Hi all, been browsing this place for the last few days after seeing some pics from a retro show in Banzai magazine. Thought this would probably be the best place to introduce myself. I'm 20 years old (21 in 3 days...I'm getting old!), I'm a photographer as well as a cycle builder/mechanic and a child seat specialist for Halfrauds. I like my cars like my women - 16 years+. 
I dabble with cars in my spare time, love racing them, and after learning to drive in an '87 Toyota MR2 I bought my realistic dream car, a '92 Nissan 200SX when I was just 19. This was to stay standard until Id built up some NCB, but the turbo blew on me just 5 miles after picking it up...so on went a T28 and some other modifications and she became a fun Stage 2 daily driver. All my friends said I would never get one when I was at college, and within 3 months Id not only bought it, but taken it to the 'Ring as well! For 9 months she was my pride and joy, until she died. Compression test revealed barely any of the cylinders functioning properly, and the old girl was overboosting to compensate. I was gutted, and had no money left.
Fortunately, my other half is pretty sympathetic when it comes to me and my cars, so she took me to look at some MX5s to cheer me up. At this point in time, I hadnt even the slightest intention of buying one - to me they were still poncey hair-dressers cars. But shes loved them for ages, and I took her out in one for a laugh. Five minutes later, I put a £300 deposit on it, a red MK1 which was completely stock bar some horrible wheels. I knew a 'little' bit about them, mainly that they were economical, which would suit me fine now I had no money left whatsoever. So again, she was to stay completely standard apart from those wheels.
You can probably guess how long that thought lasted. I logged onto a website (MX5Nutz) and soon saw the ridiculous things people had done to them. That website has become my financial downfall. That week I ordered some new wheels - partly because I hated the ones I had, and partly because Id never liked GY Eagle F1 tyres. I bought some shiny Rota GT3s (15X7) and wrapped them in some grippy Yokohama Parada Spec 2 tyres (195/50). But that was it, no more money to go on the car.
...well OK, just some suspension. But only because the ride-height is far too high, and the stock springs were a little wallowy under hard driving. I went for Spax RSX fully adjustable coil-overs. I did intend to take the car to the 'Ring and so thought while I'm spending the money, I might as well do it properly.
Jacked up (note the new tyres in the foreground):
The state of my old springs/shockers (one spring had snapped):
Shiny new bits:
Shiny bits fitted (- Ive missed out the step where it took a good hour of almost-constant swearing just to undo one bolt):
And how it looked afterward, along with the ''sleepy-eye'' DIY headlight kit Id fitted. This brings about mixed opinions, some say they just look broke, some say they're pointless, and some say it looks like Ive been in accident. I think all those are right, but I love them. So there.:
Either way, they were on, Id had a full wheel alignment to have some negative camber dialled in on the rear, and on smooth roads, the car handles like an absolute dream. So, thats the car done now.
...until I spotted a Garage Vary lip come up for sale. This lip is not only expensive, but only available in the US. When a used one came up in telford after the owner had suffered a side-on collision, I packed my finest driving CDs and my wallet, and relieved him of the lip. Apparently it increases downforce above 100mph, which the MX5 needs due to the lack of any rear spoiler. I cant say Ive noticed any life-changing differences, but I love the way it looks.
And fitted:
By this time, Id booked a track day and had fitted some bonnet extensions. These are basically lifters which sit on the bonnet hinge, and prop the trailing edge of the bonnet open in order to pressurise the engine bay, which in turn draws hot air out near the windscreen at low speeds helping keep the temps down. In noticeable terms, it means you get people constantly telling you that youve left your bonnet open. You wouldnt believe how difficult it is to tell people in traffic why it isnt.
Anyway, the track day at Blyton. I fitted a 3-point roll bar the week before, and was delighted at how flat she now cornered.
I discovered why I should put more pressure in the rear tyres on the opening 'sighting' lap. Not even driving particularly fast, I oversteered into a tyre, which then beached me on top of it. The lip was folded underneath, and I had to jack the car up at the side of the track to get the tyre out. Lovely.
But I got used to the slippery rear-end, and by the end of the session I was feeling quite proud of myself. Coming up to lap (note the lip is now gone):
I got home, and put a few pics up on the halfrauds forum (ad I know...). Within a few days, the guys in charge of the Ripspeed drift car and demo stand had asked me to put the car on their stand at the japshow finale. I wasnt all that interested until they told me how much I would be getting paid, and that I would be getting the money for basically taking photos and watching the races. So, I set to work on ghetto-spraying my roof.
Close-up of the damage:
How it looks across the entire roof:
Sanded (...vaguely) and primed:
Finished:
Parked on the stand:
Although this project spawned out of almost nothingness, a picture has helped inspire me since about 3 weeks of owning the car. This one:
Ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the way it looks. I love those wheels (so much in fact that Ill be ordering them as soon as the horrible weather clears), but not in that colour. The pic has inspired me for one simple reason - thats an SR20DET engine in there. After coming from a Stage 2 SX to this, I felt almost disabled due to the lack of power, and knew deep down that at some point an engine swap would be on the cards. I didnt want to go down the 1.8 swap with S/C route as its common, nor the V8 swap, not even the F20C (S2000 engine) as its too expensive. Ive wanted to swap in an SR before I even knew it was possible.
Whats even better, thanks to the Japshow, Ive got good contacts for cheaper tyres. And after putting on a forum that my eventual goal for the car was a place in the UK Time Attack series, someone has even PM'd me saying that Nitrous Express may be interested in sponsoring the project, as they have a US MX5 entrant in their series.
Anyway, thanks for reading this huge post. My next plans for the car are the wheels as mentioned above, with some R888 tyres. I'm also hoping to order some FM ARBs shortly after my birthday, followed by some RX7 brakes and a Kaaz LSD. After that and a few other little touches (carbon arch extensions etc), Ill be on the hunt for a black-top SR20DET engine (or preferably red-top depending on availability). Oh, and just as a shameless plug for myself, if you do happen to like any of the photography above (albeit if the majority are taken from my phone and not the camera), I do personal car photoshoots for relatively small fees. PM or email me if you are interested. Hope to see some of you around soon, Ive been looking through the readers ride section and to be quite honest, Id take it over porn anyday.
I dabble with cars in my spare time, love racing them, and after learning to drive in an '87 Toyota MR2 I bought my realistic dream car, a '92 Nissan 200SX when I was just 19. This was to stay standard until Id built up some NCB, but the turbo blew on me just 5 miles after picking it up...so on went a T28 and some other modifications and she became a fun Stage 2 daily driver. All my friends said I would never get one when I was at college, and within 3 months Id not only bought it, but taken it to the 'Ring as well! For 9 months she was my pride and joy, until she died. Compression test revealed barely any of the cylinders functioning properly, and the old girl was overboosting to compensate. I was gutted, and had no money left.
Fortunately, my other half is pretty sympathetic when it comes to me and my cars, so she took me to look at some MX5s to cheer me up. At this point in time, I hadnt even the slightest intention of buying one - to me they were still poncey hair-dressers cars. But shes loved them for ages, and I took her out in one for a laugh. Five minutes later, I put a £300 deposit on it, a red MK1 which was completely stock bar some horrible wheels. I knew a 'little' bit about them, mainly that they were economical, which would suit me fine now I had no money left whatsoever. So again, she was to stay completely standard apart from those wheels.
You can probably guess how long that thought lasted. I logged onto a website (MX5Nutz) and soon saw the ridiculous things people had done to them. That website has become my financial downfall. That week I ordered some new wheels - partly because I hated the ones I had, and partly because Id never liked GY Eagle F1 tyres. I bought some shiny Rota GT3s (15X7) and wrapped them in some grippy Yokohama Parada Spec 2 tyres (195/50). But that was it, no more money to go on the car.
...well OK, just some suspension. But only because the ride-height is far too high, and the stock springs were a little wallowy under hard driving. I went for Spax RSX fully adjustable coil-overs. I did intend to take the car to the 'Ring and so thought while I'm spending the money, I might as well do it properly.
Jacked up (note the new tyres in the foreground):
The state of my old springs/shockers (one spring had snapped):
Shiny new bits:
Shiny bits fitted (- Ive missed out the step where it took a good hour of almost-constant swearing just to undo one bolt):
And how it looked afterward, along with the ''sleepy-eye'' DIY headlight kit Id fitted. This brings about mixed opinions, some say they just look broke, some say they're pointless, and some say it looks like Ive been in accident. I think all those are right, but I love them. So there.:
Either way, they were on, Id had a full wheel alignment to have some negative camber dialled in on the rear, and on smooth roads, the car handles like an absolute dream. So, thats the car done now.
...until I spotted a Garage Vary lip come up for sale. This lip is not only expensive, but only available in the US. When a used one came up in telford after the owner had suffered a side-on collision, I packed my finest driving CDs and my wallet, and relieved him of the lip. Apparently it increases downforce above 100mph, which the MX5 needs due to the lack of any rear spoiler. I cant say Ive noticed any life-changing differences, but I love the way it looks.
And fitted:
By this time, Id booked a track day and had fitted some bonnet extensions. These are basically lifters which sit on the bonnet hinge, and prop the trailing edge of the bonnet open in order to pressurise the engine bay, which in turn draws hot air out near the windscreen at low speeds helping keep the temps down. In noticeable terms, it means you get people constantly telling you that youve left your bonnet open. You wouldnt believe how difficult it is to tell people in traffic why it isnt.
Anyway, the track day at Blyton. I fitted a 3-point roll bar the week before, and was delighted at how flat she now cornered.
I discovered why I should put more pressure in the rear tyres on the opening 'sighting' lap. Not even driving particularly fast, I oversteered into a tyre, which then beached me on top of it. The lip was folded underneath, and I had to jack the car up at the side of the track to get the tyre out. Lovely.
But I got used to the slippery rear-end, and by the end of the session I was feeling quite proud of myself. Coming up to lap (note the lip is now gone):
I got home, and put a few pics up on the halfrauds forum (ad I know...). Within a few days, the guys in charge of the Ripspeed drift car and demo stand had asked me to put the car on their stand at the japshow finale. I wasnt all that interested until they told me how much I would be getting paid, and that I would be getting the money for basically taking photos and watching the races. So, I set to work on ghetto-spraying my roof.
Close-up of the damage:
How it looks across the entire roof:
Sanded (...vaguely) and primed:
Finished:
Parked on the stand:
Although this project spawned out of almost nothingness, a picture has helped inspire me since about 3 weeks of owning the car. This one:
Ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the way it looks. I love those wheels (so much in fact that Ill be ordering them as soon as the horrible weather clears), but not in that colour. The pic has inspired me for one simple reason - thats an SR20DET engine in there. After coming from a Stage 2 SX to this, I felt almost disabled due to the lack of power, and knew deep down that at some point an engine swap would be on the cards. I didnt want to go down the 1.8 swap with S/C route as its common, nor the V8 swap, not even the F20C (S2000 engine) as its too expensive. Ive wanted to swap in an SR before I even knew it was possible.
Whats even better, thanks to the Japshow, Ive got good contacts for cheaper tyres. And after putting on a forum that my eventual goal for the car was a place in the UK Time Attack series, someone has even PM'd me saying that Nitrous Express may be interested in sponsoring the project, as they have a US MX5 entrant in their series.
Anyway, thanks for reading this huge post. My next plans for the car are the wheels as mentioned above, with some R888 tyres. I'm also hoping to order some FM ARBs shortly after my birthday, followed by some RX7 brakes and a Kaaz LSD. After that and a few other little touches (carbon arch extensions etc), Ill be on the hunt for a black-top SR20DET engine (or preferably red-top depending on availability). Oh, and just as a shameless plug for myself, if you do happen to like any of the photography above (albeit if the majority are taken from my phone and not the camera), I do personal car photoshoots for relatively small fees. PM or email me if you are interested. Hope to see some of you around soon, Ive been looking through the readers ride section and to be quite honest, Id take it over porn anyday.
I thought MX-5 got loads of credit