Emme Hall's '01 Mazda MX-5 is the Gloriously Weirdest Entry at the 2024 Mint 400

Among this group of misfits in the 'Mint's' Gambler class, the phenomenal Emme Hall is the closest thing they've got to royalty. By extension, her heavily modified 2001 Mazda MX-5 NB is her chariot that she calls 'Buddy.' As her full-time gig, Hall's work as a freelance auto journalist speaks for itself. Car and Driver, MotorTrend, and Jalopnik are the most notable publications on her brag-worthy resume. But when she's not typing up test drive reviews until her eyes feel like they're bleeding, Hall's side gig as a weekend race warrior is no less impressive.

Morroco and Saudi Arabia are places Hall can claim to have raced across the sands, albeit not in the Dakar (yet). Hall's also won the iconic Rebelle Rally, the world's first and most famous women's-only off-road racing series twice. You certainly don't need those kinds of credentials to enter one of the Mint 400's seemingly endless racing classes, but it sure does help. But why an MX-5? Sure, off-road modified Miatas aren't exactly new. We've seen our fair share posted around social media, usually just built for fun and or just a cheeky joke.

But a legit race? I needed to learn more. So, I sat down with Emme the day after the race to try and understand what kind of mad lad, or in this case, a mad lass, looks at an NB MX-5 and thinks, "Mint 400 material." As it turns out, the reason for this has less to do with the car itself and more to do with the Mint 400's legit rule-less nature. "I run Buddy in the Gambler class which legitimately has no rules," Hall said of the Mint 400's particularly laid-back approach to sanctioning its racing.

"You go to the Gambler class's web page and to the rules, and there're no rules at all. Well, there are safety rules that applies to every single veicle, but there are no rules otherwise." To add to the mild confusion, the Mint 400's Gambler class is divided into two sections, the stock class and a modified class. As for what constitutes stock versus modified when the rules are this relaxed is anyone's guess. But come on, that's a pretty awesome problem to have. This year, Hall opted to move her Miata into the modified Gambler class as this year's sole entry.

But with this in mind, who in their right mind decides an NB MX-5 is an appropriate vehicle to enter America's most historic off-road race? Well, it turns out the context of Emme's racing past explains it. "I've always loved off-road racing, and I come from the air-cooled world of air-cooled Volkswagens. I raced two-seater 1600s, a little bit of class-five unlimited, and a little bit of co-driving in class 11, so I come from that kind of buggy dork world. But I also love Miatas, so why not push those two things together?" Hall said of her drive to combine two paradigms that usually have nothing to do with each other.

Of course, lifted off-road Miatas aren't anything new; we've covered more than one here at autoevolution in the past. But can we build an NB Miata that can last even a single lap of the Mint 400? Now that sounds like witchcraft. Luckily, Emme bought her Miata with one trick already up its sleeve. "When I bought Buddy, he already had a really great starter lift kit on it, but it wasn't desert-worthy at all. There's a company called Paco Motorsports that does a really good basic lift kit where you can still use the stock shocks, so you don't have to invest in any other suspension components."

In short, the starter mods done before Emme bought Buddy were sufficient for back-road hooning but not much beyond. "So I took that base Paco lift kit, and then I put on a rally cross kit that came with different mounting points for the front and rear suspension that came with KONI coilovers. And again, that's a step up, and it was great for figuring out what the car could do. I raced the Mint last year in that configuration, but I will say that the mounts broke and there were cracks, when you mount stuff to a unibody like that, it's just not going to be strong enough," Hall said of her experience racing buddy before this year's Mint 400.

If Buddy were called upon to race any further than one Mint 400 lap, chances are good the car would've fallen apart fairly promptly. Or, as Emme put it, Buddy would've "exploded everything." This time around, Buddy's rocking a slightly different setup. One is anchored by a set of Fox 2.0 off-road shocks with Hyperco springs and sitting on 3D-printed bump stocks from Perry Parts at all four corners. By all measures, this is a more aggressive and race-worthy setup than what Buddy was racing last year. Legit suspension mounts and upper control arms from Chromaly are sure to give the NB Miata's unibody frame some much-needed respite.

When rubber meets the trail, all this hardware is made to work harmoniously thanks to a set of beefy 29-inch BF Goodrich KO2 T/A tires and 15-inch steel wheels from Basset. Ironically enough, BFG is the primary sponsor for this year's race. Add on a custom skid plate Mastercraft five-point harness, and Buddy looks just as race-ready as any million-dollar trophy truck racing alongside it. It isn't quite that built up, but hey, if looks could kill this, Miata would be serving a life sentence.

Unfortunately, the downside of all these modifications is a catastrophic hit to the Miata's historically excellent power-to-weight ratio. But this being the gambler class, Hall was free to do whatever the heck she wanted to fix the problem. This includes fitting a Jackson Racing supercharger to the NB Miata's stock 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine with a stage 1 clutch in order to jet around 135 horsepower to the tires. With this setup in mind, Hall was happy to find that her Miata did what she wanted it to do "nine times out of ten" out on the racing circuit. Which, by her own admission, is nothing short of a miracle.

Sadly, a lack of more suspension travel prevents anything crazier from being modified on Buddy's behalf as far as the drivetrain is concerned. But at the end of the day, all this little car had to do was finish one grueling lap before being declared the winner of its class, effectively by default. Considering the number of smiles per gallon acquired along the way, we don't think you'll find a human being on planet Earth who wasn't impressed or even downright flabbergasted with Buddy's performance on the sands of the Nevada desert that afternoon.

That said, when asked by Mint 400's administration whether she'd like to try two laps instead of one this year, she was well aware of her precious Buddy's limits and opted not to watch her pride and joy disintegrate across the sand. As for Buddy's future, Emme reckons her pride and joy off-road racer is more suited for smaller,
more balanced races taking place at the starting infield for the Mint 400 in Primm, Nevada, a series that generally takes place once or twice a year.

But do you see a resounding theme for Buddy over the course of hearing its story? It's that even a humble auto journalist who's by no means a pro driver can spend minimal money and have more fun in the span of an hour or so than most have in ten years. It's just another feather in the cap of who can be rightly declared the Queen of the Mint 400 Gambler class. Congratulations to Emme Hall and her team on another amazing race. Here's hoping they can weld up all the bent metal underneath without dropping $300 grand like the trophy truck racers have to do. Chances are, they'll undercut that by at least 90 percent, if not even cheaper. God, I love the Mint 400.