almost unbelievably the entire engine and transmission fit into the Miata as though it had been designed by Mazda for it (everything fits under the stock hood!). That and some appropriate springs, cooling, and exhaust (restrictive) made up the basic technical package and the cost started at several thousand dollars and the car. The much heavier Ford engine did add about 4 percentage points to the front/rear weight balance – and the car takes a corresponding amount of care to drive in turns. Somewhere over 275 Monster Miatas were claimed to be built by Monster Motorsports. A couple of hundred unofficial conversions were made by other companies, and kits remain available from them to this day. RX-7 conversions are also possible since much of the chassis is shared.
Unique – but subtle – badging inside and out identified the car to anybody getting close enough to notice. The appearance of the entire car was very stealthy until you started it up: deaf “opponents” wouldn’t know what hit them. Everybody else would get an aural shock.
The Monster was originally known to be over-geared since the Miata differential gearing was well over 4:1. Even the optional (and much stronger) RX-7 differential posed a problem in this regards. Since the 4.9L Ford was not a high-revving engine, this was an issue for cruising, and the gearing certainly wouldn’t contribute to engine reliability either. Later cars offered the option of a Lincoln Mark VIII aluminum differential with much more appropriate gearing. Even later cars offered the entire MN-12 Thunderbird rear suspension, with very large flares to cover the added width – although only a few were built like this. Some of these cars were labeled as “Mega Monster” Miatas. Pricing could sky-rocket with options.
Like all good things, the “production” conversions were built for several years. Unfortunately, Monster Motorsports as a company appears to have folded – the original website was shut down some time ago.
Contrary to popular belief, the roughly 225 HP bone-stock Ford engine was the only standard conversion offering, since the car had to meet California emissions regulations. Monster Motorsports also offered some additional power-adders if California aftermarket certification was available for the year it was offered. Of course, given the popularity of the Ford engine, many different power-adding enhancements could be made by owners to take HP up considerably. But the car still had to meet any emissions regulations of wherever it was eventually licensed.
Conversions are an interesting consideration for the enthusiast. California (and most state) laws allow engine conversions if the engine is from the same production year of the recipient car or newer. 4-cam Acura B16 engines are a popular swap in earlier Civics, and even better is a B18 or even an R model engine. There are also some very narrow circumstances where JDM engines that were never certified for the U.S. are certifiable in certain situations – you’ll note a number of people swap engines in their 240SXs for the 2 liter turbo offered in Japan. One enthusiast in Dallas built a V-8 powered Lexus IS300 – an option the factory considered but never offered. But by and large conversions are becoming a thing of the past for late model cars, the electronics are becoming too difficult and the emissions certifications are legally and technically impossible. Swaps such as a late-nineties Supra TT engine into an S2000 would be impossible to certify and register in most counties given the trend of emissions laws and testing. But there is another reason to do swaps – and that’s for the technical challenge. That’s one reason I would appreciate.
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