Mx5 Rocketeer V6 Conversion Project

[Lewis's Friend]

It's interesting to see what these sell for. I would say they're very difficult to price, given the base car can vary massively in quality.

I also think the days of a good £3k mk1 mx5 are over or almost over. Too much rust!

£12k for a converted car is both pretty pricey for an mx5, but cheap for a Rocketeer mx5 (if you were to do a new one for yourself).

[Lewis's Friend]

A small update before getting the car back on the road (just in time for some bad weather I imagine!).

I've been slowly working on the interior - there is quite a long way to go, but I'm slowly getting there as funds and time allow...

This time it was changing the gear knob to one that can burn you in hot weather! I was originally going to buy a nice off the shelf aluminium upgrade, but as I looked at them none were quite what I was after. I didn't want anything taller, but ideally a little heavier than standard (though not very much - some weighted gearknobs seem very excessive). In the end, I drew up a gearknob myself. It is basically the standard design, but slightly wider and in aluminium. I calculated the weight should be about 220g, though I had no idea really...!

I local machine shop made the gearknob for me, and clear anodised it too. Very happy when it came back, as it feels a much better fit for my hand.

The original gearknob was weighed for comparison:

20220322_094145 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

And the new one:

20220322_094202 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Fitting is very easy, though it proved very difficult to photograph in the sun! The silver of the aluminium doesn't match the stainless items already fitted exactly (unsurprisingly), but it looks much better in person than it does in this picture!

20220322_095528 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Very happy overall - I've not driven it yet, but pretending to on the drive it felt great! Hopefully that translates to actual driving too...

[Lewis's Friend]

I have just finished another little upgrade to the mx5, namely the tweeter speaker mounts on the door card.

My car did originally come with tweeters, but when I fitted my Focal speakers, I needed a custom mount to get the tweeters in properly. You'll be forgiven for not recalling that I originally made some mounts from MDF to prove the basic design.

IMG_20180605_175140 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Much like the above after much primer work. These were only ever meant to be temporary, and after a couple of years they started to delaminate and split. I always planned on drawing some up in CAD and having them printed, and I finally got around to it.

I haven't touched CAD for about 10 years, so after (slightly) getting to grips with Autodesk Fusion 360, lots of measuring and lots of bodgery on my computer, I was left with this:

Screenshot 2022-07-20 162612 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

An extremely kind PHer then volunteered to print out a test part on his home 3D printer and send it to me. Much appreciation for that I may say! I fitted the test part, and somewhat remarkably, it fitted nicely.

I then uploaded my design to a firm online to get my design printed and finished. That left me with this:

20220720_142035 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20220720_142106 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

I then fitted them to the car and popped the tweeters in.

20220720_141059 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20220720_141036 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

20220720_141108 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr

Overall, I'm pleased with the finished mounts. They'll hopefully last well, and the surface finish actually matches the textured plastics used on the interior pretty well so doesn't really stand out (apart from the obviously aftermarket speakers). All in all, another little job crossed off the list.

[Lewis's Friend]

PushedDover said:

But how is she driving? Especially in the heat?
I read of many overheating issues, have you suffered at all?

She's been fine with me for quite some time now. I confess I didn't take her out in the 38degC+ couple of days, but that was more for me then to protect the car!

I've never had an overheating issue in terms of coolant etc. There are two heat related things to note though. The first is that the car hasn't been mapped to deal with high underbonnet temps. This manifested itself a year or so ago when I got stuck in epic traffic for approx 45mins (nose to tail, stop/start crawling) with the outside temp being approximately 30degC. After 45mins the car just forgot how to idle. The difficulty there of course is replicating those conditions to adjust the map! Though in all that, the coolant temp was fine. That was also the only time it's done this - after it cooled off, it drove fine.

The second temp related issue is that when the clutch gets hot (independent of how hot the day is), it becomes a bit grabby as the friction material gets hot. Easy enough to drive around, but its a smoother experience before this happens.

[Lewis's Friend]

PushedDover said:

So no regrets then

Definitely not! Still enjoying the small car, (relatively) big engine combo.

[Lewis's Friend]

PushedDover said:

Bump - due to cashflow, I've paused my conversion, but speaking to Bruce they have had some chips availability issues so halting helps. I've bought / committed to an engine at least so not a total welcher. On a positive, it seens they are positioning themselves to be not just an 'engine upgrade' but an MX5 version of Alfaholics with lots of interest for greater scopes / upgrades.

I was only reminded of this thread as I see Carl on the FB group has what seems to be a very good NB up for sale at the mo.
No links, no connections, but a fettled Rocketeer has to be a great thing to bring in to spring 2023.

Interesting that that is the route Bruce is looking to take the business - could be pretty cool!

My car has not turned a wheel since October, as I SORNed it and I've not really regretted it much given the weather we've been enjoying!

My next job is a new seat, but I'm attempting to move house so spending a lump on a decent seat seems a little frivolous at the moment. Soon hopefully...

I saw the mk2 - it does look very nice. If be interested to see what it goes for really as I have no idea what a completed build would be worth (although they can vary massively in how far the restoring part of a build had gone).

Is a shame your own build has been paused, but hopefully you can continue shortly. They are a lot of fun!