My era of MX5 ownership! Twilight Blue NB8A

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue May 03, 2011 1:53 pm

Brilliantly!

the autocross was basically a mini racetrack on dirt, so VERY slippery (interesting feeling having the car suddenly slide from compression lock!)

very much a test of smoothness and throttle control.

the Motorkhana was great too, very sliipery (it rained the night before) but that just made it more challenging. Still fairly rubbish at it, but I just need more time to learn the courses and also practice the actual car control parts.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue May 03, 2011 2:44 pm

Lowered pics.

Before and after:

Postby **rupewrecht** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:09 pm

MUCH better

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:16 pm

mostly thanks to you good sir!

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed May 04, 2011 5:05 pm

Very nice Nick..! It's the height they should have been from the factory, not too low but low enough. Look forward to seeing it in person on Sunday..!

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Wed May 04, 2011 6:08 pm

Thanks ben!

Sunday, I presume you're coming down to packenham to have a go?

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed May 04, 2011 8:09 pm

Yep..! =) I've convinced my parents to come down and enter too!!! Should be great fun =)

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon May 16, 2011 6:28 pm

Motorkhana done and dusted, well.... not dusted.... mudded!

so, it was freezing and WET.
the morning had some slow times with doing courses on wet grass, but it served a great purpose of letting me feel the car slide etc in almost slow motion. Great practice!
as the day wore on, the grass got chewed up, and we were eventually running on mud... really sloppy mud. I almost got bogged during a run!

at about lunch the day was called off, courses were too wet, and we were slowly getting rained in (the driveway was mud too, and as a result we basically spent the next few hours getting those with a 4x4 to tow everyone free to the main road)

there are a few photos of the day up on Ben Sale's Facebook page.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Mon May 16, 2011 6:30 pm

and a today update:

picked up my 949 nuts from James today.
got they're awesome, they are just an amazingly over-engineered piece of work!

also there's a story in this Month's MXTRA about the Deni motorkhana trip!

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Thu May 26, 2011 1:49 pm

Nothing much lately, been getting used to the new lowered height.

the poor muffler has taken a bit of a beating

it's now scraped all on the bottom

and the other day my car had a birthday!

Happy birthday!

I'm still thinking of a gift to get her.

Pamex · Postby **Pamex** » Thu May 26, 2011 2:10 pm

A water pump full of champagne. :p

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Thu May 26, 2011 2:14 pm

Mazdaspeed Champagne?

also, STALKER!!!

Pamex · Postby **Pamex** » Thu May 26, 2011 3:06 pm

I know what I'll get you. A Mazdaspeed sticker. One of the massive ones.

You will stick it on your windscreen otherwise your girlfriend will think you don't like it and will cry because she thought you'd really, really like the gift.

You will hang your head in shame.

Then we will mock.

Mock, mock.

:p

Back on topic, HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUINCE!

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:29 pm

Ok, now with a new job under my belt I once again have an income, and it's also nice than at the old job. WIN ALL ROUND!!!

this can only mean one thing....... BUY MORE CAR STUFF!!!

anyway, sending the car in on thursday morning for a new set of tyres and an alignment.

uncertain on alignment settings, been doing a little reading and thinking I'll go with Lanny's alignment.

Front
Caster: 5 deg
Camber: -1.20 deg
Toe: 0.075 deg in

Rear
Camber: -1.75 deg
Toe: 0.075 deg in

seems like a nice compromise between the daily run and some fun. (also a smooth one, not a fan of the rear being super twitchy like it is atm)

edit:
tyres are going to be Toyo Proxes 4 in 205/50/15
little bit wider to fill the guards, and also the change to rolling diameter will correct the speedo and give me 5mm extra height to get the muffler over the magical 100mm mark!

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 8:31 pm

ok, stuff that's happened since the last update....

more motorkhanas which have been fun, although I keep losing my way on the courses and stuffing up big time.

anyway, the tyres and alignment were fitted/done. Loving it, I went with Bensale's settings which are a brilliant compromise for the road.

I also had the timing belt and water pump cahnged the other day, which was good to get done.
As it turns out, the timing belt had already been changed by the previous owner at some point, odd since the car only has 103,000km on it....\

regardless, I'm now set for another 100,000km.

one otehr thing the shop found was that my water pump was stuffed, the impellor had some play, the pump itself was leaking, and the main water inlet/outlet was basically blocked with crusty old coolant residue.

so the engine is now feeling great!

however, after the thrashing at Bendigo on the weekend I've developed a new issue............ epic clutch slip.
So I'm limping around until I can book in for that to get fixed.

going to just go with OEM equivalent, probably Exedy.