mx5cartalk.com

Meet Patchy.


Patchy has been in my life for over 10 years. Originally she was the Main transport for the Anchor on chain & myself. But its changed roll various times in the family
A few years later when the first precious package arrived....The Co-Pilot the role was re-defined as the secondary mode of transport. But still my daily driver for some years to come
When the Co-pilot arrived it was decided I could keep the car because i loved driving it so much & it would serve as a outlet for me. Sure enough a baby seat was immediately fitted.

Thats the Co Pilot about 3-6mths old


2001. Car behind was the main Mode of transport. Pic is in Manly.
This time was graet as while the Co-pilot was a baby he spent a lot of time with daddy hooning . The Co-Pilot was a serious chick magnet.
even late night drives at 3am in the morning happened on the frequent occasion as the co-pilot just couldn't sleep. All i did is Dial up the pressure in the shocks & he would be asleep withing 10 min that happened quite a few times.
The car was also entere in the NSW state Supersprint championship in the year 2000

Then in 2002 another precious package arrived The princess. This made the existence of patchy a little more difficult . especially with the financial constraints. So patchy was de registered & put into storage.

12mths late she came out of storage. She was still a Daily driver but the joy rides with the kids had been reduced significantly. mainly because of time & equal share with kids.

So it was time to change the engine & clutch



Then some serious tyre were added


together with the clutch which was nice & hard.... Blew the diff.


The diff was upgraded to a 1.8 Torsen Type II. It completely converted the car into a serious road warrior. It combined all the suspension mods to work together & completely blew me away by surprise. It was completely unintentional .It was a different car. all of a sudden it could keep up with some serious cars in the MX5 Club Of NSW.

fairly recent Club drive.....Bathurst 2006 i think
so then the Track was rediscovered
here is a video from 2005 most of you have seen it.
wakefield park 2005 chasing red baron

and a pic from that day


Since then patchy has been a weekend warrior for me. The kids only occasionally come for a ride. The wife never. I think once in the last 12mths.
about 15mths ago & had a slight error in judgment......My ego was bigger than my brakes. So i kissed a Armco....and came off 2nd best.
Here is the write up of that episode.

patchys repairs
This is how Patchy got its current name
[img]http://www.stansmx5.com/MX5_stuff/Paint%20job/frontbumpersidepanel.jpg[/img:5f5033

So to answer all this. The car is a very important part of my life. A lot of frindships have been made by being involved with the MX5 club of NSW. By helping others with their technical bits as well as receiving help myself this is the techinical aspect of it.
The driving aspect is just as important. I love a spirited drive. I also love the friendliness of Forums like this.

I know I've gone into a lot of history. But if i had made this on the last 4 weeks..... I would have had absolutely nothing to share as i've olny had to drive the car very occasionally.
Yes patchy is only a weekend warrior now. But I enjoy her as much as I enjoyed her the day I got her. Probably more.

Plans.....well the paint job....one day.

Awesome writeup STM

Very enjoyable read indeed!

This is what your kid is thinking:

{\"you spent all your time with THIS instead of me?! Pffft. You're getting a paper-weight this father's day\"}

awsome writeup and lovely car

thanks for the enjoyable writeup mate. good stuff.

Well I've heard about owners looking like their dogs but a car that's gone from red to grey...sound like Stefans hair!

*runs and hides*

Wow thats a nice car.

You definitely broke the diff well. i have put a hole in my housing but didnt split it in half!!!

Craig wrote:Well I've heard about owners looking like their dogs but a car that's gone from red to grey...sound like Stefans hair!

*runs and hides*

Well, as we all know the grey hair is natural. But the primer is out of the bottle.

jcs86 wrote:Wow thats a nice car.

You definitely broke the diff well. i have put a hole in my house but didnt split it in half!!!

Yep I wasn't even trying hard either. It was just worn & blew up taking off at a traffic light. These high milage NA6 diffs don't take too well to Aftermmarket clutches & sticky tyers. It just adds extra pressure. It didn't get abused either. The original clutch lasted 193k km.

Your car is awesome Stan. I totally agree about the TorSen transforming the car.

StanTheMan wrote:Well, as we all know the grey hair is natural. But the primer is out of the bottle.

The latest pic of Patchy Taken by a kind person at a car meet last fri night.

Stan the man, from what she's been thru I think you have patchy for life!

Great read STM. It's good to read about history of a car/owner rather than just a list of mods.
I hope that I get that I find my car meaning as much to me as well.