Steve-O

Will be same colour as car - gunmetal. Roll cage will be black to tie into the wheels

Na its this one : mines going to be minus the rivets (will be bonded on) and painted in gunmetal to match the car

Hi all So the old girl has once again made a journey down to the mx5 restorer for some tlc some of which includes: Trlane gpd half cage with harness bar (black) Uprated fast road clutch and lightened flywheel New front wings and corrective work to sort some signs of rust Paint and fit of KG works ducktail spoiler New power steering pump and aux belts Steam clean of engine bay Troubleshoot wideband not working Fit thicker core Ali rad and 2 x slimline fans Once this has been done then I will address the ARB shortfall. Tbh looking forwards to seeing the cage and ducktail on I think that's gonna tip it over the edge into something that looks purposeful

Yeah dont mess about - get the magnecor blue leads. no point going for their thicker red ones.

I found drop box doesn't work very well so use photobucket

I might be inclined to get a custom midpipe made up to your spec at somewhere like top gear in St. Albans. I am considering it myself so I can get the midsection tucked up against the chassis better - better speed bump clearance and can go lower if required

Theres a few odd things with mx5 exhaust it seems : - Complete lack of any solution for late mk1's with the 475mm cat. Surely there must be some money to be made here for a small modification to a tried and tested design? - Moss cobalt seem to have a different backbox setup for the MK2 over the MK1 - why? Just makes no sense! I was speaking to Macca last night on text and just told hime to go with the one he likes best. Personally i think unless its a V8 conversion the duals might be a bit much for the '5s small arse But its his car and he should do what flicks his switch! Looking forward to your blog stepping up a gear dude!

Lovely looking motor - sounds like you know what you are doing when it comes to weeding out the lesser specs! Looking at swapping out my estate in a few months - will be taking a few tips from you especially the detailing aspect. Seems like the perfect time to put on a really good sealant

Along with the MPG i think they eat oil a bit by design as well which shouldn't be underestimated as a cost. Does that ring true Waz?

Joe - PM me a few options and prices mate when you get time

ok will take a look into whiteline - i know they are generally well respected. I already have adjustable drop links on the front from you

Yeah thats exactly what i mean. The elise doesn't exactly look like its rubbing its mirror on the tarmac but its clear the mx5 is having an easier time of it. I suspect the ARBS and seats need to go at the same time - seems pointless getting the ARBs done and still be falling out of the door mid corner Any experience with aftermarket sensibly uprated ARBs Tone?

Get well soon dude. As tony said Health is wealth - dont push too hard to get going again it will still all be there when you are ready

Cheers guys - yeah was a great day. I would recommend getting along to one at some stage if it interests you! I was actually surprised then when i turned all 4 corners up to max it was spot on - i was expecting to have to dial them back at the front or rear slightly. The only adjustment was the tyre pressures where i started on 28 psi and moved up to 29 psi and it was just enough of an improvement on grip that i didnt touch it for the rest of the day. I'd like to think i was fairly smooth and the alignment allowed me to be very precise with smooth cornering and keeping some very tight lines on the corners, i do know that i could have provoked it easily enough into a slide if i was more digital with my inputs. i had one or two small oversteer moments due to being under braking whilst turning in but that was actually done on purpose as i wasnt to chuck it around and see how it responded. When all the braking was done in a straight line and turning in i could hug the inner track line all day long. The weak spot i felt was the fact the car did lean a bit and i was having to brace myself which actually slowed me down in the corners. So some firmer ARBs and some supportive seats are really just to exploit the potential thats still lurking in the car. I was keeping a decent pace along side an elise but it was far superior in the bends and i put that down to the above.

So went on the track day monday. Although the camera work was generally a failure due to the mount being too low down in the car to see anything other than the dashboard - managed to get a few good pics of the car via their resident photographer. i will look to sort the camera stuff out when a half cage goes in : Generally the car ran like a dream. I had a serial RS232 to bluetooth dongle running on the megasquirt and a Nexus 7 tablet stuck to the dash which gave me all sorts of cool data whilst out on track. Was mainly watching coolant and manifold air temps which all generally weren't as bad as i was fearing which was nice. I had a good day and got a lot of laps in including 40 minute session where i really pushed on. The last session of the day i detected the smallest of slips - at the moment i dont know if its the clutch or the belt needs adjusting i will wait and see! I generally run the meisters on full soft for road - that day i wound them straight up to max and put the tyres up to 29 psi. It was pretty much spot on. The grip once warmed up was very good - progressive handling and nailing the power out of tight hairpins saw the diff play nicely and it just hooked up a dream. This is no drifter! Really pleased with how the cars handling. I still think things will be even better once i get some better rubber on but since the alignment is so bloody good the tyres worn perfectly on all corners so might be another day left in these yokos. Other than some beading where the rubbers moved around you would be hard pressed to see they had been given some abuse all day. I had some new mintex M1144 pads fitted on the saturday which were subjected to a fast bed in procedure on the way up there and then endured what i threw at them including fast slowdowns from around 120mph to 60mph and they progressively got better as the day went on. Brake dust is something else though! Looking to get out there again in august hopefully - will have a few new toys on it by then as well i hope - considering some thicker ARB's and some better seats. I was literally hanging/bracing against the transmission tunnel on at times due to the immense grip!

Get yourself on the track day tomorrow!

Service piece of p**s! Done an oil change in 30 mins out in the garage. Sparkplugs air filter and fuel filter and you are set. Get the belts done in any garage. Non-interference so no risk of the belt snapping and lunching the valves!

Any news when this is coming out ?

There are some good HD recorders out there for less than £100 that will do the job if its just to record any twattery on the road! There will almost certainly be a relocation kit for the civic! Since the system is pressurised i don't think the height of the new mount is an issue. Its only a small difference anyway. in actual fact the system will take a bit more oil so is probably a good thing from temperature point of view! Reminds me actually the one i am getting caters for an oil cooler later on if required

Well thats the thing. Suction mounted cameras are a bit of a grey area - theres no guarantee they will allow you on the track with one. The reason being if it detaches itself and gets under the brake pedal bad things will happen Hence me going for a more serious mount Roll hoop would work and tbh since yours is mid engined the audio should be fairly interesting!

Yeah you can see how this one pans out and copy the setup if your are interested. I'll post up the results here when i get it done

Well i want to document the day as its not a cheap hobby and want to look back when all the petrol has gone and say i was enjoying myself back in the good old days As i mentioned above its not a huge outlay really - just testing the water!

Yeah 23rd is a monday indeed. Not an ideal day as i would have preferred a saturday or sunday even but there you go The video setup isnt big bucks to be honest as i am new to it all. The action cam was £150 which was reduced at maplins and the audio setup has cost me about £15 all in. The camera mount was £58. i could have fabricated something but at least i know this way the marshalls can not take exception to it as its a very well made piece of kit! oil filter relocation is basically a plate that screws onto the block where the filter normally goes that has 2 barbed ports for inlet/outlet. You then run some hose to the bulkhead where you mount the second bit which is where the hoses attach to another set of barbed port and where the filter screws in. Its a simple setup but will make oil changes so much nicer to do.

So i have booked into a trackday finally. Bedford Autodrome on 23rd June open pit lane format. Myself and 6 other friends with their own cars will be going along to this also. Managed to secure a discount for each of us and also discount on having an instructor for the entire day. I dont anticipate using the instructor myself as i'd like to think i am competent enough now with my previous track experience to enjoy the day, but that said if the guys aren't utilizing him i will definitely get him in the car and give me some pointers. By the way if anyone else is interested in coming along i can also get you the discount on the day. Ahead of the day i still need to find time to install the new uprated rad and also a replacement slimline fan as its a bit tight for space with the intercooler pipes down there now. I've also just ordered an oil filter relocation kit and powder coated slam panel from moss. oil filter relocation should help me change the oil a lot faster moving forwards - i always lose skin on my arm when changing the filter presently. i expect to be able to change the oil and filter with this in place within 30 minutes now. The slam panel will be to ensure i get the maximum amount of air from the front dam through the new rad. Will also look nice no doubt! Along side this i am determined to get some decent footage of the day and try and edit some kind of video detailing my exploits. I have watched a lot of track day videos now and nearly all of them have had one or both of these issues : Wind noise destroying any engine noise, camera wobble so bad you cant see whats going on. I think it can be done better without much more effort. I have purchased a professional headrest camera mount, on which i will mount my HD action camera via a 1/4" thread. I have a remote control so can start and stop recordings at will. Due to the placement of the camera (between the driver and passenger seats) its likely wind noise will also ruin the footage. With this in mind i have also ordered a condensed stereo microphone, extension lead and a 8gb mp3 dictaphone that can record at 192kbps at high quality for days. I am going to mount this in the boot and run the mic out to the rear number plate or near the exhaust pipe and secure the mic and baffle with some additional sponge to reduce any wind noise. I am hoping then to overlay the audio on top of my video back at home using some sort of video editor and get a much better finish. I already think another experiment later would be to split the mic input and run another low sensitivity mic into the engine bay to capture the charger noise also. I will start with this for now anyway and see how it works. on paper it makes sense but i have no idea of the reality of the solution yet !

Nice work so far - not a a small undertaking thats for sure. Are you aiming for nose bleeds from the bass ?