mx5cartalk.com

Well it took me 31 years to get onto the track despite a lifelong love of cars.

And I do love this car. I had been looking at NBs and was test driving them and even bacame a member of MT.net before getting the Volkswagen bug, literally. Then I met my now wife and her mum had a little yellow mx5 which she sold to her son. The car deteriorated until it finally came to rest in my backyard. Eventually I thought I should kick it over as it had wot for a few months and not surprisingly the battery was flat.



I jumped it and took it to the servo for some air (tyres between 7-20psi) and washed the windows inside and out with the squidgy. A quick lap around the backstreets and I was pleasantly surprised by it but parked it back in the yard and thought nothing more of it other than I should drive it to work once a fortnight to keep it happy.



So I climb behind the grotty steering wheel one morning and peer through the layers of burger and coke at the tachometer as it dances around on my 6:15am late for work dash.

I have a smile on my face all day. I no longer miss my Supermotard. When I get home I ask my wife if she would like to adopt it and she cautiously agrees.



Every panel was dented except for the headlight lids.









I spent many nights popping out the dings and scrubbing the thing clean.



I think the ashtray took me three hours.



The soft top had just been replaced after someone had taken to it with a knife in perth one night and he had just spent over $600 on the brakes.

We negotiated a fair price and I took possession of 'Malcolm' (in hindsight I possibly paid a little too much).

I pressure cleaned the daisy wheels and took the remaining silver off the hubcaps. So I taped them up, sandblasted, primed and painted them black.



I burned off the worst two of the 10 year old tyres and fitted Nexan CP641 195s to the front and entered the mx5clubwa fun-khana.



I was hooked.

The agonising 3 month wait for the start of the '13 sprint season ended with the first barbagello sprint.

I had upgraded the pretty daisies to these beauties thanks to Pat.



But they really looked terrible against the yellow.



Crazy good photoshop skills I know.

Seeing as they are so rare I did this.



And shod them with Achilles 123s

I replaced the rear dampers with koni sports.

I finished first in class A but since then the Achilles have been classed as an R compound and I have been relocated into class C.

Since then I have fitted konis to the front and Ground Control coilover sleaves all round with Fatcat bumpstops.

When my mother in law bought the car in 2001 it had Genie extractors and a 2.5" exhaust (possibly making it slower but definitely making it sound faster).

I have bounced between the ideas of dirty rotten track pig to fully restored Malibu original.
I have settled somewhere in between.

I started by removing the stereo, speakers, mudflaps and tow points.
Then I bought a cowl intake from Emily and cut a 3" hole in the firewall.



Point of no return crossed so out came the seats, dash, carpet, pretty much everything that comes off and on went plohl/pham framerail braces and an AGI half cage.

All of the underlay and sound sound dampening apart from the bit on the back of the firewall went. I peeled and cut and scraped and swore the carpet away from its heavy backing and beat 30 odd grams of sand out of it. The centre console is gone and I drilled 73 holes in the dash support to remove another 900g.

After tearing out the alarm and central locking I am tracing through the wiring harness and removing unused wires such as power ariel, speakers and such.

The aim is to make the care look as stock and pretty as possible but fur it to be as light as possible and when I can afford it to be as fast as possible.

More to come soon.

Great read. Please do keep it coming. A fellow Perthian though I spend more time in Singapore than Australia due to business commitments.

Fitted the infamous NB glass window soft top as had read it was 1kg lighter.
Unfortunately it weighs exactly the same 17.8kg as the NA plastic one. I guess if it didn't have the glass window it would be 1kg lighter.

So I have an as new (November last year) NA soft top with frame and new rain rail to unload if anyone needs one.

Good results from the motorplex on Sunday, snapping at the heels of the guys running big power.

http://www.mx5club.com.au/documents/MX5 ... 071407.pdf

I think with an LSD the car would be a second faster and I might have almost a second myself to make up.

Seanan.

Fitted Miata Roadster tall angled short throw shift kit - very nice.

Parts hoarding has begun: RX8 injectors, Innovate AFR wideband, WIKAI -100/+150kpa gauge.... Waiting on MS diypnp to arrive.

Bought some fleaBay strap tow points to replace the heavy baby teeth and also some UR fender braces that I really hope line up.

Have to pull the front end off one night and see.

Intake looks good! Nice afm adaptor aswell.

Want to save 15kg+ ? Ditch the whole softtop, get a hardtop, use alloy plates bolted into the car instead of the latches, and use a riveted in lexan window instead of the glass.

Glad you like the short shifter - I've been on holiday so haven't found time to put mine on yet but it's on this weeks to do list.

Early Christmas present to me:



I really need to update this thread.

That dump is massive!

Or the tubro isn't...

That beer looks good.
Love your work. Restoring it from it's 'barn find' condition must have been very rewarding.
I'm looking forward to seeing a pic with it's new sleeves and wheels or is that the first pic?

Photobucket catchup session.

Cut and polished instrument cluster where it had been etched.



Stripping interior and putting cage and Pham rail bracing in. Ultra lightweight dash mods.



More weight reduction



She's a natural



3am drunk end eBay purchase installed (access to centre rear fender bolt is a bitch)



Skirts and lip installed



(Directional tyres fitted backwards intentionally, come at me)

I've been a busy little shopper too!

Wideband, rx8 injectors, xr6 intercooler, DIYPNP, Timing belt, new clutch, familia rods, dizzy O ring and LSD.

Hopefully I've done this right!



Oh and I also installed a Moose!

Looking good - what blower have you got tucked away in the box?

Looks like you are heading in a similar direction to me - you are going to love the addition of the turbo. When you get your megasquirt going, I have some dyno tuned maps for NA and turbo NA6s, which should be a good starting point.

Si

Cheers Simon, it's a brand new GT2560R.

You will be a happy camper, I put the 2560 into my Nb and on a basemap its a totally different car, can't wait for dyno tune! Have fun!