2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
Dal3D said:
Yeah, saw you coming in as I was just on the entrance to the show in my Focus RS - Went up the top of the field to have a nosey 
If you saw a Weimaraner and a Black and White pointer at the show, I was on the end of one of their leads lol
I didn't, but I did spy your RS If you saw a Weimaraner and a Black and White pointer at the show, I was on the end of one of their leads lol
There was definitely an eclectic mix!alex98uk said:
Why the exhaust suppressor!?
I thought I'd give it a try on a longer journey to see if it would make the trumpet exhaust slightly more bearable. Which it did, a little. It's also a lovely piece of welding.I've left the bucket seat in the Mazda since the last trackday as I've become quite adept at quickly fastening the harness, and for the occasional weekend use the car is getting at the moment it kind of works. I noticed over the weekend that the seat seemed to have developed some play, I removed it and found that one of the bolts for the sliders had been fouling on the base of the seat very slightly.
The bolt had also backed off slightly, I suspect these two things are related. That explains the play I'd noticed, it also explains a slight creak that the seat has always had (from the bolt rubbing on the seat). I'd checked the clearances as best as I could before fitting the seat and everything looked close but fine, I suspect maybe things closed up a little with the weight of a person in a flexible fibreglass seat. It's only damaged the top layer of gel coat in an area that is never visible, so it's no big deal cosmetically but it needed to be rectified.
It's the back right bolt sticking up from the slider that caused the issue. Curiously, the same bolt on the left hadn't made contact, I suspect that being fibreglass the seat isn't equally proportioned, the holes for the harnesses certainly differ in location very slightly.
I took the opportunity to fit the slider that drgoatboy had pointed me towards earlier in this thread. I'd originally purchased it hoping that it wouldn't be quite as tall as the original cheap slider that I'd ordered. There were no measurements provided with the original, I'd measured it in situ and came to the conclusion that it was about 32mm high, when the 25mm replacement arrived it was suspiciously similar in design. In reality I'd measured wrong and they're both about the same height.
Here's one of the new sliders alongside the old...
Whilst it would have been nice to get the seat even lower it was still worth swapping the sliders over, one of the originals has always been very difficult to slide. I contacted the supplier when it first arrived expecting to return it for a replacement, instead they issued a refund without providing any alternative options. The new and the old are almost identical in design, but quite different in fit and finish, the new set slide a lot easier and have more travel.
I solved the clearance issue by flipping the bolts around so that the shorter allen cap heads are on top. I think I originally had them the other way around assuming I needed the clearance within the slider, but on closer inspection I don't. I also used a different set of holes whilst mounting the sliders to position the seat further forwards, I'd always had far too much rear travel (enough to push the seat way back beyond the harness bar if physics allowed) but could have done with more forward travel. Some of my shorter friends haven't been able to borrow the car on trackdays since the seat went in.
The seat now slides a lot further forward, I don't have a before photo but you'll have to take my word for it. It will still slide back as far as the interior plastics too. Hopefully this is enough for the shortest of trackday friends...
It's only a week until our next trackday at Anglesey. That's assuming that things calm down with the petrol/driver shortage and that I don't get lynched filling up my jerry cans on the way to the circuit. Apart from swapping wheels I think the car is ready. My front pads are getting low, but have enough meat that it seems a waste to swap them in advance. I have a new set of discs and pads as spares, and we've booked a garage for the day so I might end up doing a pad swap at lunchtime, although I suspect they'll probably last the day.
The bolt had also backed off slightly, I suspect these two things are related. That explains the play I'd noticed, it also explains a slight creak that the seat has always had (from the bolt rubbing on the seat). I'd checked the clearances as best as I could before fitting the seat and everything looked close but fine, I suspect maybe things closed up a little with the weight of a person in a flexible fibreglass seat. It's only damaged the top layer of gel coat in an area that is never visible, so it's no big deal cosmetically but it needed to be rectified.
It's the back right bolt sticking up from the slider that caused the issue. Curiously, the same bolt on the left hadn't made contact, I suspect that being fibreglass the seat isn't equally proportioned, the holes for the harnesses certainly differ in location very slightly.
I took the opportunity to fit the slider that drgoatboy had pointed me towards earlier in this thread. I'd originally purchased it hoping that it wouldn't be quite as tall as the original cheap slider that I'd ordered. There were no measurements provided with the original, I'd measured it in situ and came to the conclusion that it was about 32mm high, when the 25mm replacement arrived it was suspiciously similar in design. In reality I'd measured wrong and they're both about the same height.
Here's one of the new sliders alongside the old...
Whilst it would have been nice to get the seat even lower it was still worth swapping the sliders over, one of the originals has always been very difficult to slide. I contacted the supplier when it first arrived expecting to return it for a replacement, instead they issued a refund without providing any alternative options. The new and the old are almost identical in design, but quite different in fit and finish, the new set slide a lot easier and have more travel.
I solved the clearance issue by flipping the bolts around so that the shorter allen cap heads are on top. I think I originally had them the other way around assuming I needed the clearance within the slider, but on closer inspection I don't. I also used a different set of holes whilst mounting the sliders to position the seat further forwards, I'd always had far too much rear travel (enough to push the seat way back beyond the harness bar if physics allowed) but could have done with more forward travel. Some of my shorter friends haven't been able to borrow the car on trackdays since the seat went in.
The seat now slides a lot further forward, I don't have a before photo but you'll have to take my word for it. It will still slide back as far as the interior plastics too. Hopefully this is enough for the shortest of trackday friends...
It's only a week until our next trackday at Anglesey. That's assuming that things calm down with the petrol/driver shortage and that I don't get lynched filling up my jerry cans on the way to the circuit. Apart from swapping wheels I think the car is ready. My front pads are getting low, but have enough meat that it seems a waste to swap them in advance. I have a new set of discs and pads as spares, and we've booked a garage for the day so I might end up doing a pad swap at lunchtime, although I suspect they'll probably last the day.
drgoatboy said:
Shame the new sliders were no shorter. But at least they have some benefits! I was surprised how good they were for the money.
Yeah, they're definitely nicer than the first set, despite essentially being the same design. I'd guess it's a case of different Chinese factories producing copies of someone else's design to different standards.Your old welder made light work of sticking a neighbours broken lawnmower handle back together recently. It had been welded badly a couple of times before so I reinforced it with some sliced up tubing over the top on both sides.
Well I've spent the whole week reading this at work, just got to the end! I wish I had your skills, I'll probably buy an MC brace and possibly go the harness bar route on top of a roll bar as I've seen someone else do, but seems a bit daft adding weight etc. I just don't have the skills to cut those nice neat holes nor the means to print surrounds etc.
If you could be persuaded to make a set of those and the covers for where the cage goes through the trim however, I'd be very keen!
As you will have seen on the European NC group, I need to fix my crappy MPG issue before anything else, but I'm hoping to do a number of the upgrades on my car that you've done with yours
I also have a welder but it seems to stick on the wire feed, maybe because the wire is slightly too thick for the tip, I don't know, but again, I certainly don't have your skills!
Are you at the point of considering the BBR cams yet?
Keep up the awesome work and keep enjoying it.
If you could be persuaded to make a set of those and the covers for where the cage goes through the trim however, I'd be very keen!
As you will have seen on the European NC group, I need to fix my crappy MPG issue before anything else, but I'm hoping to do a number of the upgrades on my car that you've done with yours
I also have a welder but it seems to stick on the wire feed, maybe because the wire is slightly too thick for the tip, I don't know, but again, I certainly don't have your skills!
Are you at the point of considering the BBR cams yet?
Keep up the awesome work and keep enjoying it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings!
I want to revisit the covers at some point, the Velcro hasn't stood up to the heat of being in the car over summer particularly well. I've bodged them back together with a hot glue gun a few times and they look presentable but not as good as they could. I've still got the templates for the hole cutouts, I was considering maybe using some reasonably thick leather next time, possibly held on with press studs or some other form of mechanical fixing.
This looks like a decent option for a combined strut and master cylinder brace - https://bofiracing.co.uk/body-styling/exterior/cha...
It might be worth checking that you're using the correct size of tip for the wire that you've got in your welder. Assuming it's not gasless they usually take 0.6 or 0.8mm wire and you can tips to suit each size. The tips usually have the size stamped into the side so you can identify.
I've no plans to fit cams to my existing engine. I'm mulling over the option of fitting an imported 2.5 engine and would definitely fit cams if I go down that route. There's an increasingly large community of UK engine importers, tuners and support for the swap. I'm not entirely sure it makes financial sense for the power that you gain at the end of it, but I think I'd learn a lot along the way which is always worth something, and I'd be left with a much fresher engine.
I want to revisit the covers at some point, the Velcro hasn't stood up to the heat of being in the car over summer particularly well. I've bodged them back together with a hot glue gun a few times and they look presentable but not as good as they could. I've still got the templates for the hole cutouts, I was considering maybe using some reasonably thick leather next time, possibly held on with press studs or some other form of mechanical fixing.
This looks like a decent option for a combined strut and master cylinder brace - https://bofiracing.co.uk/body-styling/exterior/cha...
It might be worth checking that you're using the correct size of tip for the wire that you've got in your welder. Assuming it's not gasless they usually take 0.6 or 0.8mm wire and you can tips to suit each size. The tips usually have the size stamped into the side so you can identify.
I've no plans to fit cams to my existing engine. I'm mulling over the option of fitting an imported 2.5 engine and would definitely fit cams if I go down that route. There's an increasingly large community of UK engine importers, tuners and support for the swap. I'm not entirely sure it makes financial sense for the power that you gain at the end of it, but I think I'd learn a lot along the way which is always worth something, and I'd be left with a much fresher engine.
Another small change. The extra movement provided by the new slider presented a new problem, one of the clips for the harness lap belt would get caught between the seat bolts and the seatbelt receiver that I'd mounted on the trans tunnel whilst the seat was being slid backwards.
I was using the shiny cap head bolts that came with the Motamec seat...
I swapped them for some button head high tensile bolts...
Hard to tell in the photo, but this was the problem area. With the button head bolts the harness clip no longer gets bound up when the seat moves. I think they look a bit neater too.
I was using the shiny cap head bolts that came with the Motamec seat...
I swapped them for some button head high tensile bolts...
Hard to tell in the photo, but this was the problem area. With the button head bolts the harness clip no longer gets bound up when the seat moves. I think they look a bit neater too.
Cheers matey. Yeah, you get addicted to certain cars and end up spending money you couldn't really justify if you sat down and wrote it all down. But it puts a smile on your face, so.... Possibly a swap I'd look into, but not for a couple of years. Haven't even got it on track yet!
I could try and make some covers if you'd be willing to share the template, but probably wouldn't do a great job
No way I could make the surrounds for the harness cut outs though. Did you find a way to retain the centre speakers once you put the harnesses in?
On NS-2R's, I had them on a blobeye Impreza STI. I thought they were a great tyre. So much so, I got far too confident in heavy rain at Goodwood and did a lovely 360 spin...
I could try and make some covers if you'd be willing to share the template, but probably wouldn't do a great job
No way I could make the surrounds for the harness cut outs though. Did you find a way to retain the centre speakers once you put the harnesses in?On NS-2R's, I had them on a blobeye Impreza STI. I thought they were a great tyre. So much so, I got far too confident in heavy rain at Goodwood and did a lovely 360 spin...
TroubledSoul said:
I could try and make some covers if you'd be willing to share the template, but probably wouldn't do a great job No way I could make the surrounds for the harness cut outs though. Did you find a way to retain the centre speakers once you put the harnesses in?
Happy to send out some harness hole covers when you need them, they’re a nice quick print. No way I could make the surrounds for the harness cut outs though. Did you find a way to retain the centre speakers once you put the harnesses in?The centre speakers are still there, mounted on the piece of alu angle that I originally used to make a bracket, it’s just cut down to provide access to the harness bar.
Last weekend I attended another Welsh Opentrack event, this time at Anglesey.
I broke up the long journey there by visiting some family in the Midlands, my brother has recently learnt to fly and was keen for me to experience the microlight that he's taken a share in. It seems to be the equivalent of a Caterham for the sky, I've never flown in anything so light and simple before, whilst I have complete confidence in his abilities I left feeling a bit like I'd already completed the most dangerous bit of my weekend before I even got to the circuit.
I met up with Alex (Fiesta ST) and Roshan (350z) in Shrewsbury and we took the A5 through Snowdonia to Anglesey. Not the fastest route, but definitely one of the most beautiful. The last time I drove that way we were heading to the Holyhead ferry to get to a wedding in Ireland, my son was only 3 months old, with hindsight it was a bit of an ambitious trip. It was quite amusing spotting the (many) places that we had to stop to feed or otherwise attend to him along the route.
Once over the bridge and onto Anglesey we stopped to refuel for the trackday. All signs of panic buying and supply shortages were thankfully non-existent.
The fuel station was attached to a Volvo garage bearing the best dealership name ever...
Although I was a bit miffed that they only printed 'Tynlon Garages Ltd.' on the bottom of their numberplates.
We stayed in the same AirBNB that we used in Rhosneigr when we last visited Anglesey back in 2018. We arrived early enough to catch a walk on the beach whilst the sun was still out and visit the local pub. The weather was weirdly non-Welsh, a big improvement on the driving wind and rain that was a constant for our last visit.
We had quite a relaxed start to the trackday too, with staying nearby and briefings still being done online there was no great rush to get ready for the circuit opening for sighting at 9am. The day started a little chilly and overcast, it seemed to take quite a while to get some heat into the NS2Rs and I was getting quite a bit of understeer on tighter turns, not something the Mazda is usually prone to.
The morning ran in the 'international' layout, which is the larger track configuration that we drove last time with Circuit Days. It adds a couple of extra short straights and a hairpin but misses out the somewhat famous 'corkscrew'.
The morning wasn't without issue, Alex's Fiesta was the first one of our group to fall. He heard a loud bang and suddenly lost all boost. Closer inspection back in the garage revealed that the bung he'd recently installed to delete the factory cabin sound pipe had blown out. Thankfully, it was resting on his engine block.
We initially tried installing it using the same factory hose clamp and some duct tape wrapped around the bung to increase the thickness, but after a few more laps it was clear it didn't want to hold. Alex managed to scrounge some jubilee clips from the group in the next garage and he was back in business with a permanent repair.
Not much later the 350z also fell, with what sounded like misfire. Luckily, Roshan had a couple of spare ignition coils, unluckily no codes were thrown to give a hint as to which cylinder might be in trouble.
To further compound his woe the misfire initially disappeared after he'd swapped the first two and the car had cooled a little, only to return as soon as he went out on track. He eventually tracked down the failed coil, but it cost him quite a few hours of track time.
I remembered that the garages at Anglesey have power, so I bought along an old kettle. We had an unusual lunch of instant noodles and freshly ground coffee from an Aeropress. Arguably better than the onsite cafe, or a long drive to Holyhead.
I'd run the morning on the StopTech pads that I've been using for a while. They were starting to look a little thin so I used the lunch break to swap over to a set of PBS ProRace pads.
The ProRace is the more aggressive of the two pads that PBS produce, I would have probably gone for their lesser ProTrack pad but there was a deal on at the time that I purchased them. I noticed a difference over the StopTech pads, they've definitely got more 'bite' once warm, the StopTechs were perfectly adequate for track use but there's an increase in urgency with PBS. They take a bit longer to get up to working temperature on the road, but they don't feel sketchy for it, it's certainly not as a dramatic as driving a car with unassisted brakes.
The Coastal circuit was a lot of fun, I presume the International circuit is preferable when the circuit is busier in the morning as the longer layout gives a bit more capacity. Removing the hairpin is no great loss, the Corkscrew is much more fun and you get back to the other fun bits of the circuit faster.
There's something special about Anglesey on a sunny day, it's quite easy to get distracted by the sea, mountains and RAF practicing overhead. It's enough of an effort to get there, and so different to the other circuits in this country that it feels like a mini version of a Ring trip.
I got into a fun little track battle with this E30, a heavily stripped former race car with a 1.8l engine. It made for quite an even match with the NC. Its driver had to work quite hard to keep what looked to be a very light rear end in check.
I also spent a lot of the afternoon chasing or being followed by Alex's Fiesta. My car is no match for his on the straights, but we both seem to enjoy hanging out together around a circuit and there's some interesting FWD vs. RWD traits that emerge, particularly where they can and can't carry speed through a corner.
The day ran incredibly well, there were only a couple of brief red flags whilst a Megane with a puncture and a Civic with a blown engine were recovered. There was never a queue to join the circuit, combined with the weather and venue it has to have been one of the best UK track days that I've done.
A Seat driver entering the pits gave everyone a friendly reminder to check their wheel nut torque...
Excuse the amount of photos, it was another event covered by the excellent https://www.rbpsphotography.com.
I stayed out on circuit until the end of the day, the circuit was quiet and things got a bit silly whilst I attempted to refine my ham-fisted approach to oversteer a little. I'm not usually one to mess about on a TD, there must have been something in the Welsh water. The Marshalls also seemed happy to turn a blind eye.
A warm and sticky set of NS2Rs and relatively low power isn't the easiest combination to slide. My car control also still needs some work, as evidenced by the tank-slapper I eventually found myself in...
The following morning I was under pressure to get back early, I skipped Snowdonia in favour of the motorway and leaving before the sun had risen I did all 3:30 in one hit. Definitely the longest stint I've done in the bucket seat in a single sitting, I had a bit of a numb bum by the time I arrived home but it wasn't completely horrible. Nearly 700 miles since I left home, with over 225 of those on track. I'm constantly impressed at how this cheap old car can shrug off all of the abuse I've given it.
I broke up the long journey there by visiting some family in the Midlands, my brother has recently learnt to fly and was keen for me to experience the microlight that he's taken a share in. It seems to be the equivalent of a Caterham for the sky, I've never flown in anything so light and simple before, whilst I have complete confidence in his abilities I left feeling a bit like I'd already completed the most dangerous bit of my weekend before I even got to the circuit.
I met up with Alex (Fiesta ST) and Roshan (350z) in Shrewsbury and we took the A5 through Snowdonia to Anglesey. Not the fastest route, but definitely one of the most beautiful. The last time I drove that way we were heading to the Holyhead ferry to get to a wedding in Ireland, my son was only 3 months old, with hindsight it was a bit of an ambitious trip. It was quite amusing spotting the (many) places that we had to stop to feed or otherwise attend to him along the route.
Once over the bridge and onto Anglesey we stopped to refuel for the trackday. All signs of panic buying and supply shortages were thankfully non-existent.
The fuel station was attached to a Volvo garage bearing the best dealership name ever...
Although I was a bit miffed that they only printed 'Tynlon Garages Ltd.' on the bottom of their numberplates.
We stayed in the same AirBNB that we used in Rhosneigr when we last visited Anglesey back in 2018. We arrived early enough to catch a walk on the beach whilst the sun was still out and visit the local pub. The weather was weirdly non-Welsh, a big improvement on the driving wind and rain that was a constant for our last visit.
We had quite a relaxed start to the trackday too, with staying nearby and briefings still being done online there was no great rush to get ready for the circuit opening for sighting at 9am. The day started a little chilly and overcast, it seemed to take quite a while to get some heat into the NS2Rs and I was getting quite a bit of understeer on tighter turns, not something the Mazda is usually prone to.
The morning ran in the 'international' layout, which is the larger track configuration that we drove last time with Circuit Days. It adds a couple of extra short straights and a hairpin but misses out the somewhat famous 'corkscrew'.
The morning wasn't without issue, Alex's Fiesta was the first one of our group to fall. He heard a loud bang and suddenly lost all boost. Closer inspection back in the garage revealed that the bung he'd recently installed to delete the factory cabin sound pipe had blown out. Thankfully, it was resting on his engine block.
We initially tried installing it using the same factory hose clamp and some duct tape wrapped around the bung to increase the thickness, but after a few more laps it was clear it didn't want to hold. Alex managed to scrounge some jubilee clips from the group in the next garage and he was back in business with a permanent repair.
Not much later the 350z also fell, with what sounded like misfire. Luckily, Roshan had a couple of spare ignition coils, unluckily no codes were thrown to give a hint as to which cylinder might be in trouble.
To further compound his woe the misfire initially disappeared after he'd swapped the first two and the car had cooled a little, only to return as soon as he went out on track. He eventually tracked down the failed coil, but it cost him quite a few hours of track time.
I remembered that the garages at Anglesey have power, so I bought along an old kettle. We had an unusual lunch of instant noodles and freshly ground coffee from an Aeropress. Arguably better than the onsite cafe, or a long drive to Holyhead.
I'd run the morning on the StopTech pads that I've been using for a while. They were starting to look a little thin so I used the lunch break to swap over to a set of PBS ProRace pads.
The ProRace is the more aggressive of the two pads that PBS produce, I would have probably gone for their lesser ProTrack pad but there was a deal on at the time that I purchased them. I noticed a difference over the StopTech pads, they've definitely got more 'bite' once warm, the StopTechs were perfectly adequate for track use but there's an increase in urgency with PBS. They take a bit longer to get up to working temperature on the road, but they don't feel sketchy for it, it's certainly not as a dramatic as driving a car with unassisted brakes.
The Coastal circuit was a lot of fun, I presume the International circuit is preferable when the circuit is busier in the morning as the longer layout gives a bit more capacity. Removing the hairpin is no great loss, the Corkscrew is much more fun and you get back to the other fun bits of the circuit faster.
There's something special about Anglesey on a sunny day, it's quite easy to get distracted by the sea, mountains and RAF practicing overhead. It's enough of an effort to get there, and so different to the other circuits in this country that it feels like a mini version of a Ring trip.
I got into a fun little track battle with this E30, a heavily stripped former race car with a 1.8l engine. It made for quite an even match with the NC. Its driver had to work quite hard to keep what looked to be a very light rear end in check.
I also spent a lot of the afternoon chasing or being followed by Alex's Fiesta. My car is no match for his on the straights, but we both seem to enjoy hanging out together around a circuit and there's some interesting FWD vs. RWD traits that emerge, particularly where they can and can't carry speed through a corner.
The day ran incredibly well, there were only a couple of brief red flags whilst a Megane with a puncture and a Civic with a blown engine were recovered. There was never a queue to join the circuit, combined with the weather and venue it has to have been one of the best UK track days that I've done.
A Seat driver entering the pits gave everyone a friendly reminder to check their wheel nut torque...
Excuse the amount of photos, it was another event covered by the excellent https://www.rbpsphotography.com.
I stayed out on circuit until the end of the day, the circuit was quiet and things got a bit silly whilst I attempted to refine my ham-fisted approach to oversteer a little. I'm not usually one to mess about on a TD, there must have been something in the Welsh water. The Marshalls also seemed happy to turn a blind eye.
A warm and sticky set of NS2Rs and relatively low power isn't the easiest combination to slide. My car control also still needs some work, as evidenced by the tank-slapper I eventually found myself in...
The following morning I was under pressure to get back early, I skipped Snowdonia in favour of the motorway and leaving before the sun had risen I did all 3:30 in one hit. Definitely the longest stint I've done in the bucket seat in a single sitting, I had a bit of a numb bum by the time I arrived home but it wasn't completely horrible. Nearly 700 miles since I left home, with over 225 of those on track. I'm constantly impressed at how this cheap old car can shrug off all of the abuse I've given it.
Danith said:
PBS pads are brilliant, they were my go to when I had my ep3.
It was interesting trying two different pads back-to-back. I'll probably stock up on some more PBS if there are some Black Friday deals, I seem to remember that they usually run a promotion.Kaveney said:
Very disappointed i could not make this as it looks like you had a great day with some cracking weather .
Sorry you couldn't make it, hopefully we'll coincide at a future trackday. I fear that your car might prove to be expensive inspiration for Alex. 
I took a new set of discs to Anglesey, but didn't fancy rushing to fit them over lunch when I swapped pads. I figured they'd probably bed onto a new set of discs ok at a later date, hopefully.
The front discs were starting to show a bit of a lip and were down to 20.5mm, they start at 22mm and should be replaced at 20mm. The rear pads were also looking thin, and whilst the discs were fine they were cosmetically a bit tatty as the paint I'd previously applied to cover rust had peeled in places.
I'd bought another set of StopTech pads from Amazon US a while ago after noticing that they'd got a single pair in stock for a good price. For the discs I've always previously used Brembo road discs on the front. I've purchased a few Firstline/Borg & Beck parts for other cars recently and have been impressed with the quality, so I thought I'd experiment and see how well their blank discs cope on track. They're cheap, a full set was less than a set of Brembos for the front, but they're coated to prevent corrosion using a similar zinc finish to Pagid discs and like most manufacturers claim to use a 'high carbon' blend of steel. I've always found money spent on fancier discs to be less tangible than other parts, I'm fairly confident that they will be comparable to the Brembos, but I'll report back if I'm wrong.
Despite driving past their warehouse on the M40 next to Prodrive in Banbury many times B&B don't sell directly to consumers so these came from Car Parts in Motion down in Exeter using one of my favourite almost-perpetual eBay coupons.
There was an impressive amount of rubber pickup at Anglesey, explains the slight wheel shuffle that I could feel on the way home.
After three track days on clockwise circuits the nearside NS2Rs are looking considerably more worn than the offside. I've also worn the outer shoulders quite heavily. Visually the car appears to have lost some negative camber on the nearside, looking back at this thread (it can be handy like that) I haven't had the alignment checked since June 2018. It's funny what age does to you, in my head that feels like it was about a year ago.
I spent a while cleaning up and re-greasing the slider pins. The PBS pads don't come with a fitting kit or anti-squeal shims, I cleaned up and reused the existing hardware as it hadn't been fitted for very long.
Another recent Amazon US import is this nice ratchet made by Astro Pneumatic. It takes 3/8" sockets but has a head the size of a 1/4" ratchet, yet claims to be plenty strong. The somewhat-long handle is a nice intermediate size compared to anything else I own too. It was only £25, which seemed pretty reasonable as you usually need to spend Snap-on money to get small but strong ratchets.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/new-as...
The rear pads were well worn and a bit uneven, as with the fronts I cleaned and re-greased the slider pins, although they were nice and mobile before I started. The caliper pistons are also clean and free. My car has always had somewhat uneven rear pad wear, I guess it might just be the caliper design.
There's something satisfying about new discs.
I took the car over to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley. They seem to have a good reputation locally for alignment work, they're just around the corner from BBR and seem to have done their fair share of MX5s.
I took along a copy of the previous 'custom' alignment that A-Line in Dudley had carried out on the car. The guys in Brackley seemed to agree it was probably roughly what they'd recommend for a track car, which was reassuring.
A-Line had left the front with -1 degree of camber on both front wheels, the nearside had gained some positive camber and the offside had increased it's negative stance slightly. It was all relatively minor though, which was a little surprising given the timeframe since it was last checked.
We agreed that they would correct and give me a little more negative camber on the front to see if that helps with the shoulder wear. They also attempted to correct the rear toe but abandoned it for fear of snapping the alignment bolt which seemed to be seized in the bushing. That seems to be a theme for most of the alignment bolts on the car and I should probably consider stripping down both subframes at some point. As a result the numbers aren't as evenly paired as they'd normally aim for, but I suspect not something I'll be able to detect in use.
The front discs were starting to show a bit of a lip and were down to 20.5mm, they start at 22mm and should be replaced at 20mm. The rear pads were also looking thin, and whilst the discs were fine they were cosmetically a bit tatty as the paint I'd previously applied to cover rust had peeled in places.
I'd bought another set of StopTech pads from Amazon US a while ago after noticing that they'd got a single pair in stock for a good price. For the discs I've always previously used Brembo road discs on the front. I've purchased a few Firstline/Borg & Beck parts for other cars recently and have been impressed with the quality, so I thought I'd experiment and see how well their blank discs cope on track. They're cheap, a full set was less than a set of Brembos for the front, but they're coated to prevent corrosion using a similar zinc finish to Pagid discs and like most manufacturers claim to use a 'high carbon' blend of steel. I've always found money spent on fancier discs to be less tangible than other parts, I'm fairly confident that they will be comparable to the Brembos, but I'll report back if I'm wrong.
Despite driving past their warehouse on the M40 next to Prodrive in Banbury many times B&B don't sell directly to consumers so these came from Car Parts in Motion down in Exeter using one of my favourite almost-perpetual eBay coupons.
There was an impressive amount of rubber pickup at Anglesey, explains the slight wheel shuffle that I could feel on the way home.
After three track days on clockwise circuits the nearside NS2Rs are looking considerably more worn than the offside. I've also worn the outer shoulders quite heavily. Visually the car appears to have lost some negative camber on the nearside, looking back at this thread (it can be handy like that) I haven't had the alignment checked since June 2018. It's funny what age does to you, in my head that feels like it was about a year ago.
I spent a while cleaning up and re-greasing the slider pins. The PBS pads don't come with a fitting kit or anti-squeal shims, I cleaned up and reused the existing hardware as it hadn't been fitted for very long.
Another recent Amazon US import is this nice ratchet made by Astro Pneumatic. It takes 3/8" sockets but has a head the size of a 1/4" ratchet, yet claims to be plenty strong. The somewhat-long handle is a nice intermediate size compared to anything else I own too. It was only £25, which seemed pretty reasonable as you usually need to spend Snap-on money to get small but strong ratchets.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/new-as...
The rear pads were well worn and a bit uneven, as with the fronts I cleaned and re-greased the slider pins, although they were nice and mobile before I started. The caliper pistons are also clean and free. My car has always had somewhat uneven rear pad wear, I guess it might just be the caliper design.
There's something satisfying about new discs.
I took the car over to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley. They seem to have a good reputation locally for alignment work, they're just around the corner from BBR and seem to have done their fair share of MX5s.
I took along a copy of the previous 'custom' alignment that A-Line in Dudley had carried out on the car. The guys in Brackley seemed to agree it was probably roughly what they'd recommend for a track car, which was reassuring.
A-Line had left the front with -1 degree of camber on both front wheels, the nearside had gained some positive camber and the offside had increased it's negative stance slightly. It was all relatively minor though, which was a little surprising given the timeframe since it was last checked.
We agreed that they would correct and give me a little more negative camber on the front to see if that helps with the shoulder wear. They also attempted to correct the rear toe but abandoned it for fear of snapping the alignment bolt which seemed to be seized in the bushing. That seems to be a theme for most of the alignment bolts on the car and I should probably consider stripping down both subframes at some point. As a result the numbers aren't as evenly paired as they'd normally aim for, but I suspect not something I'll be able to detect in use.
Back at the end of October I ended up using the Mazda for a trip to the Midlands to see some family. My wife was also away that weekend and she had the longer journey so it made sense for her to take our larger car. This led to me finding myself in the middle of a storm on the M40 with my young son sat next to me. It's not a great car in heavy rain, and I'd stupidly left it wearing AD08R tyres. They're happy enough in a bit of standing water but start to feel rather twitchy if you encounter the sort of rain that's overwhelming your wipers on full tilt. This was also compounded by keeping my speed down, which led to me spending both journeys in lane one with the deepest of standing water collecting in the grooves left by HGVs. I had a similar storm experience the following day.
I had found the time to fit the hardtop, the standard seat and the slightly more sociable ILM exhaust, so my oversight on the tyres was entirely of my own creation. I felt rather guilty for putting us both at risk.
That weekend highlighted that fun cars are at their best when you don't need to rely on them for family transport. The Mazda had done a great job as an occasional second car since I returned my Volvo V90 in March, but the time had probably come to sort myself out with a practical winter wagon. This led to me buying a shed of a Volvo XC70 the following week, which then kept me busy for most of November. There's a thread on it over here...
The Mazda has mostly been hiding away from the salty roads since then. I managed to completely flatten the battery after not spotting that my son had left a light on after playing in it. It was so flat that my charger couldn't detect any voltage to be able to charge it. After forcing some charge in and running a lengthy repair cycle on my Noco smart charger it seems to believe it to be fine, the green 'magic eye' indicator reappeared after the repair cycle too. However, it now over-reads at 14v, even after handling some load, so I think it's had it. It still maintains charge for a couple of weeks and starts the car just fine so I'll leave it until the car is in more frequent use in the spring.
I've also booked onto a replacement for the Nurburgring track day that we couldn't attend this year due to travel restrictions. It's not until later in the year next year, hopefully I'll manage to fit some UK track days in before then.
I had found the time to fit the hardtop, the standard seat and the slightly more sociable ILM exhaust, so my oversight on the tyres was entirely of my own creation. I felt rather guilty for putting us both at risk.
That weekend highlighted that fun cars are at their best when you don't need to rely on them for family transport. The Mazda had done a great job as an occasional second car since I returned my Volvo V90 in March, but the time had probably come to sort myself out with a practical winter wagon. This led to me buying a shed of a Volvo XC70 the following week, which then kept me busy for most of November. There's a thread on it over here...
The Mazda has mostly been hiding away from the salty roads since then. I managed to completely flatten the battery after not spotting that my son had left a light on after playing in it. It was so flat that my charger couldn't detect any voltage to be able to charge it. After forcing some charge in and running a lengthy repair cycle on my Noco smart charger it seems to believe it to be fine, the green 'magic eye' indicator reappeared after the repair cycle too. However, it now over-reads at 14v, even after handling some load, so I think it's had it. It still maintains charge for a couple of weeks and starts the car just fine so I'll leave it until the car is in more frequent use in the spring.
I've also booked onto a replacement for the Nurburgring track day that we couldn't attend this year due to travel restrictions. It's not until later in the year next year, hopefully I'll manage to fit some UK track days in before then.
So many pictures and no comment from anyone? I am still reading and enjoying the thread 
So, what is your last call on brakes ? I am still running StopTech on the front and Pagid on the rear, as you advised on the first pages
Might need some discs at some point in time....
What did you think of the ILM engine mounts? I installed them recently too. I was really dissatisfied at the beginning, as it didn't change anything, except more vibrations and new noises in the cabin at first....and then, I just got used to them I don't think they bring any benefit, but at least, they are new 
So, what is your last call on brakes ? I am still running StopTech on the front and Pagid on the rear, as you advised on the first pages
Might need some discs at some point in time....What did you think of the ILM engine mounts? I installed them recently too. I was really dissatisfied at the beginning, as it didn't change anything, except more vibrations and new noises in the cabin at first....and then, I just got used to them
I don't think they bring any benefit, but at least, they are new cedrichn said:
So many pictures and no comment from anyone? I am still reading and enjoying the thread
So, what is your last call on brakes ? I am still running StopTech on the front and Pagid on the rear, as you advised on the first pages Might need some discs at some point in time....
What did you think of the ILM engine mounts? I installed them recently too. I was really dissatisfied at the beginning, as it didn't change anything, except more vibrations and new noises in the cabin at first....and then, I just got used to them I don't think they bring any benefit, but at least, they are new
Pleased to hear it So, what is your last call on brakes ? I am still running StopTech on the front and Pagid on the rear, as you advised on the first pages
Might need some discs at some point in time....What did you think of the ILM engine mounts? I installed them recently too. I was really dissatisfied at the beginning, as it didn't change anything, except more vibrations and new noises in the cabin at first....and then, I just got used to them
I don't think they bring any benefit, but at least, they are new I was always very happy with the Stoptech pads, I moved away from running road pads on the rear and fitted Stoptech there too. It didn't have any tangible effect on braking performance but I was using a set of road pads per trackday, so it was ultimately more cost effective. I've never had any issues with brake fade with Stoptech and the lifespan has been really good. My only issue with them is that UK suppliers seem to be increasingly thin on the ground and prices have crept up as a result. PBS are easier to purchase and they run a lot of promotions. The ProRace pads had a noticeable increase in bite at Anglesey, too soon to comment on longevity or if they'll eat up discs. Now that the weather is cooler keeping enough heat in them on the road is a little challenging. Their cheaper ProTrack pads might have been a better option.
ILM mounts have definitely reduced how much I can see my gearbox/engine moving around independently of the rest of the car in a corner in onboard footage. At the time I was convinced that the weight transfer through corners was slightly more predictable. As you say, one of those things that's quickly forgotten once lived with.
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