RE: BBR spices up MX-5 1.8

RE: BBR spices up MX-5 1.8

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Discussion

anything fast

983 posts

163 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Looks like a great idea, till you realise you can buy a nice Honda S2000 or even a decent Boxter for about £6000!

Prawnboy

1,326 posts

146 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Like everyone else i would say that over 10k is stretching even man maths to breaking point.

where as this.... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C337830 will work for a second car

eg2

3 posts

152 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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I'm sure Skuzzle in Winchester could do the same standard of work for a lot less than 6k...

j_s14a

863 posts

177 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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jacjac said:
despite all the many good bits, will always have a dubious image. Instead I bought this:
A car with a more dubious image.

GTiFrank

625 posts

183 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Am I right in thinking none of the 1.8 models come with a LSD as stock? You would definately want one with this much power and driftability. Could easily see this as a 13k car to get properly sorted.

Rob_the_Sparky

1,000 posts

237 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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How about this


GTiFrank

625 posts

183 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Am I right in thinking none of the 1.8 models come with a LSD as stock? You would definately want one with this much power and driftability. Could easily see this as a 13k car to get properly sorted.

aka_kerrly

12,415 posts

209 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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F1GTRUeno said:


That really looks fantastic to me.
Yep I like that, the dark wheels & lowered suspension really help, as does a supercharger. If I'm honest the only MX5 I would consider would have to have forced induction of some description.

But standard


Just look at that arch gap combined with those alloys - not good at all!

AlexRWD

1,254 posts

236 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Rob_the_Sparky said:
How about this
Definitely more tempting than the MX5 conversion!

V8RX7

26,741 posts

262 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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I'm a huge MX5 fan and run a Mk1 Supercharged car with 210bhp that is worth perhaps £4,500, to me that makes sense but a supercharged MX5 at £12k - no - you are against a LOT of good cars.

Albeit I'd suggest none are more fun AND reliable, practical and well built.

IE a TVR is as much fun but isn't reliable nor well built (yes I've had loads)

A Boxster / Z4 are better built but not as much fun.


Trevor M

57 posts

144 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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The market for this conversion is obviously people who already own an MX-5 and have done some wheel suspension and exhaust and maybe brake upgrades already and who have thought a lot about a power upgrade but didn't want a turbo. So what a used MX-5 base car costs on the market is rather irrelevant. If you've had an MX-5 for a long time, you don't care about any negative image perception, and no doubt the price for this conversion will not be all that outrageous because your initial investment is effectively zero in a typical pistonhead man mind trick.

Steve vRS

4,829 posts

240 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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GTiFrank said:
Am I right in thinking none of the 1.8 models come with a LSD as stock? You would definately want one with this much power and driftability. Could easily see this as a 13k car to get properly sorted.
Pretty sure that it is only the 2L cars that come with an LSD.

Steve


JudgeMental

7,251 posts

232 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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986 Boxster S. 6 sp manual 252BHP 0-60 5.8 162mph, Standard insurance. £6k

tommy vercetti

11,486 posts

162 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Like the rear of that, but in the second picture, the gap between tyre and arch is too much

V8RX7

26,741 posts

262 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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JudgeMental said:
986 Boxster S. 6 sp manual 252BHP 0-60 5.8 162mph, Standard insurance. £6k
Fast but not really fun though, you can't get the back out with a dab of the throttle nor throw it around an island etc

Completely different kind of car - also an MX5 engine will cost you maybe £1k a Boxster could cost you 7x that - and far more have let go compared to MX5s.

WarrenG

342 posts

196 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Prawnboy said:
Like everyone else i would say that over 10k is stretching even man maths to breaking point.

where as this.... http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C337830 will work for a second car
Now that, with the fensport big pulley kit and/or the rare hks 'twincharge' kit would REALLY work for me. I had a NA mk1mr2 and it was loads of fun and I always lusted after the SC version.

mmm, supercharger..... [/homer]

edwheels

256 posts

145 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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I own a bog standard 1.8 MX-5 MKIII Hard Top (Coupe) - that's a slow as they come. Good job I don't take offence with BBR calling it tedious! Admittedly it's no rocket...(my partner's BMW 120d could wipe the floor with it) but there is something about the 1.8 - it is smoother than the 2.0 and it does respond well to revs - you feel and hear much more than in other modern cars - it always feels fast enough and responsive... On the std. suspension, wheels and tyres, it does look a bit high and the wheel arches could do with filling a bit more, but the trade off is an extremely decent ride on the UK's crappy surfaced roads - it always keeps it's composure well on bumpy corners and tackles speed-humps 100 times better than my frequently grounded previous car (RX-8 231). I did 'upgrade' my MX-5 with a pro- alignment session (Wheels in Motion) to make sure it was set up right (a lot were not) - that seemed to make it feel even better. The gear change is, of course the usual MX-5 delight - and that's good as you use it a lot to keep it on-song.

Summary - on a day to day - whatever you throw at it - wherever you need to drive to basis, the std. MX-5 1.8 Coupe is almost perfect.

Tempting as it is to go from 124BHP to well over 200BHP I wouldn't do it without beefing up the suspension, brakes, wheels, rubber, (not sure about an LSD - mine certainly hasn't got one as std. and no traction control either) ... so there's a lot more cost involved therefore. I also think some of the things I like about my back to basics car would be lost. I agree with some of the others, I think a used Boxster would be a much better thing to buy for more power - it's already specc'ed up for this sort of thing. I'd choose that over an S2000 - based purely on armchair speculation and looks having never driven either.

If money was not an issue, I reckon the BBR MX5 with the right mods would make a superb track day car....



jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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Seems like a lot of money when you consider what you can get for a lot less cash.

Also thinking on resale, you've lost ££££'s on your mx5, spent 6k on a supercharger and come resale time will be lucky to see 2k of that extra spend back.

Builder

1,225 posts

241 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
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The image of any lesser car is dashed, when you pass a Vette, Porker, or Beemer on the track or a country road.

So many drive high-powered, well-handling cars, designed to compensate for a predominant lack of driver talent, that it brings me tears of joy as I drive around around them in my '97 MX5 (with a stock 1.8 engine). Because of its rigid and predictable chassis, adding 100 HP would make the MX5 faster and more capable than 90% of drivers' abilities.

Seriously, real-life driving ought to be more like flying...you would have to be certified to travel certain roads, at certain speeds, in certain cars. If that were the case, you would see a lot more folks driving 1966 VW Bugs at 50 mph.

Pardon the off-topic rant, but the little MX5 has really changed my mind about cars and proper driver knowledge. Drive one flat-out through the esses and you'll be astounded at the fun you've been missing. That said, of course I would rather drive a 458 Challenge and need to slow for the esses.

My Miata is fairly well set up for the track, with a hardtop, roll-bar, chassis bracing, anti-sway, 1" bigger front rotors (stock calipers), great pads, wheels and tires, cheap but adjustable coil-overs, brake bias control, cold air, header, seats and 6-points. It's a road-legal, OBD-2 car and gets 32 mpg.

I purchased the car two years ago next month for US$4k, with 108k miles on it, and it now has 132k miles. My mods were another $4k and I did all the labor. Since purchase, I have participated in approximately 45 track days as coach and driver. I shift at 7,200 redline all day long at the track and the only thing I do is change the oils regularly. I've gone through two sets of $700 tires (with aggressive alignment), two sets of $150 pads and one set of $120 rotors each year. Tires are Nitto NT01 225/45-15 and I like Carbotech XP8 front pads for street and track with stock rears. Trans and diff oils are changed twice per year...engine oil every two track days.

Bullet-proof dependability, excellent handling, drop-top enjoyment, great MPG, low cost-of-ownership...how do you beat that kind of bang-for-the-buck (pound)?

I would consider adding boost, but haven't seen any that don't suffer dependability issues soon after. The engine can handle it, but the trans and diff struggle. I have been seriously considering the 180HP turbo kit from Flyn'Miata.

In addition to PistonHeads, there's a very large Miata community at Miata.net, miataturbo.net, and v8miata.net with lots of great knowledge.

Edited by Builder on Tuesday 9th October 19:06


Edited by Builder on Tuesday 9th October 19:08

Hellbound

2,500 posts

175 months

Tuesday 9th October 2012
quotequote all
V8RX7 said:
JudgeMental said:
986 Boxster S. 6 sp manual 252BHP 0-60 5.8 162mph, Standard insurance. £6k
Fast but not really fun though, you can't get the back out with a dab of the throttle nor throw it around an island etc

Completely different kind of car - also an MX5 engine will cost you maybe £1k a Boxster could cost you 7x that - and far more have let go compared to MX5s.
So you've driven the BBR cars then? I'd imagine with reworked suspension along with the engine upgrades you'll be looking at a different car entirely compared with what you started with.

I'd go 987 Boxster every day of the week. You'd be an idiot not to even entertain the idea of owning one over a fettled MX5. Which, as pointed out, would be like throwing £5k down a well over two years of ownership.

Plus you're not even factoring in the ownership benefits of driving a Porsche. Jokes aside of it being a Boxster (although mute compared with an MX5!), there has to be a quantifiable benefit to having a premium badge over a Mazda.



Edited by Hellbound on Tuesday 9th October 19:31