The 2016 SEMA show show floor is a fantasy world full of extravagant builds with tens (and sometimes hundreds) of thousands of dollars poured into every type of car you could dream of. But every now and then, you’ll come across a more understated vehicle that’s actually within the realms of possibility and affordability for the average driver. The MX-5 Global Cup?inspired Mazda Miata RF Kuro concept is one of those rare machines.
Debuting alongside an ultra-lightweight, 1980-pound version of the MX-5 Speedster, the sinister-looking Kuro adopts some of the performance and attitude from the the Miata race car, but it does it using street-legal parts that you can buy from Mazda’s online motorsports parts store. The Kuro, which means “charcoal” in Japanese, wears semi-matte black metallic paint. It gets its mean stance from 17-by-7.5-inch Rays forged wheels with 215/45R-17 BFGoodrich g-force Rival tires and the Cup car’s adjustable suspension with Multimatic dampers and hypercoil springs.
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The only other upgrades Mazda lists for the concept are an OpenFlash Performance exhaust that gives a claimed 6-to-7-hp boost and the same Brembo dual-piston front brake calipers that you’d find on the Cup car. The RF starts at a little more than $32,000, so it wouldn’t be cheap to build ...