mx5cartalk.com

So after just over 6 months here and almost 12 months of ownership, its only just dawned on me that I haven’t created a “My car” thread. This thread will be as much about showing off as it will be a sort of car dairy for me. There will be the odd post that looks incredibly boring/simple from the outside, I'm ok with that. If you're not, its for my benefit not yours so build a bridge and just skip ahead to something more interesting
Now, without further ado…

The car in question is a privately imported 1991 Eunos Roadster V Special. The paint is still the factory Brilliant Black, which is paired with the factory tan leather interior. All of the normal V Special goodies like Nardi steering wheel/gear knob, roadster scuff plates and Special floor mats are still there.
Shortly after it arrived in the hand of the previous owners, a few things changed. Most importantly, the original automatic box was dumped for an NA8 5 speed manual  While it wasn’t a big priority, the matching NA8 BP engine was also thrown in at the same time. They also added a set of wheels and lowered springs.

I bought the car in February last year and she looked something like this…














Since then I’ve added/changed a few things too…
Autronic SM4 ECU
DIY Jaycar air/fuel ratio metre (which I managed to count as a uni assignment)
Clear side indicators/reflectors
Clear front indicators
Sanded back the exposed lettering on all exterior lights
New security system
New head unit (twice) + amplifier + 8” sub + front splits
2.25” exhaust
Custom intake pipe feeding from a VN V8 airbox (was only ever going to be temporary, being reworked right now)
Hardtop (needs respraying the right colour)

I’m sure there are a few other small things here and there, but they wouldn’t be that exciting.
















And there we have it. My awesome little car in a nut shell.
Current short term plans are to finish off this intake, ideally in the next week or so; tuning session on a dyno this month; new headrest speakers; and possibly some kind of lip/new front bar.

Ok, one last photo to throw in because its pure awesome. Bonus points to anyone who figures out what it is

Jeo wrote:Ok, one last photo to throw in because its pure awesome. Bonus points to anyone who figures out what it is

Is it a photography class?

Nice car! I'm a huge fan of Black and Tan, looks awesome.

Your car on a projector screen at Uni.

Looks like one of the lecture rooms at UC. Photo taken at the Veladrome by the lake!

Oh and clean that engine bay

black NA's are just so cool.

i like the way you've fitted the jaycar afr gauge too, really neat . well done

What are these lights for?

jaycar air / fuel ratio gauge.

Jeo wrote:Ok, one last photo to throw in because its pure awesome. Bonus points to anyone who figures out what it is


Is it a photography class?

That's lecture in webdesign or something possebly at Sydney UTS & Nathan who is your lecturer happens to be a member here & over at JDM Style Tuning was making you bring up an MX5 & do magic stuff in Photo shop.




Thats my guess

Yep, lights above the steering column are for the air/fuel gauge.
Cleaning engine bay was actually one of the projects for these holidays.

The photo is taken in a lecture theater at the ANU, but the story behind it is soooo much more interesting than the picture itself.

I was taking a course in E-Marketing and one of our assignments was to create a blog, mine of course was about my car. During the first lecture, there was no backgrounds on any of the lecture slides. The lecturer said that this was because he received the slides from the text book with blank white background and a list of suggested pictures to use as backgrounds. He thought this was a horrible idea so instead asked the class the send him any interesting photos they had taken/found which could be used as backdrops. After two more weeks where nobody sent him any pictures, he started using lolcats with the captions removed. A few weeks of this went by and I thought a great way to promote my blog to the rest of the class, thereby getting myself more hits, was to get a picture from my blog up as the slide background. When I explained my idea to the lecturer as an advertising idea, he loved enough to not only use the picture, but gave me bonus marks for it too!

My favorite part was at the start of that lecture he explained how I got a photo from my blog up on screen, that I got bonus marks for it and that nobody else was allowed to send him anything blog related again. Win!

so do I win a prize?

StanTheMan wrote:so do I win a prize?

If anybody got it I'd have to say it would be bensale, just because he didn't specify a particular room/uni/subject

And anyway, I already said the prize was bonus points. Everyone know how hard those bonus points are to get...

Wooot! Bonus points

So what (if any) are the future plans for the car?

bensale wrote:So what (if any) are the future plans for the car?

Many, many plans. But like most people, whether they actually ever eventuate or not is a completely different story

Immediate plans are to finish off the intake system. I bought a few more things for that today, so I *should* be able to get everything that I'm able to do myself done this week.
I got a pair of stock headlight panels a while back, so that I could have them cut up and make my own cold air intake. That would be next on the list, so I'll need to organise that soon.

Currently looking in to a vented bonnet too. I'd like something along the lines of the Garage Vary one, but having real issues finding anything in Aus so far.

Cleaning up the engine bay was also on the cards for this month (the girlfriend even got me a metal polishing kit for the dremel for Christmas, with that very task in mind ). A friend and I agreed to help each other out with our dirty, dirty bays for a weekend on each car over the uni holidays. Acceptable food, decent drink, plenty or cursing and hopefully some cleaning thrown in there somewhere, I'm hoping should make for a good couple of days.

Last thing for these holidays is that I'd also like to finish off the audio system. The car has the stock headrest speakers, which I was fairly indifferent about when I first got it. Then when I replaced the front speakers, added the amp, etc, I didn't bother connecting them. The problem then was that when the roof was down, I found I had to have the music much louder than I used to . So about a month or so ago I reconnected the stock headrest speakers, running just off the head unit. While I didn't need to go as loud anymore, its sounded horrible compared to the really nice amplified AVIs I had in the front.
So I'm thinking to sort this I'm going to find a nicer set of speakers to use in the headrest and then to amplify them. Problem here is that I'm not sure how I want to go about doing that.

*I started asking that question here but then thought it probably deserved its own thread*
Head on over here if you're particularly interested.

Cool, sounds good mate! I look forward to seeing the results

While I'm sure I'm going to get hated on by some of the forum members for this, I sound deadened the doors yesterday.

Wasn't a planned thing, just happened. I was in at a local car audio store discussing my headrest speakers and getting their thoughts on the whole thing, when I noticed they had Dynamat door kits on sale for $100. Quick ring around to other stores in Canberra to make sure that was actually a sale price. Turns out that was even cheaper than the discounted price I was given by the shop I normally go to for my audio work.

I had nothing planned for the afternoon so I bought it and went home to start installing it.

If you've already upgraded some of your audio system and aren't worried about the extra weight (a few kilos at most) I'd reccommend it. Makes the music sound a bit crisper and blocks out a little road noise (and makes the doors sound awesome when they close).

The tools + product


Door skin off, dust guard off, degrease everything, remove all that black sticky stuff


Nice clean door


the finished product