Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire car

Chat to do with your MX5/Miata/Eunos Garage Ride(s).

Moderators: timk, Stu, -alex, miata, StanTheMan, greenMachine, ManiacLachy, Daffy, zombie, Andrew, The American, Lokiel

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire car

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:18 am

Hi all I am new here,

I thought i'd drop in to say hello finally and give you some details on my car.

I am from Sydney but have spent the past two years in the UK and am now currently living in Hamburg, Germany with a plan to move back to Sydney early 2011.

I know a few folks from here and the JDMST forum.

I enjoy my photography and have always been into cars.


Well, where do I start? Well how about the beginning and work our way back to the present day.

I have been wanting an NA MX5 for some years ever since I saw a subtley modded example back in 1997 where I worked at Patrick Autocare during Uni holidays.

Sometimes customer cars that weren't new and off the ships/trucks would arrive that needed private freight elsewhere.

That's where I saw it, a clean NA8 in silver with a subtle vent in the bonnet...I admired the details such as the hardtop catches and the door handles, the simple dash layout and the purposeful nature of the car sitting on BBS wheels.

One day, I needed one for the weekend...

Car's have come and gone, Mitsu Starion, AE82 Twincam corolla, AE86 4AGZE, AW11 MR2, Nissan 350z plus a couple of bikes, Honda VTR250 and '06 Yamaha R6...

But I always still had the lingering 'need' for an NA...

Having decided I wanted one and as I was living in the UK at the time, plenty of imports were available...this is where I noticed all the various models, V Special, S and R limited, S Special etc. etc...

So the search began, but it had to be Bleck... I just wanted something different and the Black ones really appealed to me.

After test driving a few in the UK and considering importing a JDM import model with all the fruit back into Oz on my return, a move to Germany came on the horizon...only LHD basic versions there...so not ideal...

What to do?

Hmm I am going on holidays to Oz of course...

Hire car a waste of money?

Sure...

I don't need no steenkin' hire car!!

Day 1: Taz arrives in country, finds an internet connection, hits up carsales..
Day 2: Find a tasty NA6 in white with a few mods...Test drive, hmmm a bit rough, no aircon...there's also a yellow one but the seller sounded a bit odd.
Day 3: Decide to look at another car, hmmm it's a JDM personal import...S Special...in Bleck! BINGO! Tee up a test drive that evening...

After a test drive, it was apparent to me this was the best MX5 i've dríven thus far so I had to have it...

Instead of going for a cheapie that needed a fair bit of work and offload it shortly later when I left a month later, I decided on getting a better model and after a drive I knew I wanted to keep the thing!!!

Somehow I managed to convince the wife this was a good idea.

With the foresight of bringing a wad of cash, I bargained and saw the price fall...

I had borrowed my mum's car to get there, so I left it where it stood near the sellers house and hightailed it to a meet with some car minded friends, many of whom were MX5 owners themselves.

The reaction was gold!

Specs are:

1994 Eunos Roadster 'S Special'

This is a limited edition model, i've read somewhere there are only 500, but not sure if this is per year they released them or in total.

Apart from the normal JDM Roadster bits here are some distinguishing features of the 'S Special':

* Bilstein suspension
* LSD
* Thicker sway bars,
* Front shock tower brace
* BBS alloys (14", they were 15" in 1995)
* Nardi leather steering wheel and gear knob
* Mazda Sensory surround sound stereo (MSSS)

This particular car has A/C and power steering and is a private import brought in by an Australian teaching English in Japan. He sold it to Chris from Oatley, the previous owner who had it for 4 years. Another real estate agent! (my 350z was owned by a real estate agent before me).

Mods: The car was stock except for...

*Cusco offset number plate bracket (expertly modified by Bab's to suit the NSW plates)

The sticker on the back says "MORITA Car Retail"
Image

Original Floor Mats
Image

Roadster sill plates found on JDM models.
Image

It still has the Mazda emergency road flare that sits in the holder in the passenger side footwell...
Image
Last edited by Taz_ on Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:39 am, edited 2 times in total.

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:22 am

Day 4 in Oz:

Drove it to my Babs' house after meeting up with another mate from the forums I frequent, we gave it a wash and a polish. And my mate Kelvin (Eggbox) did his magic with the camera and some lights.

Enough of my jibba jabba

So here's the beast...

Image

Image

Image

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:23 am

Day 5: I had picked up my friends Nardi Deep corn that used to be in his 1971 Skyline 2000GT Hakosuka for a couple of months when I was there the previous day, so after visiting the car show where he entered his car we headed back to his place where we expertly installed the new tiller.

After some time getting off a wheel that had sat in place since leaving the factory in 1994, it was out with the old...(Will keep the original on hand for the sake of completeness later)

Image

In with the new...

Image

Unfortunately the car had developed a habit of creeping up past the halfway mark on the temp gauge after 20mins of driving, only turning the heater on could sort it...

Baking in the sun with the heater on was never my idea of fun...

Only one thing to do...

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:24 am

Day 6:

What is missing in this pic?...

Image

Out comes the radiator...This was a relatively easy job once you take off the undertray.

A quick trip to the radiator specialist revealed that it was blocked by more than a third. Since the plastic tank top was going to go eventually I had them source and fit a new top tank since they already had the newly cleaned up core with them.

2 hours later and it's ready to install!

Image

After flushing out what was mainly just plain water and some crud the freshened up item was refitted.

Filled it up with Castrol Radicool premix and all systems were go....

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:33 am

Day 7: Only one thing left to do...

Drive it!

Image

Some of the horses that got away since 1994...
Image

Jinba-ittai

Image
Image

Down to Burragorang Valley, south past Camden near the Oaks, a bit of a benchmark route...(I used to ride my motorcycle through these very same twisties...)
Image
Image
Image

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:34 am

Impressions:

I am very happy with the way this thing handles, the Bilstein's are doing their job and the chassis is great.

The throttle response is excellent and the 1.8 gives me plenty of torque on initial acceleration and mid corner. The car's balance is fantastic. It feels like an old friend, and fit's like a glove. A very driver centric car, excellent feedback and steering weight along with a communicative chassis.

I've dríven some quick and exotic cars, owned some decent ones but this car is the definition of FUN.

I've dríven this route a few times including on my motorbike, and I must say I left with a grin!!

Here are some of my previous toys.

Image

Image
Image

Image
Last edited by Taz_ on Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:39 am

I took it down for a drive to Wakefield Park Raceway to support some friends and see some old faces.

Of course I had to do the obligatory Big Merino shot with the little car.

Image

I took some pics while I was there...
Image

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:43 am

While I was in Sydney during the Dec/Jan period, I had managed to find some spare time so I decided to go for a drive.

This was starting to become a habit :lol:

I found excuses to go for a drive for no reason other than to drive this thing. This by far is one of the main reasons I love this car.

I went down south towards Wollongong to Bulli Pass, Stanwell Park, Sea Cliff bridge and the Royal National Park.

Image

Image

Despite being overcast and cool, I had the top down, the heater on and enjoyed every minute of it.

It feels great on the road, excellent steering feel and weight to it even with power steering. A very nice drive. Now I can see what other MX5 owners are always raving about.

User avatar
Tezzax5
Racing Driver
Posts: 908
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:00 pm
Vehicle: NB SP

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Tezzax5 » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:50 am

Great story and beautiful photo's.

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:52 am

Tezzax5 wrote:Great story and beautiful photo's.


Thanks Tezza!

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:54 am

I also went to down to the coast (Kiama and Stanwell Park) followed by another Royal National Park drive...

Just enjoying the car in the way it was intended = Plenty of scenic drives and twisty roads with the top down and the sun out.

Took some pics...

Kiama
Image
Image

Stanwell Park where the paragliders take off from...
Image
Image

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 8:59 am

In an effort to get back to where I am now I shall continue my story.

After making the most of my time with the car, I had to say goodbye.

The car is now being looked after and stored in a top secret underground facility until I next visit, probably in Dec.

The great part of this is my friend is looking after it, and along with my other car mates they can make 'improvements' to it while I am over here...

Case in point my drivers side power window was a little slow going down...so on a free night the guys got together for a DIY night and cleaned and lubed the runners along with working on their cars...

They also installed a new door weather strip on each side (The rubber that runs along the top length of the door).

Image
Image

My wiper arms were looking a bit shabby so they even sanded them back and repainted them for me in a satin finish! Better than new!

Image
Image

It's not all work though, they also decided to play a trick on me and put this on for laughs (or at least for the pic!)

Image

One of said friends (Reggie) went to a JDM swapmeet and picked this up for me, mine one was looking quite worn and this is a great direct replacement as I wanted to keep it original.

Image

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:13 am

Replacement gearknob fitted by Reggie.

Image

The old one on the right is quite worn out especially on the top.

This replacement one cost me $8, it's the same as my old one and came off on Oz Clubman.

The soft top is about 4 years old but when I bought the car it kept a brown hue to it even after being washed.

Before:
Image

Reggie used a vinyl cleaner and a nailbrush to restore it back to new.

After:
Image

So that brings up pretty much up to now!

Taz_
Driver
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 7:31 am
Vehicle: NA8
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby Taz_ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:19 am

One last thing....


















:lol: :lol: :lol:


The wheels of my dreams arrived recently!

After a nail biting bidding war on Yahoo Auctions Japan and a long wait they finally arrived into Sydney!

Image

SSR Star Sharks in 4x100,
14x6.5's in decent offsets.


I'll try and get one of my friends back in Sydney to test fit them eventually and post up some pics.

User avatar
AJ
Speed Racer
Posts: 4349
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2005 8:27 pm
Vehicle: NC
Location: Gold Coast

Re: Taz's JDM NA8 S-Special: I don't need no steenkin hire c

Postby AJ » Sun Jun 13, 2010 9:24 am

great read Taz, I really enjoyed it along with the photos......congrats on the new baby (I'm also a member of Teem Bleck :wink: )....................welcome to the obsession :mrgreen:
Image
Don't worry about what people think, they don't do it very often
XMX5 Rogues


Return to “MX5 Garage Chat”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests