Quote Originally Posted by b18hb
i'm wanting instant throttle response and decent power... not gobs of it... trying to make a good mountain going car out of it, and while a turbo is good... i think i can come close to reaching my goal without it.
Well good luck to you. I will be interested in seeing what you can do.

About the best I have seen done with normally aspirated 1.6 is about 170hp...and that was mucho bucks and tons of work. For a fraction of the $$$ a "coldside" supercharger install will give instant throttle response and much much more power and torque. Its just a reality with Miata engines.
Of course for really big HP numbers turbo is the way to go.

Many have been down this road before you and the results are well documented. Nevertheless...good luck. I hope you can reach your goals.

For me, I cant see dumping tons of cash & time into an NA setup to be spanked easily by any dumass with a cheapass greddy. But thats me