The “unfinished project” - MX5 Haynes Roadster kit car

[HughG]

Earlier in the year I stumbled across an unfinished Haynes Roadster on eBay, asked a few questions and had a cheeky starting price bid after deciding it wasn’t worth any more, and forgot about it until I got a “You Have Won” notification. I thought it would make a nice little project so set about arranging to collect it from Wakefield (I’m in Kent!) using my brother in law’s trailer, thanks Sam.

These are an evolution of Ron Champion’s Locost from his How to Build a Sports Car for £250 book, which was based on a mk2 Escort.
Chris Gibbs rewrote the book based on a Sierra donor which are known as Haynes Roadsters, and as Sierras are now less plentiful various companies have adapted the boom chassis for a mk.1 MX5 donor. This is a Saturn chassis, and although they have gone bust I found their build manual is still available online, search "Mx-5_Build_Guide-rev3"

Reading back the advert now I'm surprised it didn't put me off!

The eBay advert said:

Haynes roadster kit car (mx5 saturn based)

Was building this as a track car but has been done to spec in case I ended up putting it on the road in the future

Selling as a project that wouldn't take much to finish off all the fabrication work is done basically just needs everything bolting on.

heres a bit about the car and what stage it is currently at;

front hubs and rear hubs are mx5

ford escort mk1 steering rack with the correct steering extensions

steering column is mx5 mounts are in place just needs an extension rod to connect up to the steering rack

i have all the callipers to fit all four corners plus disc (will need new disc really though)

body work wise the only parts lefts to buy are the side panels and the rear arches

i have made a scuttle panel my self with built in aero pods and dash panel to give it a bit of a different look ( will need fishing off bit more filling and sanding before painting)

i have also added a full roll cage to it giving it that meaner look, plus don’t feel like you will fall out of it now lol. the rear harness mounting points are welding in ready as well

all the running gear is from a mx5 1.8 engine, gear box, dif and driveshafts witch are mounted in ready to be wired up and the rest of the engine parts fitting ( starter motor etc) witch i have all of i have the prob shaft as well but this will need cutting down, balancing and welding up professionally

radiator is a mk1 polo (brand new)

the wiring for it is already modified to go straight in to it

comes with 2 fibreglass seats (just need runners for them)

properly missed stuff off but i will add to the listed as i remember

gutted to be selling as i have really got in to building this but as mentioned due to other commitments it has to go.

Some problems became immediately apparent when collecting, the bodywork and suspension was only mocked up on the car, with small diameter bolts many with no nuts holding things in place. This didn’t bode well for strapping it down by the wheels, so after much rummaging around in the sellers garage we had the suspension sufficiently secured I wasn’t worried about it all falling apart on the journey home. Fortunately I managed to squeeze the bodywork into the boot of the Passat.



Finishing the repairs to the underbody, and suspension rebuild on my Dad’s MG B GT and getting that out of the garage took a few months longer than expected so the kit sat in the garden going rusty, but it is finally in the dry.


So far I have:

• discovered that it is a 1.6 engine and rear diff not 1.8
• stripped the front suspension off it
• wondered how on earth I’m going to work the pedals in 200mm wide of footwell – need to check the chassis is as per book.
• Found that the fibreglass scuttle has been made in situ around the chassis. So I think I will cut out the centre of it so allow access behind a removable dash.
• Ordered the side panels, rear arches, scuttle and front arches (existing are orange) for a price that seemed too good to be true, waited, waited some more, found that the supplier was messing many people about on the Haynes Roadster forum, and thankfully managed to get a refund through Paypal.
• Ordered the side panels and rear arches from a reputable, local supplier for more than the previous bodywork order, and some 2k rattle cans for the scuttle and front arches.
• Ordered Spax shocks and springs, and new bolts for the suspension, new balljoints etc. etc.
• Ordered everything I (think I) need to get the steer column in.
• Considered whether to go down a throttle body and megasquirt route now, or later. Decided later as long as I can get the standard induction under the bonnet without modifying it.

This is now is sits now:


I think this will end up being a long-ish term project as I have an 18month old and another one due imminently. My wife has already banned me from taking my son out in it when it’s finished, but I’ll work on that one.

The plan is to get it going with the current engine and IVA’d before trying to make it fast. My last 7 style car (which was also an unfinished project I took on) suffered major budget creep. I paid £1000 for the car, and have spent about the same already. I am hoping to have it on the road for about £5500 including some nice wheels (Compomotive CXRs probably)

After some thought I am probably going to tackle it in this order:

• check chassis dimensions are as per the Haynes book/Saturn manual.
• refit front suspension & steering rack.
• Fit the steering column and investigate whether I can make an MX5 cluster fit in my dash
• Replace the panel at the bottom of the drivers footwell with one correctly drilled for the column and master cyclinders.
• Make pedals &chassis mounts for pedals, handbrake mechanism, radiator, seats, exhaust.
• Clean up chassis and paint
• Modify the exhaust manifold to give better exit point on bodywork
• fit accessories to engine and mockup wiring to check I can make it run as the previous owner stripped back the loom.
• have a propshaft made up the correct length and install
• fit fuel and brake lines, and install a fuel tank
• fit internal panels, and bodywork
• install wiring, gauges, switch gear etc.

I’ll try and keep this updated as I progress, probably slowly, with this project.

[Mark Benson]

My first race car was a Locost, bought via PH in the very early days - had a lot of fun in that car.
I'll be following this with interest as I'm currently wondering what my next project will be but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to take on a half-finished project ("Just needs a few bits bolting on", yeah, right.....).

[stevec33]

Something you may want to consider is that if your thinking this will cost around 5.5k to get on the road, why not just buy one allready made but perhaps needing some tinkering if that's what you like doing ? You could buy a decent westfield for around that kind of money which are night and day better quality wise/engineered to any of these cheaper type locost cars. Just a thought, not trying to pee on your bonfire mate.

[HughG]

Mark Benson said:

I'll be following this with interest as I'm currently wondering what my next project will be but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to take on a half-finished project ("Just needs a few bits bolting on", yeah, right.....).

My next post won't boost your confidence I'm afraid.

stevec33 said:

Something you may want to consider is that if your thinking this will cost around 5.5k to get on the road, why not just buy one allready made but perhaps needing some tinkering if that's what you like doing ? You could buy a decent westfield for around that kind of money which are night and day better quality wise/engineered to any of these cheaper type locost cars. Just a thought, not trying to pee on your bonfire mate.

I want to build something rather than just tinker. The quality of these is purely down to the builder, the chassis is a development of the Locost chassis which is well regarded, and the MK Indy, MNR Vortx etc. are all fundamentally the same. Some more on this chassis in my next post. All that said, at some stage I fancy putting a 190 VVTi celica engine in an MR2 roadster, that will probably be my next project.

[HughG]

Before I bid on this on eBay I questioned whether the chassis was bought from Saturn and the answer I got was that it was a home build but to a very good standard. The welding looks pretty good, but on having a measure up I have found the following:

• it is missing the laterals across the top of the transmission tunnel, I can only assume this is to provide access for the prop shaft because the builder has taken the floor across underneath the transmission tunnel. I need to weld these in.
• the top of the transmission tunnel is 25mm lower than it should be.
• the drivers footwell mirrors the passenger side in that the rail next to the transmission tunnel aligns with the front-back rail in base of the engine bay. The effect of this is to give a ~45mm narrower drivers footwell. Schematic of the Saturn chassis below which might make things clearer.

The effect of the latter of those is that the engine is ~30mm further back than in a Saturn chassis, but unfortunately the resultant footwell is not big enough for my size 12s. On the plus side, the builder has added some extra diagonals in sensible places, and the roll cage will unbolt so I could leave it off for IVA as it was going to be a headache for radii.

I'm undecided where to go from here, I think these are my options:

• strip the chassis bare, weld in the missing bits and widen the footwell, have the whole thing blasted so I can check the welds properly, then reblasted and powder coated.
• sell the chassis and either build or buy another from Talon Motor Fabrication or similar.
• sell everything and follow SteveC's advice, either buy a Westfield, another Fury or do that MR2 roadster project.

The thing is I don't want to give up on this project, so it will probably be one of the 2 former. There probably isn't that much difference in cost between the first 2 by the time its been blasted twice and powder coated.

I also discovered the headlights have (what look like old) Lucas lenses which aren't E-marked so are no good for IVA. Still better to identify the problems early and go into it with my eyes open, right?

[TwoStrokeNut]

Thanks for posting, enjoyed the read.

As much as I like the project, I would also look at selling it all up. Especially if you are after more performance.

The 1.6 MX5 unit and diff has limited tuning potential NA. Sure it can be done, but the results are nothing like tuning a K series, Duratec, Zetec etc.

They do take well to Turbo / s/c applications, but you will need to change the diff at some stage to the stronger 1.8 unit, possibly a torsen one. Clutch too and the gearboxes can cause issues.

So once you change the drivetrain and chassis, what are you left with? Or if it's more about the journey, great. Look forward to the updates

[Mark Benson]

I wouldn't go for option 1, only because the chance of finding something else would be high I suspect, given what you've found so far.

New chassis or bit it and go for something else would seem the most straightforward.

[Escy]

I vote for the MR2 project, they are great.

[HughG]

TwoStrokeNut said:

Thanks for posting, enjoyed the read.

As much as I like the project, I would also look at selling it all up. Especially if you are after more performance.

The 1.6 MX5 unit and diff has limited tuning potential NA. Sure it can be done, but the results are nothing like tuning a K series, Duratec, Zetec etc.

They do take well to Turbo / s/c applications, but you will need to change the diff at some stage to the stronger 1.8 unit, possibly a torsen one. Clutch too and the gearboxes can cause issues.

So once you change the drivetrain and chassis, what are you left with? Or if it's more about the journey, great. Look forward to the updates

I would drop a 1.8 in, and would probably ultimately go the jenvey and megasquirIt route. I'd consider the turbo route but haven't been in a turbod MX5 yet so would want to do that first.

How much does everything think I'd get for the bits? My thoughts below:
- Bodywork £500
- rollcage £150
- Shocks and springs (unopened) £250
- Loom £50
- Wheels £50
- Diff, starter etc. £50
- Polo rad £20
- Wishbones £150
- Steering rack and column £30
- Pedals, pedal plate, master cylinders and brake calipers £120
- Seats £150

Or maybe try and sell the whole lot as a package to someone wanting to build an MX5 based Haynes!

As said before I don't really want to give up on the project, but want to get an idea of what I'd get for it if I were to split it up.

[HughG]

Escy said:

I vote for the MR2 project, they are great.

We had one a few years ago but it was my wife's and she wouldn't even let me put standard wheels back on it! A shame as heavy 17s ruined the ride and probably dulled the handling somewhat.

[HughG]

I have decided that I will completely strip the chassis that I have so that I can either sell the bits, or fit onto a new chassis.
Currently thinking I will sell the bits (hopefully together) and smarten up the 205 track car, fix the fuel pump issue, might make that road regal then do another project.

[HughG]

Chassis strip completed in a couple of hours this morning



Before starting this morning I was fairly certain I was going to persevere with this chassis, investigate all the welds once stripped, change the footwell etc etc. But there are a few too many deviations from the book it would end up being triggers broom. So I will now either build a new chassis as per the Haynes book with Saturn amendments, possible go the MNR Vortx Mazda route, or sell up and do something different.