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The more I watch it in slow motion the more I I think it might have been close to tipping! As I was sliding into it I was thinking now might be time to try the roll bar!
Hawk's Mk1 Supercharged Track Project
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Finally a little update.
I've been stripping my power steering rack down to depower it before the next track day,
It all came apart about a month ago and then got around to doing the welding I was waiting on!
20220619_155448 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
20220619_155638 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
That's just sitting on the bench now waiting to sort out putting it back together, which hopefully I'll get done one evening this week!
I also had to get the mx5 our of the garage to put the BMW in to tint the windows, so while it was our I took the opportunity to strip the dash out and finally get on with removing the alarm and immobiliser system
It was all combined in one box which surprised me, but was relatively simple to remove worh just removing any power and ground taps, and joining cut wires back together, whilst I was doing that I also relocated the ecu and removed the rest of the abs wiring!
20220619_181503 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
20220619_213315 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
20220621_174056 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
And then while the dash was out I've given it a little trim...
20220619_201611 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
20220621_175334 by Ben Hawkes,
20220621_175341 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
20220621_180730 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
Apart from fitting the depowered rack and a wheel alignment, I think I'm done with this now, everything is working as it should, car starts on one key now instead of various fobs and buttons
I've been stripping my power steering rack down to depower it before the next track day,
It all came apart about a month ago and then got around to doing the welding I was waiting on!
20220619_155448 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr20220619_155638 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrThat's just sitting on the bench now waiting to sort out putting it back together, which hopefully I'll get done one evening this week!
I also had to get the mx5 our of the garage to put the BMW in to tint the windows, so while it was our I took the opportunity to strip the dash out and finally get on with removing the alarm and immobiliser system
It was all combined in one box which surprised me, but was relatively simple to remove worh just removing any power and ground taps, and joining cut wires back together, whilst I was doing that I also relocated the ecu and removed the rest of the abs wiring!
20220619_181503 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr20220619_213315 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr20220621_174056 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrAnd then while the dash was out I've given it a little trim...
20220619_201611 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr20220621_175334 by Ben Hawkes, 20220621_175341 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr20220621_180730 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrApart from fitting the depowered rack and a wheel alignment, I think I'm done with this now, everything is working as it should, car starts on one key now instead of various fobs and buttons
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Well I had great success at blyton on one of the hottest days of the year!
Car performed faultlessly once I was running the heaters in full blast to help keep the engine cool, it was starting to struggle a little after 5 or 6 hot laps 😂
The depowered rack felt great, no problems with it at all, I was pushing on relatively hard and didn't have any problems woth under or oversteer, so I'm thinking my problems at cadwell may have been partly down to a bad alignment and not being used to the factory manual rack!
I've now got a PC up and running to edit my 4k videos, so hopefully next week I'm going to start working through those and get them uploaded ASAP!
Car performed faultlessly once I was running the heaters in full blast to help keep the engine cool, it was starting to struggle a little after 5 or 6 hot laps 😂
The depowered rack felt great, no problems with it at all, I was pushing on relatively hard and didn't have any problems woth under or oversteer, so I'm thinking my problems at cadwell may have been partly down to a bad alignment and not being used to the factory manual rack!
I've now got a PC up and running to edit my 4k videos, so hopefully next week I'm going to start working through those and get them uploaded ASAP!
moment!
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It is such a fun circuit, why they call it the mini nurburgring! Better when you don't nearly tip over though 😂
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so another successful track day and thats 2022 done!
the mx5 only track day at Donnington, run by MOT trackdays, which turned out to be mx5 and friends due to lack of numbers.
was an excellent day yet again though! very damp and greasy at the beginning of the day, with even some snow falling at one point, the roof stayed off all day though!
by the afternoon there was a dry line appearing, but I kept with the pilot sport 3s for the rest of the day and had them squealing by the end of the day, only a few seconds a lap off last years times which was bone dry and sunny on the semi slicks!
had one small moment in the morning where I left it a little too late to brake into the chicane for the pit straight and had to go straight on with a locked wheel! small flat spot but didn't cause any problems.
car was faultless again at this one, just add fuel and go all day, its not the fastest out there, but its quick enough for me!
couple of photos!
XSP_4735 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
XSP_3023 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
XSP_2907 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
XSP_2387 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
the mx5 only track day at Donnington, run by MOT trackdays, which turned out to be mx5 and friends due to lack of numbers.
was an excellent day yet again though! very damp and greasy at the beginning of the day, with even some snow falling at one point, the roof stayed off all day though!
by the afternoon there was a dry line appearing, but I kept with the pilot sport 3s for the rest of the day and had them squealing by the end of the day, only a few seconds a lap off last years times which was bone dry and sunny on the semi slicks!
had one small moment in the morning where I left it a little too late to brake into the chicane for the pit straight and had to go straight on with a locked wheel! small flat spot but didn't cause any problems.
car was faultless again at this one, just add fuel and go all day, its not the fastest out there, but its quick enough for me!
couple of photos!
XSP_4735 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrXSP_3023 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrXSP_2907 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrXSP_2387 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
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707 Posts
It does appear that I missed out any details from the trackday at Hethel, the lotus test track!
was a really good day, damp start on a track with very little run off and some big big walls! but by mid morning it was onto the semi slicks and away we went!
one small issue on my very first session was a blown coolant cap, about a 3rd of the way into a lap.
i assumed it was just the expansion bottle overflowing so thought I will ease it back to the pits and check it over.
there was no coolant left in it! it was all over the engine and bay! luckily I didn't kill it really, and even more lucky that I had out spare caps on some unused pipes so swapped it for a spare, refilled with distilled water, bled it out and back on track within half hour!
really cool track, nd good fun to get out there with a mate in a turboed mk1 track car!
up to about 100 MPH they where almost identically matched, just after that he started to wind it up past me, but if I was chasing him he couldn't get away, and if he was chasing me I couldn't lose him so very evenly matched!
I did have to lend him a set of part worn brake pads as his were down to the backing! but they got him through the rest of the day.
this was also my fastest ever speed in the mx5 of 120mph, and in 5th gear at 6500rpm there wasnt much left to my 7250 rev limit!
photos!
_JEN6672 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
JS2_2213 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
_JEN7214 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
_JEN7241 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
_JEN7478 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
the dirt was really annoyingly from a closed road on the drive there on the trailer, need to start wrapping the front of the car to keep the road grime off it whole its on the trailer!
videos of all these trackdays will be coming out as the weeks go on, I edited Blyton so ill post that soon, but it almost killed the pc I had built to edit the 4k gopro vids, so this is currently being posted from a new Mac mini which will apparently "make mincemeat of editing!" so we shall see!!
was a really good day, damp start on a track with very little run off and some big big walls! but by mid morning it was onto the semi slicks and away we went!
one small issue on my very first session was a blown coolant cap, about a 3rd of the way into a lap.
i assumed it was just the expansion bottle overflowing so thought I will ease it back to the pits and check it over.
there was no coolant left in it! it was all over the engine and bay! luckily I didn't kill it really, and even more lucky that I had out spare caps on some unused pipes so swapped it for a spare, refilled with distilled water, bled it out and back on track within half hour!
really cool track, nd good fun to get out there with a mate in a turboed mk1 track car!
up to about 100 MPH they where almost identically matched, just after that he started to wind it up past me, but if I was chasing him he couldn't get away, and if he was chasing me I couldn't lose him so very evenly matched!
I did have to lend him a set of part worn brake pads as his were down to the backing! but they got him through the rest of the day.
this was also my fastest ever speed in the mx5 of 120mph, and in 5th gear at 6500rpm there wasnt much left to my 7250 rev limit!
photos!
_JEN6672 by Ben Hawkes, on FlickrJS2_2213 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr_JEN7214 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr_JEN7241 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr_JEN7478 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickrthe dirt was really annoyingly from a closed road on the drive there on the trailer, need to start wrapping the front of the car to keep the road grime off it whole its on the trailer!
videos of all these trackdays will be coming out as the weeks go on, I edited Blyton so ill post that soon, but it almost killed the pc I had built to edit the 4k gopro vids, so this is currently being posted from a new Mac mini which will apparently "make mincemeat of editing!" so we shall see!!
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and here is the Blyton Trackday video, not my best edit but the pc was literally dying as I tried to edit it so this was the best. I could do!
The car is currently sitting filthy in the garage awaiting the hose pipes to defrost so it can get a clean, oil and filter change and swap out the two coolant caps for hopefully some better quality ones, refil and bleed the coolant, then its ready for hopefully some cheap early tracksdays in march sort of time!
The car is currently sitting filthy in the garage awaiting the hose pipes to defrost so it can get a clean, oil and filter change and swap out the two coolant caps for hopefully some better quality ones, refil and bleed the coolant, then its ready for hopefully some cheap early tracksdays in march sort of time!
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707 Posts
Over a month after the last post, I have finally had the time and the defrosted hose to be able to clean the mx5! It's all clean, up on stands in the garage, oil drained filter removed, and exhaust measured up, ready to make the silenced centre pipe..
I'm aiming for trying to get to Bedford on the 16th or 18th of feb for a cheap winter day out! But need the car quieter so it's finally time to make the exhaust.
I've ordered a 16"x 4" silencer/ resonator, some 2.25" pipe and another set of v bands. Hopefully it should just alot right in and drop the noise enough to get by at Bedford!
As long as the supercharger doesn't set of the noise meter instead which is highly likely!
I'm aiming for trying to get to Bedford on the 16th or 18th of feb for a cheap winter day out! But need the car quieter so it's finally time to make the exhaust.
I've ordered a 16"x 4" silencer/ resonator, some 2.25" pipe and another set of v bands. Hopefully it should just alot right in and drop the noise enough to get by at Bedford!
As long as the supercharger doesn't set of the noise meter instead which is highly likely!
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5,523 Posts
Did I hear cheap track day?
Those ebay silencers aren't bad tbf. Check the welds on the perforated plate inside, sometimes they can be barely tac'd on. My cat is finally on, MOT Sat. Might leave it on now, we just had a club member get ruined by the police for lack of cats and noise.
Those ebay silencers aren't bad tbf. Check the welds on the perforated plate inside, sometimes they can be barely tac'd on. My cat is finally on, MOT Sat. Might leave it on now, we just had a club member get ruined by the police for lack of cats and noise.
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I think it's £120 or something! Might leave it a bit oast minute though and see if the price drops any more!
Yeah it looked old good, I've gone for a slightly more expensive one which looks like it might be better made, but yeah hopefully that drops the noise enough to get me through Bedford as planned!
Yeah if mine was still on the road I would probably look at just making a sport cat to fit in the same place, I've still got the original cat, which I should probably look at selling!
How loud are we talking?
Straight pipe, no back box, just no resonator, bonnet exit?
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707 Posts
That is the question isn't it if you go too silly you are just asking for trouble!
When you know, you know, a good exhaust sounds amazing. It's funny to run your engine for 20 seconds without an exhaust when you're having a beer with a few mates on the drive way.
But on the road it's just not fun.
I'll always remember Mike telling me about the guy that burst his ear drum in a tunnel.
But on the road it's just not fun.
I'll always remember Mike telling me about the guy that burst his ear drum in a tunnel.
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Straight piped 350z, lol
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Straight pipe header out the front wing sounds like a great idea in theory, not so much in practice lol
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707 Posts
got my new silenced mid pipe tacked together the other night!
really need some extra tall axle stands though, trolley jack will lift to 510mm but axle stands dont go nearly that far, so tacking that together under the car sucked! hence why it looks a bit like a pidgeon has shit all over it!
20230206_220053 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickr
hopefully going to get that all welded up today on the bench, do a better job of it!
also did my first oil and filter change since I changed to the relocated oil filter in my drivers side wheel wheel arch, in front of the front wheel.
it was so much easier. jack the car up, turn the wheel all the way left and just undo the filter, bucket directly under it to catch the mess so no problems there either, first oil change I've ever done on the mx5 where I didn't get a single drop of oil oil on the floor, perfect!
just need to drain the coolant and change the two coolant caps for some thicker ones that hopefully wont blow apart like the other one did at hethel, then should be good to go for bedford autodrome on the 6th of march
really need some extra tall axle stands though, trolley jack will lift to 510mm but axle stands dont go nearly that far, so tacking that together under the car sucked! hence why it looks a bit like a pidgeon has shit all over it!
20230206_220053 by Ben Hawkes, on Flickrhopefully going to get that all welded up today on the bench, do a better job of it!
also did my first oil and filter change since I changed to the relocated oil filter in my drivers side wheel wheel arch, in front of the front wheel.
it was so much easier. jack the car up, turn the wheel all the way left and just undo the filter, bucket directly under it to catch the mess so no problems there either, first oil change I've ever done on the mx5 where I didn't get a single drop of oil oil on the floor, perfect!
just need to drain the coolant and change the two coolant caps for some thicker ones that hopefully wont blow apart like the other one did at hethel, then should be good to go for bedford autodrome on the 6th of march
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