My previous car was an R31 Skyline and it was never really 'me'. I never really enjoyed driving it as it was too big, couldn't take tight corners and was terrible on petrol (just to name a few) BUT having said that, it was a cheap car with a lot of torque that was also cheap to modify and style how I wanted. I won't get into details of what I did as this IS the MX5 club so I'll just post a couple of pics for before/after comparison
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After test driving an MX5 I instantly fell in love with its handling and overall feel being close to the ground, but it was hard to justify the 'upgrade' when I was losing 3 seats, an awesome sound system, lots of boot space and still having to fork out an extra ~3k to buy a standard MX5. It took me a few months before I couldn't take it any longer and decided to make the plunge and buy the MX5 around Nov/Dec 2011. The pics below is roughly how the car was when I bought it from my uncle Terry (who is also a member here), including the rims which were already on there.
Getting the car required me to borrow some money from my parents (yay for poor uni students!) but the time it took me to pay it all back wasn't wasted as I got researching on everything I wanted to get for it. As the income started coming in, I began modifying starting with simple things like a stereo upgrade and looking speeding up the power windows (I still don't know how it's possible for something to be so slow!!). I then moved onto more expensive exterior mods and it all went from there.
Within a few months I had added:
- Genuine Garage Vary Front lip, Planet Miata side skirts and R Package rear lip from RSpeed
- Turn signal intake from Moss Motors
- Clear reflectors and side indicators from MX5 Parts
- Brightning tail light covers from REV9 Autosport
- JVC KD-R626 head unit and Pioneer TS-A6104C 6″ Splits (door) from Motoquipe
- JVC 4″ 2-way speakers (headrest) from Gumtree
- Electronic Boot Release kit from Gumtree
- Chrome Style Bar from forum Member
- Various LED interior/exterior lights from Ebay
- Boot neon light with manual switch from Repco
- Bosch E-Code H4 Headlights and Philips H4 X-treme Vision bulbs
While I LOVE all the body additions I bought, it was all the electrical mods that were most satisfying. The E-codes headlight housings with the Phillips bulbs made driving at night so much safer but it wasn't just that, the interior in general was just so dark! My first solution was to get some LEDs in the foot well lights but that alone wasn't enough. I got rid of the sun visors since they always irritated me and instead of putting delete plates, I got some LED side lights off ebay that fitted the oval recess perfectly and hooked them up with an ON/OFF/DOOR switch. The two light mods together made it AT LEAST 7x better to see in the car at night. I also hooked up a white neon for the boot with an ON/OFF switch mounted on the lid; pretty tidy job if I do say so for myself. I did consider a push switch but this was the safer option; no one likes a dead battery!
The one thing that annoyed me the most about my car (other than the snail pace electric windows) was that it came without a manual boot release in the center console. I often carpool with my brother so I'd always have to turn off the car and give him the keys to unlock the boot - so annoying! I was so chuffed when I found an electric boot release kit on gumtree that was made specifically for the MX5 mk1 center console (fits cosy in the gap beside the hinges). I could have easily put together a makeshift setup myself but for a variety of safety reasons, this was a much better option. It just seemed like everything was falling into place and meant to be in the build of my car which made me a real happy camper.
My uncle reserved me a place for one of the driver training/funkhana events with the MX5 club and I had a REALLY AWESOME TIME! It was the first time I really got to push my car beyond road use and while I have had my license for quite some time now, I had never done anything like this before. It was a really great experience for a not so experienced driver and to prove I made the most of the session, here is a nice fail vid for you all
Everything was great, right until Winter that is... I found myself with a wet butt on the way home from work on several occasions after the roof leaked and soaked my seats. The plastic window of my soft top has definitely seen better days and the whole top in general gets really tight after being folded down. Sometimes I can't even close the top no matter how hard I force it down, not optimal when you're in a dodgy neighbourhood. The LOGICAL decision would have been to get a new soft top but a hardtop came up on gumtree a few days after I started looking and I decided it was fate.
Next mod was getting rid of the over-sized clown antenna that makes Mk1 MX5s look like an RC car and got myself a replacement stubby antenna from my go-to online store, MX5 parts. Around the same time (Aug) I FINALLY got my vent rings that were out of stock and on order since March. Not their fault as it was a supplier hold up but it sure was a long wait and as it turned out, I ordered the wrong ones. I was after the stainless steel look rather than shiny chrome but after that much waiting I decided to just man up and put them in. A few weeks later I bought a side mount number plate bracket from forum sponsor omgpham which turned out really awesome, especially with the new slimline plates I got for my very belated 21st birthday present.
Later on I bought a scoopon for a 50x100cm canvas print so I decided to try get artsy with some night time light painting and dusk shots. I still haven't decided on one to send to the printers but these were a few of my faves:
Sometime in October, I put in Magnecor KV85 leads with some NGK long reach spark plugs that really helped with my forever wavering idle and definitely gave me a bit more power through the gears. Soon after, I got the chance to go on another track event, this time a sprint day. It was my first time out of the skidpans and onto the long track... needless to say I was far off the rest of the pack but was I was definitely the most improved! Not that it really means anything to anyone but my times were: 125, 115, 110, 108, 104 - an improvement of 20 seconds since the first run! Granted the first was essentially a learning lap for all the turns but I was still pretty happy with myself. My uncle lent me some semi slicks for the day and I took some pics with the P1s while they were on there.
My latest purchase was a hardtop cover and stand from UK Custom Covers to use for the summer but other than that, I've got nothing more to list. I am however looking to get some quotes on a full respray in Ford 'Electric Orange' 6FSE. Ever since I was a kid I've always wanted an orange car which unfortunately seems to be a lot more common these days.. but I definitely still want to it! Also, it is my birthday coming in the next few weeks and my girlfriend asked for what I wanted so I'm hoping to find some of those <$100 goodies that she can 'surprise' me with. Shiny second hand goodies like an aftermarket gauge cluster, HVAC panel, radiator plate and grille. If you have any of those for sale or know a good quality auto painter in the northern suburbs (that won't cost me my first born child) please let me know
Lastly I'd like to say a big thank you to my uncle for helping me out through the whole process, giving me advice, answering my questions, helping me out on all the small and not-so-small jobs like changing the clutch, flywheel & gearbox and so much more. It's because of him I'm in the MX5 community and enjoying driving as much as I now do.
Hopefully now that I've got a thread sorted I'll update more regularly as things progress.
