My name's Jack, I'm 20, I'm from Perth, and I've been a lurker on the site for nearly a year now. I've always been into cars/car design/motorsport, since I can remember. Up til now, all my family's cars have been Euros, and I'm definitely a euro guy at heart. But while I loved my first car (VW Golf MK4, below) I was craving something more... rear-wheel drive. Basically, I was on the hunt for something with excellent handling (as my MK4 had had, despite being FWD and slow), lightweight, reliable, subtly styled, and not cop-bait. Power wasn't really a consideration, but I did want something that could be upgraded as I grew as a driver.
My first car: 2002 Golf MK4, in the state I sold it (as it happens, to my best mate's brother, so I still see it all the time
)
My second car: 1980 Golf MK1 Diesel (I still have this, and I love it to bits. I don't have space for two cars, so it's being sold soon, but I will definitely own another at some stage.)
This being Perth, and me being a young person, I've been exposed to a lot of cheap RWD Nissans/Toyotas etc, which fit the bill as far as performance and price goes, but lack, uhh... style, taste, subtlety, whatever you want to call it. Not wanting to go the Nissan path as a number of friends did (don't get me wrong, I would buy an RB25-powered two-tone S13 in a hearbeat, and my mate's white-on-white R33 Skyline is gorgeous, if you ignore the fact it's an R33. It's just Perth is over-saturated with bad examples of them), I started looking for other cars that would suit my needs. Old-school stuff like E30s and KE70s were incredibly tempting, but my parents wanted me to have airbags, if it was going to be a daily, and not wanting to be kicked out of the house any time soon, I agreed.
Then, at a local meet late last year (Custom Cars & Coffee, for all you locals. I'm one of the guys who make the C&C videos btw), I saw Okibi's black SE. MX5s had never been on my radar, for some reason, but it was the perfect fit. Small, light, nimble, pretty stylish, plenty of room for improvement, and not a typical cop target. So I started trawling this forum, searching gumtree every day, and starting to save money. Cut to 9 months later, and I just bought a 2001 NB8B. I don't have any photos in perfectly-stock form, but you all know what they look like.
How it looks as of today, one week after picking it up.
few scratches
now covered by side-mount plate
dead stock bay
Basically, it's the cheapest NB8B I've ever seen (picked it up for $6,990 from a dealer). I'm not a fan of silver, but for that price I really don't mind. It's just crossed 200,000kms, but it's in really good condition. Drives perfectly; just as well as any I test-drove with half the kms. I managed to negotiate a new radiator (old one was cracked) and a new timing belt into the price as well. That does however, mean that the rest of the 200,000km service still needs to be done. So, water pump, seals and gaskets will be happening soon, I guess, once I get my hands on a detailed service manual and some free time.
Mudguards were removed immediately (still haven't cleaned underneath them yet tho
), and the power antenna unplugged (I never listen to the radio, and I'd rather not drive something that looks like a remote-control car...). Then me and a mate started fabbing up a side-mount number plate bracket.
My buddy Matt doing his thing
Matt's 1963 Hillman Minx resto project/never-ending pile of rust over to the side.
Then we pulled the TV in front of my car and played Forza for the rest of the night (y)
My Voodoo shift knob and handbrake handle arrived this morning from the US.
Before
After
Shifting actually feels a bit smoother, probably cos of the weight of the knob. Also I much prefer the spherical shape over the stock knob, and the wrinkle black finish looks great, so that's a plus. Just waiting for the MiataRoadster SSK I ordered in the recent group-buy, which should be here some time next month. I got the tall/angled shifter, also in wrinkle black.
So to conclude this first post, my plans for the car:
Basically I want to get into track days, which means a roll bar, new brake pads and fluid, and other bits and pieces in the short term. Later, 15x8s and semi slicks, coilovers (looking at MCA Blues atm), coolant reroute, etc.
In the short term, I've got a Nexus 7 tablet which will be replacing the stock head-unit. Amp, USB DAC, charger and all the other bits and pieces I need for that are in the mail, should be looking at getting that in within a month or so. Also got an OBD2 bluetooth adapter coming to use with the Torque app, which will be nice. Planning to remove the centre console, and make up a blanking plate for the bottom of the tombstone which will house window switches, and power and volume switches for the tablet, as well as a laser-engraved shift pattern (which my voodoo knob doesn't have).
Also looking at getting NA flat door cards with pull-straps, as I'm not a huge fan of the NB door cards. I would probably carpet the bottom of the NA card as well, which will go well with the centre-console delete.
Eventually, I'll be installing a turbo setup (I know, every kid says this). WA doesn't have P-plate restrictions on turbo cars, so I could do it now if I wanted, but I'm going to wait. Partly cos I know I will bin it if I turbo it now, partly because I'm not yet good enough at TIG welding to make my own manifold/exhaust/cooler piping myself, which I really want to do. So it won't happen until I am good enough at welding (or an SE manifold comes up for sale...). That said, I've already got a (free, good condition) T28 to use from my mate's R33, as well as (free) intercooler piping. I'll be building a MegaSquirt ECU to use with it (maybe only a DIYPNP tho, depends how committed I am to the idea of building a proper one), getting used RX8 injectors, and picking up as much of the exhaust for free/cheap as possible. Apparently V8 commodores are a good source of $10 hi-flow cats? I know 2.5" exhaust pipe can be had for beer money... Basically I want to keep the entire turbo/exhaust build under $1500 including tune. Achievable? We'll see.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Plenty will be happening in the coming months. And if you know of a hardtop (preferably with demister) or MX5+ rollbar in Perth atm, let me know!
Cheers,
Jack
