JonnyFives.. MX5..
Discussion
So, I've had it over a year now.. And haven't really wrote much about it (Taken lots of pictures though! Not a fan of showing it off or anything, but do enjoy getting compliments about it.. And also criticism.. Although the criticism usually stops when they get a go out in it.. This is a reoccurring theme within us '5 owners, we're slowly converting most of the PH population to the little Japanese RWD soft top.
Firstly; April 2010.. I had a Citroen C2 VTR since I passed my test. Which I loved. Thought it was the best car I could get.. And really at 18 with insurance costs the way they are, it was. 110bhp and a nice little flappy paddle gear shift, it was pretty decent. Until, the Surrey Run in 2010. As we arrived and drove past the other cars that were on the run, I felt I wouldn't be able to keep up, at all. It didn't actually do that badly really considering it was pretty standard and the metal that PH houses is pretty special.
I thought, if I'm going to do more PH runs.. The C2 has to go I'm afraid. May 2010 arrived and the C2 was for sale and MX5s were being browsed. I work as a service advisor at Mazda so a MX5 is a pretty good choice, cost parts and a few mechanics with over 70 years of Mazda training between them, if things did need sorting, they'd be a good start. A Sunday morning the C2 was sold for just over £3k and the Monday after work I was in Reading handing over £2700 for a 99,500 mile MK2 MX5 (It was coming up to Summer so prices were rising.. And I was too impatient to wait
)
This is it on its first run out with PH.. Hadn't done much by here, only a set of Yokohama Parada Spec2s for the rear as the old tyres were pretty much gone.
After that I didn't do too much, had a big service on it.. Every fluid changed, brake/coolant/gearbox/LSD, all the filters changed, all the belts including the cambelt.. I have the service book for the car, but with what the service cost me, it'd be silly not to do it. I now know everything has been changed.
I was quite happy with it by now, but its a sports car.. And, well.. They don't sound very sports car-ish from standard. So an exhaust was needed. I'm very fussy when it comes to my car. Not too loud, but not quiet.. Not too sticking out, and not too far in.. Not too small and not overly big. I found an exhaust for sale in Leeds from some chap on MX5 Nutz.. And ruled it out due to how far away it is from me. Work sent me to Edinburgh to pick up an MX5, which was good.. As a little detour on the way back and I was now in possession of this exhaust;
It sounds very good, not too loud.. Fits in the hole perfectly. I've no idea on the brand, it has no stamps/stickers.. And I've never seen one like it. Good.
Next is something that not many people at all have done. I'm not sure why as it is pretty much free, and looks atleast a million times better than the standard headlamp units on the MX5. You just remove the lamp (With difficultly and blood lost!) and stick the lamp in the oven. Prise it apart and paint the inside section in black. Reseal it and cook it again, refit to car and be impressed. Really easy.. Doesn't effect the headlamp aim or light out put, purely cosmetic..
After that we were getting somewhere in hopefully improving the car, its easy to stick things on, and ruin the car. Hopefully I wasn't doing this, imo, it was going well. I started replacing stuff, even if it didn't really need it. Dashboard lights all to a nice blue colour to match my headunit in the car. Replaced all the exterior bulbs with better upgrades.. And done what these cars are for, drove it!
The wheels are Enkei designed 15x6.5J, they're not too bad really considering they're the standard wheel. They're VERY light, 5.6kg per wheel.. And even better, tyres are extremely cheap. Yokohama Paradas are £35 a corner, bargain! Back to the wheels, they looked good but with the black headlamps and side reflector units (These are the orange corner bits, they're not needed here, they're for in USA they have to light up. Thus being useless over here, so painted them at the same time as the lights.) Anyway, wheels.. They were silver, and my Green & Black theme was the direction I was heading.. So, one Friday booked off work and some paint/sand paper was bought and got underway in painting the wheels black, inside the rim aswell as the face of the rim. I didn't remove the tyres as that was going to be difficult, and I like to do stuff myself (With ALOT of help from my brother, if it wasn't for him this car would most definitely still be standard!) painted each wheel with 3 coats of Satin Black and lots of lacquer.. This was the result;
An improvement, in my opinion.
After that I didn't do too much. Carried out the "Foamectomy" which removes some of the foam from the seat base so you sit further into it, for free its a very good mod which I recommend to every MX5 owner! We then had our PH MX5 Brecons Tour, which was amazing. Really didn't want to go home after driving on those roads, incredible roads, incredible scenery. Excellent bunch of people, 500 miles in one day, 250 of those in anger around the Brecons and ending up near the Evo Corner.. We're going back over there in August for a weekend this time, looking forward to this!
In between the wheels being painted and the Brecons Tour I had the car lowered by 35mm. Only on Spax Springs. I wasn't going to do this at all but it was abit high as standard and the springs came up for a good price on Nutz (I must stop browsing that For Sale Section..). They made it slightly stiffer, but slightly more bouncy.. Which wasn't too bad, but eventually got annoying (Read on..)
Russ (Mr MXT) messaged me one day.. "Nurburgring Trip in May.. Up for it?". My initial thoughts.. Bugger that, I've seen plenty of crash videos.. Well, those thoughts lasted for less than 10 seconds as I agreed to the trip and hotels were booked. Now I had to really get the car into shape, I was NOT going to break down 450 miles from home, and even more so on the Nordschleife! A new Radiator was put on, along with coolant flushed. Two more Paradas were put on the car and alignment done, again. Axxis Ultimate Front Pads were fitted, and new discs too. The car now stops on a 50p piece! Incredible pads! New clutch done the day before we were due to leave, didn't really need doing too badly but knew it was going to get some abuse so changed it. We arrive at the Nurburgring and straight to Brunnchen to watch the last few laps of the VLN.. My first impression was f
k this. I am going to die here.
Made it home in one piece.. Such an amazing place, I WILL be going back in the future.. It rained every day this trip, which as those of you who have done the 'Ring in the wet will know, is fking scary! So, so slippery. My first lap was in the rain, coming down quite hard. A few slides and I had completed 6 laps. The car was faultless the whole time, just carried on going, cruised at 80-100mph on the way home and it just made me love it even more.
You will have read above about the suspension, well.. The bounce got too annoying. They had to go. But I was not going back to standard height, oh no. These cars suit being lower, and thats where it was staying. After spending far, far too long deciding what I wanted to put on it, I actually went with the £180 eBay Raceland coilovers. They'll do as a stop gap between me getting some HSD or GAZ, something like that. At the moment though I didn't have loads to spend, but needed to get rid of that damn bounce.
For some silly reason, I fitted them and wound them right down.. Yeah, that'll be cool. The Yanks will love it on their forums (Its all about how low you can get, over there..).
That was the outcome, just over an inch off of the ground and scraping everywhere. This actually wasn't enjoyable, so the next night it was raised up to where it is now, which is still low.. I scrape on most speed bumps, but it looks cool, and still drives very nicely. The bounce has gone! Which was very important, and they're stiffer again, which is good.
Currently, I'm fitting a spoiler to it. A chap over on Nutz (You can see a reoccurring theme here, can't you..) manufactures these spoilers himself, and I really like them. Wasn't going to get one until one came up for sale as someone was selling their car. £100 later and I've collected it. £50 later in paint/filler etc I'm fitting sanding the nice, shiny, 11 year old paint on my boot lid, I disliked the stuck on look so am fillering it smooth so its one seamless part, this is the plan anyway..
And now, to present day. This is how the MX5 sits now. Done on quite a budget, and all done by my brother and myself.. Built, not bought.
There is probably loads missing, I take a picture of nearly everything I do.. But this'd get boring, and is already far, far too long.
Thanks for reading, its much appreciated.
Firstly; April 2010.. I had a Citroen C2 VTR since I passed my test. Which I loved. Thought it was the best car I could get.. And really at 18 with insurance costs the way they are, it was. 110bhp and a nice little flappy paddle gear shift, it was pretty decent. Until, the Surrey Run in 2010. As we arrived and drove past the other cars that were on the run, I felt I wouldn't be able to keep up, at all. It didn't actually do that badly really considering it was pretty standard and the metal that PH houses is pretty special.
I thought, if I'm going to do more PH runs.. The C2 has to go I'm afraid. May 2010 arrived and the C2 was for sale and MX5s were being browsed. I work as a service advisor at Mazda so a MX5 is a pretty good choice, cost parts and a few mechanics with over 70 years of Mazda training between them, if things did need sorting, they'd be a good start. A Sunday morning the C2 was sold for just over £3k and the Monday after work I was in Reading handing over £2700 for a 99,500 mile MK2 MX5 (It was coming up to Summer so prices were rising.. And I was too impatient to wait
)This is it on its first run out with PH.. Hadn't done much by here, only a set of Yokohama Parada Spec2s for the rear as the old tyres were pretty much gone.
After that I didn't do too much, had a big service on it.. Every fluid changed, brake/coolant/gearbox/LSD, all the filters changed, all the belts including the cambelt.. I have the service book for the car, but with what the service cost me, it'd be silly not to do it. I now know everything has been changed.
I was quite happy with it by now, but its a sports car.. And, well.. They don't sound very sports car-ish from standard. So an exhaust was needed. I'm very fussy when it comes to my car. Not too loud, but not quiet.. Not too sticking out, and not too far in.. Not too small and not overly big. I found an exhaust for sale in Leeds from some chap on MX5 Nutz.. And ruled it out due to how far away it is from me. Work sent me to Edinburgh to pick up an MX5, which was good.. As a little detour on the way back and I was now in possession of this exhaust;
It sounds very good, not too loud.. Fits in the hole perfectly. I've no idea on the brand, it has no stamps/stickers.. And I've never seen one like it. Good.
Next is something that not many people at all have done. I'm not sure why as it is pretty much free, and looks atleast a million times better than the standard headlamp units on the MX5. You just remove the lamp (With difficultly and blood lost!) and stick the lamp in the oven. Prise it apart and paint the inside section in black. Reseal it and cook it again, refit to car and be impressed. Really easy.. Doesn't effect the headlamp aim or light out put, purely cosmetic..
After that we were getting somewhere in hopefully improving the car, its easy to stick things on, and ruin the car. Hopefully I wasn't doing this, imo, it was going well. I started replacing stuff, even if it didn't really need it. Dashboard lights all to a nice blue colour to match my headunit in the car. Replaced all the exterior bulbs with better upgrades.. And done what these cars are for, drove it!
The wheels are Enkei designed 15x6.5J, they're not too bad really considering they're the standard wheel. They're VERY light, 5.6kg per wheel.. And even better, tyres are extremely cheap. Yokohama Paradas are £35 a corner, bargain! Back to the wheels, they looked good but with the black headlamps and side reflector units (These are the orange corner bits, they're not needed here, they're for in USA they have to light up. Thus being useless over here, so painted them at the same time as the lights.) Anyway, wheels.. They were silver, and my Green & Black theme was the direction I was heading.. So, one Friday booked off work and some paint/sand paper was bought and got underway in painting the wheels black, inside the rim aswell as the face of the rim. I didn't remove the tyres as that was going to be difficult, and I like to do stuff myself (With ALOT of help from my brother, if it wasn't for him this car would most definitely still be standard!) painted each wheel with 3 coats of Satin Black and lots of lacquer.. This was the result;
An improvement, in my opinion.
After that I didn't do too much. Carried out the "Foamectomy" which removes some of the foam from the seat base so you sit further into it, for free its a very good mod which I recommend to every MX5 owner! We then had our PH MX5 Brecons Tour, which was amazing. Really didn't want to go home after driving on those roads, incredible roads, incredible scenery. Excellent bunch of people, 500 miles in one day, 250 of those in anger around the Brecons and ending up near the Evo Corner.. We're going back over there in August for a weekend this time, looking forward to this!
In between the wheels being painted and the Brecons Tour I had the car lowered by 35mm. Only on Spax Springs. I wasn't going to do this at all but it was abit high as standard and the springs came up for a good price on Nutz (I must stop browsing that For Sale Section..). They made it slightly stiffer, but slightly more bouncy.. Which wasn't too bad, but eventually got annoying (Read on..)
Russ (Mr MXT) messaged me one day.. "Nurburgring Trip in May.. Up for it?". My initial thoughts.. Bugger that, I've seen plenty of crash videos.. Well, those thoughts lasted for less than 10 seconds as I agreed to the trip and hotels were booked. Now I had to really get the car into shape, I was NOT going to break down 450 miles from home, and even more so on the Nordschleife! A new Radiator was put on, along with coolant flushed. Two more Paradas were put on the car and alignment done, again. Axxis Ultimate Front Pads were fitted, and new discs too. The car now stops on a 50p piece! Incredible pads! New clutch done the day before we were due to leave, didn't really need doing too badly but knew it was going to get some abuse so changed it. We arrive at the Nurburgring and straight to Brunnchen to watch the last few laps of the VLN.. My first impression was f
k this. I am going to die here.Made it home in one piece.. Such an amazing place, I WILL be going back in the future.. It rained every day this trip, which as those of you who have done the 'Ring in the wet will know, is f
king scary! So, so slippery. My first lap was in the rain, coming down quite hard. A few slides and I had completed 6 laps. The car was faultless the whole time, just carried on going, cruised at 80-100mph on the way home and it just made me love it even more.You will have read above about the suspension, well.. The bounce got too annoying. They had to go. But I was not going back to standard height, oh no. These cars suit being lower, and thats where it was staying. After spending far, far too long deciding what I wanted to put on it, I actually went with the £180 eBay Raceland coilovers. They'll do as a stop gap between me getting some HSD or GAZ, something like that. At the moment though I didn't have loads to spend, but needed to get rid of that damn bounce.
For some silly reason, I fitted them and wound them right down.. Yeah, that'll be cool. The Yanks will love it on their forums (Its all about how low you can get, over there..).
That was the outcome, just over an inch off of the ground and scraping everywhere. This actually wasn't enjoyable, so the next night it was raised up to where it is now, which is still low.. I scrape on most speed bumps, but it looks cool, and still drives very nicely. The bounce has gone! Which was very important, and they're stiffer again, which is good.
Currently, I'm fitting a spoiler to it. A chap over on Nutz (You can see a reoccurring theme here, can't you..) manufactures these spoilers himself, and I really like them. Wasn't going to get one until one came up for sale as someone was selling their car. £100 later and I've collected it. £50 later in paint/filler etc I'm fitting sanding the nice, shiny, 11 year old paint on my boot lid, I disliked the stuck on look so am fillering it smooth so its one seamless part, this is the plan anyway..
And now, to present day. This is how the MX5 sits now. Done on quite a budget, and all done by my brother and myself.. Built, not bought.
There is probably loads missing, I take a picture of nearly everything I do.. But this'd get boring, and is already far, far too long.
Thanks for reading, its much appreciated.
Edited by JonnyFive on Sunday 26th June 23:12
KevSeymour said:
Great car J5, it makes mine look like a 4x4!
Is it your daily driver?
Yeah Is it your daily driver?
Luckily it's only a 20 mile round trip to work so not too bad.
I'm sure yours is more driveable than mine! It's not too much of a problem I suppose, if I'm going to go on a hoon I'll raise the suspension
Yeah, James.. Definitely!
OwenK said:
Nice write up and great looking car now... got any more pictures of it with the little ducktail spoiler on?
Thanks very much! I actually took that picture last night as I'm halfway through doing the spoiler, I ran out of paint (Didn't realise how many coats it'd need!) so will get more when I've put more paint on (Tonight) and lacquered it.
Aizle said:
Good stuff Jonny.
Still haven't taken me out for a spin yet, next time eh
Thanks! And yes, will do! Show you the suspension, now I've got the tyres at 30psi rather than 26psi its got hardly any bounce.Still haven't taken me out for a spin yet, next time eh
Luke89 said:
Nomally not a MK2 fan but that looks fantastic mate! Good write up!
Thanks very much, Luke! I need to get some decent pictures, as all mine are from my iPhone. Though better pictures shows up the imperfections, which makes me spend more money.. Waugh-terfall said:
yeah you do need more power. C2james said:
Waugh-terfall said:
yeah you do need more power. That was, as can be seen.. About a month after I got it.
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