Mazda has finally announced how much it will charge for the 2016 MX-5 Miata Cup race car, the factory track animal that will compete in the brand's newly global MX-5 Cup racing series. Before we reveal the price, keep in mind that this is a one-stop-shop race car, an MX-5 fully outfitted with a safety cage, racing brakes and suspension, and stripped of all unnecessary hardware while being fully compliant with MX-5 Cup rules, as well as remaining eligible for SCCA club races and NASA racing. You ready?

The Miata race car will cost $53,000, or $27,265 more than a base, street-legal 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sport. Keep in mind, however, that the Miata Cup car comes with a full complement of track safety gear, an optimized suspension, tires and wheels, and a sealed engine, differential, transmission, and ECU. Racing teams and drivers intent on competing in the MX-5 Cup racing series need only provide their own racing seat, a choice Mazda acknowledges differs among racers "due to varying customer preference." Given that used Spec Miata race cars can run more than $40,000, $53K for a brand-spanking-new 2016 model fully outfitted for racing seems like a steal.

Mazda doesn't assemble the cars itself, instead sending new-from-the-factory rides to Long Road Racing in North Carolina, a shop that performs the final conversion. Even though Mazda's director of motorsports, John Doonan, expects "to sell out of the first batch of cars rapidly," the Mazdaspeed website (through which you can order one of the cars, provided you've expressed intent to race in the Cup series—more amateur prospective buyers will need to wait until a later date to place their orders) declares that Long Road Racing will "build as many MX-5 Cup cars as we have orders." As if the near-term awesomeness of a well-organized and affordable single-make sports-car racing series isn't tempting enough, the cars also could have some future collectability due to their serialized components, which should help trace their history decades down the road.

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