I'll do a Wayne's World flashback for you guys
Early 2001.. Mazda start making noises about the SP project. I spoke to Allan Horsley and he said the SP wasn't my car.
AW has been eyeing off Flyin' Miatas for a long time, and with some money in my pocket ( $15k ) I began looking for a pill to cure my speed ills.
I spoke to Paul Brell from BD4s.. had a look at his NA ( white ) turbo he'd done with an AVO/HKS parts list. He was pretty vague about details, and the kit looked a bit of a DIY bitzer. I just didn't feel that BD4s had the care factor.
Then I caught up with another MX5 NSW club guy Vern who had just HKS'ed a Blue 10AE. 6psi.. bolt on.. tidy kit but not enough HP for me.
Then I met Matthew Hall who had a blue NA with a AVO kit. He introduced me to the guys who fabricated his Intercooler.. his setup was good, simple and quite strong. Performance Metalcraft told me they'd done some of the fab for the red 1999 SP prototype showcased at Natmeet 1999. I wasn't sure if that was all true, but Performance Metalcraft showed me some of their projects.. the skylines, the wrxes and big turbo SC400 builds. All really high power high quality work.
So I gave them the brief for 12psi with plan to extend to 15-18psi with an engine rebuild in the future. I wanted quality fit (no chopping up the stock chassis) and thorough matching of performance, reliability and the original MX-5 car. They did a great job building the car. Alot of time spent, quite alot of attention to detail. Ian Baker is an eccentric master fabricator.. as was Leon Sokalski.. who was just the nicest bloke you could meet.
SAS / David Alexander did a very good job tuning the car. With hindsight, his setup of my car is pretty much perfect. Dynoing it almost 5 years later, it's still producing almost the same HP (156kW wheels @ 10psi) and all I've done is change oil & plugs.
During the project I got introduced to Jim Donohue who was going to build me a spare engine to the 300rwhp design brief.. but it never happened.
So give credit to the guys who laid the path. I just had the $$$ and the will to do it (btw my budget was a disaster in the end).
btw Gurglrs brakes were IIRC 315mm and only suitable for 17\" wheels.. no good for the sleeper factory look