2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
Accelebrate said:
Evoluzione said:
Did you try the NS2R on track yet or rack up many road miles?
Road miles only so far, sadly. They took a few miles to scrub in, but they seem promising. Grip levels appear to be similar to the AD08R, and like the Yokohama the relatively high tread-depth means they're not completely awful through standing water. You can tell the sidewalls are very stiff, although I think this was exaggerated by dropping from a 50 to a 45 profile.I'd be interested in your POV of them on track, i've recently discovered another budget tyre (a bit more expensive than the Nankang) that i'm eager to try out. All trackdays are selling out very quickly though atm due to the relaxing of restrictions of course.
Some more great fabricating there! A pic here of the clutch pedal brace box which you may also have seen:
mattdavies said:
That MC brace looks very good, well done.
Thanks! 
Evoluzione said:
Have you noted the strange throbbing and drone they create? Sounds like a wheel bearing or the diff on the way out.
I'd be interested in your POV of them on track, i've recently discovered another budget tyre (a bit more expensive than the Nankang) that i'm eager to try out. All trackdays are selling out very quickly though atm due to the relaxing of restrictions of course.
Some more great fabricating there! A pic here of the clutch pedal brace box which you may also have seen:
I haven't noticed any funny noises yet, but I've only driven it with the roof down recently, and without any windblocker and with the current ill-advised exhaust there's plenty of noise to drown-out the tyres. The R888R was a really noisy tyre, they made a very distinctive howl at speed.I'd be interested in your POV of them on track, i've recently discovered another budget tyre (a bit more expensive than the Nankang) that i'm eager to try out. All trackdays are selling out very quickly though atm due to the relaxing of restrictions of course.
Some more great fabricating there! A pic here of the clutch pedal brace box which you may also have seen:
Interesting clutch brace. I've seen a few reports of the factory spot welds failing on the clutch pedal assembly, I've been meaning to remove mine and see if it's something I can preemptively reinforce.
Accelebrate said:
I've seen a few reports of the factory spot welds failing on the clutch pedal assembly, I've been meaning to remove mine and see if it's something I can preemptively reinforce.
I had to do that on my track Monza - all the spot welds started cracking and the pedal box was falling apart - turns out that they are the same as the Manta and the rally boys always did exactly the same thing - never a problem on road cars but on track they failed so they always welded them up (belt and braces)Really nice! And neat, as always 
I was reading recently that steel with dimple is actually more rigid than plain steel! Should we make swiss cheese out of our MX5? :P
When are you going to try it? Should we try to "all" book the same track day, as it looks like we are few around here with NCs that we like/want to put on tracks?
I was reading recently that steel with dimple is actually more rigid than plain steel! Should we make swiss cheese out of our MX5? :PWhen are you going to try it? Should we try to "all" book the same track day, as it looks like we are few around here with NCs that we like/want to put on tracks?
drgoatboy said:
Top effort on the brake stopper! You sir have skills!!
Thanks! I treated your old welder to a new regulator that came with an adapter hose that enabled me to fit the flow meter you included B'stard Child said:
I had to do that on my track Monza - all the spot welds started cracking and the pedal box was falling apart - turns out that they are the same as the Manta and the rally boys always did exactly the same thing - never a problem on road cars but on track they failed so they always welded them up (belt and braces)
It seems common on US MX5s and RX8s, but I've seen relatively few reports of them failing in Europe. Mine seems solid and I assume it's original to the car, but some extra weld and bracketery can't hurt. Maybe some Americans struggle to understand how a clutch works!cedrichn said:
Really nice! And neat, as always I was reading recently that steel with dimple is actually more rigid than plain steel! Should we make swiss cheese out of our MX5? :P
When are you going to try it? Should we try to "all" book the same track day, as it looks like we are few around here with NCs that we like/want to put on tracks?
You heard correctly, adding a dimple or a folded edge to relatively thin sheet steel has a noticeable effect on rigidity. I was reading recently that steel with dimple is actually more rigid than plain steel! Should we make swiss cheese out of our MX5? :PWhen are you going to try it? Should we try to "all" book the same track day, as it looks like we are few around here with NCs that we like/want to put on tracks?
I've been a bit lazy with booking track days this year. At the end of last year we booked to go to the ring this summer assuming all would be well, that seems less likely now. I've booked quite a bit of time off work around then and with uncertainty about family holidays, friends getting married and so on I'd been conserving the rest until I knew what we were doing. We have booked Llandow on the 24th of July with OpenTrack, I think Geraint is coming too and the more the merrier if it interests you, and we will probably give Mallory Park a go in August or September. Then maybe book some Autumn/Winter days at Bedford or similar when I inevitably have some leave to use up towards the end of the year.
TheJimi said:
Brilliant fabrication work there, I really like that.
Thank you!Accelebrate said:
I've been a bit lazy with booking track days this year. At the end of last year we booked to go to the ring this summer assuming all would be well, that seems less likely now. I've booked quite a bit of time off work around then and with uncertainty about family holidays, friends getting married and so on I'd been conserving the rest until I knew what we were doing. We have booked Llandow on the 24th of July with OpenTrack, I think Geraint is coming too and the more the merrier if it interests you, and we will probably give Mallory Park a go in August or September. Then maybe book some Autumn/Winter days at Bedford or similar when I inevitably have some leave to use up towards the end of the year.
Thanks for the invitation! No problem at all, I was more thinking "end of the summer/beginning of autumn" as:- I have one in May (18th evening - Brands) and one in June (11th - Mallory Park): I will keep an eye on the MX5s around
- Then, I need to install the rusty Yellow Dot ARB on my rusty car, which might take some time!
- End of summer/beginning of autumn looks less crazy in term of availability and prices
Any within two to three hours commute from North London is fine to me
I did only Bedford (which I liked a lot!) and Snetterton (which I think the track is amazing, but I am pretty rubbish on the technical last part, and too many "overtaking in braking zone" the day I did it) so far.Since fitting the rollbar I've been mulling over fitting a harness for trackdays, but before I can go down that route I'll need a different seat with the appropriate holes.
Ideally I would have booked an appointment at somewhere like GSM Performance and tried a few for size, but I didn't really have the time to travel up to Nottingham and a lot of this musing was done during lockdown. I assumed there would be a similar business near Silverstone, but my Googling drew a blank apart from a few racewear stores who stocked seats from a single manufacturer.
Instead I tried to remember the brands of seats that I'd sat in in other cars, I remembered finding the seats in German-Mark's ITB'd NB tight but comfortable during last years ring trip. They were sold and branded by German MX5 tuner SPS (their equivalent to BBR)...
https://sps-motorsportshop.com/teileshop/performan...
I noticed that the dimension graphic was suspiciously similar in format, and identical in dimensions to a seat that Bofi Racing stock, the Motamec MRX...
https://www.motamec.com/motamec-racing-mrx-race-se...
Motamec are a Welsh business who sell a range of motorsport equipment and tools. Everything is imported with their branding applied, but from what I can gather they do a good job of cherry-picking the best bits available for keen prices.
Some further digging revealed that both the SPS and Motamec seats are made by Mirco in Poland. They appear to be a large outfit producing seats under many guises. A lot of their seats are FIA approved, which is promising, although the MRX isn't one of them. The MRX appears to be identical to the SPS seats in Mark's car with the exception of slightly smaller shoulder harness holes. I liked the idea of a seat that's specifically designed for the MX5, if it fits an NA/NB it should fit the NC nicely. You can fit reasonably wide seats in the NC, but at the expense of legroom as at full extension the stock seats fit within a relatively narrow recess slightly back from what would be the B pillar, I have the OE seat as far back as it will go, so a narrow seat seemed desirable to maximise legroom.
I did also consider the ubiquitous Sparco Sprint seat, which is a steel-framed seat with FIA approval for a similar price, but I preferred the idea of a fibreglass seat and couldn't remember sitting in a Sparco recently, I have a feeling they're slightly tighter. Either seat is cheap enough to trial and sell on if it doesn't work out, so I can always revisit this decision.
I ordered the MRX along with a Cybul seat mount from Bofi. The seat shipped quickly directly from Motamec. I'm still waiting for the Cybul mount. Ho-hum. No matter, I had a sub-project in mind for the seat when it arrived...
I presume 6.35kg was the weight of the shell when bare. With cushions and fixings it weighs 7.6kg. The stock seat was exactly 14kg, although this is an unfair comparison until the mount arrives.
A trial fit, just placed in for now...
The width seems good. This maybe illustrates what I was talking about, if you don't need to slide the seat back within this gap you could probably get away with a wider-winged seat.
The central storage bin that houses the fuel filler release still opens. This might seem like a silly consideration but it's nice to keep the car relatively civilised for the longer trips. Having somewhere to stash your passport when you're driving alone with a car full of kit is useful.
I've just ordered one seat, I'll see what it's like to live with before deciding if it's a permanent feature or something I bolt in for track days. I was also keen to retain the isofix mounts on the passenger seat whilst my son is young.
I've always liked heated seats, particularly in a convertible. It seemed a shame to lose that feature. Happily, I discovered that you can buy aftermarket heated seat pads, and they're cheap, a pair was all of £10 shipped from within the UK.
The NC1 has a very simple heated seat setup. They're either on, or off. The NC2 gained variable control, but the simplicity of the NC1 would make my life easy here. Some probing in the factory seat connector found a simple switched 12v feed (spot the 2ohm resistor that successfully disabled the seat airbag warning)...
Here's the heated seat connector (in green) removed from the single mega-plug that combines all of the connections for each factory seat into a single connection.
I chopped the connector off the factory seat and rewired it along with the new heater pads with some two-pin Superseal connectors. I resisted combining the two pads into a single cable to make it easy to remove each cushion in the future.
I added the same connector to the factory seat. This means that I can remove the portion that I need to connect to the car seat loom when swapping seats, or revert things back easily. Here's the factory seat ready to be re-installed with the new connector...
A test of the new pads connected to the car, they worked! Each pad contains a thermistor which seems to keep them at around 30c.
The pads installed into the cushions in the new seat easily, they can be cut to size if necessary.
I might need to rethink the cable routing if I go with a 6-point harness, or maybe just cable-tie them towards the front of the harness hole, assuming the harness with probably pull towards the back.
Installed and bench tested with a UPS battery. They work well and visually you wouldn't know they were fitted. I think I might have to do the same to my office chair, and maybe a coat combined with a drill battery for the winter
The only slight hiccup was that I hadn't anticipated that Mirco would have sewed a horizontal line through both the foam and the cover on the back cushion, meaning I could only gain access to the lower half to add the pad. As a result this area of the seat is heated:
I think that's ok, as it's mainly the lower back that needs to be heated. But for now I've left the heater pad untrimmed and folded over, I might see if the cushion would unpick easily and I've emailed Mirco to see if they'll sell me a spare.
Hopefully the seat mount will arrive soon so I can see how well this all works. I'll then investigate harnesses, I've done a little research and I think I'm leaning more towards a 6-point over a 4-point with ASM. I'll retain the conventional belt for the road.
Ideally I would have booked an appointment at somewhere like GSM Performance and tried a few for size, but I didn't really have the time to travel up to Nottingham and a lot of this musing was done during lockdown. I assumed there would be a similar business near Silverstone, but my Googling drew a blank apart from a few racewear stores who stocked seats from a single manufacturer.
Instead I tried to remember the brands of seats that I'd sat in in other cars, I remembered finding the seats in German-Mark's ITB'd NB tight but comfortable during last years ring trip. They were sold and branded by German MX5 tuner SPS (their equivalent to BBR)...
https://sps-motorsportshop.com/teileshop/performan...
I noticed that the dimension graphic was suspiciously similar in format, and identical in dimensions to a seat that Bofi Racing stock, the Motamec MRX...
https://www.motamec.com/motamec-racing-mrx-race-se...
Motamec are a Welsh business who sell a range of motorsport equipment and tools. Everything is imported with their branding applied, but from what I can gather they do a good job of cherry-picking the best bits available for keen prices.
Some further digging revealed that both the SPS and Motamec seats are made by Mirco in Poland. They appear to be a large outfit producing seats under many guises. A lot of their seats are FIA approved, which is promising, although the MRX isn't one of them. The MRX appears to be identical to the SPS seats in Mark's car with the exception of slightly smaller shoulder harness holes. I liked the idea of a seat that's specifically designed for the MX5, if it fits an NA/NB it should fit the NC nicely. You can fit reasonably wide seats in the NC, but at the expense of legroom as at full extension the stock seats fit within a relatively narrow recess slightly back from what would be the B pillar, I have the OE seat as far back as it will go, so a narrow seat seemed desirable to maximise legroom.
I did also consider the ubiquitous Sparco Sprint seat, which is a steel-framed seat with FIA approval for a similar price, but I preferred the idea of a fibreglass seat and couldn't remember sitting in a Sparco recently, I have a feeling they're slightly tighter. Either seat is cheap enough to trial and sell on if it doesn't work out, so I can always revisit this decision.
I ordered the MRX along with a Cybul seat mount from Bofi. The seat shipped quickly directly from Motamec. I'm still waiting for the Cybul mount. Ho-hum. No matter, I had a sub-project in mind for the seat when it arrived...
I presume 6.35kg was the weight of the shell when bare. With cushions and fixings it weighs 7.6kg. The stock seat was exactly 14kg, although this is an unfair comparison until the mount arrives.
A trial fit, just placed in for now...
The width seems good. This maybe illustrates what I was talking about, if you don't need to slide the seat back within this gap you could probably get away with a wider-winged seat.
The central storage bin that houses the fuel filler release still opens. This might seem like a silly consideration but it's nice to keep the car relatively civilised for the longer trips. Having somewhere to stash your passport when you're driving alone with a car full of kit is useful.
I've just ordered one seat, I'll see what it's like to live with before deciding if it's a permanent feature or something I bolt in for track days. I was also keen to retain the isofix mounts on the passenger seat whilst my son is young.
I've always liked heated seats, particularly in a convertible. It seemed a shame to lose that feature. Happily, I discovered that you can buy aftermarket heated seat pads, and they're cheap, a pair was all of £10 shipped from within the UK.
The NC1 has a very simple heated seat setup. They're either on, or off. The NC2 gained variable control, but the simplicity of the NC1 would make my life easy here. Some probing in the factory seat connector found a simple switched 12v feed (spot the 2ohm resistor that successfully disabled the seat airbag warning)...
Here's the heated seat connector (in green) removed from the single mega-plug that combines all of the connections for each factory seat into a single connection.
I chopped the connector off the factory seat and rewired it along with the new heater pads with some two-pin Superseal connectors. I resisted combining the two pads into a single cable to make it easy to remove each cushion in the future.
I added the same connector to the factory seat. This means that I can remove the portion that I need to connect to the car seat loom when swapping seats, or revert things back easily. Here's the factory seat ready to be re-installed with the new connector...
A test of the new pads connected to the car, they worked! Each pad contains a thermistor which seems to keep them at around 30c.
The pads installed into the cushions in the new seat easily, they can be cut to size if necessary.
I might need to rethink the cable routing if I go with a 6-point harness, or maybe just cable-tie them towards the front of the harness hole, assuming the harness with probably pull towards the back.
Installed and bench tested with a UPS battery. They work well and visually you wouldn't know they were fitted. I think I might have to do the same to my office chair, and maybe a coat combined with a drill battery for the winter
The only slight hiccup was that I hadn't anticipated that Mirco would have sewed a horizontal line through both the foam and the cover on the back cushion, meaning I could only gain access to the lower half to add the pad. As a result this area of the seat is heated:
I think that's ok, as it's mainly the lower back that needs to be heated. But for now I've left the heater pad untrimmed and folded over, I might see if the cushion would unpick easily and I've emailed Mirco to see if they'll sell me a spare.
Hopefully the seat mount will arrive soon so I can see how well this all works. I'll then investigate harnesses, I've done a little research and I think I'm leaning more towards a 6-point over a 4-point with ASM. I'll retain the conventional belt for the road.
Edited by Accelebrate on Thursday 20th May 11:49
In my 100% track car I bought universal L shaped seat brackets and fitted them between seat and seat runners. That gave a fully adjustable seat for different sized drivers.
How are you going to get around the issue of the seatbelt keeper being bolted to the OE seat? I'm presuming either bolt it to the transmission tunnel or the new seat, neither of which are great IMO.
How are you going to get around the issue of the seatbelt keeper being bolted to the OE seat? I'm presuming either bolt it to the transmission tunnel or the new seat, neither of which are great IMO.
I was planning to bolt it to the side mount of the seat and see how well that sat, probably not very. The Cybul base mount includes a pair of side mounts with plenty of holes, so hopefully one of them will fall right. If it's unworkable it might be that it's seat and harnesses only, and then revert for road miles.
I've picked up a slider kit, if I fit it or not will depend on how low the seat sits. I'd like to, as it's not uncommon for us to swap cars during track days.
I've picked up a slider kit, if I fit it or not will depend on how low the seat sits. I'd like to, as it's not uncommon for us to swap cars during track days.
geraintthomas said:
Outstanding, glad to see the new welder is paying off. If you ever wanted to make another, I'd be interested!
Thanks! I've had a few comments like that, it took a while being my first attempt, but a second would probably be easier. Let me see if I ever find myself with a surplus of garage project time.Accelebrate said:
I was planning to bolt it to the side mount of the seat and see how well that sat, probably not very. The Cybul base mount includes a pair of side mounts with plenty of holes, so hopefully one of them will fall right. If it's unworkable it might be that it's seat and harnesses only, and then revert for road miles.
I've picked up a slider kit, if I fit it or not will depend on how low the seat sits. I'd like to, as it's not uncommon for us to swap cars during track days.
I would prefer it bolted through the transmission tunnel with a spreader plate on the back, it would work ok as long as any driver had the seat in a similar place.I've picked up a slider kit, if I fit it or not will depend on how low the seat sits. I'd like to, as it's not uncommon for us to swap cars during track days.
I'm sorry, but I cringe a bit at people messing with safety critical items, I would advise keeping the bucket and harnesses for track use only.
That's probably how it'll end up being used. As you've seen I've already put some thought into how I can make it easy to switch, even though the car does relatively few road miles nowadays. But I'd like to retain the conventional belt even if it's just for driving to and from track days. I've driven cars with harnesses on the road, it makes some junctions interesting!
Is your preference for transmission mounting/spreader plates because you don't trust the side mounts to be strong enough? Do you carry the same thinking over to mounting points for harnesses?
What are your thoughts on base mounts like this that include a provision for belt mounting?
https://www.plantedtechnology.com/planted-seat-bra...
Is your preference for transmission mounting/spreader plates because you don't trust the side mounts to be strong enough? Do you carry the same thinking over to mounting points for harnesses?
What are your thoughts on base mounts like this that include a provision for belt mounting?
https://www.plantedtechnology.com/planted-seat-bra...
Looks good. The space rear of the seatbelt tower is suprisingly small. I purchased some gorgeous exige seats but they were just a smidge too wide so had to sell on. I ended up with a tillet b5 that was suprisingly comfy and sat soooooo low.
How will you attach the new side brackets to the car? The mounting points are a pig without a bracket and using the original runner I suspect you will find yourself sitting really high....
There was a guy on Facebook selling flat mounting plates for after market seats. You can also get the jazrider lowering brackets (or do you already have those?)
How will you attach the new side brackets to the car? The mounting points are a pig without a bracket and using the original runner I suspect you will find yourself sitting really high....
There was a guy on Facebook selling flat mounting plates for after market seats. You can also get the jazrider lowering brackets (or do you already have those?)
I made a set of simple lowering brackets for my original seat, which have worked well. I wasn’t planning to carry anything over from that seat though. The Cybul mount I’m waiting for is both a set of side mounts and a base and appears to provide a good range of adjustment:
https://cybul.eu/shop/mazda-mx-5-nc-bucket-seat-mo...
I may sandwich a universal slider between the base and side mount depending on how low things end up sitting.
Tillett make some lovely seats!
https://cybul.eu/shop/mazda-mx-5-nc-bucket-seat-mo...
I may sandwich a universal slider between the base and side mount depending on how low things end up sitting.
Tillett make some lovely seats!
Accelebrate said:
That's probably how it'll end up being used. As you've seen I've already put some thought into how I can make it easy to switch, even though the car does relatively few road miles nowadays. But I'd like to retain the conventional belt even if it's just for driving to and from track days. I've driven cars with harnesses on the road, it makes some junctions interesting!
Is your preference for transmission mounting/spreader plates because you don't trust the side mounts to be strong enough? Do you carry the same thinking over to mounting points for harnesses?
What are your thoughts on base mounts like this that include a provision for belt mounting?
https://www.plantedtechnology.com/planted-seat-bra...
I can't see anywhere in the text where it says that's what it is? It looks a bit weedy for a inertia belt fixing.Is your preference for transmission mounting/spreader plates because you don't trust the side mounts to be strong enough? Do you carry the same thinking over to mounting points for harnesses?
What are your thoughts on base mounts like this that include a provision for belt mounting?
https://www.plantedtechnology.com/planted-seat-bra...
I can't really advise, i'm just saying be very careful with this kind of thing.
As you know manufacturers go through lots of stringent testing with crash test dummies and the like (Or at least they used to use CTDs, it's probably done on a computer now) to make cars safe, if you're ever in a major shunt a heck of a lot of force and weight gets thrown forwards on the belts, so they need anchoring to something very secure. I just think that there are less links in the chain if you fastened the receiver to the transmission tunnel with a spreader plate on the back.
If you think about how the two different types of belt work then more load goes through the mounting point of a 2 point than a 4 or 6. Not only because its shared out between less anchoring points, but also when you're thrown forward you gather momentum (which is increased load/weight) before the belts lock. With a harness you're already strapped tight back so this secondary action doesn't happen.
I do have a dislike of cars which try to do both road & track as they are always compromised. In fact I have a dislike of anything which tries to do something it shouldn't! There is a tool for every job as far as i'm concerned, I think a lot of cars which start out as R&T eventually end up as track only when the owners get fed up with chasing their tails or driving thoroughly unsuitable cars on the road.
Some things lend themselves quite well to doing both on the NC, I build engines which do for instance, but the cost of them is the drawback.
Seats are always a big problem on these cars, no matter what you do you'll pick up points with one hand and equally lose points on the other hand, there is no win-win so some careful thought is needed.
drgoatboy said:
The cybul mount looks great!!! That would have saved me a lot of time effort and swearing!!!
It seemed like a well thought out option for a fair price, hopefully it'll show up soon.Evoluzione said:
Seats are always a big problem on these cars, no matter what you do you'll pick up points with one hand and equally lose points on the other hand, there is no win-win so some careful thought is needed.
Your posts have caused me to turn my attention to harness mounting research, I'd been preoccupied with finding a seat that would work, so thank you.I assumed the seat mount was the logical place for the belt receiver as that's how the factory seat is configured, but I can certainly understand the argument for keeping all restraint fixings isolated from the seat mounts. Thinking about it I'll need to add a spreader plate to the trans tunnel regardless as I'll need somewhere to attach an eye bolt for a harness.
That leads me to think about the crutch straps if I opt for a 6-point harness. The Cybul base mount includes holes for this purpose, but would you carry over the same logic and opt for spreader plates and bolts through the floorpan? I'd probably need to modify the mount a little to provide clearance, and I assume relatively little force is transferred through the crutch straps as I presume they're mainly there to prevent submarining.
On the other hand I can see the height of eye bolts on the base mount being an issue if I want to get the seat nice and low, spreader plates might avoid this. This looks like a nice solution... https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
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