DaveyR

Good to hear that everythings going nicely with the car now that you've got the exhaust business sorted, and what a great trip to give it a good old test Great to hear of the WIM guys doing their usual great work and going out of their way to look after customers, well done lads

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't just let anybody drive my car willy nilly, but it doesn't take too long to form a reasonable impression of what someone is like (whether they are going to be a lunatic driver or sensible!) and I was happy in trusting that Matt wouldn't do anything silly!

And one is missing completely by the looks of it?!

You're welcome Matt Decisions decisions!

Thought I'd just update this topic by saying that we eventually arranged a date (oo-er) and Matt did come round for a ride in my car. Nice guy and we had a good old chat about all things cars I took him out for a passenger ride and then let him have a little time behind the wheel to get a feel for it himself. He seemed impressed and it certainly extinguished his fears that the ride on the BC's would be too hard. He commented on how well it rode and how much more stable/confidence inspiring it felt in a straight line, especially impressed with the lack of dive/squat and the extra steering weight compared to his car. He still has a decision to make but at least he can now do so with some first hand experience!

Tony/WIM save the day! Not that i'm surprised, does anyone ever come away from WIM less than happy?!

Probably the "sport" level trim offered by the manufacturer. 22 shocks for the price of 2. Can't beat more suspensions....

That picture of the train tracks in the forest, epic, what a brilliant picture. Any idea where it was taken Tony?

Don't worry Tony, I made sure I read up before I attempted this! Thanks for checking though This was done on 4 axle stands (bought 2 extra specifically for the job) on flat ground. I didn't measure with a spirit level but the car was level to my eyes. I also know that the diff takes 0.7L and the gearbox 2L and by the time they were filled to the level of the fill hole they were pretty much bang on those volumes (I had 3 x 1L bottles, so I was able to calculate how much had gone in by the volume level on the side of the bottle). That sound right to you?

As a continuation of teaching myself to do basic car maintenance, last night I changed the gearbox and differential oil on the MX5. They are meant to be changed every couple of years on an alternating cycle, so one of the two is definitely due about now anyway, but it couldn't hurt to put in some nice fully synthetic gear oils to replace what was possibly slightly cheaper semi-synth stuff used by Mazda last time round, so in went some Mobil fully synthetic 75W-90 all-round. Slightly messy job, but it went quite smoothly considering i've never attempted anything like this before. Still, regardless of my care and attention when jacking/placing axle stands, it's still intimidating lying under a ton of car.....! Impressed at the difference in noise from the diff, much quieter straight away, a lot of the mechanical noise and whine at low speeds has vanished.

Thanks for the input Tony

Swapped the wheels front to back this weekend and has made a noticeable difference. The car no longer wants to move around over different surfaces/cambers and feels a lot calmer when cornering. Still sharp but less nervous again i.e. I can drive a nice neat line through a long sweeper and not have to keep correcting my line as the tyres decide where the car is going to go! The question is how will the tyres fare on the rear. So far they seem ok in that they don't seem to suffer the same decrease in grip at the rear as was evident on the front. So i'll just keep an eye on the behaviour and assuming all is well i'll keep running them this way round until i've gotten the best out of them and then they'll be replaced.

Sounds great, and 60bhp increase is nothing to be sniffed at even if not quite what you were hoping for! That's got to be plenty fast to be getting on with Love the shot of the front with the intercooler showing

You must be like a kid at Christmas. Bring on the whine!!

I will do Tony, and if they can't provide the necessary measurements and a printout it will be coming your way, paid for by them!

That is something I had considered, my only concern being that as much as I prefer oversteer to understeer my next thread topic might read "Exited road backwards into bush" I think you're right though, that would probably be the best way of confirming/eliminating the tyres themselves as an issue. What's the easiest way of swapping tyres front to back with a trolley jack and axle stands?

Don't blame you, given the choice i'd take a charged '5 instead myself!

Lovely pictures mate. Can never go wrong with some nice beading

Agreed Parthiban, lose the weird LED lights (seriously, what is going on with those!) and maybe a single colour paint job, and I think it looks like a nice squat/agressive supermini (or should that be supermicro given the size?!)

Looks quite funky. Can't imagine it making it to the market with anything like that mechanical configuration though! On the looks side of things it looks quite promising (minus the slightly large rear wing and decals). If the Clio V6 was anything to go by then a good proportion of these would end up in a hedge like you say Steve-O!

Well, i've spoken to them on the phone as we have an estimate back for the bodywork side of things. They will be providing me with a courtesy car whilst mine goes in for a whole new bumper+backing etc. I've requested a geo, which they have said they are happy to do. I doubt however they have the level of equipment/knowledge that you do, so when I take the car in I'll take my last geo readout and ascertain whether they are able to measure everything required to rule out any damage on that front, and if not then I'll request they pay for a geo check-up at WIM. They are being very good about the situation, they held their hands up straight away and didn't hesitate to offer to pay for all necessary repairs (which of course they should, but at least they didn't dispute anything and have been very pleasant to deal with!) Bet you guys wouldn't have reversed another car into mine though!

Hi Tony, thanks for chipping in Steering wheel is dead level when driving in a straight line and it doesn't pull to one side or the other at speed or when braking. The tyres do follow cambers and contours in the road more than the winter tyres did, but I've found the same with numerous cars and seems to vary with different tyres.

I've posted this in my car blog thread, but thought i'd pop it in here as it is the right forum for the potential issue I seem to be having. I just had my winter tyres removed and summer tyres put back on. Over the last couple of days I have encountered some quite alarming moments of understeer. 3 times now I've been going round a corner, not at enthusiastic pace at all, normal traffic pace shall we say, well below what I know the normal limits of grip of this car to be, to suddenly be treated to abrupt, juddering understeer. The front axle has the tyres that came off last year and the rear the brand new tyres. I think the fronts were on the rear previously, so I am guessing there are one or two possibilities. One is that the wear pattern on the tyres having been on a different axle is causing bizarre behaviour. The tyres don't seem perished in any way, so i'd be surprised if there was anything wrong with the tyres as it were. Additionally, when I took the tyres to be fitted, a young mechanic reversed another customers car right into the front drivers side of my car (this wasn't WIM I hasten to add). It wasn't a large impact and the contact was ahead of the wheel, plus nothing looks out of place, so I don't think that is related (happy to be corrected though). Does any of the above sound feasible, or can someone offer any alternative possibilities/ideas? Dave

Hey Funky, after another couple of days driving I think it's more likely I have a tyre issue. As you say, on the winter tyres the car was impeccably behaved, so I wouldn't have expected too much of a change on the summer tyres, just a little added sharpness. Over the last couple of days I have encountered some quite alarming moments of understeer. 3 times now I've been going round a corner, not at enthusiastic pace at all, normal traffic pace, well below what I know the normal limits of grip of this car to be, to suddenly be treated to abrupt, juddering understeer. The front axle has the tyres that came off last year and the rear the brand new tyres. I think the fronts were on the rear previously, so I am guessing there are one or two possibilities. One is that the wear pattern on the tyres having been on a different axle is causing bizarre behaviour. The tyres don't seem perished in any way, so i'd be surprised if there was anything wrong with the tyres as it were. Additionally, when I took the tyres to be fitted, a young mechanic reversed another customers car right into the front drivers side of my car (this wasn't WIM I hasten to add) whilst my car was stationary! So it needs a new bumper, fixings, arch liner etc. It wasn't a large impact and the contact was ahead of the wheel, plus nothing looks out of place, so I don't think that is related (happy to be corrected though). So, potentially looking at forking out another few hundred for a new set of tyres for the front as well. With that and the car needing to go in for the repair work to the bumper etc i'm feeling on a bit of a car downer right now

So, summer tyres back on the car finally. Pirelli P Zero Nero's all round as I still had 2 with decent tread left from last year and didn't want to mis-match my tyres front and rear. Feels great not having spongy winter tyre sidewalls, even more instant response to every input on the steering wheel and no time needed to settle once pitched into a corner. I do have one question for Tony/Joe though, the car now feels a touch nervous at speed i.e. dual carriageway/motorway. Not unstable per, it still stays true going in a straight line, but when cornering or changing lane it does react in a slightly hyperactive manner. Might this just be due to the fact that my car has the "evolution" set-up on the geo, and now that I don't have the soft sidewalls of the winter tyres to dull my inputs the car feels rather more alert? These tyres don't half hunt camber and changes in the road surface either, especially when braking!