My first car - 1996 VR Ltd 1.8 Combination A
Discussion
Schmeeky said:
Just seen this Chris Harris video on the MX5 - and he's driving a VR Ltd just like mine! 
I thought it was the same car when I saw your car elsehwere on here earlier!dxg said:
That's my very car. I'm not the guy in the video, though. I bought it off him.
When? Recently I presume?Glad your enjoying your car, it really was a pleasure to work on. Wishbones, sills and floorpan all very clean and corrosion free (mechanic's dream)
This setup is a fairly conservative fast road setup, like any good alignment centre we customise our setups around our customer. This is Schmeeky's first RWD car so this setup will be safe and predictable, it can easily be tweaked at a later date if needed.
MX-5 Lazza said:
Is that rear toe out? I thought that was a no-no on MX5s...
No thats a small amount of toe in, both front and rear. Negative toe would be toe out.This setup is a fairly conservative fast road setup, like any good alignment centre we customise our setups around our customer. This is Schmeeky's first RWD car so this setup will be safe and predictable, it can easily be tweaked at a later date if needed.
Edited by frazbomb on Tuesday 5th February 23:39
Sure? I thought negative toe was toe-out (as is suggested by the image - the arrows are outside of the centre marks).
http://www.yospeed.com/100304-wheel-alignment-expl...
http://www.yospeed.com/100304-wheel-alignment-expl...
MX-5 Lazza said:
Sure? I thought negative toe was toe-out (as is suggested by the image - the arrows are outside of the centre marks).
http://www.yospeed.com/100304-wheel-alignment-expl...
Yes very sure, we've been setting up race & road cars for over 5 years. We have ran front running MA5DA race cars for three years, I think we're pretty qualified on this subject.http://www.yospeed.com/100304-wheel-alignment-expl...
Negative toe is toe out, yes. However as the figures clearly show the car has a very small amount of Toe In, there is no minus sign in front of the figures.
On the image of the setup, look at the numbers and not the green bars. The centre of the green bars is centre of the base line spec's that we enter, we then tweak around that to suit the customer. We could just edit the base spec's and this would centralise the green bars, but what's the point, lol.
Just had my best drive out ever! 
I had an errand to run in town, and after I'd done that I thought that as it's a lovely bright spring day, I'd go and do the run over the top of Caldbeck Fell. Coming off the fell there was a sign saying Keswick 12miles, so I thought, I know, I'll go there and have a bacon butty at the Filling Station Cafe.
The butty was delicious, lovely thick bacon in a soft bap, and lashings of tommy ketch!
Then I thought, the Honister Pass is just the other side of Keswick, lets go do that! Lovely little windy roads, and for once very little traffic!
At the Honister Slate Mine.
Along the bottom of the valley.
Along the way I made a new friend! linky
Obviously a horse of great taste, he gave the car a close inspection, but seemed to disapprove of how dirty it is - he spent a good 5mins attempting lick it clean! He did a really sloppy job though..
Coming back down towards Keswick, Derwent Water in the distance.
As you can see, fabulous weather here today, glad I made the most of it!
I had an errand to run in town, and after I'd done that I thought that as it's a lovely bright spring day, I'd go and do the run over the top of Caldbeck Fell. Coming off the fell there was a sign saying Keswick 12miles, so I thought, I know, I'll go there and have a bacon butty at the Filling Station Cafe.
The butty was delicious, lovely thick bacon in a soft bap, and lashings of tommy ketch!
Then I thought, the Honister Pass is just the other side of Keswick, lets go do that! Lovely little windy roads, and for once very little traffic!
At the Honister Slate Mine.
Along the bottom of the valley.
Along the way I made a new friend! linky
Obviously a horse of great taste, he gave the car a close inspection, but seemed to disapprove of how dirty it is - he spent a good 5mins attempting lick it clean! He did a really sloppy job though..
Coming back down towards Keswick, Derwent Water in the distance.
As you can see, fabulous weather here today, glad I made the most of it!
Nowt major to report, apart from I've got all the horse slaver off, given her a good wash and polish.
Shiney!
Mind you, the wheels look fine in that shot - up close they don't look as good. The surface is a bit rough and there's all sorts of dirt trapped in the roughness that's difficult to get out...
Also, recently my mum told me one of her friends is married to an ex-police driving instructor, and that he'd heard about my car, and is willing to give me an observed drive. He phoned tonight to organise the time. I am well chuffed! I passed my test in 2003, and haven't done a huge amount of driving since (it's been all motorbikes) so getting a heads up on any bad practices I've got into and general tips is great.
Shiney!
Mind you, the wheels look fine in that shot - up close they don't look as good. The surface is a bit rough and there's all sorts of dirt trapped in the roughness that's difficult to get out...
Also, recently my mum told me one of her friends is married to an ex-police driving instructor, and that he'd heard about my car, and is willing to give me an observed drive. He phoned tonight to organise the time. I am well chuffed! I passed my test in 2003, and haven't done a huge amount of driving since (it's been all motorbikes) so getting a heads up on any bad practices I've got into and general tips is great.
Cheers Vlad! 
Getting feedback of any kind is good, but I'm really chuffed that so many people have said it's an interesting blog! 
I'm a smidge under six foot tall, and it's not a problem of my knees interfering with the wheel, more like my hands hitting my knees as I'm turning the wheel. It's not happened much - in general driving there's no problem at all - but when it has happened it's been when I could have really done without it, like when I need to get some lock on pretty quickly...
When I'm out driving now I'm using a small fraction of my attention to keep an eye on what's going on with hands, legs and wheel, but I ain't come to any conclusion yet..
There seem to be lots of guys driving '5s who are taller than me and they have no problems, so maybe it's just something I'm doing wrong, that or I just have odd bodily proportions!
On a more general note, I am hugely enjoying every aspect of owning this machine. Even the couple of large bills I've had, I've enjoyed paying them. Mainly because they were quantum steps up in the overall quality of the car. But even the little things have been brilliant as well, e.g. £20 on new wipers. It went from not working very well and squealing to being really smooth, having crystal clear vision, and the added bonus of a little spoiler type thing on the driver's side wiper!
Even the daily drive to work is fun. It's 30mph all the way and there's not much in the way of corners, but I'm in a sports car while all the others are in their Fords and SUVs and MPVs and I could take the roof off if I wanted!
I really could witter on all night about how good it all is, but that leads me another point - just why is owning and running a car like this so good for the soul? I'll spare you my philosophising (I can hear the sighs of relief from here!
), but I'm seriously interested in why a lump of metal, plastic, leather and rubber can invoke such feeling in someone.....
Getting feedback of any kind is good, but I'm really chuffed that so many people have said it's an interesting blog! I'm a smidge under six foot tall, and it's not a problem of my knees interfering with the wheel, more like my hands hitting my knees as I'm turning the wheel. It's not happened much - in general driving there's no problem at all - but when it has happened it's been when I could have really done without it, like when I need to get some lock on pretty quickly...
When I'm out driving now I'm using a small fraction of my attention to keep an eye on what's going on with hands, legs and wheel, but I ain't come to any conclusion yet..
There seem to be lots of guys driving '5s who are taller than me and they have no problems, so maybe it's just something I'm doing wrong, that or I just have odd bodily proportions!
On a more general note, I am hugely enjoying every aspect of owning this machine. Even the couple of large bills I've had, I've enjoyed paying them. Mainly because they were quantum steps up in the overall quality of the car. But even the little things have been brilliant as well, e.g. £20 on new wipers. It went from not working very well and squealing to being really smooth, having crystal clear vision, and the added bonus of a little spoiler type thing on the driver's side wiper!
Even the daily drive to work is fun. It's 30mph all the way and there's not much in the way of corners, but I'm in a sports car while all the others are in their Fords and SUVs and MPVs and I could take the roof off if I wanted!
I really could witter on all night about how good it all is, but that leads me another point - just why is owning and running a car like this so good for the soul? I'll spare you my philosophising (I can hear the sighs of relief from here!
), but I'm seriously interested in why a lump of metal, plastic, leather and rubber can invoke such feeling in someone..... kazman said:
I'm 6'3" and fit in pretty good with the foamectomy mod... A smaller steering wheel probably would be a nice touch though.
I've got a 300mm omp wheel. They show up on eBay for cheap every so often. I can't see the dials between 9 and 3 but I use a gps speedo anyways. The wheel feels great, a nice weight and directness to it. Definitely worth trying out!
As an aside, the nardi stud pattern is weird and only nardi wheels (and one other make, I think) fit. If you don't have a momo boss, try and find one at a breakers - let's you try out a lot more wheels.
From what I remember of my vr limited, the second momo wheel is some weird uni body construction.
Been a little while since I updated this, and to be honest I've not done a huge amount with the car, apart from drive it at every opportunity!
The new suspension is a genuine revelation, now it's settled in and I'm familiar with it it truly is like a different car. Some folk might say I was mad to spend 1/2 the price I paid for the car on buying and fitting it, but she feels so planted and secure now - whereas before she was skittish and felt pretty damn dodgy at speed... Deffo money well spent.
Getting clear vision has been a bit of an issue - first it was the misting problem solved by the £5 bag of cat litter, then the wipers being useless, then more recently it's been the windscreen wash being pathetic. I thought it was the nozzles being blocked, so spent ages on ebay looking for a cheap replacement, with no joy. Even did a 40 mile round trip to a Halfords store in another town when their website said they had a set of universal chromed washer nozzles in stock. They didn't, as some low-life scum had pinched them. Was a nice drive though! Eventually I threw £30 at MX5parts.com for new Mazda nozzles. Job done I hear you say! No such luck - the glistening dew falling from a rose petal hits the ground with more force than my shiny new nozzles could produce... 
A few days later, I noticed the nearside nozzle was standing proud of the bonnet, which seemed slightly bizarre. So I investigated, and found all was not well with the washer fluid delivery piping...
Namely this...
How the frikin' bleeding hell had that got into that state???? I'd thought that there was maybe a small crack somewhere in the system, but half of the bloody component just plain missing!?!?!? Amazing...
Good news is, for the exorbitant cost of £5, a tiny piece of plastic from MX5parts.com has totally sorted out the problem, and when I pull the left hand stalk a veritable Niagara pressure washes any dirt away before the wipers can get at it!
The other thing of note to have happened is that I've been out for an assessment drive with an ex-police instructor! My mum and his wife are friends, and long and short of it is he said he'd take me out for a drive. He was interested to see my car, and I was interested in finding out if I'd picked up any bad habits in the 20yrs since I'd taken my test. Being a biker and doing 2 BikeSafe courses has helped, but there were a few issues, and I'm very happy these have been brought to my attention.
I've owned this lovely machine for just over 3 months now, and the more I drive her and the better I get to know her, the better it gets.
My wallet may be empty, but my heart is full.
The new suspension is a genuine revelation, now it's settled in and I'm familiar with it it truly is like a different car. Some folk might say I was mad to spend 1/2 the price I paid for the car on buying and fitting it, but she feels so planted and secure now - whereas before she was skittish and felt pretty damn dodgy at speed... Deffo money well spent.
Getting clear vision has been a bit of an issue - first it was the misting problem solved by the £5 bag of cat litter, then the wipers being useless, then more recently it's been the windscreen wash being pathetic. I thought it was the nozzles being blocked, so spent ages on ebay looking for a cheap replacement, with no joy. Even did a 40 mile round trip to a Halfords store in another town when their website said they had a set of universal chromed washer nozzles in stock. They didn't, as some low-life scum had pinched them. Was a nice drive though!
Eventually I threw £30 at MX5parts.com for new Mazda nozzles. Job done I hear you say! No such luck - the glistening dew falling from a rose petal hits the ground with more force than my shiny new nozzles could produce... A few days later, I noticed the nearside nozzle was standing proud of the bonnet, which seemed slightly bizarre. So I investigated, and found all was not well with the washer fluid delivery piping...
Namely this...
How the frikin' bleeding hell had that got into that state???? I'd thought that there was maybe a small crack somewhere in the system, but half of the bloody component just plain missing!?!?!? Amazing...
Good news is, for the exorbitant cost of £5, a tiny piece of plastic from MX5parts.com has totally sorted out the problem, and when I pull the left hand stalk a veritable Niagara pressure washes any dirt away before the wipers can get at it!
The other thing of note to have happened is that I've been out for an assessment drive with an ex-police instructor! My mum and his wife are friends, and long and short of it is he said he'd take me out for a drive. He was interested to see my car, and I was interested in finding out if I'd picked up any bad habits in the 20yrs since I'd taken my test. Being a biker and doing 2 BikeSafe courses has helped, but there were a few issues, and I'm very happy these have been brought to my attention.
I've owned this lovely machine for just over 3 months now, and the more I drive her and the better I get to know her, the better it gets.
My wallet may be empty, but my heart is full.
Edited by Schmeeky on Tuesday 5th March 21:39
Hi Mike,
I think your blog is the perfect advert for MX5 ownership.
I'm pleased you are enjoying the car so much as I know you were apprehensive about buying it. And I think you're right about justifying the expense of new suspension. Its a lot of dosh but the transformation is massive (I have a similar set-up on mine) and the chassis is now well and truly capable of handling so much more power.
And thats where it gets really expensive...
I think your blog is the perfect advert for MX5 ownership.
I'm pleased you are enjoying the car so much as I know you were apprehensive about buying it. And I think you're right about justifying the expense of new suspension. Its a lot of dosh but the transformation is massive (I have a similar set-up on mine) and the chassis is now well and truly capable of handling so much more power.
And thats where it gets really expensive...
It's been a while since I've updated, mainly because the kitty is empty and I haven't been able to do any improvements that would warrant a post. Most of my money seems to go on petrol these days - I'm getting out there and driving as much as I can, and needless to say, I'm loving every minute of it. Especially as the weather is warming up a bit! Brass monkey open top driving has an attraction all of it's own, but it's also pretty damn fine when it's warm open top driving!
And today - a really bonny lass in a black Fiesta wound her window down to say 'Cool car, friend' as we were waiting for traffic lights to change...
Made my day....
And today - a really bonny lass in a black Fiesta wound her window down to say 'Cool car, friend' as we were waiting for traffic lights to change...
Made my day....
Hmm I've just sold my VR ltd comb A , was a lovely car ,sold it to a collector who has a stable of over exptic 20 cars and loves it to bits ,which is nice .Good examples are hard to come by . I got mine from
Steve Bloxham of Goodwood sports cars ,can't recommend him highly enough ,real top bloke in every regard.
If I was buying another Eunos I wouldn't go anywhere else To be honest .
Steve Bloxham of Goodwood sports cars ,can't recommend him highly enough ,real top bloke in every regard.
If I was buying another Eunos I wouldn't go anywhere else To be honest .
As the local bird population have been using my '5 for bombing practice and it was looking a fine day, this morning I got all my cleaning gear out. My intention was to give the roof a good clean, then after it had dried give it a couple of coats of waterproofer.
So, I got the roof cleaner on, and while waiting for it to do its stuff washed the bodywork and wonder wheels'd the, erm, wheels! Gave it all a good rinse and waited for it to dry. Then as I'm getting the waterproofer ready, out of nowhere the heavens open with a massive hailstorm!
At least the car's clean and shiny again tho!
So, I got the roof cleaner on, and while waiting for it to do its stuff washed the bodywork and wonder wheels'd the, erm, wheels! Gave it all a good rinse and waited for it to dry. Then as I'm getting the waterproofer ready, out of nowhere the heavens open with a massive hailstorm!
At least the car's clean and shiny again tho!
Schmeeky said:
A little progress report..
Mostly I've been driving and enjoying, but I've done a few small jobs, most of which concern visibility.
The wipers were shot, noisy and juddery, not doing what they were supposed to. The new ones glide across the screen and actually get rid of rain! A small mod, but makes the world of difference. And as a newby to the world of car ownership, very satisfying. Take old part off, (when I'd worked out how they were fixed ), put new part on, things work as they should!
Second visibility problem was loads of interior misting, a proper ball-ache in the morning. After a little research, the answer seemed to be - cat litter! Where I work is 2 doors down from Pets At Home, so I went along thinking I was looking for a bag of grey dusty stuff - and found a large bag of what is basically pure silca gel! £4.75. Result! Found a pair of socks that match my interior, filled 'em and sewed them up, and I've been totally mist free since.
Saving best till last, I've just ordered my new suspension! Am proper chuffed as it was a part of a group buy over on MX5Nutz and got £100 off the price! Another result! Should be getting some MeisterR Zeta S's through the letter box soon, and the 4x4 look my '5 is currently sporting will be banished!
I want to get the bushes done at the same time, but my research hasn't come up with a definitive answer to what is the best solution - what do you guys recommend in the way of good bushes?
If your still getting a bit of interior misting, use some some cheap shaving foam on the inside of your windows it works a treat.Mostly I've been driving and enjoying, but I've done a few small jobs, most of which concern visibility.
The wipers were shot, noisy and juddery, not doing what they were supposed to. The new ones glide across the screen and actually get rid of rain!
A small mod, but makes the world of difference. And as a newby to the world of car ownership, very satisfying. Take old part off, (when I'd worked out how they were fixed ), put new part on, things work as they should! Second visibility problem was loads of interior misting, a proper ball-ache in the morning. After a little research, the answer seemed to be - cat litter! Where I work is 2 doors down from Pets At Home, so I went along thinking I was looking for a bag of grey dusty stuff - and found a large bag of what is basically pure silca gel! £4.75. Result! Found a pair of socks that match my interior, filled 'em and sewed them up, and I've been totally mist free since.
Saving best till last, I've just ordered my new suspension! Am proper chuffed as it was a part of a group buy over on MX5Nutz and got £100 off the price! Another result!
Should be getting some MeisterR Zeta S's through the letter box soon, and the 4x4 look my '5 is currently sporting will be banished! I want to get the bushes done at the same time, but my research hasn't come up with a definitive answer to what is the best solution - what do you guys recommend in the way of good bushes?
Vince70 said:
If your still getting a bit of interior misting, use some some cheap shaving foam on the inside of your windows it works a treat.
Funnily enough, today is the first time I've noticed any misting since I installed those silica gel-filled socks. I think the gel is 'full', so have put them in the airing cupboard to dry 'em out. killingjoker said:
Nice ride mate. Love the colour. Some "Squeaky Clean" class cleaner will do your rear window a treat.
Just a word of warning, they are addictive. Now my wife and i have one each, and are looking to get another. No reason. We are just MX5 addicts!
Enjoy.
Cheers KJ! Just tried some glass cleaner on the rear window, and it's made a definite improvement! Ta! Just a word of warning, they are addictive. Now my wife and i have one each, and are looking to get another. No reason. We are just MX5 addicts!
Enjoy.
Wasn't your fancy 'Squeaky Clean' stuff though, just Morrison's own brand! 
I'm loving almost every minute of '5 ownership - the one bit I've not liked so far is getting caught in a vicious hailstorm just now - hailstones to the face @ 50mph bloody hurts!
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