[Madda]

This thread is serving as a bit of therapy. The car has been off the road for 5 months over winter and I have just got her back with the most horse power to date but I am struggling to find the enthusiasm to get under the car and sort a small leak I have from the rear crank oil seal.

I am going to remind myself how far she has come in 18months , and all the goodies I have waiting for her.

August 2009 ? I picked up the car from Gary H with a blown engine. He was using 5speed for his work, and given what Ste was going to charge for the engine swap, I managed to secure a good deal by picking it up with a blown engine and sorting the swap myself.

This is how she looked when I collected it.

After a bit of messing around getting the new engine ready to go in, it ended up happening about 3 weeks after when I intended to have it in by.

Next was to make it my own, so this weekend after a deep waxing I got on my new wheels from Ben @ Rare Rims, again a spot on service

Thanks mate

I umm'd and arr'd over lots of different wheels, but I think I made the right choice in the end

I went out to Llandow to watch Jamie and some other mates in BDC and forgot to take some pics beforehand whilst they were spotless but they still look pretty clean so I just snapped some pics

Here are the engine and interior after a bit of love and some new bits

October 2009 ? after some gentle run in miles, I got it on the rollers to have the map checked by a good friend of mine, and wasn?t really impressed with the map left on it by 5speed.

December 2009 - The emb piggyback it was running wasn?t helping matters, so I invested in this beauty about 6 weeks later

The first session with my mapper and he achieved this

and....

As an early Christmas present we installed a complete Alpine navigation, bluetooth, dvd, touchscreen system which IMO looks like it?s supposed to be there

March 2010 ? I am missing a bit over the first 3 months of 2010, but aside from a bit more mapping, which pulled a bit more power, I manly focused on getting the car ready for paint

(sprayer, not me!)

April 2010 - Some shots taken by a good mate of mine. The guy in the passenger seat is Jamie K (sr20'd BDC mx-5), we had good a good laugh that evening.

May 2010 ? Summer officially started being on the RareRims stand at Japfest.

A quick snap queuing to go on track with the SXOC

I then did an Autotest day with some rally boys from South Wales. Much to my surprise the Mx5 killed the competition (10secs over 4 short stages)

Some pics, there were a few where I thought there was a little too much lean on the KYB's.

This probably helps with grip levels (and drag starts

) but as I like going sideways, I have just invested in these:

July 2010 ? I did a hill climb on the new HSDs and it owned the show. Misses loved it too, but didn?t manage to talk her into taking it up the hill

September 2010 ? whilst the HSDs were being fitted, the rotas got stolen and I spent ages rolling on crap wheels waiting for the right ones to come up. When I did, we took some pics

Some sneaky mag pics

I loved the look of the car, and after a lot of arch rolling, there was no rubbing and a perfect ride, still running the same geometry as when I was on track a few months before. By this point I was properly in love with her.

October 2010 ? after buying a bargain MP62 and deciding it would be easier to swap the engine to a 1.8 then to make the mp62 fit the 1.6, we started a mini project to get this done.

As well as this, I had managed to hoard some nice bits like a Hard dog, Walbro, big injectors, 6 speed box etc etc which were all fitted at the same time.

And following about 10hours of stop start work she looks like this.

Walbro fitted

Charger set up off in no time.

Engine removed without any drama

Interior stripped down

Hard Dog in place

Engine bay cleaned by Carli

And this arrived for fitting before the engine went in

New mohair roof, why not

 

[Madda]

A few weeks later, the new engine was in ready to rock

March 2011 ? Now pretty much up to date, and it spent about 3 months in dry storage before having its final map.

Its currently making 200bhp @ the wheels, and is quick.

As I said at the outset of the thread, I have to fix a leak, before I tax her and get onto fitting some new mods.

I have a stack of things to go on it, but here is a taster of just a few.

15x8 et8

Everyone loves carbon fibre!

Genuine Zoom wide-angle rear view mirror to match

5pages of history and I think the love is back! I will crack on with the leak next weekend, and then start using the beast and fitting the above, plus lots lots more.

 

[gunners5]

Can I be first in saying that this car is awesome in so many ways, fairplay for all the hard work.With the bits off Riks roadster she is going to be very very cool.

 

[C.A.R.]

Awesome car, looks purposeful as opposed to all these 'slammed' cars of late.

 

[STEVO9000]

As epic as ever Joe

I look forward to seeing the car back out again!

 

[titch]

Awesome looking car.

 

[MattC]

This might be a total NOOB question... but is that mk2 interior or something?

 

[ecksjay]

very noob question.

 

[D0M]

Very nice

 

[Gav]

This build looks awesome mate!

 

[Madda]

This build looks awesome mate!

So does yours mate, love the seats etc, and just basically how the car 'works', keep it up

 

[eightsix]

Was it much work to get the wheels on, or just rolling the lip back and a slight pull? Going to be running a similar height and 15x8 et0 on mine and just interested to know before I start.

Cheers

James

 

[Madda]

Was it much work to get the wheels on, or just rolling the lip back and a slight pull? Going to be running a similar height and 15x8 et0 on mine and just interested to know before I start.

Cheers

James

Exactly that. Just lots and lots of heat and slowly does it. Didnt damage any paint, but would have been so much easier to have done it before the car was painted.

 

[Taffylude]

Nice interior, is that the passenger airbag cover that I paid you for, and you refused to send me or give me a refund for?

 

[Madda]

Not quite accurate is it. You paid me for a airbag, you got an airbag. This was many months ago and I said to start a thread and get the general forum opinion. You didn't, now pls do one and stop cluttering the thread it took ages for me to put together. Start a separate thread by any means.

Sgt raffie collected that full interior about a week ago, nice guy he was too.

 

[Taffylude]

To be accurate, I paid you for an airbag UNIT (I still have the original PM which states this). You went out of your way to remove the lid, and just sent me the bag, which is about as useful as a trap door in a lifeboat mate. Apologies if I spoilt your thread, but I have a long memory when people f*ck me over I'm afraid

 

[twoggy]

to motor mate. not that far away from me neither. James said that you had a few auto tests with him too. Prob see you soon mate haha

 

[Madda]

to motor mate. not that far away from me neither. James said that you had a few auto tests with him too. Prob see you soon mate haha

Yeah man, just say hi whenever. Can you also let me know when the next one is? Rhys use to let me know but he hasn't been in touch since I called the odds about him not going to a mutual friends stag doo and he got in a sulk.

 

[bobspeed]

real sweet looking car mate fair play! rhys sx told me about a supercharged 5 going round cardiff that flew;-) met him through drifting if its the same rhys? was telling him about charging mine the other day

 

[Madda]

Same one I'm sure mate and yes, use to help me out with the car and pop up the garage quite a lot. As I said to Twoggy, make sure you sayhi if you spot me. Always got spares lying around if you need anything or any help.