What happens when 'what if...?' meets opportunity and boredom coming the other way?
From a scratty set of old daisies...
Well, the frustration of having lovely weather and a roadster in the garage I can't actually use has had colourful results. You'll by now be fed up of me wittering on about going back to 14-inch 'daisies' having run it for a while on the 15-inch OZs, the main issue being that my vast collection of 14s didn't quite match up. Some had an additional reinforcing web on the back of the spoke, some didn't. And I couldn't quite muster a full set of identical, dent-free examples until official Haymarket MX-5 fixer James Hayward sourced me some somewhat wilted daisies for a bargain price. They were scuffed, dirty and kerbed but that didn't matter as they'd be getting a refurb.
And then a thought popped into my head. Always a dangerous thing. My silver Eunos is, frankly, a bit dull to look at. Mariner Blue would've been my first choice but there's already one of those in the family and, frankly, the priority in the selection process was based on finding a car without any flaky orange 'trim' in the sills. So I started thinking about livening it up a bit. I did ponder an Ecurie Francorchamps style yellow stripe across the bonnet. And then with the pending wheel refurb considered this. I can't honestly say where I found the 'inspiration' but as you can see I've gone with it. And it was a fiver a wheel less than any other colour, I'm guessing because my man probably had a load of orange powder coat knocking about and little demand. Can't think why.
...to something rather more, er, colourful
I was going to go with an industrial powder coaters nearby, £35 a wheel sounding cheap plus a tenner for cleaning up damage. But then Max Powder in Hemel were going to ask the same for a full refurb, and they're wheel specialists. No brainer.
You'll notice they're missing a fairly important finishing touch though.
Tyred out
Teacher brother has had his '5 long enough to go through several sets of tyres, his previous Goodyear Eagle F1s and Toyo CF1s both doing the grip thing rather well but not so keen on the slip bit. And when it did happen the transition was a bit sudden. He's since switched to Yokohama C.Drive 2s, which he says are much more progressive and his favourite so far.
Seeing as the whole point of going back to the daisies was to reduce unsprung weight, restore balance and offset the firmer side of the P5 springs and dampers on rough roads I wanted a tyre with the degree of adjustability (that's a diplomatic description...) of the Tigar ditch finders fitted before. But a chance of being able to stop on wet roads. Call me fussy.
Some dream of a perfect fleet - Dan's got his
There followed a carefully phrased chat with PH friends Dunlop. Can we try some 185/60R14 tyres? Yes. Great ... what's your ... least grippy option? The SP Sport FastResponse and SP Sport01 sounded like they'd easily win the fight over a 20-year-old 1.6-litre Mazda engine so I've instead gone for the eco option, the Sport BluResponse. My inspiration here is the Toyota GT86 and its use of Prius tyres to engineer a bit of exploitable movement into the chassis while sticking with quality rubber from a proper brand. Fun as the Tigars were.
And as proved with the Megane, a smaller, lighter wheel and a tyre with a bit more sidewall can work wonders, at least on the road. With little over 100hp I don't see much point in loads of grip and I'm hoping this minimal rubber, combined with the brilliant P5 dampers and inherent poise will prove to be a winning combination. Whether the same can be said of bright orange wheels is another matter. Those sirens in the background? That'll be the style police on their way...
Fact sheet:
Car: 1993 Eunos Roadster (JDM import model)
Run by: Dan Trent
Bought: January 2011
Purchase price: £1,250
Last month at a glance: Boredom and an obliging wheel refurber have colourful results