Paco Motorsports

Home of the
Adventure Miata

The adventure begins before you get there.

A Miata doesn't need pavement to be fun. It doesn't even need to be lifted to be an Adventure Miata.

Explore the builds Build your Adventure Miata

Offroadster → Beachster → Simba

Start with a Miata. Then break the rules.

What's an Adventure Miata?

It's the car you choose because getting there should be every bit as memorable as the destination.

Maybe that means driving across the country to a track weekend. Maybe it's a tired old NA with a lift kit tearing around the farm, a rallycross car, a back-road explorer, or a bespoke machine built for a very specific place on the other side of the world.

We've built—and helped others build—all of the above.

Chapter one · Kentucky · 2015–16

Where it started:
Offroadster

It started with snow tires. It ended with 31s.

The original Paco Offroadster on a winding road

The former track Miata became a long-travel experiment in how far the NA/NB platform could be pushed.

A winter idea gets out of hand.

Around the winter of 2015, Paco Motorsports' 1994 Miata was still a turbocharged street and track car. We wanted to keep driving it through a Kentucky winter, so we designed a simple 3-inch suspension lift and added snow tires.

A few pictures went online. People loved it. Someone commenting on one of those early photos gave the idea a name: Offroadster.

Then we stopped being reasonable.

Starting with digitized chassis dimensions and suspension pickup points, Paco designed an entirely new suspension system in CAD around one very un-Miata-like starting point: 31x10.50R15 tires.

We worked inward from the tire—lengthening the control arms, changing track and wheelbase, relocating the steering rack, and re-engineering the steering geometry.

Early Offroadster front concept rendering — The first visual study involved a rough kit body model and the 31" tire package—you can see the early dual shock config peeking out from the rear fender.

Early Offroadster underside concept rendering — Full articulation and max steering angles needed to be considered for the huge tire clearance needed, and to verify the camber curves stayed quiet throughout the range of travel.

First physical Offroadster suspension prototype — The original 3-inch lift and snow-tire setup came first—before the Offroadster proof of concept.

Offroadster in the garage during the wide-tire build — Once the geometry worked, the extreme width became real.

31 in.Tires

13.5 in.Wider track

12 / 14 in.Front / rear travel

5.38:1Final drive

First clean finished exterior view of the Offroadster — The first clean finished configuration.

Complete Paco Offroadster suspension kit — Offroadster 2.0's tubular-arm kit replaced the original fabricated sheet-metal construction.

Installed Offroadster control arms and coilover — Purpose-built control arms and coilovers, installed.

Still a Miata.
Just more of it.

The original car retained its turbocharged 1.8-liter BP engine. A 5.38:1 final drive restored the mechanical advantage lost to the 31-inch tires—and almost perfectly corrected the effective gearing change. Add Paco underbody protection, purpose-built suspension and a one-off bull-bar-style bumper, and the former track car had become something completely different.

Offroadster coilover and wheel-arch clearance detail — Clearance was designed through the suspension's range—not only at parked height.

The Offroadster made its public debut at The Mitty at Road Atlanta in 2016, turning heads everywhere it went—including during a couple of hot-ish laps and a skidpad test. Photo: Grassroots Motorsports.

Proof comes from using it.

The Offroadster has been driven on highways, trails and rough terrain—and was airborne multiple times during development. In 2016, an early version appeared at The Mitty at Road Atlanta, where Grassroots Motorsports photographed it and later featured the car in the magazine.

People thought it was fake.

Some assumed it was an RC car or a Miata body sitting on a Jeep chassis. It wasn't. That was the point—and the response created a new Paco product family.

One of the earliest customer builds

Tate Morgan, Jessi Combs and the Gambler 500

Jessi signed this photo for Paco at SEMA in 2017.

Paco sponsored Gambler 500 founder Tate Morgan with an Offroadster kit shortly after its public release. Tate built the car in time for accomplished racer and fabricator Jessi Combs to run at an upcoming Gambler event.

We were so fortunate to meet Jessi at SEMA in 2017. Less than two years later, she tragically lost her life in a crash during a land-speed record attempt. Her adventurous, fearless spirit and authenticity remain part of this car's history.

Jay Leno's Garage · 2018Tate Morgan and the Gambler 500 appeared in Season 4, Episode 14, “Limited Funds Unlimited Fun!” This photo was taken during that filming visit.

One idea became a product family

Three ways to start.

Good, better, and—when restraint is no longer useful—completely ridiculous.

3-inch Lift

Just add adventure.

Raise an NA or NB while retaining your existing shocks and suspension architecture. Simple, affordable, reversible, and a remarkably entertaining way to discover what happens next.

Shop the lift kit

Rallycross Suspension

Suspension is supposed to move.

Custom-valved AFCO dampers, taller softer springs and adjustable ride height use the available space to gain travel—not merely static height.

Explore Rallycross

Offroadster

Okay. Let's get ridiculous.

Long-travel suspension, dramatically increased track width, revised steering geometry and huge tire clearance. Excessive by design.

Explore Offroadster

Chapter two · A purpose-built island utility vehicle.

Beachster

“I don't want another
damn pickup truck.”

Years after the original Offroadster began turning heads, a customer named Fred called Paco. He had properties in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands and wanted something useful for island life. The obvious answer was another pickup. Fred wasn't interested.

What he really wanted was something like the Offroadster—and he trusted Paco to do it.

Sitting in the shop was Paco's own 2017 Mazda MX-5 RF development car. We had used it for years to develop street and track products and were nearing the end of its original development life.

So we made Fred an offer: Buy our RF, and we'll turn it into what you need.

Designed together

From ideas on paper to a complete vehicle.

Fred supplied the mission and ideas. Paco turned them into geometry, structure and working hardware.

Fred's front-view Beachster concept — Fred's front-view design direction.

The initial profile established the vehicle's character.

Fred and Paco working sketches for Beachster — Working notes and sketches captured the collaboration.

From development car to island utility vehicle.

Beachster wasn't intended to be a prop. On an island with narrow roads, steep elevation changes and low speed limits, Fred needed something compact and maneuverable that could haul cargo, take the trash to the collection point, pick up beer and water—and still feel special every time he drove it.

Utility mattered. So did personality.

If it looks capable

It should be capable.

The tire had to fit while the suspension was doing its job—not merely while the car sat in the parking lot.

Chalk layout for the Beachster fender opening — Mark the tire envelope.

Cardboard template for Beachster rear fender — Resolve the shape in cardboard.

Cut and reinforced Beachster wheel arch — Cut, then restore structure.

Raw metal Beachster front fender — Build the final opening in steel.

Welding the Beachster steel fender flare — Heavy steel flares were integrated into properly reinforced openings—not used to hide cut sheet metal.

Beachster suspension and brake build detail — Modified Koni dampers, taller softer springs and adjustable perches balanced lift with usable travel.

Built around the car

Structure, protection and visibility.

Every major exterior piece was designed around Beachster's mission and attached to the chassis as real hardware.

Finished Beachster suspension in use — Finished suspension at work.

Beachster bumper tube layout — Front bumper tube layout.

Beachster rock-slider armor — Chassis-mounted rock protection.

Beachster skid plate and underbody protection — Underbody protection.

A completely new face.

The bulky factory headlights occupied valuable wheel-well space, so they went away. Compact Hella components created low beams, high beams, halos, turn signals and navigation-inspired red and green markers while leaving room for the large auxiliary lamps that define the finished car.

Hella lighting mockup for Beachster — Package the new lamps.

Custom fabricated Beachster lamp panel — Fabricate a modular panel.

Finished Hella-based Beachster lighting — Resolve it as a finished identity.

Utility was the assignment

A cargo problem became a Paco solution.

Even the rear rack became a one-off design when the obvious answer didn't meet the standard for usefulness or finish.

Spare tire and trunk packaging test for Beachster — Define the packaging problem.

Raw Beachster cargo rack mockup — Mock up the main structure.

Nested dual Beachster cargo racks installed — Add flexible nested capacity.

Finished Beachster cargo rack — Finish it as part of the vehicle.

Beachster in use at an outdoor event — A utility vehicle people actually want to gather around.

After a Florida shakedown, Beachster shipped to its intended home in the Virgin Islands. Years later, Fred still says the same thing: it works, he loves it, and everybody there loves it too.

Beachster as the starting reference for the Dubai project

Finished Simba photographed in the studio

The handoff

Then an email arrived from Dubai.

Chapter three · Dubai / Tanzania

Simba

Engineered for Tanzania. Built in Dubai.

A different mission.

Early in 2024, Marwan contacted Paco after discovering Beachster. He didn't just want a lifted ND. He wanted his own Beachster-inspired build for relatively high-speed travel across harsh terrain in Tanzania.

Extreme climate, rough terrain, inconsistent fuel quality and distance from easy repairs made reliability part of every decision.

Sometimes engineering means saying no.

Additional differential cooling was considered, for example. But a low-mounted cooler would add a vulnerable line and heat exchanger where rocks or debris could turn a durability upgrade into catastrophic lubricant loss in the wilderness.

So we didn't add it.

The Mazda MX-5 RF donor vehicle that became Simba — The starting point in Dubai.

Red Paco Motorsports brake caliper detail for Simba — Components were selected, prepared and consolidated for the build.

From Kentucky to Dubai

An engineering foundation, executed thousands of miles away.

Paco prepared the package. A highly capable Dubai fabrication team fitted, welded, finished and personalized the vehicle.

Much of Simba's architecture came directly from Beachster. Paco supplied laser-cut and formed sheet metal, pre-bent tube, major components, U.S. parts sourcing, wheel and tire preparation, Beachster build documentation and remote technical support. These were not finished bolt-on parts: the remaining work demanded skilled fitting, trimming, bending and welding on the vehicle.

Taped fender layout for Simba — Lay out the wheel opening.

Raw metal Simba fender fabrication — Fit the steel structure.

Simba front bumper tube structure — Build the protective architecture.

Simba front cooling package during fabrication — Protect airflow and serviceability.

Finished Hella lighting system on Simba — Resolve the Beachster-derived Hella lighting into Simba's own face.

One very large pallet.

Paco became the U.S. staging point for the project—consolidating Paco components and parts from other American suppliers, mounting and balancing the wheel and tire package, and preparing the shipment. The suspension combined Paco lift engineering with premium Fox dampers produced for Flyin' Miata.