 Truck of the Year testing, and once I found out that our long-termer’s arrival would fall around the time of “my” old Corvette Stingray’s departure, I began lobbying to make the Colorado “mine” for its year of testing. Hard.

I lucked out—and hopefully so did you.

My motives for wanting to chaperone our diesel-powered Colorado for a year are numerous, but they boil down to three big reasons: 1) I take lots of long road trips with my wife and two dogs in tow, making the Colorado’s comfort, range, and cargo capacity a huge draw; 2) Aside from long road trips, I’ve also been getting into off-roading, camping, and exploring the many easily accessible dirt trails around Southern California, and a small truck with a four-wheel-drive system and two-speed transfer case would make that type of thing a possibility; and 3) In an effort to save the little money I have, I’ve been trolling Craigslist for furniture I can refurbish for our apartment and been making trips to hardware stores to buy raw materials to build stuff on my own. Basically, I needed a truck.

Our new 2016 Colorado has much in common with our last Colorado long-termer; like our red one, the new silver Colorado is specced in the crew cab, 5.2-foot-long short-bed configuration with the Z71 off-road-oriented trim package, a six-speed automatic transmission, and four-wheel drive. Like our last truck, it’s optioned with a spray-on bed liner ($475), Chevrolet MyLink Infotainment system with 4G LTE Wi-Fi ($495), a Bose audio system ($500), “off-road” assist steps ($745), and the Trailering Equipment package ($250). The main difference between our new truck and old is under the hood. Our Colorado is specced with the Duramax 2.8-liter, turbodiesel I-4, which for $3905 also includes a unique two-speed transfer case with an auto four-wheel-drive mode, a tow/haul mode with an exhaust brake, and a trailer brake controller. The sticker price for our 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Duramax is $42,105 when all is said and done.

Although I’m sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping to read about something different, on the bright side the near-identical spec allows us to directly compare our new diesel-powered tester with our old V-6-powered Colorado.

Speaking of, where our new Colorado’s 2.8-liter, turbodiesel I-4 most differentiates itself from our old one’s 3.6-liter V-6 is in the horsepower and torque department; our new truck has 181 hp to the old’s 305 hp, and it’s got 369 lb-ft of torque to our last long-termer’s 269 lb-ft. That’s a lot of pulling power. Even still, my new Colorado Duramax long-termer was a bit slower at the test track, its fastest 0-60 run of 9.2 seconds and quarter-mile performance of 16.8 seconds at 79.7 mph happening with four-wheel-drive auto mode engaged. Braking performance is average for the segment, with the Chevy coming to a stop from 60 mph in 130 feet. Our oil-burning Colorado Z71’s figure-eight performance was a bit poky at 29.1 seconds at 0.56 g average, but hey, it’s a truck.

For those keeping score at home, the old gas-powered Colorado did 0-60 in 7.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.7 seconds at 88.7 mph. The 60-0 brake test took it 123 feet, and it lapped our figure eight in 28.1 seconds at 0.61 g. You, like me, may sometimes fall into the faster-is-better camp, but it’s worth noting two major advantages of our new Colorado Duramax: its 20/29/23 mpg city/highway/combined EPA score (Real MPG will be addressed in a later update) and its 7,600-pound tow capacity, both of which are significantly better over the big gas engine.

Our Silver Ice Metallic Chevrolet Colorado Duramax arrived with just 58 miles on the clock, and I was psyched to fire it up for the first time—especially because within a few days of its arrival, I was going to load it up and point it north for a much-needed vacation. You can probably imagine my surprise when the first time I fired it up, a GMC logo greeted me on the little driver instrument control display on the dashboard. Hmm. Upon closer inspection, the switches on the center stack that turn traction control on and off, among other things, were loose and only worked if you pushed them just so. My truck must’ve rolled down its Wentzville, Missouri, assembly line on an off day. Regardless, those are issues to be addressed at a later date because I’ve got big plans for the Colorado.

Over the next year, it’ll go on road trips, it’ll tow, and it’ll haul. The “off-road” running boards, which are better at bashing my shins than anything else will go. So too will the front air dam, which impedes off-road clearance and scrapes on everything—and when we remove it, we’ll once and for all determine how much the dam does for the Colorado’s fuel economy. We’ve also got a truckload of Chevrolet Accessories coming for the Colorado, which I’m excited to test.

But first, it’s time to hit the road. Let’s roll.

2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 (CrewCab Short Box)
BASE PRICE	$35,535
PRICE AS TESTED	$42,105
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck
ENGINE	2.8L/181-hp/369-lb-ft turbodiesel DOHC 16-valve I-4
TRANSMISSION	6-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	4,821 lb (57/43%)
WHEELBASE	128.3 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	212.7 x 74.3 x 70.6 in
0-60 MPH	9.2 sec
QUARTER MILE	16.8 sec @ 79.7 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	130 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.73 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	29.1 sec @ 0.56 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	20/29/23 mpg
ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY	189/130 kW-hrs/100 miles

The post 2016 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 Diesel Arrival: Lucking Out With a Colorado Duramax appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2aeVGGJ

2016 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD Inscription Update 1: Towing and Launching in Style

Summer means time for a road trip in the Volvo XC90 T6 AWD Inscription and the opportunity to launch a boat in style.

Our long-term SUV left the urban wilds of greater Detroit and made a beeline for Interstate 75 North with two people and enough gear for a week in northern Ontario, including furniture for the cabin, tools, coolers, and groceries. The Volvo comes with a cover to hide your belongings from sight, but if you are fully loaded, you essentially have to remove and store it—there is no built-in nook for it.

The trip got off to a slow start. A test of the navigation system took us on a circuitous route through a number of unnecessary cities on the way to the freeway and cost us about a half hour of extraneous time. It was an odd aberration. The system has been reliable since it joined the Motor Trend garage.

Once on I-75, we headed north, pausing to savor the incredible 5-mile span of the Mackinac Bridge that separates the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan, and kept going until the freeway and the U.S. both ended in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. A second bridge took us into Canada’s Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.

A third bridge took us onto St. Joseph Island, where a 16-foot Smoker Craft aluminum fishing boat had weathered a snowy winter and was itching to go.

We had a trailer hitch added to our XC90—it is a $950 factory option or about $1,370 as a dealer add-on. Backing up to the trailer was a breeze with the rear camera view on the big 9.6-inch touchscreen. And it made it easy to watch husband Steve finalize the mating of a 4,400-pound SUV to about 1,200 pounds’ worth of boat on a light trailer.

Yes, the Volvo is far nicer than the boat and trailer we latched on, but don’t mistake good looks for lack of brawn. The XC90 did not flinch with the additional weight as we headed up the lane and onto the dirt cottage road to the public boat launch available to anyone with a toonie ($2 Canadian coin). Stay tuned as we try hitching a heavier trailer later this summer.

Rear cameras made me look like a pro backing into the cold waters where the Huron and Superior lakes meet. It was the smoothest launch, both down and back up the crumbling ramp, we have ever had. All we needed was our all-wheel drive and a low gear.

The vehicle also caused a stir wherever we went, confirming the standout reasons this vehicle was Motor Trend Truck of the Year for 2016.

More on our long-term Volvo XC90 T6 Inscription here:

• Arrival

The post 2016 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD Inscription Update 1: Towing and Launching in Style appeared first on Motor Trend.

from Motor Trend http://ift.tt/2aIjA2Y