LOH's MX5 diaries....
Discussion
great deal you got there. they are great cars and I bought my mk3 on a stop gap punt and 3 years later I still have it.
Those who like posing do not like mx-5's, those who actually like to drive or learn to drive properly love it.
I have a lot of respect for these cars, taught me about RWD, Oversteer and drifting and above all made me appreciate driving once again on our crowded crumbling british roads.
Market for mods is vast and is generally reasonably priced.
With the current weather, enjoy!
Those who like posing do not like mx-5's, those who actually like to drive or learn to drive properly love it.
I have a lot of respect for these cars, taught me about RWD, Oversteer and drifting and above all made me appreciate driving once again on our crowded crumbling british roads.
Market for mods is vast and is generally reasonably priced.
With the current weather, enjoy!
A little Sunday morning update.....
Many thanks for all the kind words on the car and especially for wolveswill above for posting the picture of his, after this I'll be PMing you to ask more questions!
I've been meaning to update the the thread for the last couple of weeks but two things have stopped me, I've been busy at work and any spare time, well I've just been enjoying the car! It might not sound like much but the odo's gone past 500 miles already, now considring the MINI GP was sold with 10k miles on it after 2 & a bit years (of which we probably did way more than 5k miles on euro road trips) and I'm starting to just enjoy taking the car for a blast every now and again
As previously posted, I've unfortunately become one of those people who modifies MX5s, I think the problem might be everything is so cheap you just might as well. First course was to get the 4x4 ride height dropped, sod the driving dynamics it just looked plain wrong.
I'm actually quite wary of modifying cars, I know lots of people do it but having seen how cars perform on track I do find that you run the risk of chasing your tail-change one thing and it simply alters the dynamics of the car to move the focus onto another part thT you then need to change, a little bit of this has kept in on my car if I'm honest
So, the ride height! I'd covered around 40 miles in the car when I put it away in the garage to go on holiday and whilst checking my emails on the sun lounger an email had popped through from mx5parts.com about a Easter discount code-I figured why not?! A quick phone call and I'd purchased some eibach -35mm springs, some up rated and stiffened anti-roll bars and some adjustable anti roll bar drop links.
I know an ex-head mechanic from mazda so the car was booked into Harpers of Carlsile (a vag specialist) where Richard now works for the necessary to be done When the day came along we were in the middle of our northern summer so I took the car round a favourite route (it takes in hartside) to make sure I could feel the difference.
CarPark at the hart side cafe.
The stretch past Alston, freshly re-surfaced and really nice
All the above might not look that great but they're taken on my old iphone 4 but rest assured the weather was bloody lovely, roof down listening to the birds tweet, smelling the flowers and cut grass etc, exactly what open top motoring is about eh?
I must admit, that after doing that nice loop I was slightly worried about the suspension drop. Yes the car had that slightly floaty feel but on these type of B roads where you very rarely get above 90 it just works-works bloody well as it happens. It rides bumps and imperfections easily, has a massive degree of comfort and for the speeds the car is realistically able to achieve is pretty much perfect-Mazda's engineers might actually know their stuff!
Where it fails is in those rare moments you want to really push on. The car rolls a little too much and with it's floaty light feel you soon start to loose confidence. I've no doubt on track it would feel all at sea but if you want a car for simple Sunday B road blasts and to drive to work my advice? Don't change a thing. simply keep it below 90mph and enjoy the drive and the comfort, I doubt you'll go far wrong
I however, don't just want a car for B road blasts, so off to the shop it went
Bye bye 4x4 stance!
Many thanks for all the kind words on the car and especially for wolveswill above for posting the picture of his, after this I'll be PMing you to ask more questions!
I've been meaning to update the the thread for the last couple of weeks but two things have stopped me, I've been busy at work and any spare time, well I've just been enjoying the car! It might not sound like much but the odo's gone past 500 miles already, now considring the MINI GP was sold with 10k miles on it after 2 & a bit years (of which we probably did way more than 5k miles on euro road trips) and I'm starting to just enjoy taking the car for a blast every now and again
As previously posted, I've unfortunately become one of those people who modifies MX5s, I think the problem might be everything is so cheap you just might as well. First course was to get the 4x4 ride height dropped, sod the driving dynamics it just looked plain wrong.
I'm actually quite wary of modifying cars, I know lots of people do it but having seen how cars perform on track I do find that you run the risk of chasing your tail-change one thing and it simply alters the dynamics of the car to move the focus onto another part thT you then need to change, a little bit of this has kept in on my car if I'm honest
So, the ride height! I'd covered around 40 miles in the car when I put it away in the garage to go on holiday and whilst checking my emails on the sun lounger an email had popped through from mx5parts.com about a Easter discount code-I figured why not?! A quick phone call and I'd purchased some eibach -35mm springs, some up rated and stiffened anti-roll bars and some adjustable anti roll bar drop links.
I know an ex-head mechanic from mazda so the car was booked into Harpers of Carlsile (a vag specialist) where Richard now works for the necessary to be done
When the day came along we were in the middle of our northern summer so I took the car round a favourite route (it takes in hartside) to make sure I could feel the difference.CarPark at the hart side cafe.
The stretch past Alston, freshly re-surfaced and really nice
All the above might not look that great but they're taken on my old iphone 4 but rest assured the weather was bloody lovely, roof down listening to the birds tweet, smelling the flowers and cut grass etc, exactly what open top motoring is about eh?
I must admit, that after doing that nice loop I was slightly worried about the suspension drop. Yes the car had that slightly floaty feel but on these type of B roads where you very rarely get above 90 it just works-works bloody well as it happens. It rides bumps and imperfections easily, has a massive degree of comfort and for the speeds the car is realistically able to achieve is pretty much perfect-Mazda's engineers might actually know their stuff!
Where it fails is in those rare moments you want to really push on. The car rolls a little too much and with it's floaty light feel you soon start to loose confidence. I've no doubt on track it would feel all at sea but if you want a car for simple Sunday B road blasts and to drive to work my advice? Don't change a thing. simply keep it below 90mph and enjoy the drive and the comfort, I doubt you'll go far wrong
I however, don't just want a car for B road blasts, so off to the shop it went
Bye bye 4x4 stance!
So, something a little lower.....
I've managed to live with the changes for a few weeks and I'm pretty pleased though there is a little bit of the "chasing your tail" thing I was on about before....
Does the car look better? I think you've got to say yes
(See what we mean about the Folding hard top looking a bit squiffy compared to the soft top? It's just a bit too small for the car IMHO and actually makes the car look like an S2000 in profile to me)
It certainly hasn't made the handling worse either, though it probably hasn't really improved it that much either. In total, we fitted;
Eibach anti roll bars front and rear
Eibach -35mm lowering springs
IL Motorsports adjustable anti roll bar drop links.
This is all mounted with the standard Sport Pack Bilstien dampers and top mounts. The reason? Well, I figured that I didn't want to go all in on a high end coil over set up (though I may go there in the future) and if I'm honest I'm always a little concerned over the quality of many of the cheaper sets you find on the internet. If I did want to upgrade I the future I know that I can sell the standard dampers and lowering springs to someone wanting to upgrade a none sport model car and realistically probably not lose anything.
So what's it like? Well it looks nice obviously and the roll in corners is drastically reduced. The dampers haven't been magically improved-they still seem to have too higher amount of rebound but it's only noticeable on really rough B roads-go through a severe compression or over a harsh yump and the rear end (the front seems fine) almost pogos back up again.
I'm being ultra critical mind you, which I figure is my right seeing as I'm the one spending my hard earned.
I'm also extremely interested in exactly what it feels like on track, I suspect on a smooth twisty bit of Tarmac it will be an even better improvement than it has been on the road.
Oh, and the chasing the tail thing? Check out the photo below;
It definitely needs spacers now doesn't it?!
I've managed to live with the changes for a few weeks and I'm pretty pleased though there is a little bit of the "chasing your tail" thing I was on about before....
Does the car look better? I think you've got to say yes
(See what we mean about the Folding hard top looking a bit squiffy compared to the soft top? It's just a bit too small for the car IMHO and actually makes the car look like an S2000 in profile to me)
It certainly hasn't made the handling worse either, though it probably hasn't really improved it that much either. In total, we fitted;
Eibach anti roll bars front and rear
Eibach -35mm lowering springs
IL Motorsports adjustable anti roll bar drop links.
This is all mounted with the standard Sport Pack Bilstien dampers and top mounts. The reason? Well, I figured that I didn't want to go all in on a high end coil over set up (though I may go there in the future) and if I'm honest I'm always a little concerned over the quality of many of the cheaper sets you find on the internet. If I did want to upgrade I the future I know that I can sell the standard dampers and lowering springs to someone wanting to upgrade a none sport model car and realistically probably not lose anything.
So what's it like? Well it looks nice obviously and the roll in corners is drastically reduced. The dampers haven't been magically improved-they still seem to have too higher amount of rebound but it's only noticeable on really rough B roads-go through a severe compression or over a harsh yump and the rear end (the front seems fine) almost pogos back up again.
I'm being ultra critical mind you, which I figure is my right seeing as I'm the one spending my hard earned.
I'm also extremely interested in exactly what it feels like on track, I suspect on a smooth twisty bit of Tarmac it will be an even better improvement than it has been on the road.
Oh, and the chasing the tail thing? Check out the photo below;
It definitely needs spacers now doesn't it?!
Oh yeah, and after much faffing around looking at a million different styles, tyres and compounds I've also bought the next mod;
Yes I know white wheels run the risk of me looking like a complete t
t, but these will just be used on track (& to & from the track) and I like 'em so who cares 
Many thanks from wolveswill above for taking the time to chat about his experiences with wheels and tyres on the phone
Yes I know white wheels run the risk of me looking like a complete t
t, but these will just be used on track (& to & from the track) and I like 'em so who cares Many thanks from wolveswill above for taking the time to chat about his experiences with wheels and tyres on the phone
Small update.....
The car is going well and the partly good weather we've been enjoying oop north has helped no end
In fact, in preparation for any further road trips (ala my mini adventure thread) we actually took the car on a decent run the other week. It does the daily grind very well the little mazda, but I wasn't so sure about how we would get on with a proper road trip so in a journey we were planning on using the other halfs X1 for, I pressed the little red roadster into action. Sink or swim if you will.....
Readers of my previous thread will understand the boss doesn't pack light, but in the MX5 she doesn't have much option We've got a large Y3 hold-all that has been a godsend over the years for exactly this type of trip. It's the perfect size and has loads of compartments and it just about fits in the mazda's boot, but only if you drop it in sideways and then flip it around once in place. After that there's a few little nooks and crannies but it's fairly tight.
Ready to roll;
With work being so busy we didn't get the chance to set off until 7pm on a bank holiday weekend Friday night, which might not sound ideal but we were heading south so we managed to miss all the traffic.
We had to be in Milton Keynes by Saturday lunch time (all will become apparent) so I figured to just stop on the way down so's to end up fresh and alert at our destination. It was a warm start to the weekend so we had the roof off until Lancashire to see if the wife could get used to it. No air scarf in these little things but the seats really do go absurdly hot so she was happy enough and we had a little fun with a mk1 escort and a lotus cortina on the way down
Anyway, I'd booked into the ramada hotel at Cannock (keeping up our tradition of starting these trips in the most glamorous of surroundings) and we actually made it there just after 9pm to be able to sit down to an extremely crappy burger and chips at their fairly crappy restaurant. The hotel was modern enough and at £49 for the night it served it's purpose, but it's still a shame we get lumbered with this crap service thing in Britain-it truly pisses me off I suppose as it's the type of business I'm in. Any way, I digress.....
The car I can't complain about. Comfy enough, stick it in cruise control at an indicated 85 and away you go-computer reckoned on 35mpg as well if you're interested. I must admit there's a fair bit of road and wind noise in the thing at those speeds mind you-even more than the MINI GP if I remember correctly but I sometimes do forget, it's a cheap little sports car so I don't know what I was suspecting? Regardless, the hard top seems to make little difference over a soft top from what I've experienced.
Suitably rested, we awoke with only an hour left to drive on Saturday (this is not going to be our usual type of road trip), squeeze the hold-all into the boot (a bit of huffing and puffing), plug the iphone into the stereo to get radio 6 through the speakers and away we went.
Arriving at my uncles in perfect time for a bacon butty and to collect our tickets
More to follow.....
The car is going well and the partly good weather we've been enjoying oop north has helped no end
In fact, in preparation for any further road trips (ala my mini adventure thread) we actually took the car on a decent run the other week. It does the daily grind very well the little mazda, but I wasn't so sure about how we would get on with a proper road trip so in a journey we were planning on using the other halfs X1 for, I pressed the little red roadster into action. Sink or swim if you will.....
Readers of my previous thread will understand the boss doesn't pack light, but in the MX5 she doesn't have much option
We've got a large Y3 hold-all that has been a godsend over the years for exactly this type of trip. It's the perfect size and has loads of compartments and it just about fits in the mazda's boot, but only if you drop it in sideways and then flip it around once in place. After that there's a few little nooks and crannies but it's fairly tight.Ready to roll;
With work being so busy we didn't get the chance to set off until 7pm on a bank holiday weekend Friday night, which might not sound ideal but we were heading south so we managed to miss all the traffic.
We had to be in Milton Keynes by Saturday lunch time (all will become apparent) so I figured to just stop on the way down so's to end up fresh and alert at our destination. It was a warm start to the weekend so we had the roof off until Lancashire to see if the wife could get used to it. No air scarf in these little things but the seats really do go absurdly hot so she was happy enough and we had a little fun with a mk1 escort and a lotus cortina on the way down
Anyway, I'd booked into the ramada hotel at Cannock (keeping up our tradition of starting these trips in the most glamorous of surroundings) and we actually made it there just after 9pm to be able to sit down to an extremely crappy burger and chips at their fairly crappy restaurant. The hotel was modern enough and at £49 for the night it served it's purpose, but it's still a shame we get lumbered with this crap service thing in Britain-it truly pisses me off I suppose as it's the type of business I'm in. Any way, I digress.....
The car I can't complain about. Comfy enough, stick it in cruise control at an indicated 85 and away you go-computer reckoned on 35mpg as well if you're interested. I must admit there's a fair bit of road and wind noise in the thing at those speeds mind you-even more than the MINI GP if I remember correctly but I sometimes do forget, it's a cheap little sports car so I don't know what I was suspecting? Regardless, the hard top seems to make little difference over a soft top from what I've experienced.
Suitably rested, we awoke with only an hour left to drive on Saturday (this is not going to be our usual type of road trip), squeeze the hold-all into the boot (a bit of huffing and puffing), plug the iphone into the stereo to get radio 6 through the speakers and away we went.
Arriving at my uncles in perfect time for a bacon butty and to collect our tickets
More to follow.....
Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Monday 8th June 18:15
So a little trip away to the med had been planned, though beforehand we got to have a play in our respective motors;
Let's just say my uncle was polite about the mazda but slightly less impressed than he was with his new DBS What can I say about the car however, what a machine! Stupidly fast but also rediculously comfortable whilst being so, probably the best car I could ever imagine for doing a cross country eurohoon in.
Anyway, this time we weren't driving down to Monaco but flying so I'll try not to bore everyone with too much of that as it doesn't strictly involve the cars. We'd managed to organise a package through my uncles work contacts that meant we could fly down for the day, watch the race and then fly back-which is what we ended up doing-great fun!
We travelled down to stansted airport on the Saturday night, suitably pleased after watching qualifying for the Grand Prix to meet up with our friends from down south. We stayed at the radisson blu the night before and enjoyed a fine local curry, a few beers and an early night.
You'll know the hotel if you've stayed before, they have acrobatic girls getting bottles of wine from a glass tower for some reason-sounds stupid but is strangely interesting to watch!
The next day, we were to meet up at the harrods private terminal for champagne breakfast-this is the way to do airports! One of the reasons I love our road trips so much is it's just so much more pleasant than being shoved around in a crummy airport terminal-this was slightly different!
Once on board, there was yet more fizz waiting to get you through the 2 hour flight down to nice.
(Note the wife's Lewis Hamilton inspired nails-nice touch!)
From there we were bussed to just outside the principality where our tour guide would walk us in, I didn't take any pictures of the journey but rest assured that the coast road from Nice to Monaco is one of the prettiest stretched of coastline you could imagine-we definitely want to head back down and explore the area again.
The reason you struggle to get into the area on race days is seeing as Monaco as so tiny, by the time they close off the streets to race it just becomes gridlock, so unless you sail, train or helicopter in you've got to just walk it-no hardship seeing it was such a lovely day
Included in our package were some excellent seats that let us overlook the final straight, second to last corner and even better the pit lane. Now again, I'm not one to go to an event and spend the whole day pointing my phone at the action when I could be watching it myself so I haven't got much footage of what we saw but here's (hopefully) a quick video....
This was the cars doing their installation laps before the grid, you could really feel the tension in the air, something unique to just how close to the action you get to at Monaco.
Let's just say my uncle was polite about the mazda but slightly less impressed than he was with his new DBS
What can I say about the car however, what a machine! Stupidly fast but also rediculously comfortable whilst being so, probably the best car I could ever imagine for doing a cross country eurohoon in.Anyway, this time we weren't driving down to Monaco but flying so I'll try not to bore everyone with too much of that as it doesn't strictly involve the cars. We'd managed to organise a package through my uncles work contacts that meant we could fly down for the day, watch the race and then fly back-which is what we ended up doing-great fun!
We travelled down to stansted airport on the Saturday night, suitably pleased after watching qualifying for the Grand Prix to meet up with our friends from down south. We stayed at the radisson blu the night before and enjoyed a fine local curry, a few beers and an early night.
You'll know the hotel if you've stayed before, they have acrobatic girls getting bottles of wine from a glass tower for some reason-sounds stupid but is strangely interesting to watch!
The next day, we were to meet up at the harrods private terminal for champagne breakfast-this is the way to do airports! One of the reasons I love our road trips so much is it's just so much more pleasant than being shoved around in a crummy airport terminal-this was slightly different!
Once on board, there was yet more fizz waiting to get you through the 2 hour flight down to nice.
(Note the wife's Lewis Hamilton inspired nails-nice touch!)
From there we were bussed to just outside the principality where our tour guide would walk us in, I didn't take any pictures of the journey but rest assured that the coast road from Nice to Monaco is one of the prettiest stretched of coastline you could imagine-we definitely want to head back down and explore the area again.
The reason you struggle to get into the area on race days is seeing as Monaco as so tiny, by the time they close off the streets to race it just becomes gridlock, so unless you sail, train or helicopter in you've got to just walk it-no hardship seeing it was such a lovely day
Included in our package were some excellent seats that let us overlook the final straight, second to last corner and even better the pit lane. Now again, I'm not one to go to an event and spend the whole day pointing my phone at the action when I could be watching it myself so I haven't got much footage of what we saw but here's (hopefully) a quick video....
This was the cars doing their installation laps before the grid, you could really feel the tension in the air, something unique to just how close to the action you get to at Monaco.
Apologies for the long delay in updating but it's been a bit of a whirlwind up at chez LOH which I'll explain fully in the weeks to come but as I'm currently waiting in a consultants waiting room for an entire Saturday morning I suppose I might as well get this finished off!
As you may well remember, the race didn't exactly go to plan for us hamilton fans in the stands, to say the least! I did get a bit of a grump on I'm ashamed to admit but in reality if you're going to watch your favourite driver lose, you might as well do it in a sunny Monaco
Once the race was over, we made our way up to the fanzone and grabbed a table at a nice little pizzeria. We pretty much expected our pants pulled down but the bill for a load of pizzas, wine and beer came in at €50 per couple including a nice tip-Monaco really is very reasonable!
The roads around the principality pretty much convert themselves into one big party once the cars stop and although we were flying back that night, the party atmosphere was in full swing and you couldn't help but get into it.
Post drowning our sorrows we left town on foot with our guide and made it back to the tour bus that would drive us back to nice for the flight. I'd intended to grab some photos of the beautiful coastline but the sun and beer most have taken effect as I appear to have slept through it all
A final highlight was being approached by some bloke in the VIP entrance to the airport for a photo, he's obviously a fan of my readers cars posts although he managed to look pull off that look of not rally wanting to have his photo taken with me
After along day, it was back to blighty for a family BBQ down South and the proper part of the road trip.....
As you may well remember, the race didn't exactly go to plan for us hamilton fans in the stands, to say the least! I did get a bit of a grump on I'm ashamed to admit but in reality if you're going to watch your favourite driver lose, you might as well do it in a sunny Monaco
Once the race was over, we made our way up to the fanzone and grabbed a table at a nice little pizzeria. We pretty much expected our pants pulled down but the bill for a load of pizzas, wine and beer came in at €50 per couple including a nice tip-Monaco really is very reasonable!
The roads around the principality pretty much convert themselves into one big party once the cars stop and although we were flying back that night, the party atmosphere was in full swing and you couldn't help but get into it.
Post drowning our sorrows we left town on foot with our guide and made it back to the tour bus that would drive us back to nice for the flight. I'd intended to grab some photos of the beautiful coastline but the sun and beer most have taken effect as I appear to have slept through it all
A final highlight was being approached by some bloke in the VIP entrance to the airport for a photo, he's obviously a fan of my readers cars posts although he managed to look pull off that look of not rally wanting to have his photo taken with me
After along day, it was back to blighty for a family BBQ down South and the proper part of the road trip.....
So, as mentioned the whole idea of taking the car was as a bit of a trial run for the summer. See how the car coped (I'd no reason to think it wouldn't) but more importantly how we would. If you're eh going to do any serious eurohoons you're going to need to do at least a couple of long slogs in the car so we might as well get it figured out.
The weather was beautiful early summer as we headed out to our next stop, some little place near Worcestershire. I'd settled on some little villages on the way to keep us off the motorways but as we approached one such place we (the wife) kept noticing signs for Bicester Outlet Village so we made a slight (but significantly expensive!) detour. If you've never been, try not to-especially with 0the wife-you will come back poorer!
As we headed on the car coped well, showing good mpg and a fair amount of comfort even with the roof down, though storage space was now at an absolute minimum. Still, not such a long drive to our destination;
I can't quite claim to always having a thing for Morgans, but for some strange reason the older I've gotten the more I admire them. When the 3 wheeler was announced we very nearly signed on the spot at the goodwood fos when they launched it there and although we didn't, there was just something special about the company that appealed so much. I think a lot of it comes from owning a small business myself, you sort of feel an affinity with everyone else who makes the effort!
Anyway, I'd only organised this about 5 days prior to us setting off but we'd managed to get into the factory tour for that afternoon. If you've never done it before I simply can't recommend it enough.
The enthusiasm from all the employees absolutely shines through and the craftsmanship of the cars is plain to see. The biggest compliment I can ever give it is the wife has absolutely no interest in cars or Motorsport (quite how she puts up with these trips I don't know) and she absolutely loved it. I could flood the page with images but to be honest you've just got to see it for yourself.
A small selection! Anyway, as I said she even loved it with about the most praise she has ever heaped on any car being "now I can understand you wanting to buy one of these!"
What was quite handy was the fact that the next day I'd managed to book one of the factory cars to take out on hire for the day
As we finished the tour at the end of the day, handily all of the hire cars had been handed back so martin, the tour guide took us outside to explain all the differences between which ones were available and let us decide so we could have our pick of the bunch
Being a good husband and knowing that the wife wouldn't be happy in a three wheeler no matter how good the weather, we had our pick of the sports cars, a red 4/4, an old English white 4/4 and a lonely metallic green plus 4. She decreed that the green was the nicest colour so who was I to argue with getting the most powerful version available for hire that day
The weather was beautiful early summer as we headed out to our next stop, some little place near Worcestershire. I'd settled on some little villages on the way to keep us off the motorways but as we approached one such place we (the wife) kept noticing signs for Bicester Outlet Village so we made a slight (but significantly expensive!) detour. If you've never been, try not to-especially with 0the wife-you will come back poorer!
As we headed on the car coped well, showing good mpg and a fair amount of comfort even with the roof down, though storage space was now at an absolute minimum. Still, not such a long drive to our destination;
I can't quite claim to always having a thing for Morgans, but for some strange reason the older I've gotten the more I admire them. When the 3 wheeler was announced we very nearly signed on the spot at the goodwood fos when they launched it there and although we didn't, there was just something special about the company that appealed so much. I think a lot of it comes from owning a small business myself, you sort of feel an affinity with everyone else who makes the effort!
Anyway, I'd only organised this about 5 days prior to us setting off but we'd managed to get into the factory tour for that afternoon. If you've never done it before I simply can't recommend it enough.
The enthusiasm from all the employees absolutely shines through and the craftsmanship of the cars is plain to see. The biggest compliment I can ever give it is the wife has absolutely no interest in cars or Motorsport (quite how she puts up with these trips I don't know) and she absolutely loved it. I could flood the page with images but to be honest you've just got to see it for yourself.
A small selection! Anyway, as I said she even loved it with about the most praise she has ever heaped on any car being "now I can understand you wanting to buy one of these!"
What was quite handy was the fact that the next day I'd managed to book one of the factory cars to take out on hire for the day
As we finished the tour at the end of the day, handily all of the hire cars had been handed back so martin, the tour guide took us outside to explain all the differences between which ones were available and let us decide so we could have our pick of the bunch
Being a good husband and knowing that the wife wouldn't be happy in a three wheeler no matter how good the weather, we had our pick of the sports cars, a red 4/4, an old English white 4/4 and a lonely metallic green plus 4. She decreed that the green was the nicest colour so who was I to argue with getting the most powerful version available for hire that day
Nice!
A lot of that factory looks like my old technology department in high school, but it's cool none the less. Looking forward to reading about how you found the Morgan once out on the road.
Speaking of my old technology class I remember my mate once setting the pillar drill away with the chuck key still in it. It flew out across the classroom, smashed the window (single glazing in those days) and landed on the bonnet of a teachers car (carpark was outside Technology block). Ahh, good times.
You say consultant, Craig. Do you mean medical consultant? I hope all is well anyway. Not a little "BambinoLOH" on the way is there?
A lot of that factory looks like my old technology department in high school, but it's cool none the less. Looking forward to reading about how you found the Morgan once out on the road.
Speaking of my old technology class I remember my mate once setting the pillar drill away with the chuck key still in it. It flew out across the classroom, smashed the window (single glazing in those days) and landed on the bonnet of a teachers car (carpark was outside Technology block). Ahh, good times.
You say consultant, Craig. Do you mean medical consultant? I hope all is well anyway. Not a little "BambinoLOH" on the way is there?
Marky, you've simply got to do the factory tour knowing a (very) little about your background from on here. Walking into the workshops you get that aroma of cutting metal and bare minerals that takes you straight back to college (from a previous career that has necessitated the consultants visit-thanks for asking!), seeing the english wheel and other tools you might have forgotten about in the intervening years makes you feel you could leave the tour line and join straight in with the lads working away. Fantastic stuff!
But as for the car
First of all, here's a close up of what attracted the wife, what a glorious colour!
Not being an expert, I was glad to find out that this was the plus 4, a slightly wider tracked and more powerful version of the classic 4/4. Martin, the tour guide (and museum curator) from the previous day explained that he actually preferred the standard car and found it a better performer with its skinnier wheels and lighter weight but if I'm honest that smacked a little of forumista for me
Being a Porsche guy for a number of years, you get used to the bullst typed by those who don't know better about how cars should be spec'd but even I fell into the trap of buying a car that was supposedly a sweet spot for its light weight and lack of driver (or comfort) aids and I promised to be true to what I like and ignore all that crap- mainly as I bought an underpowered heap of crap that was so hard to drive it wasn't funny!
So here we are with a supposedly heavy steering, pre-war suspended agricultural excuse for a machine, first thoughts? God that steering is heavy!
Get it up past 15mph however and the old cliche comes true, it just lightens up! The brakes need a hefty shove but boy do they stop you, why is it I hated my classic 911 but within 5 mins of driving this I was starting to fall in love?
Maybe because 5 mins is a short amount of time? Regardless we started off on a tour of the beautiful malvern hills in a car that simply can't fail to bring a massive smile to everyone who meets it, I can't say it enough-THIS CAR MAKES EVERYONE HAPPY!
Obviously including us!
We found ourselves bouncing along country lanes until we happened upon the westerns cider factory and farm and stopped off for a look around and to purchase some more goodies, parking in the large public car park opposite generated a few camera phone moments for the other visitors and amazingly even the staff.
We made a giant loop of some of the quaint little towns having done a brief search over breakfast of the 5 counties best driving roads and soon got into the swing of things with the car. It was pretty much like driving in a combination of a skateboard and antique bead stead up until around 50mph and from there on it just started to float at speed ever so comfortably. The sweet spot seemed to be around 70 with odd squirts up to 90ish, any more and you really started to think about your safety! We kept the doors on to avoid the mrs looking like cousin it but you're never far away from realising that if they weren't there you could reach out and feel the road!
We took a hill route to a local folly and got pretty much as much attention on entering the car park as Lewis hamilton would have if he turned up in his f1 car. Nice ice cream up there though
After wowing the crowds we headed off on another blatt that took us to our final destination, somewhere that I figured would be just the place to take a morgan;
I mean how couldn't you?!
It was obviously closed but you could get in, the owners came out to see what we were up to and when I explained I'd never been before but I felt I needed to get a pic of the car on the hill they were more than welcoming they didn't allow us up as there were people working on the course and didn't want us causing an accident but they were fantastic about it all, especially when you consider we were just a couple of tourists in a hire car! We will definitely be back, competing next time hopefully though!
It seemed like a good time to head back after that if I'm honest. We'd just had so much fun in the little thing (I won't tell of getting it airborn over a very innocuous looking bump in the road!) and we had a 3 hour journey home to look forward to.
Best £190 I've ever spent? I can't think of anything else that tops it. The thing used around a 1/4 of a tank of fuel over 250-300 miles of flat out fun and all we had to do was bring it back full up. Add on not just the fun factor but the special feeling you get with the factory and it's one of the single best car experiences we've ever had, regular posters who stay awake through my ramblings a might be aware we've done quite a few too!
All I know is that we both desperately want one now.
Would it replace the little Mazda? Certainly not! There's no way I'd want to drive one to work every day, not because it couldn't cope but probably because I couldn't. No, a morgan simply should be saved for Sunday best
Plus I've already (as explained) bought some more bits for the little red roadster to keep it on track so to speak. As I'm running behind on updates we've already returned from the next trip, one of our little jaunts to a certain one way toll road in Germany for a weekend.
Behold the majesty of white wheels!
Before you take the piss, it's not the wheels but what they're wrapped in that is important
To be continued......
But as for the car
First of all, here's a close up of what attracted the wife, what a glorious colour!
Not being an expert, I was glad to find out that this was the plus 4, a slightly wider tracked and more powerful version of the classic 4/4. Martin, the tour guide (and museum curator) from the previous day explained that he actually preferred the standard car and found it a better performer with its skinnier wheels and lighter weight but if I'm honest that smacked a little of forumista for me
Being a Porsche guy for a number of years, you get used to the bulls
t typed by those who don't know better about how cars should be spec'd but even I fell into the trap of buying a car that was supposedly a sweet spot for its light weight and lack of driver (or comfort) aids and I promised to be true to what I like and ignore all that crap- mainly as I bought an underpowered heap of crap that was so hard to drive it wasn't funny!So here we are with a supposedly heavy steering, pre-war suspended agricultural excuse for a machine, first thoughts? God that steering is heavy!
Get it up past 15mph however and the old cliche comes true, it just lightens up! The brakes need a hefty shove but boy do they stop you, why is it I hated my classic 911 but within 5 mins of driving this I was starting to fall in love?
Maybe because 5 mins is a short amount of time? Regardless we started off on a tour of the beautiful malvern hills in a car that simply can't fail to bring a massive smile to everyone who meets it, I can't say it enough-THIS CAR MAKES EVERYONE HAPPY!
Obviously including us!
We found ourselves bouncing along country lanes until we happened upon the westerns cider factory and farm and stopped off for a look around and to purchase some more goodies, parking in the large public car park opposite generated a few camera phone moments for the other visitors and amazingly even the staff.
We made a giant loop of some of the quaint little towns having done a brief search over breakfast of the 5 counties best driving roads and soon got into the swing of things with the car. It was pretty much like driving in a combination of a skateboard and antique bead stead up until around 50mph and from there on it just started to float at speed ever so comfortably. The sweet spot seemed to be around 70 with odd squirts up to 90ish, any more and you really started to think about your safety! We kept the doors on to avoid the mrs looking like cousin it but you're never far away from realising that if they weren't there you could reach out and feel the road!
We took a hill route to a local folly and got pretty much as much attention on entering the car park as Lewis hamilton would have if he turned up in his f1 car. Nice ice cream up there though
After wowing the crowds we headed off on another blatt that took us to our final destination, somewhere that I figured would be just the place to take a morgan;
I mean how couldn't you?!
It was obviously closed but you could get in, the owners came out to see what we were up to and when I explained I'd never been before but I felt I needed to get a pic of the car on the hill they were more than welcoming
they didn't allow us up as there were people working on the course and didn't want us causing an accident but they were fantastic about it all, especially when you consider we were just a couple of tourists in a hire car! We will definitely be back, competing next time hopefully though!It seemed like a good time to head back after that if I'm honest. We'd just had so much fun in the little thing (I won't tell of getting it airborn over a very innocuous looking bump in the road!) and we had a 3 hour journey home to look forward to.
Best £190 I've ever spent? I can't think of anything else that tops it. The thing used around a 1/4 of a tank of fuel over 250-300 miles of flat out fun and all we had to do was bring it back full up. Add on not just the fun factor but the special feeling you get with the factory and it's one of the single best car experiences we've ever had, regular posters who stay awake through my ramblings a might be aware we've done quite a few too!
All I know is that we both desperately want one now.
Would it replace the little Mazda? Certainly not! There's no way I'd want to drive one to work every day, not because it couldn't cope but probably because I couldn't. No, a morgan simply should be saved for Sunday best
Plus I've already (as explained) bought some more bits for the little red roadster to keep it on track so to speak. As I'm running behind on updates we've already returned from the next trip, one of our little jaunts to a certain one way toll road in Germany for a weekend.
Behold the majesty of white wheels!
Before you take the piss, it's not the wheels but what they're wrapped in that is important
To be continued......
And the question of what those chav wheels are wrapped in? After much deliberation I ended u going with TOYO's finest 888s
There was much faffing on about these wheels I don't mind admitting. Essentially I wasn't buying them for aesthetic reasons but merely as a way of having some track rubber for when I take it over to the ring etc. I'd looks at quite a lot of different options and different sizes but ended up with going for the size that BBR use on their cars, manufactured by Rota Wheels. This enabled me to get some reasonably cheap tyres as they are a fairly common size, £107 each delivered iirc.
I'd looked at 16" wheels as I could get the tyres ridiculously cheap but it made picking the wheels to match way too difficult, as it was even with the Rotas. Unfortunately they don't seem to make silver wheels (my preference) as most of the (pseudo) drift kids seem to like black, gunmetal or bronze & I'm certainly too old for all that crap!
So white it was, and to be fair I don't think they look too has especially as they're a kind of Motorsport design and will only be worn either at the track or on the way to. I do find it slightly cringe however!
Bolting them on, I was concerned that they would rub as they really stand proud but on full lock at road speeds they seemed to be ok. With the square shoulder they really do look "race car" and secondary ride comfort comes down a notch or three! We took the car for a blast over hart side to make sure no contact would be made and they seemed to be fine again, I really did expect to have to get the car geometry done but nothing seems to bother it so far and with our first nürburgring booked I was reasonably happy that everything would be ok.
I have missed the bite of track tyres however, they just feel so good when pushing on! The package has definitely dulled things slightly when considering acceleration believe it or not, although the wheels are reasonably light weight for what they are they are significantly heavier than the flyweight mazda originals and that's before you consider that the tyres weigh more too.
The septics go on big about how everything is lightweight on the cars for a reason and on at least this part they are right-going from one to the other you can feel that extra unsprung weight.
The pay off however is superb grip and increased feel from the stiffened side wall of those 888s, the car simply won't wheel spin in the dry at all now.
And they don't look too bad on white wheels do they?!
There was much faffing on about these wheels I don't mind admitting. Essentially I wasn't buying them for aesthetic reasons but merely as a way of having some track rubber for when I take it over to the ring etc. I'd looks at quite a lot of different options and different sizes but ended up with going for the size that BBR use on their cars, manufactured by Rota Wheels. This enabled me to get some reasonably cheap tyres as they are a fairly common size, £107 each delivered iirc.
I'd looked at 16" wheels as I could get the tyres ridiculously cheap but it made picking the wheels to match way too difficult, as it was even with the Rotas. Unfortunately they don't seem to make silver wheels (my preference) as most of the (pseudo) drift kids seem to like black, gunmetal or bronze & I'm certainly too old for all that crap!
So white it was, and to be fair I don't think they look too has especially as they're a kind of Motorsport design and will only be worn either at the track or on the way to. I do find it slightly cringe however!
Bolting them on, I was concerned that they would rub as they really stand proud but on full lock at road speeds they seemed to be ok. With the square shoulder they really do look "race car" and secondary ride comfort comes down a notch or three! We took the car for a blast over hart side to make sure no contact would be made and they seemed to be fine again, I really did expect to have to get the car geometry done but nothing seems to bother it so far and with our first nürburgring booked I was reasonably happy that everything would be ok.
I have missed the bite of track tyres however, they just feel so good when pushing on! The package has definitely dulled things slightly when considering acceleration believe it or not, although the wheels are reasonably light weight for what they are they are significantly heavier than the flyweight mazda originals and that's before you consider that the tyres weigh more too.
The septics go on big about how everything is lightweight on the cars for a reason and on at least this part they are right-going from one to the other you can feel that extra unsprung weight.
The pay off however is superb grip and increased feel from the stiffened side wall of those 888s, the car simply won't wheel spin in the dry at all now.
And they don't look too bad on white wheels do they?!
So over to the nurburgring again
It's actually been a while since I was there, what with work I've only managed one trip for the last couple of years which just doesn't do! When some friends and us got together earlier this year we made apart to pull our fingers out! We do love doing the track days over there but closures or not there's still something special about tourist laps, yes there's more risk but the craic just always seems better so we whipped out the diaries and it looked like one weekend in June would suit us all.
Extra bonus for us was that the track was open on Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday. Not so good was that it was the weekend of the Truck Grand Prix and the whole area was rammed with truckers out for a good time (presumably). This obviously meant that our usual haunts were booked up but I managed to find a reasonable looking place in Adenauer which suited us fine as there are more options for eating and drinking while down there.
Me and a mate decided to take the over night ferry from hull which would enable us to get there in plenty of time on Friday for the track to be opened. The usual misery spec cabin was balanced out by the all you can eat buffet and we enjoyed some good banter on the way over with all the guys heading over to Assen for the Moto GP. Driving off the ferry Friday morning with not too much a hangover (there's always a nightcap to have before staggering off to your cabin isn't there?) and the weather dawned bright and rather continental, roof down and away through the boring bits.....
We'd looked on the web while on board the night before and found that there was some historic racing on at Spa that weekend so with that plan in mind we put the destination into satnav and away we went.
Pulling into Spa just at lunchtime enabled a lovely pizza on the front watching the world go by
We then headed up to the track to see what was about and low and behold there was actually a race on Parking up for an entirely reasonable €5 we then had pretty much full access to the place, we managed to walk up to the old pit straight before the cars came thundering down on their warm up lap led by a wonderful looking and sounding GT40.
I was enjoying the action too much to get much in the way of photos but rest assured there were the usual selection of 911rsr, CSLs, Capris, Morgans, escorts etc etc
(This rather crappy iphone pic perfectly fails to capture why it's called the red water, but when you see it in the flesh it is very, very red)
We walked all the way up to Eau Rouge, something I've never done before all the times I've been and enjoyed the sight of all these old stunners drifting their way through before jumping back in the car and taking one of the wonderful roads to the 'ring. Not before driving driving the old proper Spa circuit of course!
The guesthouse I'd booked was tucked away a little but was very pleasant for the pittance they were charging, all in bed and breakfast we were looking at around €120 each for the full weekend
Car checked over and filled up with the old 100 octane Super Bliefrie we were queuing up at quarter to 5 waiting for it to open with a 25 lap pass burning a hole
It's actually been a while since I was there, what with work I've only managed one trip for the last couple of years which just doesn't do! When some friends and us got together earlier this year we made apart to pull our fingers out! We do love doing the track days over there but closures or not there's still something special about tourist laps, yes there's more risk but the craic just always seems better so we whipped out the diaries and it looked like one weekend in June would suit us all.
Extra bonus for us was that the track was open on Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday. Not so good was that it was the weekend of the Truck Grand Prix and the whole area was rammed with truckers out for a good time (presumably). This obviously meant that our usual haunts were booked up but I managed to find a reasonable looking place in Adenauer which suited us fine as there are more options for eating and drinking while down there.
Me and a mate decided to take the over night ferry from hull which would enable us to get there in plenty of time on Friday for the track to be opened. The usual misery spec cabin was balanced out by the all you can eat buffet and we enjoyed some good banter on the way over with all the guys heading over to Assen for the Moto GP. Driving off the ferry Friday morning with not too much a hangover (there's always a nightcap to have before staggering off to your cabin isn't there?) and the weather dawned bright and rather continental, roof down and away through the boring bits.....
We'd looked on the web while on board the night before and found that there was some historic racing on at Spa that weekend so with that plan in mind we put the destination into satnav and away we went.
Pulling into Spa just at lunchtime enabled a lovely pizza on the front watching the world go by
We then headed up to the track to see what was about and low and behold there was actually a race on
Parking up for an entirely reasonable €5 we then had pretty much full access to the place, we managed to walk up to the old pit straight before the cars came thundering down on their warm up lap led by a wonderful looking and sounding GT40.I was enjoying the action too much to get much in the way of photos but rest assured there were the usual selection of 911rsr, CSLs, Capris, Morgans, escorts etc etc
(This rather crappy iphone pic perfectly fails to capture why it's called the red water, but when you see it in the flesh it is very, very red)
We walked all the way up to Eau Rouge, something I've never done before all the times I've been and enjoyed the sight of all these old stunners drifting their way through before jumping back in the car and taking one of the wonderful roads to the 'ring. Not before driving driving the old proper Spa circuit of course!
The guesthouse I'd booked was tucked away a little but was very pleasant for the pittance they were charging, all in bed and breakfast we were looking at around €120 each for the full weekend
Car checked over and filled up with the old 100 octane Super Bliefrie we were queuing up at quarter to 5 waiting for it to open with a 25 lap pass burning a hole
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