hms

Yep ...... The claim is they have "re-positioned" the front lower ball joint..... Methinks that really means they have changed the inclination of the lower ball joint :blush02: wonder why they didn't do that in the first place One interesting point, the S Special version of the 5 (mark 1 import) has different track rod ends to the remainder of the 5's due to it being lovered and on Bilsteins from factory. This was done, I think, to stop bump steer. Maybe Mazda are doing the same for the mark 3's! h

For the OP, iirc, the Mark 1 5 has an offset of 45 on the standard Mazda wheels. No one I'm aware of manufactures wheels with that offset. Most replacement wheels, iirc are 37 offset. Even though Mazda selected an offset of 45 for it's suspension set up, using a 37 offset apears not to affect the handling. (Especially if Tony has worked his magic on the car!) Have you even had the car aligned before? It may be useful to go for the Mazda original settings, then once you're happy go for the fast road/track settings. No drawbacks on normal roads with these settings, but the full track settings, with a track shocks setup can be hard on the road! Fast road/track is a good compromise, great on track but not difficult to live with on a daily driver. For Daave, you will get lots of different opinon on size, a lot of people use 15 for tyre choice, some 17's for looks. I'd suggest asking that question on www.planetmx5.com or mx5nutz.com as there is a larger number of owners of the NB on those fora, especially those who track them. h

Remember seeing that and another American muscle car at WIM at one of the open days, cannot remember which one. Both were beautiful looking cars, but not to my taste. (Speaking as the owner of a hairdressers car it's hardly surprising!) Nice to be able to see and appreciate such a wide variety of machines on the WIM site, some aspirational and some not, depending on taste. I'm waiting for Tony to post up a locost or any other '7' type variant! h

More info on tyre temps v alignment. I'll try and explain without pictures, as I don't do pictures! Tyre temps taken in 3 places, outer and inner edges of the tread, the third being in the centre of the tread. Temps must be taken immediately the car has stopped. The middle reading should be the average of the outside readings. Lower tyre pressure if the centre reading is too high. Raise pressure if centre temp is too low. If one edge of the tyre is higher than the rest of the tyre then you have too much camber at that edge. If one end of the car is noticably hotter that the other, then appropriate sway (ARB) adjustments need to be made. (Can't get my head around this, how the ARB's on one axle affect the tyre temp on the other axle!) My understanding would be that temperature equates to tyre wear, so, providing tyre temps are correct, on the track you can see by temperature how the tyre will wear, and inform you of how the alignment is working, removing the driver from trying to explain how the car is handling when they may not have the neccessary vocabulary/experience to do so. This allows Tony to tune the alignment without having to wear a set of tyres out to get the wear pattern showing or trying to interpret what the driver says about the handling! But again, I may be totaly off the mark! h

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SILICON-GREASE-50gr-...%3A1%7C294%3A50 h

h

That's pretty much the same that i found..... What i couldn't find was a UK supplier of the grease? As I said, Maplins. You should also be able to get it from a Dive shop. It's used for lubricating 'O' rings in the regulator. h

I have found on track that on the fronts the ouside of the shoulders will wear due to cornering at speed the tyrewalls flex and put the weight onto the outside edge of the tyre. The inside edge of the tyre on the inner of the corner does not suffer as much due to weight being transferred to the outside of the corner. This can be improved by adding a couple of extra PSI to the tyres, in effect stiffening the tyre and not allowing the sidewall to flex as much. Alternatively, you can use a more track based tyre which has stiffer sidewalls. The Hornet went from Toyo T1 R's, a road tyre, to Hankook RS2's (iirc) (track/road tyre) with stiffer sidewalls and greatly reduced shoulder wear! Ahopulder wear will be more of a problem at the front due to the steering presenting the tyres at at an angle to the track. (I'm thinking slip angle here is that correct!) Wear on the rear will be down to camber/toe. More agressive settings will make the rear end feel planted at the expense of tyre wear. Hotter areas of tyres show which part of the tyres are working hardest, and if you measure the temperature on the left, centre and right of the tread pattern across both wheels of an axle, that can tell you something about how the set up is working. (Cannot remember the details of this tho'.) All of this is only my laymans view, so may/will be wrong! h

The answers I found were: 1. White lithium grease. 2. Silicon grease. (Transparent stuff with no additives.) This stuff is available from Maplins and is branded Servisol.) What you don't want is something that affects rubber so WD40 is out, I'd also be concerned about spray greases due to the solvents used to make the grease sprayable. (Don't know if that is a valid concern!) h

Yes, seen those parked up on the Chelsea Embankment. Is he an 'Actor'? h

My experience of the rose jointed drop links is that as there is no plastic bushing to compress before the ARB's start to work, turn in is improved. Noticable difference straight away, although may be something to do with 11 year old drop links, one of which was bent! h

Post a link so we can check it out. h

Most of the Japanese import Eunos' have a 100 yen coin hidden in the car somewhere for good luck. Could this be the UK equivalent, a WIM tea machine token! h

The Hornet was out at Colerne last Monday. Details of the day can be found on the Cobham Commoners thread here: (To save me reposting!) http://www.planetmx5.com/forum/viewtopic.p...sc&start=15 (From page 2 onwards) Some photo's of the day here: http://www.photodirectuk.com/MSE09/01%20CO20090223/index.htm to save you from searching, Photo's 7 - 10, 57 - 62, 139 - 142, 826 - 829, 886 - 890. Think we need to get the seat lowered! We have just fitted an OMP evo seat to the standard runners, as we need to have the seat adjustable to allow us all to drive it. It looks as though we will have to look for plan be to lower the seat and still have the adjustment required. The Hornet is now running on Hankook RS2's, from Toyo T1R's. Believe the Hankooks are being discontinued, they have shown the replacement in the States (RS3's?) May have to buy another set as spares whilst they are available. h

1. Am I right in assuming that the length of the drop links, provided they are the same length side to side will make no difference to handling? 2. Adjustable drop links allow you to pre-load the ARB, so you could set the ARB up for a clockwise circuit with a few left handers, maximising the handling for the majority of right handers plus the ability to handle left handers, Correct? I have a set of Steve Heath Adjustable rose jointed drop links, and have not touched them since they were fitted! h

Would they do it the old fashioned way with a string box? h

Here's a photo of bad heel and toe. Down to the canvas on 4 areas of the tyre, approximately equally spaced around the periphery of the tyre. Believed it was caused by U/S shocks. Replacment with Abs Shocks GAZ cured the problem. Wear was not easily visible due to the wear being on the inside, Lexie being low and me being an idle barsteward! Tyres need a good check when you check your pressures weekly. Luckily, issues noticed and changed before anything serious happened. h

You've forgotten the obvious! It's not 300 mile on the return journey, it's a darn sight further taking the 'B' roads back home! You're getting the Cosworth Sc to fit as well, lucky man. The Cosworth kit looks superb. h

You're welcome. h

Double post!

One good person to talk to would be suzy bee, on planet (planetmx5.com/forum) or MX5oc forum, she has both an S2000k and a Le Mans edition of the MX5, which is a 1.6 with a BBR turbo, some body kit and an argyle pattern paint job. The paint job and the car were done as a limited edition to celebrate Mazda winning Le Mans, the paint job replicating that of the winning car. I believe that there are only 22 or thereabouts known to be in existence, of the 24 made originally, some resprayed back by the retailer to normal colours as they couldn't shift them due to the paint job! Le Mans winning 787B Rotary Engine http://1.2.3.9/bmi/www.mx5-mazda.co.uk/ima...20MANS/787B.jpg MX5 Le Mans. http://1.2.3.10/bmi/roadsport.co.uk/lemans...tures/mx5_2.jpg h

Photo's from the course photographer can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Phoenix5Foto...TAtBrandsHatch# Hornet shots 15, 37 (Mark driving) 39, 129 Lazza 213, 246. Tony has had his hands on this car! h

Couple more photos on this page http://www.planetmx5.com/forum/viewtopic.p...c&start=150 Towards the bottom of the page. Tony, if you want to just chop the page back to the photo's go ahead. h

You missed a good day Tony. Didn't rain (Much), saw the sun peeping through the clouds. As for the cold, 5's have belting heaters. Only things that would have gotten cold were the hands, but I had gloves to cover that eventuality! First time at Brands, great little circuit, very different to the airfield days I've done before. Anyway, the Hornet, behaved impeccably. Left the suspension on the fast road/track settings, Hornet was well balanced, good turn in and very communicative. Mark and I covered 248km on track today. I'll let Mark do the full write up, as I believe he has been tasked by Tony! h

Tony, here's a taster pic from Brands a couple of weeks ago. Think this was taken on a parade lap, so Lazza is not pushing on! h