2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
I dug the Mazda out of hibernation in preparation for a track day next week. When I last used it in October I'd reverted a lot of the mods to make it usable as a family car, before ultimately buying another family car. I set about re-reverting those changes, I removed the hardtop and got the bucket seat and harness refitted. I'm still happy with how this seat/mount/harness combo came out...
I've left the ILM exhaust on it for now, I don't fancy my chances with the single exit exhaust at Bedford.
About six months ago I was experimenting with piecing together a bigger front brake kit that would still fit under 16" wheels. As part of that project I realised that I'd need to run a wheel spacer for clearance. Visually, my standard offset wheels now look quite lost inside the arches after lowering and increasing the negative camber, so I figured I could solve two issues with a set of spacers.
Internet wisdom suggested that 25mm would provide decent fitment without rubbing and is the smallest hub-centric spacer you can run without having to chop down your existing studs. This still sounds a lot to me, I wasn't mad keen on the idea of running a spacer at all but figured if I went for a decent brand I could maybe live with it. Autodoc in Germany had a decent deal on sets of Eibach spacers, I ordered two pairs and they arrived in a couple of weeks. The good news was that they gave me plenty of clearance for my brake project, the bad news was that contrary to internet knowledge they rubbed very slightly on the rear arch lips. After a brief test drive I removed the spacers, and forgot about them.
The car had AD08R tyres fitted at the time, they come up a lot wider than most 205 tyres. For the track day next week I'll be using NS2Rs, which are sized more like a regular road tyre. I decided I'd give the spacers another try whilst I was swapping wheels...
The NS2Rs don't rub at the back, I think the fitment looks perfect at the rear with maybe a bit too much poke at the front. It's also made me realise that my front subframe isn't sitting completely square to the body, I've got marginally more poke on the nearside to the offside. I'll run them for the trackday and see how I get on, I think visually they work quite well. I'd probably only need a very light inner-arch roll at the back to be able to use the AD08Rs, I'm not entirely sure I want to do that just yet.
I've put about 75 miles on the car this week whilst running errands. True to form everything still works. It feels great to be using it again, it never fails to put a smile on my face.
I've left the ILM exhaust on it for now, I don't fancy my chances with the single exit exhaust at Bedford.
About six months ago I was experimenting with piecing together a bigger front brake kit that would still fit under 16" wheels. As part of that project I realised that I'd need to run a wheel spacer for clearance. Visually, my standard offset wheels now look quite lost inside the arches after lowering and increasing the negative camber, so I figured I could solve two issues with a set of spacers.
Internet wisdom suggested that 25mm would provide decent fitment without rubbing and is the smallest hub-centric spacer you can run without having to chop down your existing studs. This still sounds a lot to me, I wasn't mad keen on the idea of running a spacer at all but figured if I went for a decent brand I could maybe live with it. Autodoc in Germany had a decent deal on sets of Eibach spacers, I ordered two pairs and they arrived in a couple of weeks. The good news was that they gave me plenty of clearance for my brake project, the bad news was that contrary to internet knowledge they rubbed very slightly on the rear arch lips. After a brief test drive I removed the spacers, and forgot about them.
The car had AD08R tyres fitted at the time, they come up a lot wider than most 205 tyres. For the track day next week I'll be using NS2Rs, which are sized more like a regular road tyre. I decided I'd give the spacers another try whilst I was swapping wheels...
The NS2Rs don't rub at the back, I think the fitment looks perfect at the rear with maybe a bit too much poke at the front. It's also made me realise that my front subframe isn't sitting completely square to the body, I've got marginally more poke on the nearside to the offside. I'll run them for the trackday and see how I get on, I think visually they work quite well. I'd probably only need a very light inner-arch roll at the back to be able to use the AD08Rs, I'm not entirely sure I want to do that just yet.
I've put about 75 miles on the car this week whilst running errands. True to form everything still works. It feels great to be using it again, it never fails to put a smile on my face.
Great read as always, and nice to see it's still packing a punch on the track!
Regarding the brakes, look into Wilwood calipers. I had them on the Celica with some custom mounts from FreakyParts, and they were outstanding. Non-standard hose fitment so be careful as I stripped the threads on mine at first, so they had to be helicoiled afterwards. The stopping power was impressive, but the best part was the lack of sliders and ease of pad change due to them being a fixed caliper, rather than a floating caliper. May be worth a look!
Regarding the brakes, look into Wilwood calipers. I had them on the Celica with some custom mounts from FreakyParts, and they were outstanding. Non-standard hose fitment so be careful as I stripped the threads on mine at first, so they had to be helicoiled afterwards. The stopping power was impressive, but the best part was the lack of sliders and ease of pad change due to them being a fixed caliper, rather than a floating caliper. May be worth a look!
Excellent work as ever 
If it's not too personal of a question, could I ask what size waist you have, and how close fitting you find the Motamec seat?
I'm currently going through the process of selecting a seat and it's currently between the Motamec offerings and the Sparco Rev QRT. (I'm discounting Mirco seats from GSM now I've seen that they pass on the UK import duty to the customer... And of course the Motamecs are the same seats)
It's also probably a long shot, but did you ever considering bolting the side mounts directly to the MX5 sliders? The lateral spacing of the fixings to the seat is about 415mm which looks close to fitting a bucket seat + side mounts, but it's hard to tell without having them in hand
If it's not too personal of a question, could I ask what size waist you have, and how close fitting you find the Motamec seat?
I'm currently going through the process of selecting a seat and it's currently between the Motamec offerings and the Sparco Rev QRT. (I'm discounting Mirco seats from GSM now I've seen that they pass on the UK import duty to the customer... And of course the Motamecs are the same seats)
It's also probably a long shot, but did you ever considering bolting the side mounts directly to the MX5 sliders? The lateral spacing of the fixings to the seat is about 415mm which looks close to fitting a bucket seat + side mounts, but it's hard to tell without having them in hand
Kaveney said:
What front brake upgrade are you looking at rx8 set up ?
geraintthomas said:
Great read as always, and nice to see it's still packing a punch on the track!
Regarding the brakes, look into Wilwood calipers. I had them on the Celica with some custom mounts from FreakyParts, and they were outstanding. Non-standard hose fitment so be careful as I stripped the threads on mine at first, so they had to be helicoiled afterwards. The stopping power was impressive, but the best part was the lack of sliders and ease of pad change due to them being a fixed caliper, rather than a floating caliper. May be worth a look!
I was inspired by the little-BBK that I helped Alex fit to his Fiesta, that used a 300mm disc, Brembo calipers from a Clio and a steel carrier bracket to mount it to the hub. The 300mm disc allowed the setup to still fit under 16" wheels.Regarding the brakes, look into Wilwood calipers. I had them on the Celica with some custom mounts from FreakyParts, and they were outstanding. Non-standard hose fitment so be careful as I stripped the threads on mine at first, so they had to be helicoiled afterwards. The stopping power was impressive, but the best part was the lack of sliders and ease of pad change due to them being a fixed caliper, rather than a floating caliper. May be worth a look!
There are a couple of Clio based options for the MX5, but they all used a 320mm disc and require 17" wheels - https://freakyparts.co.uk/products/mazda-mx5-mk3-n...
I have a lot of 16" wheels so I was keen to see if I could make something that would fit. The NC has 280mm discs as standard. I discovered that the automatic version of the RX8, which I don't think was sold in the UK, used a smaller than the manual 303mm disc. I like the idea of Clio calipers as there are a lot of pad options, and the calipers are cheap to buy.
I designed and 3D-printed a carrier bracket, which was a fun little project. I've assembled all the bits, and a test fit suggests it should work. It's very tight, I had to tickle the casting seams off the spare hub I purchased for mocking this up with a grinder to get enough clearance for my bracket and I don't think I'll be able to run wheels with balancing weights on the inside (Alex has the same issue with his setup). I wanted to take some final measurements and then investigate getting the brackets machined, but I got distracted by other projects.
JoeMk1 said:
Excellent work as ever
If it's not too personal of a question, could I ask what size waist you have, and how close fitting you find the Motamec seat?
I'm currently going through the process of selecting a seat and it's currently between the Motamec offerings and the Sparco Rev QRT. (I'm discounting Mirco seats from GSM now I've seen that they pass on the UK import duty to the customer... And of course the Motamecs are the same seats)
It's also probably a long shot, but did you ever considering bolting the side mounts directly to the MX5 sliders? The lateral spacing of the fixings to the seat is about 415mm which looks close to fitting a bucket seat + side mounts, but it's hard to tell without having them in hand
Thanks! I'm a 34" waist, the Motamec is quite snug, but not uncomfortable. The Sparco Rev was on my shortlist, but I think I couldn't find any photos of it pushed back against the rear plastics/rollbar, I'm not sure if the wider shoulder area would interfere with the area around the B pillar, and I need all the legroom I can get.If it's not too personal of a question, could I ask what size waist you have, and how close fitting you find the Motamec seat?
I'm currently going through the process of selecting a seat and it's currently between the Motamec offerings and the Sparco Rev QRT. (I'm discounting Mirco seats from GSM now I've seen that they pass on the UK import duty to the customer... And of course the Motamecs are the same seats)
It's also probably a long shot, but did you ever considering bolting the side mounts directly to the MX5 sliders? The lateral spacing of the fixings to the seat is about 415mm which looks close to fitting a bucket seat + side mounts, but it's hard to tell without having them in hand
I didn't look into using the factory sliders, that's an interesting idea. I was keen to have something that I could restore to stock relatively easily so I wanted the seat and base to be one complete unit without canibalising the existing seat. But using the factory slider would save quite a bit of weight (the Cybul base is a bit of a unit).
I'm in North Oxfordshire, so possibly not that far from you, you're welcome to try the Motamec if you're ever in the area.
Accelebrate said:
Thanks! I'm a 34" waist, the Motamec is quite snug, but not uncomfortable. The Sparco Rev was on my shortlist, but I think I couldn't find any photos of it pushed back against the rear plastics/rollbar, I'm not sure if the wider shoulder area would interfere with the area around the B pillar, and I need all the legroom I can get.
I didn't look into using the factory sliders, that's an interesting idea. I was keen to have something that I could restore to stock relatively easily so I wanted the seat and base to be one complete unit without canibalising the existing seat. But using the factory slider would save quite a bit of weight (the Cybul base is a bit of a unit).
I'm in North Oxfordshire, so possibly not that far from you, you're welcome to try the Motamec if you're ever in the area.
Thanks for that, I'm about 3" smaller on the waist so it looks like it would be a bit loose for me. On the plus side, it sounds like I need a lot less leg room so a wider winged seat may not be an absolute no. I notice that Grand Prix racewear at Silverstone are a Sparco dealer so I might see if they have a Rev to sit in. From the diagrams and dimensions they quote, it seems to be a narrower seat at the waist, although it's obviously hard to compare between brands. If I am in your area before I make a decision, I would still definitely take you up on the offer though!I didn't look into using the factory sliders, that's an interesting idea. I was keen to have something that I could restore to stock relatively easily so I wanted the seat and base to be one complete unit without canibalising the existing seat. But using the factory slider would save quite a bit of weight (the Cybul base is a bit of a unit).
I'm in North Oxfordshire, so possibly not that far from you, you're welcome to try the Motamec if you're ever in the area.
On the subject of the sliders, it looks from your pics that the seat is offset quite a lot towards the tunnel with respect to the original mounting holes. The original sliders are of course pretty much aligned to the holes in the floor, so any solution would need to move the seat off centre to the sliders. I don't think that this is a problem in terms of loads (I will move the belt buckle to the tunnel like yourself, and pinch your idea on those Schroth eyelets, so no significant harness loads will be reacted through the seat mounts) it just means that some form of adapter will need to be made. Some lateral members between the sliders will be required anyway, to replace the base frame of the original seat, which does the job of tying stuff together laterally.
JoeMk1 said:
Thanks for that, I'm about 3" smaller on the waist so it looks like it would be a bit loose for me. On the plus side, it sounds like I need a lot less leg room so a wider winged seat may not be an absolute no. I notice that Grand Prix racewear at Silverstone are a Sparco dealer so I might see if they have a Rev to sit in. From the diagrams and dimensions they quote, it seems to be a narrower seat at the waist, although it's obviously hard to compare between brands. If I am in your area before I make a decision, I would still definitely take you up on the offer though!
I'm about 3" wider so wonder if I could cope with it or not... I'd normally run an XL seat in an Impreza but I doubt it would fit the MX5. Haven't done much with mine other than notice an orange tint to the paint on my rear arch lips 
Having had to conduct a house move and still not fully settled yet, I'm not beating myself up about it. I just need the OP to keep posting his updates to keep me motivated 
Good work as ever
JoeMk1 said:
Thanks for that, I'm about 3" smaller on the waist so it looks like it would be a bit loose for me. On the plus side, it sounds like I need a lot less leg room so a wider winged seat may not be an absolute no. I notice that Grand Prix racewear at Silverstone are a Sparco dealer so I might see if they have a Rev to sit in. From the diagrams and dimensions they quote, it seems to be a narrower seat at the waist, although it's obviously hard to compare between brands. If I am in your area before I make a decision, I would still definitely take you up on the offer though!
On the subject of the sliders, it looks from your pics that the seat is offset quite a lot towards the tunnel with respect to the original mounting holes. The original sliders are of course pretty much aligned to the holes in the floor, so any solution would need to move the seat off centre to the sliders. I don't think that this is a problem in terms of loads (I will move the belt buckle to the tunnel like yourself, and pinch your idea on those Schroth eyelets, so no significant harness loads will be reacted through the seat mounts) it just means that some form of adapter will need to be made. Some lateral members between the sliders will be required anyway, to replace the base frame of the original seat, which does the job of tying stuff together laterally.
I think Competition Supplies by Silverstone have some Cobra seats on display too - whilst you're over there. GSM seem to have the best range on display in a showroom but Track Time seems to be a constant stream of posts from unhappy customers with delayed or damaged orders.On the subject of the sliders, it looks from your pics that the seat is offset quite a lot towards the tunnel with respect to the original mounting holes. The original sliders are of course pretty much aligned to the holes in the floor, so any solution would need to move the seat off centre to the sliders. I don't think that this is a problem in terms of loads (I will move the belt buckle to the tunnel like yourself, and pinch your idea on those Schroth eyelets, so no significant harness loads will be reacted through the seat mounts) it just means that some form of adapter will need to be made. Some lateral members between the sliders will be required anyway, to replace the base frame of the original seat, which does the job of tying stuff together laterally.
I ended up positioning the seat closer to the trans tunnel than the door as that's where it lined up with the recess near the B pillar for maximum legroom. This also placed it relatively square to the wheel:
However, it highlighted that the pedals are offset to the right, which felt a little strange at first, but was soon forgotten. If you were positioning the seat further forwards you'd probably have more options for a compromise.
Valentines day at Bedford... I have a very understanding wife.
As seems to be the norm now there were no shortage of NCs. The black car in the background seemed to be fairly standard, the green one was turbo'd and very rapid and the red car was a similar setup to mine with a manifold and remap from BBR, but with the addition of a set of their cams too.
The day started out with a damp track, but no rain was falling and some dry lines soon started to appear.
I was joined by Alex and his Fiesta, we've spent quite a bit of time at Bedford and it's a pretty safe environment to push on a bit more than I might be inclined to elsewhere. We had some fun chasing each other around.
Since the last trackday at Anglesey I'd had the alignment corrected and a little more negative camber added to the front, along with fitting the spacers I mentioned in my last update. I think the 50mm wider track was noticeable, in my very untrained hands I'd say things felt more stable in a corner, but possibly a bit more twitchy under braking. I'm guessing that might be down to the spacers changing the scrub radius.
The afternoon started out dry but soon turned to rain, which got progressively heavier. It didn't take long for me to go from flying around with seemingly all the grip in the world to feeling like I was skating about on ice. There's quite a mixture of tarmac at Bedford and some of the smoother sections seemed particularly slick. There were a few corners where even entering at what felt like a crawl led to understeer, a light touch of the throttle would blend that out and leave all four wheels slipping. Fun but not fast.
Alex seemed to be making better progress, I can't blame my tyres as we were both using NS2Rs with the same amount of track days on them. It's possible that the spacers didn't help, although I remember having a similar lack of grip during our last wet trip to The Ring so I think the reality is that I need to get better at driving RWD quickly in the wet.
I didn't seem to be the only one struggling, the afternoon was punctuated by the sound of people spinning out onto the grass. By 3pm most people seemed to have called it a day and packed up. I made the most of an empty track and practised sliding around a bit. I'll never be Chris Harris, but I did have a lot of fun.
An hour or so passed and the marshalls eventually grew weary of my antics, I got shown a couple of 'No Drifting' warning boards and had told myself I'd start behaving, only to then unintentionally end up in a big slide. Unsurprisingly, this earnt me my first ever black flag and I returned to the pits for a telling off. They were pleasant enough about it.
I headed back out for one final session but I found it hard to carry any speed without the occasional bit of opposite lock. Not wanting to push my luck any further I called it a day at about 4:30.
Earlier in the day I had one run down the straight following the red NC with what I feel was a similar entry speed. He didn't pull away from me despite the addition of cams, which surprised me a little.
I always enjoy a wet day on a circuit with minimal barriers, I always come away feeling like I've learnt a lot. Nice to know the car still works after a hibernation too.
As seems to be the norm now there were no shortage of NCs. The black car in the background seemed to be fairly standard, the green one was turbo'd and very rapid and the red car was a similar setup to mine with a manifold and remap from BBR, but with the addition of a set of their cams too.
The day started out with a damp track, but no rain was falling and some dry lines soon started to appear.
I was joined by Alex and his Fiesta, we've spent quite a bit of time at Bedford and it's a pretty safe environment to push on a bit more than I might be inclined to elsewhere. We had some fun chasing each other around.
Since the last trackday at Anglesey I'd had the alignment corrected and a little more negative camber added to the front, along with fitting the spacers I mentioned in my last update. I think the 50mm wider track was noticeable, in my very untrained hands I'd say things felt more stable in a corner, but possibly a bit more twitchy under braking. I'm guessing that might be down to the spacers changing the scrub radius.
The afternoon started out dry but soon turned to rain, which got progressively heavier. It didn't take long for me to go from flying around with seemingly all the grip in the world to feeling like I was skating about on ice. There's quite a mixture of tarmac at Bedford and some of the smoother sections seemed particularly slick. There were a few corners where even entering at what felt like a crawl led to understeer, a light touch of the throttle would blend that out and leave all four wheels slipping. Fun but not fast.
Alex seemed to be making better progress, I can't blame my tyres as we were both using NS2Rs with the same amount of track days on them. It's possible that the spacers didn't help, although I remember having a similar lack of grip during our last wet trip to The Ring so I think the reality is that I need to get better at driving RWD quickly in the wet.
I didn't seem to be the only one struggling, the afternoon was punctuated by the sound of people spinning out onto the grass. By 3pm most people seemed to have called it a day and packed up. I made the most of an empty track and practised sliding around a bit. I'll never be Chris Harris, but I did have a lot of fun.
An hour or so passed and the marshalls eventually grew weary of my antics, I got shown a couple of 'No Drifting' warning boards and had told myself I'd start behaving, only to then unintentionally end up in a big slide. Unsurprisingly, this earnt me my first ever black flag and I returned to the pits for a telling off. They were pleasant enough about it.
I headed back out for one final session but I found it hard to carry any speed without the occasional bit of opposite lock. Not wanting to push my luck any further I called it a day at about 4:30.
Earlier in the day I had one run down the straight following the red NC with what I feel was a similar entry speed. He didn't pull away from me despite the addition of cams, which surprised me a little.
I always enjoy a wet day on a circuit with minimal barriers, I always come away feeling like I've learnt a lot. Nice to know the car still works after a hibernation too.
The poor little Mazda hasn't had much attention recently. The arrival of our second child has limited my opportunities to drive a car with two seats. I did take it and the eldest child to the Scramble at Bicester a few weeks ago...
It's due an MOT soon, harnesses in road cars seem to be a bit of grey area for MOTs so it seemed prudent to refit the original seat. The bucket seat also has some squeaks and creaks that I wanted to try and resolve.
I remembered one of the seat bolts not going in particularly pleasantly the last time the bucket was fitted. You have to flex the seat base bracket a little to get the bolt holes to line up with the floor which makes it a bit too easy to cross-thread. Sure enough, the bolt in question came out in a sorry state...
Unfortunately, I didn't have an M10x1.25 tap to hand. I managed to clean up the threads using a spare high-tensile bolt with some slits cut into the thread to mimic a tap. It worked surprisingly well.
I remembered seeing an NB in my local scrapyard recently so I popped over to see if it was still there with a view to stealing the seat bolts. It was, but the roof had been left down for a while and the seat bolts were seized in place. I'd only taken a small socket set with me which wasn't offering much leverage, I'd also left my gloves behind, I managed to slip off one of the bolts and my hands found some broken glass in the footwell.
Having wrestled one of the bolts out I discovered that whilst the thread pitch is the same as the NC the bolts were about 5mm shorter. They were also quite crusty so I left them behind. After trying a few other makes and models I quickly realised that there's a lot of variety in the size and thread pitch of bolts used to retain seats. Eventually, I got lucky with a 2002 Micra, they used the same 14mm socket with an M10x1.25mm thread. They're about 5mm longer, but that's no bad thing when the thicker bucket seat mount is used. They're also slightly tapered at the end to hopefully make it harder to cross-thread.
The original seat was securely bolted back in, this took a lot longer than I was expecting...
I think one of the creaks on the bucket seat might be coming from where the steel side mounts sandwich up against the fibreglass seat. I ordered some Delrin/Acetal washers to act as a spacer between the seat and sidemount.
It's hard to test with the seat not mounted, but I'm not entirely sure that this has resolved the creaking sound.
It's due an MOT soon, harnesses in road cars seem to be a bit of grey area for MOTs so it seemed prudent to refit the original seat. The bucket seat also has some squeaks and creaks that I wanted to try and resolve.
I remembered one of the seat bolts not going in particularly pleasantly the last time the bucket was fitted. You have to flex the seat base bracket a little to get the bolt holes to line up with the floor which makes it a bit too easy to cross-thread. Sure enough, the bolt in question came out in a sorry state...
Unfortunately, I didn't have an M10x1.25 tap to hand. I managed to clean up the threads using a spare high-tensile bolt with some slits cut into the thread to mimic a tap. It worked surprisingly well.
I remembered seeing an NB in my local scrapyard recently so I popped over to see if it was still there with a view to stealing the seat bolts. It was, but the roof had been left down for a while and the seat bolts were seized in place. I'd only taken a small socket set with me which wasn't offering much leverage, I'd also left my gloves behind, I managed to slip off one of the bolts and my hands found some broken glass in the footwell.
Having wrestled one of the bolts out I discovered that whilst the thread pitch is the same as the NC the bolts were about 5mm shorter. They were also quite crusty so I left them behind. After trying a few other makes and models I quickly realised that there's a lot of variety in the size and thread pitch of bolts used to retain seats. Eventually, I got lucky with a 2002 Micra, they used the same 14mm socket with an M10x1.25mm thread. They're about 5mm longer, but that's no bad thing when the thicker bucket seat mount is used. They're also slightly tapered at the end to hopefully make it harder to cross-thread.
The original seat was securely bolted back in, this took a lot longer than I was expecting...
I think one of the creaks on the bucket seat might be coming from where the steel side mounts sandwich up against the fibreglass seat. I ordered some Delrin/Acetal washers to act as a spacer between the seat and sidemount.
It's hard to test with the seat not mounted, but I'm not entirely sure that this has resolved the creaking sound.
I really must get to bicester scramble. Its not that far from me and looks great!
I've done exactly the same as you with a slightly off seat mount before. Exceedingly annoying! Good effort finding replacement bolts. Didn't think strap yards like that existed anymore. Always loved them for some reason, probably because it feels so dangerous!
I've done exactly the same as you with a slightly off seat mount before. Exceedingly annoying! Good effort finding replacement bolts. Didn't think strap yards like that existed anymore. Always loved them for some reason, probably because it feels so dangerous!
drgoatboy said:
I really must get to bicester scramble. Its not that far from me and looks great!
I've done exactly the same as you with a slightly off seat mount before. Exceedingly annoying! Good effort finding replacement bolts. Didn't think strap yards like that existed anymore. Always loved them for some reason, probably because it feels so dangerous!
Bicester Heritage is well worth a visit, particularly if you haven't been before. You have to be a bit organised booking tickets for the Scrambles nowadays, they've become quite popular.I've done exactly the same as you with a slightly off seat mount before. Exceedingly annoying! Good effort finding replacement bolts. Didn't think strap yards like that existed anymore. Always loved them for some reason, probably because it feels so dangerous!
I find scrap yards both exciting and a bit depressing - a lot of the cars being broken are still 'modern' to me. There are still a few around here who are happy for you to roam and pick your own parts, they're definitely a dying breed though. I haven't been, but I think L.C. Hughes in Bicester also operates in the same fashion.
I swapped back to the AD08Rs for the MOT next week, the shoulders on the NS2Rs are a bit chewed up and I know it only just gets on my testers ramp with the slightly higher profile tyres fitted. This also meant removing the 25mm spacers as the rears rub with the taller/wider AD08Rs fitted.
I might order a set of 20mm spacers as I think they'd be a better fit, the internet seems to suggest I'll need to trim my studs slightly, which I'd like to avoid, but I have a feeling that the 16" wheels have a bigger/deeper cutouts between bolt holes than the 17". The other option is a light roll of the inner arch at the back, I'm undecided.
I also carried out an oil change, Millers this time - I think I bought it a while ago on some sort of Demon Tweeks deal. Along with a Hengst filter.
I bought this Makita electric ratchet recently, it's a bit bulky with an 18v battery fitted, maybe a 12v ratchet would have been a better option, but I didn't want to buy into yet another battery system. It's proving to be a handy tool.
An amusingly low 2000 miles since the last swap in August. It's done two trackdays though, and the oil looked suitably cooked.
Unlike last time, I managed to not bend the clutch line with my oil filter removal tool. The filter did leave its rubber seal behind though, thankfully I noticed before winding the new one on.
I picked up a couple of these Hengst filters whilst ordering the wheel spacers from Autodoc in Germany. They aren't readily available from the UK suppliers that I usually use so I was interested to see how they compared. They're manufactured in Poland and a bit shorter than the Mann or Mahle equivalent, although I know from chopping filters up in the past that doesn't necessarily mean there's a smaller surface area of filtration material as the Mann has a thick band of glue at both ends. I'll save the Mahle that's come off and chop up all three to see how the innards compare at some point.
In with the usual 4.7-ish litres.
I took my now 9-week-old daughter out for her first ride in a convertible. She slept the whole time.
I might order a set of 20mm spacers as I think they'd be a better fit, the internet seems to suggest I'll need to trim my studs slightly, which I'd like to avoid, but I have a feeling that the 16" wheels have a bigger/deeper cutouts between bolt holes than the 17". The other option is a light roll of the inner arch at the back, I'm undecided.
I also carried out an oil change, Millers this time - I think I bought it a while ago on some sort of Demon Tweeks deal. Along with a Hengst filter.
I bought this Makita electric ratchet recently, it's a bit bulky with an 18v battery fitted, maybe a 12v ratchet would have been a better option, but I didn't want to buy into yet another battery system. It's proving to be a handy tool.
An amusingly low 2000 miles since the last swap in August. It's done two trackdays though, and the oil looked suitably cooked.
Unlike last time, I managed to not bend the clutch line with my oil filter removal tool. The filter did leave its rubber seal behind though, thankfully I noticed before winding the new one on.
I picked up a couple of these Hengst filters whilst ordering the wheel spacers from Autodoc in Germany. They aren't readily available from the UK suppliers that I usually use so I was interested to see how they compared. They're manufactured in Poland and a bit shorter than the Mann or Mahle equivalent, although I know from chopping filters up in the past that doesn't necessarily mean there's a smaller surface area of filtration material as the Mann has a thick band of glue at both ends. I'll save the Mahle that's come off and chop up all three to see how the innards compare at some point.
In with the usual 4.7-ish litres.
I took my now 9-week-old daughter out for her first ride in a convertible. She slept the whole time.
Another year, another MOT at my local council...
I seem to be on good terms with the tester here. He didn't seem keen to sit in something this low so I ended up working the controls for the emissions and brake test.
As with previous years since I carelessly lost the cat in the manifold, the numbers when the emissions probe first went in didn't look great. This was despite taking it in hot and leaving it running before the test. He got me to hold it at 5k for a bit to get some heat into the midpipe cat, once everything was toasty it passed just fine at 2.5k.
A clean pass!
I seem to be on good terms with the tester here. He didn't seem keen to sit in something this low so I ended up working the controls for the emissions and brake test.
As with previous years since I carelessly lost the cat in the manifold, the numbers when the emissions probe first went in didn't look great. This was despite taking it in hot and leaving it running before the test. He got me to hold it at 5k for a bit to get some heat into the midpipe cat, once everything was toasty it passed just fine at 2.5k.
A clean pass!
TroubledSoul said:
Fantastic! I've been debating fitting a decat midpipe when I fit my RB backbox and IL manifold... Then this morning a speedbump kindly separated the end of the midpipe from the resonator and made that decision for me, at least in the short term.
I'm still running a standard midpipe with the secondary cat. Amusingly, the MOT tester was encouraging me to get rid of the remaining cat (although not to bring it in for a test in that configuration).Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff