Well this is long overdue due I though I may as well stick up a project log for my mk2 'RS'
Back in mid 2011 I decided to sell my 2004 Civic Type R and buy a toy. I didn't need 4/5 seats and I wanted something that would be fun at the Nurburgring and track days over here. I knew about, and was a fan of mx5s for quite a while before this and pointed my mate Richy (McLovin on here) in the right direction when he sold is R1 in order to buy a track car. My main concern at the time was the lack in power in a standard 5 compared to my CTR. I loved the engine and gearbox in that sooo much and was very tempted in buying an S2000. I then thought that only a FI'd 5 would do so only started looking for one of them. That changed though when I went out in McLovins trackday prepped mk1 1.8. The turn in, feel, and excitement at relatively slow speeds (compared to what I could do in the CTR) persuaded me a non FI 5 was the way to go. So the hunt began on a clean import that was either standard and fairly cheap, or modified with the correct mods. Then in December 2012 I came across a for sale ad on here for a mk2 'RS'. At first glance it was over budget and was modified in the wrong style for me. But looking a little closer I found that with a few quick and easy changes it ticked all the boxes I was looking for.
So me and McLovin jumped in his van and drove up to Edinburgh, returning with the following mk2 'RS'
Pics from advert:
Pics after driving it back from Edinburgh and looking very dirty:
I now had 5 that was in deperate need of de-stancing and turning it into something that will be at home on track
So the spec of the car when I bought it was as follows:
Mk2 RS imported in 2010
146bhp engine and 6 speed gearbox
Bilstien B14 coilovers
16" Rota Grid Drifts
mk2.5 Sport discs and callipers
Mahura braided brake lines
Custom S/S cat back exhaust
Vindi ducktail spoiler
OEM skirts and front splitter
Carbing 4 point roll bar
Dash Racing strut brace
Kevlar Recaro seat out of an RX7 (same as the mk1 RS Ltd seats)
As I bought it, the car was set up to look good, but not drive good. ÂŁ1000 worth of suspension was wound right down meaning driving it wasn't a plesant experience when you came across a speed bump or rut in the road. Also in order to get the Rotas to fit it had some pretty serious camber.
So first things first, the wheels had to go. I needed to fund my new wheels by the sale of the Rotas so off the Rotas came and I borrowed a set of Panasport Pro Rallys off McLovin and wound up the ride height:
I then booked it in to AK Automotive and got Dan to get the ride height set up to its optimum (wishbones parallel to the ground) and the geometry set up using their Hunter machine. The car felt a lot better, even though the Panasports were wrapped in the shittest tyres I've had the displeasure of using - T1Rs!
The hunt them went on for a set of lightweight 15" wheels. I wanted a white set which narrowed my options. Nothing 2nd hand came up so I started looking for a brand new set. I didn't have loads of money to spend so ended up with a set of 15x6.5 Ultralight G-Spec wheels. These weigh in at 5.6kg each and the set of 4 cost me ÂŁ320. To complement the new lightweight wheels I wrapped them in some decent rubber - Yokohama AD08s
The car now handled as good as it looked and was ready for its first proper test - the annual trip over to the Nurburgring!
The car performed great, other than the old brake pads starting to fail and the NSF brake calliper starting to stick slightly. Done about 10 laps and managed a 9m18s, faster than I could get my 200bhp CTR round!
Then the little mods started:
When I got back home the calliper was stripped, cleaned and rebuilt. The pads were swapped out for EBC Yellowstuff, and the brake fluid changed ATE Super Blue.
The front passenger airbag was removed and I made a secondary storage compartment in its place:
The car was then stripped down over winter 2012 and undersealed:
The car, and most importantly on the mk2s, the front chassis legs were all pretty much spotless and now protected.
2013 was a pretty epic year for the 5 and saw some more tweaks:
The rear seat humps were removed on the drivers side which lower my seat by 1-2" and improved my seating position massively. You can see the difference in seat heights between the drives and passengers:
The induction crossover pipe was replaced with a Arc Chamber and the panel filter swapped out for a K&N:
I then missed my annual trip to the Nurburgring, but instead me and my Girlfriend did a 2000mile trip through Europe in the 5!
And obviously it would have been rude for us not to call in at the Ring when we were passing
Managed to set a new PB of 9m09s:
Also managed a couple of trackdays at Teesside Autodrome:
Not a huge deal happened on my car other than the Arc Chamber being sold and being replaced by an ITG Maxogen induction kit:
The AD08s got replaced with AD08Rs, I picked up a 330mm OMP steering wheel, and I'm part of the ongoing group buy of a set of Phils P5 framerails. I've also just this week removed my custom S/S cat back exhaust and replaced it with a Larini center section and Flyin Miata single exit back box. My old system will be up for sale soon.
There's is probably a lot more I've done and not mentioned but I'll hopefully keep this updated from now on, although with my first child due at the beginning of February progress may be slow!
I want a sub 9min lap of the Ring out of it before I even contemplate selling it, and unless my persuasion skills improve a 2015 trip doesn't look promising.
White just wins. Really wanted a Championship White JDM CTR before I bought my Milano Red one but the price difference was just stupid (although an extra 20bhp and LSD would of been awesome)
The seats are great. I would of cashed in on them if I could find a bucket seat that fitted and was as comfy, supportive, and sat as low, but there doesn't seen to be one (that I've found anyways)
And yes, the Euro trip was epic and couldn't recommend it highly enough to anyone who was thinking of doing one.
It's a 1994 and as far as I can tell from getting the DVLA history and contacting as many of the previous owners as I could (not the very first), it has had the turbo since at least a couple of years after registration so I assume it was a BBR kit left on the shelf at a dealer's which was then fitted to the car.
Excellent thread, dale1uk. Glad to see an MX5 get de-buggered
And this pic is the best pic from the Stelvio I have seen so far! I wish I had thought of that angle. I suppose I need to do a return trip (any excuse...)
Dan, I've been tempted with going FI but I dont know, it just feels like cheating The car was dyno'd at Stigatronixs in 2012 with the standard induction on and made 142bhp. With the addition of the ITG i'd imagine its now somewhere between that and 150bhp so not too bad, and easily good enough for me to do sub 9mins around the Ring. I want to concentrate on improving the handling and my driving before I go on the hunt for more power. As I've mentioned Ive got a pair of framerails on order so they'll be fitted over the christmas period. After that I think I might stick a lightweight flywheel in it and then some uprated anti roll bars and IL motorsport rubber bushes. With those improvements it should feel a lot tighter and allow me to push on harder on track. After all that, providing I still have it, I'll look at upping the power. The costs of doing FI properly put me off though, I'd want it to be reliable and not just thrown together. TBH if I fitted cams, a Megasquirt, and had some head work done I'd probably be more than happy with the extra performance gained without going chasing big numbers.
iti__uk - Yeah that picture is pretty cool and that is the better driving road of the two, but still not as good as some of the other passes I did on that trip.
Yeah, was pretty happy Sure it came in pretty much bang on stock torque too, will hunt out the dyno chart and post it up. Mileage at the time was around 70,000 I think.
TBH I knew it went well, so much so that McLovin had a strop and dropped his mk1 in at AK for a mk2.5 1.8 VVT transplant, along with VVT tuner and cops conversation so he could keep up
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