Mx5 Rocketeer V6 Conversion Project
Discussion
Mark Benson said:
Smitters said:
I think I'd be seriously interested in a V6 conversion into a MEV Replicar. I wonder how feasible that would be?
OP - loving the idea. Will follow with interest.
That was my first thought, I quite like the Replicar.OP - loving the idea. Will follow with interest.
I'd guess it could be easier as the MEV only uses the bare bones of the Mazda.
A big plus being you wouldn't need to worry about body rust on the MX5.
Escy said:
I saw the car throttle youtube video of this and thought it looked fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out for you. Is all the working going to be done on the driveway?
Cheers - it will all be done on the driveway. Sadly I don't have a garage I can fit a car into, so outside it is!Drew106 said:
I'll be watching this one with interest. I bought a Mk1 last year which I've been tinkering with since.
Had a look at the Rocketeer cars at the national meet in Gaydon back in September. Awesome bit of kit.
I plan to add a bit of power to mine in the near future but will likely go the usual turbo route.
Oh and I'll see your rust and raise you this...
Call that rust?Had a look at the Rocketeer cars at the national meet in Gaydon back in September. Awesome bit of kit.
I plan to add a bit of power to mine in the near future but will likely go the usual turbo route.
Oh and I'll see your rust and raise you this...
Lewis's Friend said:
It’s not cheap, but then you’re also paying r&d costs, plus a profit for them. Of course some will think it’s not worth it - fair enough.
Having driven it, and not having the skills to do that kind of conversion myself from scratch, to me it’s worth it.
I do recommend viewing their website though for more details, plus photos etc. It gives you a better idea of what’s on offer.
I wouldn't say its not worth it, recently watched a youtuber "car throttle" maybe and he took out a v6 mx5 and said it was the most fun he has had in any car so im pretty sure once this is finished you wont be able to keep yourself out the thing! Having driven it, and not having the skills to do that kind of conversion myself from scratch, to me it’s worth it.
I do recommend viewing their website though for more details, plus photos etc. It gives you a better idea of what’s on offer.
Great idea, really looking forward to this build thread.
Regarding the rust, my 2 year old M2.5 1.8 looked worse than that after a couple of salty winters! You've done well as they have abysmal corrosion protection.
Cost wise, you've got to be looking at least at the price of a good 987S Boxster, but then again what fun would that be?
Should sound fantastic and hopefully still handle great. Have fun!
Regarding the rust, my 2 year old M2.5 1.8 looked worse than that after a couple of salty winters! You've done well as they have abysmal corrosion protection.
Cost wise, you've got to be looking at least at the price of a good 987S Boxster, but then again what fun would that be?
Should sound fantastic and hopefully still handle great. Have fun!
I have to say the financial side makes no sense to me. Say you spend two grand on the donor Mazda and Jaguar bits, and seven on the kit. You're in for nine grand, and at the end the car still has the interior and exterior appearance of a grand's worth of mx-5. You've still got a tired hood, suspension, brakes etc to contend with. I'm sure I'd a lot of fun and part of the fun is in the journey but ten grand opens up a lot of fun car options.
HustleRussell said:
I have to say the financial side makes no sense to me. Say you spend two grand on the donor Mazda and Jaguar bits, and seven on the kit. You're in for nine grand, and at the end the car still has the interior and exterior appearance of a grand's worth of mx-5. You've still got a tired hood, suspension, brakes etc to contend with. I'm sure I'd a lot of fun and part of the fun is in the journey but ten grand opens up a lot of fun car options.
Indeed. I like the kit too but realistically it's going to be a 10k+ project to do everything properly and to the high standards of the Rocketeer kit. I honestly think I'd go for an MX-5 NC and the BBR Super 200 or 225 kit instead.Olivera said:
HustleRussell said:
I have to say the financial side makes no sense to me. Say you spend two grand on the donor Mazda and Jaguar bits, and seven on the kit. You're in for nine grand, and at the end the car still has the interior and exterior appearance of a grand's worth of mx-5. You've still got a tired hood, suspension, brakes etc to contend with. I'm sure I'd a lot of fun and part of the fun is in the journey but ten grand opens up a lot of fun car options.
Indeed. I like the kit too but realistically it's going to be a 10k+ project to do everything properly and to the high standards of the Rocketeer kit. I honestly think I'd go for an MX-5 NC and the BBR Super 200 or 225 kit instead.I wanted to do as much of the work myself as I could, which this kit allows but also takes away the bits that I don't have the skills to do.
In terms of alternatives for the price, there isn't really very much that meet my criteria. After considering all types of things, from amercian classics to jap stuff, my list of things I wanted eventually came down to pretty much this:
-roadster (I like the roof down, despite my amazing ability to burn in direct sunlight)
-small; the better to use little back roads
-'enough' power - subjective I realise but I wanted there to be a decent step change from my TVR (circa 150bhp)
-NA - I just prefer larger displacement to forced induction (though I am willing to compromise on this and have large displacement AND forced induction!)
The above is pretty much a TVR, but as said, I can't have a Chimaera as too many of my friends already do, and anything else is out of my reach! This seemed to tick every box. That said, I can see why others would not want to go down this route.
HustleRussell said:
I have to say the financial side makes no sense to me. Say you spend two grand on the donor Mazda and Jaguar bits, and seven on the kit. You're in for nine grand, and at the end the car still has the interior and exterior appearance of a grand's worth of mx-5. You've still got a tired hood, suspension, brakes etc to contend with. I'm sure I'd a lot of fun and part of the fun is in the journey but ten grand opens up a lot of fun car options.
I can't think of anything else that weighs no more than a ton, but has that sort of nat-asp power and torque. Closest bet is a TVR, but OP has already done that.Exige V6 is probably a bit more than ten grand (!)
Go up to ~1250kgs and you could have a S2000 or Boxster for £10k. There are indeed lots of options, but if you want something small and light but still with good power, they all dry up.
Also, just because MX-5s are currently available for little money, they're still nice cars.
In a sense I agree with you, I think it'll be hard to recoup the money at resale, but if you really want a small, light, open car with a fairly powerful, torquey nat-asp engine, then it could be worth putting in the money to build one like this.
Very few of my cars ever make financial sense, I buy them because I like them - certainly for my 'play' cars that's the case, but also for a lot of the 'family' cars I buy.
This project, to me isn't about the OP having the 'best' car for the money in objective terms, it's about the best car for him for reasonable money.
Buying sports cars is not an objective exercise - never has been for me anyway. The point of this MX5 is that it sounds great, has good throttle response and available torque through the rev range yet still handles just like an MX5.
Adding a turbo to a standard MX5 gives you comparable headline bhp and torque figures, but not the other benefits - whether that matters or not is up to the individual, as is how much anyone is willing to pay to get those benefits.
My feeling is that you'd want to start with a pretty well sorted base car, so you'd be looking at £5k for a clean car, budget £1-2k for freshening up bushes & dampers etc. then the £7k on top for the conversion - I can see a project hitting £12-15k for a properly sorted, relatively maintenance free car.
Is it worth it? It must be to 25 people as they've hit the target for selling the kits. Might well be to me, too. I've had 2 S2000s (loved them both) and raced a Boxster (though I find them a bit dull on the road so never bought a road going car) and a good condition example of either could easily cost the same.
I've also had a standard MX5 and I think for me, a properly sorted Rocketeer would be a very tempting prospect.
This project, to me isn't about the OP having the 'best' car for the money in objective terms, it's about the best car for him for reasonable money.
Buying sports cars is not an objective exercise - never has been for me anyway. The point of this MX5 is that it sounds great, has good throttle response and available torque through the rev range yet still handles just like an MX5.
Adding a turbo to a standard MX5 gives you comparable headline bhp and torque figures, but not the other benefits - whether that matters or not is up to the individual, as is how much anyone is willing to pay to get those benefits.
My feeling is that you'd want to start with a pretty well sorted base car, so you'd be looking at £5k for a clean car, budget £1-2k for freshening up bushes & dampers etc. then the £7k on top for the conversion - I can see a project hitting £12-15k for a properly sorted, relatively maintenance free car.
Is it worth it? It must be to 25 people as they've hit the target for selling the kits. Might well be to me, too. I've had 2 S2000s (loved them both) and raced a Boxster (though I find them a bit dull on the road so never bought a road going car) and a good condition example of either could easily cost the same.
I've also had a standard MX5 and I think for me, a properly sorted Rocketeer would be a very tempting prospect.
Lewis's Friend said:
I do understand that point of view, but I did the sums and it was worth it to me.
I wanted to do as much of the work myself as I could, which this kit allows but also takes away the bits that I don't have the skills to do.
In terms of alternatives for the price, there isn't really very much that meet my criteria. After considering all types of things, from amercian classics to jap stuff, my list of things I wanted eventually came down to pretty much this:
-roadster (I like the roof down, despite my amazing ability to burn in direct sunlight)
-small; the better to use little back roads
-'enough' power - subjective I realise but I wanted there to be a decent step change from my TVR (circa 150bhp)
-NA - I just prefer larger displacement to forced induction (though I am willing to compromise on this and have large displacement AND forced induction!)
The above is pretty much a TVR, but as said, I can't have a Chimaera as too many of my friends already do, and anything else is out of my reach! This seemed to tick every box. That said, I can see why others would not want to go down this route.
You can get a good 3.2 280bhp 987S for 11k, which is going to be subjectively 'better' in just about every way. But that would be boring and they have way too much grip for the power. I wanted to do as much of the work myself as I could, which this kit allows but also takes away the bits that I don't have the skills to do.
In terms of alternatives for the price, there isn't really very much that meet my criteria. After considering all types of things, from amercian classics to jap stuff, my list of things I wanted eventually came down to pretty much this:
-roadster (I like the roof down, despite my amazing ability to burn in direct sunlight)
-small; the better to use little back roads
-'enough' power - subjective I realise but I wanted there to be a decent step change from my TVR (circa 150bhp)
-NA - I just prefer larger displacement to forced induction (though I am willing to compromise on this and have large displacement AND forced induction!)
The above is pretty much a TVR, but as said, I can't have a Chimaera as too many of my friends already do, and anything else is out of my reach! This seemed to tick every box. That said, I can see why others would not want to go down this route.
An M1/2 MX5 with plenty of grunt will be great fun. The tricky bit might be keeping it usable, reliable and practical enough to not just be a garage queen.
A V6 converted MR2 Mk3 could be done for less bucks, maybe another option if you can live without a boot.
Thanks for all the positive comments anyway chaps - I'm pleased that its of some interest to people.
Some minor updates from today - I managed to get the front suspension stripped down. At one point there was a mild flurry of snow, which seemed a bit off when I was trying to work!
The front hub knuckles totally defeated my ball-joint splitter that I bought for the purpose, so I hit them with the biggest hammer I had, and that freed them off.
IMG_2579 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr
Angle grinder required at one point...
IMG_2580 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr
And the front suspension off.
IMG_2581 by Jon Fellows, on Flickr
Next I'll start getting the bushes out, before sending all the parts out for powder coating. Nice and easy!
A buddy who would otherwise have helped with all this is, sadly for the project, going traveling around the world soon. But in lieu of physical help, I have stolen a lot of his tools to help with the project, including a press to help with the bushes!
Some minor updates from today - I managed to get the front suspension stripped down. At one point there was a mild flurry of snow, which seemed a bit off when I was trying to work!
The front hub knuckles totally defeated my ball-joint splitter that I bought for the purpose, so I hit them with the biggest hammer I had, and that freed them off.
IMG_2579 by Jon Fellows, on FlickrAngle grinder required at one point...
IMG_2580 by Jon Fellows, on FlickrAnd the front suspension off.
IMG_2581 by Jon Fellows, on FlickrNext I'll start getting the bushes out, before sending all the parts out for powder coating. Nice and easy!
A buddy who would otherwise have helped with all this is, sadly for the project, going traveling around the world soon. But in lieu of physical help, I have stolen a lot of his tools to help with the project, including a press to help with the bushes!
Would this conversion need an IVA or 'Q' plate as another poster has suggested? Given it's 'only' an engine swap would that be the case?
I thought it was points based and as the suspension and gearbox don't change wouldn't accrue enough points?
Rocketeer seem to be running the standard plate on their demo in the video?
I thought it was points based and as the suspension and gearbox don't change wouldn't accrue enough points?
Rocketeer seem to be running the standard plate on their demo in the video?
CYCOLOGY said:
Would this conversion need an IVA or 'Q' plate as another poster has suggested? Given it's 'only' an engine swap would that be the case?
I thought it was points based and as the suspension and gearbox don't change wouldn't accrue enough points?
Rocketeer seem to be running the standard plate on their demo in the video?
Other poster was referring to if he built an actual kit car for the same budget he'd just end up with a kit car on a Q plate.I thought it was points based and as the suspension and gearbox don't change wouldn't accrue enough points?
Rocketeer seem to be running the standard plate on their demo in the video?
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