Horney: My love for the Mazda MX5

[Horney]

You are correct.The blue one is a MKII.

Nick

[Jack3559]

I like the F40 vent.

[Horney]

Set off on a weeks holiday to cornwall early doors on Saturday with MrsH and myself in the 5 and my folks in my Dad's Alfa GT.

7am Breakfast meet:


At the beach a few hours later:


Our home for the week:


In Padstow this morning:


Nick

[Horney]

A couple more from  my hols. It's now all clean and ready for work again tomorrow.

Nick

[DOA]

Out of interest, how do you find the perfromance of your MX5? Im seriously considering buying a basketcase as a project (seemingly a lot around me at very little money and Im not afraid of welding if needed and working on one) to do some trackdays, sprints etc with the long term goal of building a kitcar around it but I doubt I could put up with anything slower than my 8v Mk2 Gti as the short term goal would be to garage and restore the Gti's bodywork over winter.

[Horney]

It's probably on a par with an 8v GTI but feels a bit quicker due to the seating position and lowness to the ground. Also a MKII doesn't power oversteer round roundabouts

They were never designed to be that fast, but instead good fun at legal speeds which is exactly what they are. The Mrs MKII is a 1.8 with a 6 speed box and that's actually pretty rapid.

If you're looking to get one get an Eunos import, normally less rust and most have an LSD and better spec, avoid anything post 94 that's a UK car, they're de-tuned. 1.6 revs better but 1.8 is a tiny bit quicker. Rust is your enemy, they rot like hell on the rear section of the sills as people never check the drain holes are clear. Forced induction is an easy engine upgrade as the engine is designed to take boost and is low compression.

Any more questions, fire away!

Nick

[Horney]

Just to show how fun they can be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urEduyP-5X8&feature=player_embedded

Nick

[DOA]

Cheers for the reply. I know they can be fun, my mums fella loved them but the fastest car he ever drove was something like an old Mk3 astra Gsi so I never trusted his belief that they were fast. You suggest an import but the last time I tried to get an insurance quote on an import (admittedly a LONG time ago and on an MR2 Turbo and a Jap spec 200SX but..) the prices were ridiculous. One other question is have you tried them with an LSD or not (I cant stand open diffs on RWD cars) and if so, can they still be pushed into power oversteer without acting like a tool?

[Horney]

Insurance wise the specialists don't sem to charge much difference between UK and Jap cars. I pay £400 for mine fully comp with Greenlight.

Mines got a Viscous LSD and it certainly drives better than the 1.8 non LSD my mum used to have. I'm running Toyo T1R's on the car which are quit sticky so I have to give it some beans on clean tarmac to get the back end out but in the wet it goes pretty easy and is controlable and progressive. The Torsen LSDs are better but AFAIK were only fitted to MKII's. My long term plan for the car is to swap the running gear out for the 1.8 6 speed set up which is in the later high spec MKII's.

Nick

[DOA]

Cheers and thanks for the restriction tip  .