The Mouse That Roared: Dave Bouldin’s Ginetta Miata

Posted on 25. Jul, 2009 by jeffz in Features

By Tiffany Flynn

I am a huge car enthusiast, and I am also very much a movie fanatic. So before my interview with Dave Bouldin of Haslett, Michigan, I happened to see Speed Racer at the movie theater. My timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Riding with Dave in his Ginetta G20, with my hair was blown back and gripping the pavement on every turn, I couldn’t stop thinking how much I felt like I had landed in the passenger seat of Speed’s “Mach 5” with Speed Racer himself behind the wheel.

Now you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait a minute, I know my Mazdas and I’ve never heard of a Ginetta G20!” You’re right, the Ginetta G20 is part of a racing series in Europe, and it’s not a Mazda. But the reason Dave’s is so cool is because it’s street legal, and it runs on a 1995 Miata engine, and it even looks a bit like a Miata!

Dave has the Ginetta weighing in down at 1,300 pounds. If it was an everyday car he would need at least a rag top, air conditioning, and doors, but as a dedicated toy he has been able to cut weight everywhere. Dave says he would love to see Mazda incorporate key concept ideas from the G20 into the new Miata and to reduce the weight by at least 1,000 lbs in a limited production lightweight special edition. I was skeptical about the reduced weight. Wouldn’t he lose some measure of control? Dave answered me with a simple test drive, showing the cornering limits of the G20. The little car sticks to the road like paint, much like a Miata.

The Ginetta has changed a lot over the lifetime of the racing series. One obvious similarity between all Ginettas is the headlight design. The Ginetta started off with fixed stand-up headlights, but to achieve better aerodynamics for racing the stand-ups were replaced with the Miata units, creating an even greater resemblance to the Miata. On its way up from Florida in 2003 when Dave bought the car, he said he was swarmed by people asking if it was the new Mazda MX-5.

The standard racing engine of a Ginetta in Europe is the Ford Zetec. But the Zetec isn’t street legal in the US, and Dave decided he wanted to change that. He brought the G20 in as a rolling chassis with everything included except the engine. Charlie Shatzen of MazCare in Marietta, Georgia built the engine. Dave swears “it screams like a Formula 1” and I can attest to the truth of that statement.

To get Miata power into the Ginetta, Charlie started with a stock 1995 Miata 1.8-liter engine. To reach his claimed 175 horsepower, he cleaned up the intake and exhaust, seriously tuned the header system, and oversized the fuel injectors. After reprogramming the ECU, Bouldin claims that the G20 can go 0 to 60 in the 3 second range, with top speeds at about 150 mph before the back end starts to lift. But while all that sounds amazing, hold on to your hats for this part: the Ginetta gets 28 MPG during a race and up to 40 MPG during regular driving!

After 3 years of racing and track days the car is now completely restored. With about 6 months of bodywork spent smoothing out the panels and about 3 months of reassembly, Dave’s masterpiece is finally finished. He started taking it to shows and races, bringing home first or second almost every time. His latest win was at the Battle of the Brits, a judged British car show located in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Dave entered his G20 in the vintage race car category and took home first place and Best in Class.

Now a friend of Dave’s named Steve TerMeer has caught the “bug” as Dave calls it, and bought his own G20. Not long after both cars were made street legal, they began noticing a few additional stop signs popping up in their area. Now they both take their Ginettas around and are spreading the word one race track and show at a time. This year Dave plans to attend about a dozen different competitions, including his favorite Sunday drive: autocross.

The only question now is when or if Mazda will make their very own Mach 5? They already have several variations of the MX-5 Miata on sale. As a Miata enthusiast, I know the specs that I’d like to see are the same ones that the G20 would inspire. While power has always been important for sports cars, it’s all relative. The movie Iron Man provides the perfect moral for this story: bigger isn’t always better and more power isn’t always the answer. Sometimes a lightweight alternative can be much more effective.

Dave’s Ginetta - Critical Specifications:

Weight: 1,300 lbs
Base Engine: 1995 1.8-liter BP-ZE
Engine Work: Polished intake, custom tuned exhaust, oversized fuel injectors, and reprogrammed ECU
Fuel Economy: 28-40 MPG
Dave’s Daily Driver: 1997 Miata w/AC

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