Steve-O

That's very much my feelings on most things andvwhy I accept that sometimes you get what you pay for

I emailed moss about the issue and they have been very good about it and are sending me a new pulley and will get a 2nd one in from the US if I have an issue still. Good service with no hassle which is what I expect given the premium they command for their parts. If it fixes it I will keep the track dog pulleys as spares

Off the back of that get me home bodge i'm now carrying spare throttle cable and stoppers with me in my magic tool bag so i can repair that on the roadside if it ever happens again. Such a stupid issue that could have potentially stopped me getting home. I've noticed since i have had the car back one of the supercharger tensioner pulleys bearings has become noisy which is annoying as they are not that old. In the interested of not having the pulley seize and throw the belt off and cause all sorts of damage i've removed it and got a pair of steel flanged pulleys coming from track dog racing in the US. These ones have replaceable bearings so hopefully if it ever happens again i can just repair rather than replace. I am onto moss about the pulley as given the tensioner assembly and pulleys was £320 odd which is eye wateringly expensive for what it is- they shouldn't be playing up this soon. Especially given how little mileage they have covered. I've also got a cranking issue which has been isolated to the mazda immobilser rather than my aftermarket security, so next stop will be back down to skuzzle and rip the standard ECU out and remap so the car is running solely on the megasqurt. Cars now evolving through weeding out the weak spots and simplifying - i've accepted that this is an ongoing labor of love now but next year i'm going to rack some miles up on a couple of road trips methinks.

Does it have the heated seats - thats a rare treat especially coming into winter I like beemers but personally i find Mercs are more to my liking these days

We'll see when I get an opportunity for joe to give it a going over then we can discuss the outcome:)

What an explanation I still dont think i understand it completely but it sounds like there is room for improvement on the S3 I am not sure if this is a trait of my model but the steering is quite heavy compared to other cars at low speed - to the point if feels almost a manual rack. The turning circle is dire also. Would the geo improvements have any positive effect on these observations in any way?

So once again the car is now back from some additional work. The main reason was the front wings post respray were found to be on their way out which i was pretty annoyed about given the car had been repainted. And obviously with a colour such as mine the likelyhood of getting new wings painted and looking the same was going to be a task. So whlist it was at the workshop i had the following done : - New front wings, Dinitrol'd the undersides and also ground back the hot spots on the inner sills and treated those. Had the wings painted and blended in down the side to avoid any harsh colour changes. I think the car is completely protected now - i cant think of any other weak points for rust that haven't been ground back and treated. - KG works rear ducktail wing painted in to match and fitted. - TR Lane Roll bar - New power steering pump to try and cure an issue on track where fluid occasionally leaked out the top of the reservoir. - Thicker core radiator and 2 x slimline fans fitted - Flyin miata stage 1 clutch and pressure plate and bearings. This feels like stock but can take 318ftlbs of torque apparently so up to the job! - 2 new rear calipers - turns out one had seized and one was leaking brake fluid. I seem to get through rear calipers these must be the 4th and 5th replacements in the 3/4 years of ownership. - Aux belt change and coolant/brake fluid change. I'll get some pics of the engine bay etc when its out next for a clean! Upon driving home i had a bit of a unexpected issue where the throttle cable that links the 1st pre charger throttle body with the 2nd one pre intake manidold had snapped at the point that the cable nipple that acts as a stopper had severed the cable. Probably down to it being over tightened and weaked the cable thats constantly under tension. This meant that when pressing the throttle the pre intake manifold was opening but the one pre charger was not. The car could not breath properly and i had a 40mph top speed and dire throttle response. When it went i knew straight away what it could be. Luckily this happened on the M25 just before corby services and pulled up there where i realise what had happened. I didn't have my usual bag of tools/tricks in the boot thats obligatory when owning a supercharged car for fettling, so i had to get inventive and this is what i had t do : - Pinched a small jubilee clip from rocker cover breather pipe and clamped open the bypass valve. This basically disengages the charger. - Wound the pre charger throttle body wide open and wedged in a 7mm spanner and secured the ring end on the throttle body fine tune adjustment grub screw and then clamped the C end in the jubilee that secures the induction kit pipe work. This resulted in the car becoming drivable again but like a regular NA version Anyway managed to get home and replaced the cable and nipple/stopper with new ones and didn't overtighten these ones. Also got some spares for the toolkit! A week or so later it was time to address one of the things that had been bothering me for a while on track days. Seats. I needed something that was hassle free to install, was adjustable and was suitable for daily use but supportive enough to make track days more enjoyable. There are very limited options when you put those requirements together. So in came these - Rerimmed/repadded Recaro Kevlar seats from the RS Ltd: And fitting them didnt take long at all. The only thing that i have outstanding is to fit some longer seatbelt buckles so they are easier to reach. Longer ones are found on slightly older MX5's. I had a harness bar welded into the roll bar so i have the option of 4 point harnesses now if i want : Pic of the roll bar in situe. In the process of adding some padding to protect the occupants heads a bit and also fit a action camera mount so i can finally get some good footage on track ! : I managed to driver her out last week and its really beginning to come together and feel like the cars tailored to me now. Its sad that its probably not going to get many more outings this year as i am going to be more strict with bringing it out in wet/wintery conditions to save the sills from the salt! I'll get some pics shortly. by the way if anyone wants to buy a set of tidy late MK1 seats with seperate headrests then ping me quick before i get rid of them via ebay/nutz

I'll get booked in as soon as I have a day off - would like to get to the bottom of this

Is that a good or bad thing joe?

Thanks for the break down mate. Question is should I complain or is this a example of what is the norm with average geometry services? Sounds like it needs to come over to joe and the boys. Any idea of what negative handling traits might be experienced as it is?

No idea. There's something about these numbers that don't sit right with me but don't understand them enough to know what I am looking at. Basically - are these numbers any good and inLine with other s3's and are they dangerous? It felt ok on the motorway but didn't push the handling. I felt obliged to get the geo done there due to the MOT and the work on the steering and shocks but if it's not up to scratch I will pull them up! The garage is an Audi specialist and seems to be winning awards every year....

Come on then tone, some before and after geo numbers on my S3 as it was in for a MOT and needed a new track rod end, 2 new rear springs and various other stuff that lightened my wallet considerably Was there anything bad with the initial values, and what are the final values like now?

Let's remember how easy it is to drive the mx5 towards its upper limits. Pretty sure the majority would go faster purely on confidence and easy to read handling I.e a forgiving geo fine in the right hands the boxster is faster but what's more accessible?

I'm getting a sense of renewed interest and a change in attitude towards the older mx5's recently which is a great thing. What this video fails to highlight is the actual drive is far more rewarding and visceral (No nanny state aids to be found here!) which adds to the whole experience plus the huge aftermarket and club scene. It costs a fraction of the price of the boxster yet does everything the boxster does and more.

Pt2 here: Joes in it a bit

More parts coming apparently: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=UUYCgq9pdIv95dnjMPFdk_DQ&v=Ch1xdpkQADw

The article is generally a slight disappointment - would have liked to read about everything in a bit more detail, but then again this is AutoExpress and i suppose they need to keep things fairly light for their intended audience. It does focus on the supercharger but there could have been quite a nice piece about the fitting and calibration of decent coilovers and the impact this has. Obviously I know this first hand and i know this could have been a good read. Opportunity missed by them there which is a shame. Oh well you got a mention anyway in a national mag - thats never a bad thing.

Is it this maybe? There's a brief mention of WIM : http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mazda/mx-5/88375/mazda-mx-5-to-porsche-boxster-beater-for-5k Skuzzles involved who is the dude who has worked on mine for the last year or two

I am guessing this never saw the light of day ? Was looking forward to seeing it !

not completely sold on the data here unless i have missed something. The bottom 50 cars are all in excess if 10+ years but the top ten are all only just coming to the age where they need an MOT? I would be interested to see the top 10 cars of 10+ years that fly though the MOT. i would wager a lot of them will be japanese

I use Mintex m1144 on the front and standard on the rear. Fitted a day before a track day, fast bed in on the way up to the track. Decent on the track and stood up well to repeated high speed slowdowns back to back BUT the dust is horrendous. Worse I have ever seen. And the 1144s don't like being cold. Initial bite is not really that great. For my application I think they are Ok standard fronts should be fine but expect dust lol

wasnt that beast with the supercharger poking out the bonnet and obscuring the windscreen ?

thats probably it - not far off same weight balance (ali block) and 300bhp out the box before you even fettle it. A totally different path to what i am currently going for though would probably be undrivable in the main That and the twin exit v8 burble would be immense.

haha i'm not saying i am doing it but i keep popping up in my head. I have no idea why

It is a bit of addiction if i am honest but i am doing my best to only make positive changes to the car. That said though i think there is a limited path left for me to go with the car and then its just about looking after it and enjoying it. In the back of my mind i keep thinking Corvette LS conversion way down the line.... i dont know why lol