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Racing Beat offers a bolt-on body kit for the 1999-2005 Miata application. The body components that comprise this kit are available separately so that you can customize your Miata to suit your own preferences. The main components of the Racing Beat TYPE III are the NOSE KIT, SIDE SKIRTS, and BUMPER FAIRINGS.

Each of these components were developed under the guidance of Racing Beat's co-founder, Takayuki Oku, and on-car modeling was undertaken in both the USA and Japan. Each finished part is produced in the USA from hand-laid fiberglass. For more information on each specific component, select a photo below.

History Of This Project

The TYPE III Body Kit project actually started several years ago, back in 2001. We had designed a complete kit for the 1999-2000 Miata and then produced the tooling required to manufacture these components from a urethane-plastic material. However, after receiving the prototype urethane units we were not pleased with several aspects of the fitment. Shortly thereafter, our supplier suffered through a rather unpleasant corporate restructure and we decided that it might be best to find another supplier.

Hindsight, this parting turned out for the best! We found another supplier that produce an outstanding product with extremely high quality control and manufacturing tolerances. We are very pleased with the overall quality and fitment of all of the components that they produce for Racing Beat.

After the original Type III prototype urethane set was produced, we quickly painted this set and installed it on our 1999 Miata. This set was photographed and placed in our soon-to-be-released 2003 Miata Style and Sport Catalog. If you see photos of our car on poised on an airport tarmac, these were the photos of the original, but now defunct urethane Type III nose and side skirts.

A couple years later we decided to breathe life back into this project, but this time utilizing a more traditional fiberglass process. While attempting to fit one of the earlier prototype nose kits onto a 2001 Miata, we discovered that Mazda had made some minor changes to the shape of the main headlight assembly. They certainly had us scratching our heads on this one, why would they make such a minor change to this rather involved and complex component? Certainly expensive new tooling was required to produce this new light assembly, what was the point? Of course these questions can only be answered by an engineer deep within the bowels of Mazda's design group, but it sure makes us wonder.

This new discovery sure threw a "ringer" into the mix. Should we produce two different nose kits for the Miata, one for the 1999-00 car and another for the 2001-05? Or, should we just go with the more widely sold 2001-05 unit? This issue resolved itself in 2006 during the design phase of the "updated" Type III kit. We found that we could design the nose for the 2001-05 application and trim the component to the 1999-00 specifications once the part was removed from the mold. Alas, problem solved!

Design

Before work on the actual on-car modeling can begin, we typically will commission an automotive graphic artist to draw several potential body kits. These drawings are typical of what you might see at any large automotive design studio and form the basis for the actual modeling that will be undertaken. Several of the potential designs that were considered are featured below.

Once the final design was selected, the on-car modeling commenced in the fall of 2005. For this project, Racing Beat brought automotive-modeling expert Hideaki Ueda over from Japan to undertake the critical conversion of an idea on paper to the final design on the car. Our thanks go out to Mr. Ueda, he worked long and hard in the rather chilly (and unheated) corner of our Racing Beat warehouse over the following winter months!

Work progressed under the direction of Racing Beat's co-founder, Takayuki Oku, until the final on-car design met his approval. Although this process may seem easy, transferring an image from paper onto an actual car is quite complex and requires the skills of both an artist and craftsman. Once the design has been transferred to the car, only then can your on-paper design be viewed in its true dimensional form. Making extensive changes at this point requires painstaking work to remove the foam and body filler material that is being used in this process.

Once the final design had fully taken shape, the unfinished master units were sent to Japan for completion in Mr. Ueda's studio. After completion, the master units were utilized to produce a master production mold for use in the final production parts.

Although Racing Beat could have taken the easier approach of just importing an existing body kit from one of the MANY available units from Japan, we did not feel that any of the kits that we reviewed reflected the tastes of the US market. While many of the Japanese units feature large, exaggerated "intercooler-type" mouth openings, large side inlets, gills, etc., We felt that they were just too extreme for the US market.

As with our earlier Type II Nose Kit for the 1990-97 Miata, we wanted to offer a design that provided a more aggressive appearance than the stock nose, but was still modest enough so that it didn't impart an "import racer" appearance. Our intent was to offer a component that appealed to a bit more "mature" crowd and offered a more grown-up appearance.

But hey, we all have a little bit of that "racer" spirit in us, right? If not, why would be we driving one of the most enjoyable sports cars ever produced! Let us know what you think of our body kit, we will be glad to answer any questions that you might have.

Frequently Asked Questions

We have prepared a FAQ page regarding our body components that will answer many questions that we receive regarding our body components. Common questions regarding shipping, fitment, painting, etc... are addressed in this page.