Steve-O

To be fair rich there was no real photo opportunities and the ones that were there would not have done WiM any justice. Me and macca turned up around 10.30 and it there were 3 mk3's and a couple of mk2's but it looks like for one reason or another people didn't bother coming along ahead of their slots which was the aim i guess. The indicated attendance versus actual was quite different so looks like people had changes of plan for one reason or another. I think it dropped off when all the mk3 guys shot off as i think they wanted to eat which is shame. I took macca and Joe out for a blast in mine and we were chatting around the engine, looking underneath the cars etc. In the end were were there for a couple of hours when we admitted defeat and retired back to maccas house to try and sort a water leak on his roof. Its difficult to tell what the turnout will be on these days. If another one ever happens (and i wouldnt blame the guys for being hesitiant after this) i could offer some constructive feedback to try and make the best one the meet everyones hoping for

not wanting to jinx things but the weather is looking to be better for sat....

Wouldn't be the worse idea in the world. Hope joes stocked up with camber bolts

You get the most random issues dude Sure its not a stone in the tyre or something silly?

Looking forward to this one now. I cant remember the last time i went to a meet of any description!

I can tell you one place not to bother with - Bodymasters in Watford. Not impressed with what they did for me.

Haha not saying its like that when its your day job If i had a free weekend where i could just immerse myself in it and take my time i reckon i would quite enjoy the process.

That half corrected door says it all really. Great stuff. I am going to try and have a stab at this on my black S3 at some stage. Something therapeutic about the whole process.

Can of worms opened here tone I have seen a lot of videos of mx5's and elises together on track and you you always see them pull away on the straights the corners are the great leveller as most people (read average joes) dont know how to drive a mid-engined car at the limit. Thats where the MX5 comes into its own. Its the confidence it inspires that brings it up to the rear end of the elise. Give the mx5 the power it deserves and i think it will give it a bloody good run for its money. A friend of mine has a supercharged elise and to be fair its a beast but is it 100% usable in a trackday scenario for an average joe? - i am not so sure. I think the MX5 will be.

You're on the money mate. Its a scratch that i itched and i didn't even know it needed itching. Now look at where i am now There really is anything like the 5 in terms of its handling. Its a ball.

Cheers mate I've not had a chance to get some proper 'calendar shots' of it yet. I have the camera for it - i just need to get it cleaned and head out to a nice location. Thinking about it i might try and do this before i get to the WIM Meet in a couple of weeks.

To be honest tony i embarked on the journey knowing a car already charged would be easier but i opted for the least trodden path as i wanted to have that journey of discovery as thats what i get a kick out of as i mentioned before. Theres something satisfying about creating something thats greater than the sum of its parts and something that is completely tailored to what you want out of a driving experience. In your case i would definitely look at buying something thats got the right bits on - then concentrate your efforts on refining them to a level you are happy with (things like removing power cards which are basic timing and fuel adjusters and putting in a proper ECU solution is one example). I'll be on hand to offer advice and my own experiences and i am sure there is enough experience between us all collectively to help you enjoy the process! That said if you get a nice one it should be sorted enough where you could just go out and enjoy for a while, find out where you perceive to be the areas of improvement and go from there

The engine bay will look good - once i have steam cleaned it and given it a bit of a detail to be fair the car is a working example and i am not intending it to be an immaculate show queen. Its going to be clean and tidy where possible but functional. I wont be hand polishing things for hours on end! I haven't looked at the bills and don't intend on adding anything up either - thats not the point of the journey for me. Its something i love doing and is my only real hobby. I work hard and it motivates me to keep on going (obviously my partner and daughter are the priority though!!). If i ever did sell i would sell it for a price that was in keeping with the specification and condition its in - i think to be honest its got to be one of the best all round 'tastefully sorted' MK1's out there - Skuzzle has made noises to that effect and he sees a LOT of them

Wow only just saw this. Great that AE chose WIM! When the videos up would love to see it. Might even buy the mag if its got more in it? Always like to see the '5 triumph over other cars

Yeah Aluminium thick core Rad. IN theory its a direct swap and will hold a couple of litres extra coolant. I suspect it might foul my intercooler pipework so i might need a slimline fan and mount it centrally on the rad as opposed to the right which is where the OEM fan resides

Thats a shame Tone - was hoping to catch up! Will be other opportunities no doubt. I've got a Action camera and some car mounts that i have set aside and been tweaking to grab some interesting angle onboard footage. I will see if i can get some rolling footage of my trip over to the meet and put it up. I want to capture the exhaust sound minus any wind noise so looking into a trick way of capturing the footage from the exterior and sound from the exhaust and overlaying it on the video.

So i picked the car up last saturday and the manifold issue has been resolved. Turns out there was a minor crack as suspected that was blowing against the firewall causing the tractor like sounds. In terms of the difference the 4-2-1 manifold makes - on idle and regular driving its not even noticable. Its only as you work the car harder that you can detect a slightly more angry note to proceedings. Which is good for me as i didn't want to make it any more louder than it is. At the moment its the perfect blend of sounding sporty but not rude. I can start it up at 3am and not wake the entire neighborhood. Higher up the rev range its definitely loosened things up - everything just happens that bit quicker so there is definitely an improvement in the driving experience at least. I asked to get it dyno'd again to see what the difference was but didnt have time after a cockup from the company who sold me the manifold leaving us mega short on time to get it fitted. The wideband has improved the MPG by quite a decent amount. Usually on the run back from Skuzzles i would expect to see at least a quarter of a tank gone through sensible driving and the occasional play, but this time the needle was visibly still in the upper 1st quarter. Only time would tell but at the moment that might be the surprise modification thats really impressed me. So now the cars back to me once again. Still some outstanding bodywork issues that need addressing but to be fair i just want to enjoy it for a while before sending it away again to get it sorted. So now i will be enjoying it whilst the suns out, head to the WIM meet later this month and in between fit this : With the track in mind this is going to be the next weak link : Cooling. So far nothing has reared its head but i would rather play it safe than be marginal. Should also say the minor water leak into the boot was an interior nut that was not sealing properly. Skuzzle fitted a washer and its sealed it up which had the added benefit of getting rid of the awful sagging that has crept in post respray Also he removed the chrome deck plates and sealed them up and refitted as apparently these never seal properly when they are disturbed during a respray.

not long to go now for this one. Delaying sending the car back into the bodyshop so i can come along Half tempted to get a lash on later in the evening now

puts things into perspective for sure - good for him.

Yeah looks like a nice piece of kit. I am expecting it to last a long time as it looks quite high spec construction and materials. Hopefully picking it up on saturday so will see what it sounds like ! I dont know what happened with the old door it was all very weird. It was just after the high winds we had so put it down to that but i have a niggling doubt it was someone/kids who had a go at it. I think they either wimped out or they wasn't aiming at getting in. When i went to go in there i could see on top corner was not flush so i opened it up gingerly and got maybe 25% open and i could feel it coming off the runners. Thats when i abandoned it and closed it up and did my best to pull it all flush closed. It did come off the rollers once previously when i was a tad ethusiastic opening it but i put that down to lack of maintenance from previous owners and a load of debria in the tracks that derailed it. Anyway - new door is lovely and a pleasure to use, and no-ones getting through this one trust me. One of those things you don't really think about but makes a big difference to the whole experience and enjoyment of getting your pride and joy out.

Yeah it's American. Same people that made the supercharger so should fit like a glove

When the guys came to put a new door on we all grabbed it as we opened it and then i got underneath and supported the back of it. Lucky i did as it came off the railings about halfway up! Good thing is now i have a decent one thats got some additional security measures. No way anyone is getting through that without an angle grinder and a penchant for sliced limbs (and also a severe kicking from me). So... cars been at skuzzle since monday. An Innovate LC1wideband has fitted and plumbed into the megasquirt. I have opted not to have the 'worry gauge' as i am trying to keep the interior looking stock, and also just dont like the gauges that are on offer. The wideband basically has a sensor in the downpipe before the cat that analyses the fuel mix coming out the engine and determines if its lean/stoich (perfect mix)/rich and then adjusts fuelling to compensate. Its been configured so that it will adjust during idle/fast idle and under cruising conditions where it will trim the mix out and an theory allow better mpg to be had. Skuzzle run the car through the MOT yesterday and it passed without a single advisory. I am of course chuffed at this becuase i was worried primarily about emissions. But at the same time i kind of expected nothing other than that due to the amount of care the cars recieving! Upon investigating the blow coming from the manifold/downpipe area - he reckons its cracked where the collector pipes converge and will be impossible to weld. Since its the second manifold shes had in the last year i've decided to get one of these - a jackson racing 4-2-1 manifold : So this will replace the cracked manifold and old downpipe, and once installed once again its going on the dyno to again to give it a check over to ensure the change of manifold hasn't skewed the fuelling too much, and also optimise it further to make use of the manifold. We're expecting a couple of horse power realistically, and also more importantly Skuzzle reckons the boost will drop slightly as there is one less restriction so it will make more power with less effort which is always a good thing. Based upon my research i would expect the low/midrange torque to be improved with this since its a 4-2-1 manifold. If it were a 4-1 then better top end power would be expected. Being an mx5 obviously having the available performance lower down suits the character better and will be more usable generally. So might have a another dyno printout next weekend and we can see what the effect of this new part brings to the party

Haha 2 things i have come to accept as part of this journey : 1) Modifying to this extent is not a fit and forget solution. You best like your cars. 2) It pays dividends to understand whats going on if you are reliant on others to help you out. You are kind of drawn down this route anyway buy following point 1

OK next round of fun ! Cars been trailored this morning to Skuzzle. The car was stranded inside my garage for 2 months as the door had half fallen off and daren't open it in case it fell on the car. Now got a new door and able to get it out. The down side to all this is the MOT expired, and since i have an exhaust manifold leak that needs sorting before its even got a chance of passing emissions. I have not had it tested since supercharging and although its had some mapping specifically to reach a lambda within tolerances i am just not confident until i have seen it go though without any messing on the megasquirt. So off shes gone to winchester where the exhaust systems getting a full work over, and whilst its there an AEM inline wideband probe is being fitted and patched into the megasquirt. This will then ensure the car will definitely pass an MOT as the MS will be configured to read the wideband data and self adjust so its always idling at stoich and has a sensible lambda when fast idling etc. Should just mean the end of any further messing with the ecu for now anyway. Might get a few other things done whilst its down there like new belts and a once over before it hits the track in a month or so. After this i am going to start looking at a half bar whilst shes in back at the mx5 restorers getting some tlc on the front wings, a minor leak on the hood sorted and also a KG works rear spoiler painted and fitted. Might get to drive it soon if i am lucky haha

Oh yeah as you know too well the mx5 drives like a comedy video game. Its easy to hustle it along and have fun at the limits. The sole reason i sold my 200sx - bloody demo car! I've never laughed like a complete girl while sliding sideways in any car before this!