White NB track car

[david_syd_au]

I am in the process of building a track car from an imported Japanese MX5, and want to document the story in this forum, for 3 reasons
- in case others are interested,
- as a reliable place for my own future reference, and
- as a public commitment to force myself to write the story for my future reference.

It may be of general interest to some, or serve as an example of importing a car for track use to those who may be interested in a similar project.

The plan is for the story to be written in a few sections:
1. Introduction (this part)
2. background and reasons for building a track car, and for the particular path chosen to acquire a car,
3. selection, purchase and importing of a suitable car,
4. converting it to a track/race car,
5. getting the car out on the track, and
6. the inevitable future mods.

As I write this introduction (Feb 2012), I am about halfway through step #4. I hope over the next week to write the story up to the current time, then keep it up-to-date as project proceeds.

Where possible, I will include details of dates, times, costs. Where allowed, I will also include contacts or details of others who have been involved.

If this story is of interest to you, then as it develops please post questions so I can correct, clarify or expand on what I have written.

[Jeo]

Sounds great. I'm sure you will have many followers if you can achive what you've set out above.

[greenMachine]

I am in the process of building a track car from an imported Japanese MX5, and want to document .. costs.

Not this bit

You won't want to know , and you don't want to put others off!!

I did something similar, starting with an import shell that had a cage, and not much else. At this point I am just about past the 'de-bugging' phase, and starting the development phase - suspension settings, tyres, brakes etc.

Planning on being at the MRA Rd 2 meeting ...

[david_syd_au]

Section 2 - Background and reasons for building a track car, and for the particular path chosen to acquire a car.

Part 1

This post will be a little self-indulgent, explaining my background and reasons for getting a track car, so feel free to skip this post to the others that will follow and which will be more directly relevant to the topic. However, I will write this drivel so that in 10 or 20 years time, when my memory is failing, I can recall why I did what I did :-)

I am a 50ish year old bloke, and have been a motor sport enthusiast and a keen motorcycle rider since my late teens. Like many, I have always had a desire to drive/ride on a track, doing legally what I have sometimes done illegally on the public roads particularly when I was younger, but have never had the drive and/or the budget to make it happen.

About a year and a half ago, after a motorcycle accident in which my wife was injured, not seriously thankfully, and a couple of other near misses, I started to think that it was time to give up motorcycles. Time to grow up, and all that.
But how to replace bikes, which had provided
- a great adrenalin rush, particularly on winding roads,
- many great social opportunities with the Ulysses Club (an "over 50's" motorcycle club, see here for more info http://www.ulyssesclub.org), and
- a fun opportunity for my wife and I to get away from home for the odd weekend away alone, leaving our near-adult children behind.

An MX5 along with membership of the MX5 Club and going on some of the organised drives, ticked all the same boxes. The budget was available, so we read a lot, inspected and test drove a bunch of cars, and in February 2011 we bought a very nice 2005 Galaxy Grey NC with 55k kms for $25k.



In the year we have owned the car, we have participated in about 6 MX5 Club outings, and well as taking off for a weekend away a few times. It would be nice to have done more, but a balance has to be found between family, work and fun. We have really enjoyed owning the MX5, and I consider it the most fun to drive of any car I have owned. My wife is a bit of a revhead, and she likes taking the wheel when she can.

Where I work, there are 2 other inmates :0), who regularly drive at the MX5 Club track days. They encouraged me to get involved, but I held back, primarily over concern about damaging a $25k car with no insurance cover on the track. After spectating at 2 club track days, I decided that the risk was minimal, took a deep breath, and explained to my wife that I wanted to get involved. She agreed, being the understanding and long suffering soul that she is, but with all sorts of nasty penalties for me if I were to damage the car.

During early 2011, MX5 Mania (http://www.mx5mania.com.au) had fitted Yellow Speed Racing coilovers to the NC, and I took it back to them for a pre-track checkover, and an upgrade to better brake pads and quality engine, gearbox and diff oils. They are only 5 minutes from my home, but unfortunately since they moved from Hornsby Heights to Dural, a visit to their shop no longer includes a run through Galston Gorge :-(

In August, I sent in the application plus $106 to CAMS for an L2S license, and also the forms and $140 for the MX5 Club September 2011 track day. After reading all the rules, regulations, recommendations and track day stories, I turned up at the track day knowing what to expect. Yeh right!
Bill Dougall took me out for the newbie session, and showed me some of what my car could do, and how much there was to learn. Thanks Bill.



Anyway, the end result was that I had a ball, fantastic day, great people, ... the most fun you can have with your pants on, as the saying goes. My wife, son & daughter came along as well, watching to make sure I did nothing silly. We all went home happy, and I was sure I wanted to do it again. My son and daughter also expressed a strong desire to have a drive as well. The revhead gene must run in the family.

My 2nd track day in November 2011 was also a great hoot, although a high speed spinoff flat-out in 3rd at turn 6 (right kink before the fish-hook) made me a little circumspect for a few runs.

My son and daughter became even more determined to have a go, and I knew it was only a matter of time. After all, how could I keep all the fun to myself?

So what to do? Let the 17yr old daughter and 20yr old son, both of whom had very little driving experience, loose on the track in my daily-drive NC, with no insurance and minimal roll over protection? Also, even though I had enjoyed the track days, I was always mindful of holding back a bit, again because of the risk to the car.

The obvious solution was to sell my remaining motorcycle, which I was keeping mainly for sentimental reasons, but which wasn't being ridden, and use the money to buy a cheap MX5 with some rollover protection for the family to use as a track car.

[NitroDann]

Bloody good on you!

Dann

[deviant]

Getting my place in this thread. Looks like it is going to be a great journey!

[Bizi]

Looking forward to more updates!
Is the rollover protection sorted out?

[david_syd_au]

Looking forward to more updates!
Is the rollover protection sorted out?

Yep. Collected the car on Monday, with full cage.
You should drop by and have a look. It is a piece of art :-)

[david_syd_au]

3. Selection, purchase and importing of a suitable car,

Part 1 - Selecting and buying a car

After doing a few track days, I made the decision to get a relatively cheap track car. It needed to be cheap so that not too much was lost if it got bent. I had a budget of around $11k, from my cut of the proceeds of selling my motorcycle. My wife took the rest to buy shoes or something ...

Requirement #1 was that it be as safe as possible, so it also needed to have good driver protection, with a proper racing seat, harness and a full roll cage, to protect both me and my kids from our own mistakes. It would be heart breaking if we skimped on driver protection, and then one of use was hurt in circumstances where better driver protection might have saved us or reduced our injuries. I wanted to get an NB rather than an NA, for the ABS brakes, and the stronger body shell, again primarily for safety.

So I started haunting carsales, carpoint (are they the same?), the trading post and my105.com, looking for NBs with reasonable kms (< 150k km). All the worthwhile NBs seemed to be asking well over $12k, with some cheaper ones available but always with some major problems or questionable history. There were a couple of interesting race cars on my105.com, but they all seemed to be developed for more than just track days, and also were priced such that the budget would not extend to buying the car and a suitable trailer.

I saw an advert on this forum for a couple of cars, posted by Chris Gough of MX5 Racing on the central coast (http://www.mx5racing.com.au), which included a white race car, with a suggested price (which I can't remember) that seemed to fit the budget. I rang Chris and we had an extended chat about what my reasons and plans for a track car, and reached the conclusion that his white race car was probably to high strung and temperamental for what I had planned. I also think that Chris had a sentimental attachment to the car, which I think was his first race car, and didn't really want to sell it anyway :-)

We talked about the option of importing a car from Japan, and then converting it to a track car. The numbers seemed to work.
Around A$2.5k to A$3.5k to buy a suitable car at auction in Japan, which included an agents fee for Chris,
another A$1.3k to cover costs in Japan,
then A$2.5k for shipping and importing into Australia.
That all came to between A$6.2k and $A7.2k to have the car here in Australia.

Another $2.5k or so for a roll cage, seat and harness brings the total up to between A$8.7k and $9.7k, leaving between A$1.3k and A$2.3k for a trailer. Tight but doable.

Chris explained that when importing a car from Japan, it helped to sell off parts from the car that wouldn't be needed, to help offset the costs.

I expressed an interest, and Chris started sending me information on suitable cars that were coming up for auction in Japan.

There is an auction site (http://www.japaneseusedcars.com/) that aggregates auctions from a number of auction sites (15 I think) in Japan. They sell up to 500,000 cars A WEEK, and there were always a couple of dozen MX5s listed, or Roadsters, as they are named in Japan. Each auction goes for about 10 seconds, with computerised bidding. I soon learned that the cars for auction are graded from 1 to 5, with 1 being an absolute wreck, to 5 for a new car.

See here for an explanation of the grades
http://www.japaneseusedcars.com/auction/auctions_grading.htm

I was looking for a grade 3 or 3.5, which would be good enough for my purposes, with minimal risk of gettng a lemon, but with a slightly lower price than a grade 4 or above. A removable hardtop would also be good.

A couple of suitable cars appeared, and after a discussion with Chris a max price was decided, usually between $A2k and $A2.5K, and I gave the go ahead to bid on the car. Chris would obtain more detailed information about the cars from Japan to confirm that they were as described, before bidding. Unfortunately the bids were not enough, and the cars all went to some richer bugger.

Chris sent details on another batch of cars, including this one.



It was a 1998 Mazda Roadster RS, with just over 100k kms, and a grade 4. Nice!
As a Roadster RS, it had a 6-speed gearbox, torsen LSD and bilstein shocks, like the 1999 10th Anniversary Edition here in Aus, it also had a Mazspeed muffler for a little extra audio bling.
The wheels looked like 15x7, very suitable for track tyres.
It ticked all the boxes, so about 30 minutes before the auction, I gave Chris the go ahead to bid, up to A$3.5k. Following the past disappoinments, I decided not to miss out again.
After an anxious wait for about an hour, Chris contacted me with the news that the bid had been successfull, and the car was mine for approx $A3187.
All very exciting.
It didn't have a hardtop, but I was confident I could source one cheaply in Japan. It is useful to work for a Japanese company sometimes :-)

Now the waiting

[Guran]

Fantastic stuff David! I was really hoping you'd do a garage thread. It was excellent to see you helping out on the grid on Sunday. Kudos!

[david_syd_au]

An addendum to my previous post.

A post-1991 MX5 imported from Japan cannot be registered in Australia, unless it is a personal import, that is, a car you have owned overseas (for more than 12 months?) and are importing it to Australia when you migrate/return.

As I planned to fit a full race roll cage to whatever car we got, it would have been near impossible to register the car anyway, so the limitation on not being able to register the imported Japanese MX5 didn't matter. It did of course mean that we needed a trailer, which I covered in the "budget", and a suitable tow vehicle, which we already have.

Fantastic stuff David! I was really hoping you'd do a garage thread. It was excellent to see you helping out on the grid on Sunday. Kudos!

Hope you enjoy the read Bryan.

It was fun helping on the grid, and good karma. Unfortunately it meant I had little time to wander the pits and get ideas for my car. Next time maybe

I did get one good idea though. Always bring a spare car key to track days :-P

[david_syd_au]

3. Selection, purchase and importing of a suitable car,

Part 2 - Bringing it home

On 13th Oct 2011 I won the auction, and now owned a white 1998 Mazda Roadster RS in Japan. Chris Gough of MX5 Racing had managed the car purchase, and would be organising it's transport to Australia. I had hopes that it might be possible to get the car on a ship by the end of October and so get it here in time for the MX5 Club track day on 4th Dec 2011. Little did I know!

Yahoo Japan has a very popular auction site in Japan. Checking the site showed a number of NA & NB hardtops up for sale. Ideally I wanted a NB hardtop so it would have a demister, which could be handy on a wet track day. Ideally, I wanted a white hardtop, to match the car, but that was of minor importance.
My hope was to get one for around A$300 to A$400, about 30% to 40% of the price for a used hardtop in Aus. However that sort of price is at the bottom end of the market in Japan. I was also limited on time as I needed to buy a hardtop and get it delivered to the car, before the car was shipped, as shipping the hardtop separately would be silly. Also, Japan was heading into winter, and hardtops fetch a higher price during the colder months.

After bidding unsuccessfully on a couple of hardtops, which all ended up selling for around A$500 to A$600, I decided I would have to pay more than I wanted to get a result. I upped the ante on the next auction for suitable hardtop, and won the auction. The total cost was A$504, including auction and forex fees, and most importantly, including delivery to the car.

This is a photo of the hardtop, taken from the yahoo auction


The hardtop came with the window and side latches, but no other mounting hardware. The delivery guys were instructed to fit the top on the car, but as it did not have frankenstein bolts, there would secure the rear of the hardtop with duct tape. That along with the window latches would be enough to keep it in place for the ship ride to Aus.

Delays in clearing the car from Japan meant that it would not make the October ship, and so ended up on the next ship leaving Japan, which was the "Trans Future 5", leaving Japan on 30th November, and due into Brisbane on 20th December.

She's a big beasty!


Obviously, the 4th Dec track day could not happen now. The new target was the Feb 2012 track day. That should be achievable right?!

Being an IT person, I did some looking around, and found this website:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/datasheet.aspx?SHIPNAME=trans+future+5&datasource=V_ARR_DEP
where I could watch the progress of the ship towards Australia, with updates every 12 hours. Those 3 weeks in December took a very long time!

Eventually 20th December rolled around, and I was able to confirm from the marine traffic site that the ship had docked in Brisbane. Amazingly, when I looked at the satellite view of the ship's track to the dock, I could actually see the ship at the dock in the photo. By chance, the satellite photo had been taken at a time when the ship had previously been docked at Brisbane. It seemed like watching in real time :-)

The car next had to clear customs, then be transported to me by truck.

So, we just had to wait for it to clear customs, which normally took about a week. There was also the risk that if customs found any contamination on or in the car (ie some dirt!), it would need to be subjected to their "special" cleaning process, which could cost an additional A$1000 or so. Gulp!
So, we waited.
Christmas came, ..... and went.
And we waited
New Year came, .... and went.
And we waited
Finally on 4th January came the news that the car was through customs, and the shipping company would release it, once they had been paid. The total cost for shipping and customs was A$2503, in line with what Chris had quoted. Thankfully, no "special" cleaning was required.

I had the option of the car being trucked to the MX5 Racing workshop on the Central Cost for $385, or to my home in Sydney for about $200 more. Obviously the tracking company wanted to avoid the congestion in Sydney. So they were instructed to deliver the car to the MX5 Racing workshop. My plan was to trailer the car from there to my home, where my son and I would start the conversion process by stripping the interior.

Oh yeah, I now had a trailer. I had spent the time while waiting for the car to arrive again haunting various online auction and classifieds sites, looking for a suitable trailer. There were a few good ones around, but they were all selling for more than the maximum of A$2k that I could afford, and usually across the other side of the country. Then I spotted one on my105.com, that was only a few suburbs away, looked in reasonable condition, was a tilt trailer (good for a low race car), and the asking price was only a bit more than I could afford. Worth a call to the seller, named Rick Shaw.
After a brief conversation, during which I realised it was THAT Rick Shaw, my son and I went around to inspect the trailer. It was as Rick had described, functional and in ok condition, but needing a little TLC, so I made my offer, he counter offered, and we met on A$2k. Sold! I now had a trailer, and it had to be one of the most experienced trailers in the country at carrying Mazdas.

Rick is a nice fellow btw, and when I turned up to collect the trailer a few days later with most of the family in tow, we had a long chat about our plans, and about racing, and we got to have a quick look at his Evo targa car. Sweet!
He and my wife even had a long conversation about pool side decking options. Hey, didn't she know we were there for racing stuff!

Anyway, back to the car; the carc-arrying truck from Brisbane operated weekly, and so early the next week my white NB was loaded on the truck and began it's journey to the Central Coast. A few mechanical gremlins caused a minor delay, and finally during the evening of 18th January, it arrived at the MX5 Racing workshop.



It's long journey was nearly over, but the adventure was just beginning.

[greenMachine]

I did get one good idea though. Always bring a spare car key to track days :-P

If it is not going to be registered, ditch the steering wheel lock, you will need a master switch anyway, and just use a starter button.

I am not sure, but I seem to remember that to get a logbook from CAMS you will need to eliminate the steering wheel lock in any event. Can anyone confirm?

[deviant]

I did get one good idea though. Always bring a spare car key to track days :-P

If it is not going to be registered, ditch the steering wheel lock, you will need a master switch anyway, and just use a starter button.

I am not sure, but I seem to remember that to get a logbook from CAMS you will need to eliminate the steering wheel lock in any event. Can anyone confirm?

Correct.

There are lots of little things you need to do that are checked. Oil catch can, coolant header tank etc. You will also need to go around the car and any bolt that acts as a plug to retain fluids will need to have the head drilled to allow them to be lockwired so they can not come loose on track.

[david_syd_au]

The plan is to get a CAMS log book eventually, and there will be a lot of little jobs involved, like those mentioned by greenMachine and deviant, however whilst we progress through those jobs we plan to use the car for MX5 Club track days.

Thanks for those CAMS compliance points. I'll add them onto the to-do list.