2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
Accelebrate said:
Thanks. I should have thought about Buzzweld, I like their primers.
I used E-Tech VHT - https://e-tech.uk.com/e-tech-xht-paint-xtremely-hi... the instructions state it needs to be baked at 160c for an hour. That wasn’t a problem for the carriers (although my wife wasn’t too impressed with the house being full of paint fumes), but I couldn’t be bothered to remove the calipers to do the same. Hopefully, the heat of the brakes will cure them at some point. They were hard enough this morning that winding back the pistons using a clamp and block of wood didn’t damage the paint.
Must admit I didnt remove them off the car at all did them on and left them. Last time they got removed was yesterday to add wheel studs but no more painting lolI used E-Tech VHT - https://e-tech.uk.com/e-tech-xht-paint-xtremely-hi... the instructions state it needs to be baked at 160c for an hour. That wasn’t a problem for the carriers (although my wife wasn’t too impressed with the house being full of paint fumes), but I couldn’t be bothered to remove the calipers to do the same. Hopefully, the heat of the brakes will cure them at some point. They were hard enough this morning that winding back the pistons using a clamp and block of wood didn’t damage the paint.
I got the final bits buttoned up on the car this morning. The calipers look quite smart in boring grey...
I then did some slightly dubious things to tighten down the suspension under load. This would only be for the drive over to the alignment garage. I moved the new alignment bolts to positions that I thought seemed sensible and matched what I did on one side with the other by eye, I didn't measure anything.
I returned to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley and their Hunter machine. It drove remarkably well on the way over, albeit with a slightly offset steering wheel.
Considering how little effort I put into my eyeball alignment I was amazed at the consistency of the before measurements...
Unfortunately, they couldn't undo the bolts on the one part I hadn't touched on the front end - the track rod ends. I'd gone as far as researching and adding new inners and outers to my eBay basket, but there was no play in the existing parts so I decided to draw a line somewhere.
They've manipulated the toe and camber to straighten the steering, but that's left the two sides mismatched. They also refused to charge me anything again for a second time. It's driving really nicely, but I feel like I need to give them some money for their time at some point so I've ordered the parts and will revisit this soon.
I then did some slightly dubious things to tighten down the suspension under load. This would only be for the drive over to the alignment garage. I moved the new alignment bolts to positions that I thought seemed sensible and matched what I did on one side with the other by eye, I didn't measure anything.
I returned to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley and their Hunter machine. It drove remarkably well on the way over, albeit with a slightly offset steering wheel.
Considering how little effort I put into my eyeball alignment I was amazed at the consistency of the before measurements...
Unfortunately, they couldn't undo the bolts on the one part I hadn't touched on the front end - the track rod ends. I'd gone as far as researching and adding new inners and outers to my eBay basket, but there was no play in the existing parts so I decided to draw a line somewhere.
They've manipulated the toe and camber to straighten the steering, but that's left the two sides mismatched. They also refused to charge me anything again for a second time. It's driving really nicely, but I feel like I need to give them some money for their time at some point so I've ordered the parts and will revisit this soon.
I removed the front undertrays to gain access to the inner track rods. I don't think I've ever had a reason to remove this undertray before, which is odd as there isn't much of this car that I haven't had apart.
The angled radiator is a nice little feature, and I had access to some more brackets and chassis to rust treat.
The outer track rods cracked loose just fine, but the jam nuts were well and truly jammed. I got this side moving with some heat.
I skipped the heat on the other side and ugga-dugga'd it off.
With the undertrays out of the way there's loads of access to remove the inner track rods. No special tools required, a 30mm spanner is a perfect fit, but equally, I'm sure an adjustable or water pump pliers would work fine.
I was half-tempted just to clean the threads, grease everything and put it back together. But the inners were a bit crusty and chewed up and I'd gone this far. They'll make a good set of spares in my track day toolbox.
There are no 'premium' aftermarket track rod options for the NC, nothing like Lemforder for example. Just lots of the usual factors brands or OE at four times the cost. I went with Febi inners, I find their parts to be a bit hit-and-miss. The outers weren't in stock so I went with Blue Print which is probably the same Febi part in a different box. I assumed the boots would be split so I also ordered a vehicle-specific boot kit from First Line.
They looked like decent clones of the originals...
I sprayed the threads with copper grease to hopefully avoid any alignment issues in the future. Installation was simple enough. I counted the threads off and on to hopefully get the initial toe somewhere close for the drive over for alignment.
The boots on the NC are two different sizes, with the nearside being longer and narrower. The First Line boot kit included two of the same part which was a perfect copy of the offside, but much too wide to attach to the nearside. Luckily the original was in good condition.
Some of the undertray clips were missing, or the wrong size. The ten screws that attach it to the front bumper were also rusty. I looked up the part numbers and found that https://vehicleclips.co.uk stocked aftermarket replacements for both.
New fasteners make me happier than they probably should. I also cleaned the streak of manure off the underside of the car that's been there since the journey back from my last track day - the dangers of a low car.
More shiny new...
I'm booked in for another alignment next week
The angled radiator is a nice little feature, and I had access to some more brackets and chassis to rust treat.
The outer track rods cracked loose just fine, but the jam nuts were well and truly jammed. I got this side moving with some heat.
I skipped the heat on the other side and ugga-dugga'd it off.
With the undertrays out of the way there's loads of access to remove the inner track rods. No special tools required, a 30mm spanner is a perfect fit, but equally, I'm sure an adjustable or water pump pliers would work fine.
I was half-tempted just to clean the threads, grease everything and put it back together. But the inners were a bit crusty and chewed up and I'd gone this far. They'll make a good set of spares in my track day toolbox.
There are no 'premium' aftermarket track rod options for the NC, nothing like Lemforder for example. Just lots of the usual factors brands or OE at four times the cost. I went with Febi inners, I find their parts to be a bit hit-and-miss. The outers weren't in stock so I went with Blue Print which is probably the same Febi part in a different box. I assumed the boots would be split so I also ordered a vehicle-specific boot kit from First Line.
They looked like decent clones of the originals...
I sprayed the threads with copper grease to hopefully avoid any alignment issues in the future. Installation was simple enough. I counted the threads off and on to hopefully get the initial toe somewhere close for the drive over for alignment.
The boots on the NC are two different sizes, with the nearside being longer and narrower. The First Line boot kit included two of the same part which was a perfect copy of the offside, but much too wide to attach to the nearside. Luckily the original was in good condition.
Some of the undertray clips were missing, or the wrong size. The ten screws that attach it to the front bumper were also rusty. I looked up the part numbers and found that https://vehicleclips.co.uk stocked aftermarket replacements for both.
New fasteners make me happier than they probably should. I also cleaned the streak of manure off the underside of the car that's been there since the journey back from my last track day - the dangers of a low car.
More shiny new...
I'm booked in for another alignment next week
Accelebrate said:
Some of the undertray clips were missing, or the wrong size. The ten screws that attach it to the front bumper were also rusty. I looked up the part numbers and found that https://vehicleclips.co.uk stocked aftermarket replacements for both.
What an excellent site - thanks for sharing it as I never knew it existed and I do like to replace clips and trim fasteners as they get old and brittle but I don't like BMW and Mercedes prices for items like that 
B'stard Child said:
What an excellent site - thanks for sharing it as I never knew it existed and I do like to replace clips and trim fasteners as they get old and brittle but I don't like BMW and Mercedes prices for items like that
It’s a good site to know. They seem to get most orders to you the next day too, even with their ‘free’ regular postage.Always the way 
I was nearly late for my alignment appointment today. My daughter was playing in the car whilst I pottered around the garage over the weekend, she'd drained the battery enough with the headlights that the engine refused to turn over. Luckily, a spare battery I hadn't charged for a long time had enough juice to jump-start. I then spent the appointment pondering if the 20-minute drive over to the alignment place would have provided enough charge to start the car to drive it onto the ramp, and again to reverse off, and then for me to leave their car park. It had, as it turned out, I guess the alternator is working well.
No issues aligning the front this time. I've gone back to the -1.3 degrees that I used to run on the front, this seems to lead to relatively even tyre wear.
I'd previously told them to focus on the front as the rear will be stripped down soon. The rear is mostly fine but the nearside has about half a degree of positive camber more than I'd like. It wasn't quite clear if they couldn't adjust the rear or didn't because I'd previously suggested not to. Back at home, I found that my phone and a straight edge down the wheel gave very close readings to the Hunter machine, I attempted to correct the nearside camber but the nut on the adjuster wouldn't come loose with either an impact or a relatively big bar. I don't want to snap it until I have a replacement so I'll leave it alone until after Oulton park - it's been like that since I rebuilt the rear hubs and didn't cause me any issues at Spa/Ring/Abingdon.
I was nearly late for my alignment appointment today. My daughter was playing in the car whilst I pottered around the garage over the weekend, she'd drained the battery enough with the headlights that the engine refused to turn over. Luckily, a spare battery I hadn't charged for a long time had enough juice to jump-start. I then spent the appointment pondering if the 20-minute drive over to the alignment place would have provided enough charge to start the car to drive it onto the ramp, and again to reverse off, and then for me to leave their car park. It had, as it turned out, I guess the alternator is working well.
No issues aligning the front this time. I've gone back to the -1.3 degrees that I used to run on the front, this seems to lead to relatively even tyre wear.
I'd previously told them to focus on the front as the rear will be stripped down soon. The rear is mostly fine but the nearside has about half a degree of positive camber more than I'd like. It wasn't quite clear if they couldn't adjust the rear or didn't because I'd previously suggested not to. Back at home, I found that my phone and a straight edge down the wheel gave very close readings to the Hunter machine, I attempted to correct the nearside camber but the nut on the adjuster wouldn't come loose with either an impact or a relatively big bar. I don't want to snap it until I have a replacement so I'll leave it alone until after Oulton park - it's been like that since I rebuilt the rear hubs and didn't cause me any issues at Spa/Ring/Abingdon.
Love reading this and the other MX5 threads its given me so many useful links for finding parts for mine , which is undergoing a rear end resto at the moment
Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
S600BSB said:
Great thread - thank you! Do you happen to have the part numbers handy for the undertray/bonnet fasteners and screws you ordered?
Sure, it was these and these (the part diagrams on Amayama are good for figuring out part numbers)...https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/plastic-push-f...
https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/8mm-head-m5-bo...
DaveK-S1 said:
Love reading this and the other MX5 threads its given me so many useful links for finding parts for mine , which is undergoing a rear end resto at the moment
Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
A rear-end resto is next on my todo list, I picked up a fresh subframe ages ago and have accumulated all the bushes. Unfortunately, I'll need to empty a lot of the contents of my garage to accommodate some building work in a couple of weeks, and a car in pieces won't help with that, so it'll be a project for later in the year.Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
The aircon rad is definitely well peppered, particularly around the lowest holes in the front bumper (which are quite large and open - some mesh behind them probably wouldn't hurt). Not that surprising given how much time it's spent following people on circuits. I had the AC regassed a few years ago, it still works but isn't as good as it was so there must be a small leak somewhere. I'll probably refresh both radiators at some point, I nearly bought a nice aftermarket alu coolant rad a while ago and then forgot all about it.
A rear-end resto is next on my todo list, I picked up a fresh subframe ages ago and have accumulated all the bushes. Unfortunately, I'll need to empty a lot of the contents of my garage to accommodate some building work in a couple of weeks, and a car in pieces won't help with that, so it'll be a project for later in the year.
The aircon rad is definitely well peppered, particularly around the lowest holes in the front bumper (which are quite large and open - some mesh behind them probably wouldn't hurt). Not that surprising given how much time it's spent following people on circuits. I had the AC regassed a few years ago, it still works but isn't as good as it was so there must be a small leak somewhere. I'll probably refresh both radiators at some point, I nearly bought a nice aftermarket alu coolant rad a while ago and then forgot all about it.
[/quote]
I've used the mishimoto rad as its a thicker core so has more capacity, useful for the 2.5 conversion or a tuned car
I went up to Oulton Park for the first time last week. It ended up being just me and Roshan after Geraint from the other PH NC thread had to drop out due to some car issues. Roshan's Mum runs a nice B&B near Shrewsbury so we met there the night before.
The morning was a bit damp, the forecast had predicted this, so for the first time in quite a few track days I'd got the right tyres on. My new Eagle F1s seemed to have no trouble finding grip which gave me a lot of confidence on what's quite a narrow circuit.
Guess where we were?!
It was good to meet up with Kevin and see his ex-R4R Swift in the flesh again. Roshan rented this very car at the Ring when it was still on the R4R fleet and we both spent some time in it, it's a bit funny to see it in Cheshire all these years later.
The rain held off in the afternoon and a dry line soon appeared. I spent quite a bit of the day chasing or being followed by Roshan. He was quicker than me in the morning, I think from a mixture of circuit knowledge from sim racing and more confidence in the wet. By the afternoon I'd got the gist of the circuit and I think I was carrying more speed through the now dry corners than he was so I started to pull away. The GT86 has similar mods to my car (manifold, remap, suspension) and they made for well-matched sparring partners.
Thanks to Robert Baxter ( https://www.rbpsphotography.com ) for the excellent photography.
Here's some footage from the GT86, featuring a very rapid Corolla...
I enjoyed Oulton a lot, any circuit in the UK with elevation changes is always a treat and it seemed to have a nice flow to it. None of the straights are really long enough for a car like the MX5 to feel annoyingly underpowered and a number of the corners are technical enough that they kept me engaged all day getting quicker through them.
The morning was a bit damp, the forecast had predicted this, so for the first time in quite a few track days I'd got the right tyres on. My new Eagle F1s seemed to have no trouble finding grip which gave me a lot of confidence on what's quite a narrow circuit.
Guess where we were?!
It was good to meet up with Kevin and see his ex-R4R Swift in the flesh again. Roshan rented this very car at the Ring when it was still on the R4R fleet and we both spent some time in it, it's a bit funny to see it in Cheshire all these years later.
The rain held off in the afternoon and a dry line soon appeared. I spent quite a bit of the day chasing or being followed by Roshan. He was quicker than me in the morning, I think from a mixture of circuit knowledge from sim racing and more confidence in the wet. By the afternoon I'd got the gist of the circuit and I think I was carrying more speed through the now dry corners than he was so I started to pull away. The GT86 has similar mods to my car (manifold, remap, suspension) and they made for well-matched sparring partners.
Thanks to Robert Baxter ( https://www.rbpsphotography.com ) for the excellent photography.
Here's some footage from the GT86, featuring a very rapid Corolla...
I enjoyed Oulton a lot, any circuit in the UK with elevation changes is always a treat and it seemed to have a nice flow to it. None of the straights are really long enough for a car like the MX5 to feel annoyingly underpowered and a number of the corners are technical enough that they kept me engaged all day getting quicker through them.
The car was perfect all day at Oulton. On the way home I accelerated on the M40 and noticed the CEL briefly illuminate. It stayed off for the remaining 50 miles to home and the car ran fine.
I scanned the car the next day and found a stored code for a misfire on cylinder 1. I removed the plastic engine cover and swapped the coil from cyl 1 with cyl 4 to see if the code would move. Given how it had only briefly misfired many miles earlier I thought it might take a while to hunt this one down. I was almost relieved to find that the car was constantly misfiring when I started it back up. The codes revealed that the misfire was still on cyl 1 so that ruled out the coil.
The good thing about being around a model of car for a number of years is that you unwittingly absorb the knowledge of most of the common failure points. I was aware that some owners have had issues with the wires to the coil pack connectors becoming brittle over time. A little prodding of the wiring around the first coil confirmed this diagnosis...
Some further testing revealed it was the first wire that was at fault. The insulation was still intact, but it was noticeably harder and no longer flexible on the first 10mm after it emerged from the connector. I suspect the engine cover was pressing the wiring into a position where it didn't misfire.
The original connectors feature no obvious part numbers, but some research revealed that they're Sumitomo 6189-0779 - https://www.auto-click.co.uk/6189-0779
Lacking a particularly great/premium option, I took a chance on a suspiciously cheap set of prewired pigtails for £9 delivered the next day with Prime - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1T6KZQB. They appear to be the same thing that's sold through a number of retailers for a lot more money. A set of these and some inline Wagos would make a good addition for anyone building up a trackday/holiday spares box.
They're not bad for the price. The connectors are really good and look to be potentially genuine. Given that the real Sumitomo's are made in China that might be the case. The wiring is a few strands thinner than the original and appears to potentially be aluminium rather than copper. If I was doing this again I'd possibly look into buying the connector pins separately and making up my own pigtails.
I've always been better at soldering than crimping wires, but I bought a decent set of ratcheting crimpers with an array of different dies for a project a while ago so I thought I'd revisit heatshrink butt connectors. Executed properly a crimped connection should be more reliable in an engine bay. I had a lot more success than with previous attempts and was happy with the strength of the connections I made. It's amazing what the right tools can do.
Factory spec cheap insulation tape reinstated...
I dithered for a bit about if I should stop there or replace the other three. Common sense would suggest if one has failed the others might follow, but then I'm also introducing 9 potentially unnecessary crimp connections. In the end I decided to swap all of them out, my crimping got a little neater too...
Cyl 2 and 3 looked ok, but 4 appeared to be quite brittle, so I was pleased I continued.
Codes cleared and nothing came back. I took it for a 10-mile test drive to get some fuel, all seems to be well. I rewarded it with a quick wash to get rid of the trackday filth.
I scanned the car the next day and found a stored code for a misfire on cylinder 1. I removed the plastic engine cover and swapped the coil from cyl 1 with cyl 4 to see if the code would move. Given how it had only briefly misfired many miles earlier I thought it might take a while to hunt this one down. I was almost relieved to find that the car was constantly misfiring when I started it back up. The codes revealed that the misfire was still on cyl 1 so that ruled out the coil.
The good thing about being around a model of car for a number of years is that you unwittingly absorb the knowledge of most of the common failure points. I was aware that some owners have had issues with the wires to the coil pack connectors becoming brittle over time. A little prodding of the wiring around the first coil confirmed this diagnosis...
Some further testing revealed it was the first wire that was at fault. The insulation was still intact, but it was noticeably harder and no longer flexible on the first 10mm after it emerged from the connector. I suspect the engine cover was pressing the wiring into a position where it didn't misfire.
The original connectors feature no obvious part numbers, but some research revealed that they're Sumitomo 6189-0779 - https://www.auto-click.co.uk/6189-0779
Lacking a particularly great/premium option, I took a chance on a suspiciously cheap set of prewired pigtails for £9 delivered the next day with Prime - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1T6KZQB. They appear to be the same thing that's sold through a number of retailers for a lot more money. A set of these and some inline Wagos would make a good addition for anyone building up a trackday/holiday spares box.
They're not bad for the price. The connectors are really good and look to be potentially genuine. Given that the real Sumitomo's are made in China that might be the case. The wiring is a few strands thinner than the original and appears to potentially be aluminium rather than copper. If I was doing this again I'd possibly look into buying the connector pins separately and making up my own pigtails.
I've always been better at soldering than crimping wires, but I bought a decent set of ratcheting crimpers with an array of different dies for a project a while ago so I thought I'd revisit heatshrink butt connectors. Executed properly a crimped connection should be more reliable in an engine bay. I had a lot more success than with previous attempts and was happy with the strength of the connections I made. It's amazing what the right tools can do.
Factory spec cheap insulation tape reinstated...
I dithered for a bit about if I should stop there or replace the other three. Common sense would suggest if one has failed the others might follow, but then I'm also introducing 9 potentially unnecessary crimp connections. In the end I decided to swap all of them out, my crimping got a little neater too...
Cyl 2 and 3 looked ok, but 4 appeared to be quite brittle, so I was pleased I continued.
Codes cleared and nothing came back. I took it for a 10-mile test drive to get some fuel, all seems to be well. I rewarded it with a quick wash to get rid of the trackday filth.
Great to meet you both and car was going well. Shame I didnt get out but also glad I didnt when I found an alarming issue once home in the form of the cage moving thanks to a certain motorsports company not actually tightening the bolts to the floor on 90% of them! Angry cant get close.............
Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
I clicked on this thread out of curiosity (don't visit pistonheads that much tbh) and funnily enough going through it there was a post I made in like 2018 saying my friend wanted to buy an NC MX-5 after coming with me on some trackdays.
Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
Kev_Mk3 said:
Great to meet you both and car was going well. Shame I didnt get out but also glad I didnt when I found an alarming issue once home in the form of the cage moving thanks to a certain motorsports company not actually tightening the bolts to the floor on 90% of them! Angry cant get close.............
Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
Agh. That's a bit of an oversight! At least you found it before Zandvoort, how did that go?Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
I was pretty happy about how the misfire unfolded. No issues all day at Oulton, just a little cough on the way home to prompt me to investigate further. Such a polite little car
IdiotRace said:
I clicked on this thread out of curiosity (don't visit pistonheads that much tbh) and funnily enough going through it there was a post I made in like 2018 saying my friend wanted to buy an NC MX-5 after coming with me on some trackdays.
Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
An MX5 from northern Scotland was a brave buy. I'm glad you got to the point of having a rot-free car and still found it fun. It's funny that you should mention 197 brakes, I've got an update along that theme to write up at some point.Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
I like the GT86, similar in many ways to the NC, but they have the advantage of being able to easily carry a full set of spare wheels to a track day.
Accelebrate said:
An MX5 from northern Scotland was a brave buy. I'm glad you got to the point of having a rot-free car and still found it fun. It's funny that you should mention 197 brakes, I've got an update along that theme to write up at some point.
I like the GT86, similar in many ways to the NC, but they have the advantage of being able to easily carry a full set of spare wheels to a track day.
All the arms and subframes were completely crusty but the body looked honestly pretty decent, there was some surface rust but we prodded in most of the places and it seemed solid. We did remove those bits of arch trim as apparently they soak up a lot of water and most likely woudn't help with the rear cills. I like the GT86, similar in many ways to the NC, but they have the advantage of being able to easily carry a full set of spare wheels to a track day.
I think he's due to have a look at the undercoating job at some point so I think it might be worth prodding those rear cill areas again to see how they are. Although we definitely filled them with cavity wax at the time so I'm hoping they've held up. It will be interesting to see if you can fit those brembos under a 16 inch wheel as the road wheels on his car are going from a 16/17 staggered setup to just 17 due to tyre choice and also potential brake clearance.
As for the 86 yeah, I already managed that when I binned off the standard wheels for some better ones Although I'm definitely on the look out for a second set of wheels so I can have dedicated road/wet and track sets like I did with my mr2.
Hopefully we might bump into eachother on a trackday at some point this year, suprised we haven't really as I've done bedford lots of times over the years.
Oulton is a great track. I'd hope to get there again this year but looks like it may be an expensive one for me. Maybe for one of the winter days, they're always fun as usually wet, but much cheaper than other dates through the year.
I do like the GT86, it could be the next step up for me with it being an only car, but having the use of back seats, no matter how small is still a huge improvement. I fear I wouldn't get on with the boxer engine though. I hear they are fine reliability wise as N/A but don't really know anyone that's owned / tracked one long term.
I do like the GT86, it could be the next step up for me with it being an only car, but having the use of back seats, no matter how small is still a huge improvement. I fear I wouldn't get on with the boxer engine though. I hear they are fine reliability wise as N/A but don't really know anyone that's owned / tracked one long term.
I went to a stag do in Wales this weekend. The journey there included some fun roads so it seemed like a good excuse to take the MX5 out. I wasn't quite expecting to wake up to this on Saturday morning though...
The main activity for the weekend was visiting a forge to create a sword to cut the cake at the wedding...
This was great fun, for a while. I don't think we were entirely prepared for it to take the six of us over nine hours of swinging sledge hammers and occasional burns to get to the end product!
The car worked well, no misfires so my plug wire repair is looking promising.
The main activity for the weekend was visiting a forge to create a sword to cut the cake at the wedding...
This was great fun, for a while. I don't think we were entirely prepared for it to take the six of us over nine hours of swinging sledge hammers and occasional burns to get to the end product!
The car worked well, no misfires so my plug wire repair is looking promising.
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