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Hello everyone my name is Alex and I'm a uni student in Victoria and I am currently on my green p's in victoria. I recently purchased a 2003 Mazda MX-5 so I decided to join this community to learn more about my car. My car history is as follows: Honda Accord Euro, VW Jetta TDI, BMW X5 3.0D, and a Honda Integra Type R, I was involved in the Honda community for a while before selling my Integra and moving onto the MX-5 for various reasons. Once I had sold my Honda I had decided that I wanted to own a rear wheel drive car and being a honda fanboy the s2000 was the obvious choice. However, finding a clean one within my budget was a struggle so I looked elsewhere. I came across this clean looking MX-5 and went to look at it immediately, next thing you know I'm driving it home Although it is very different to what I have owned in the past, I am enjoying every bit of it so far. This car is my daily but I plan to slowly modify it for occasional track use, but for now I am enjoying it as it is. But my plans are so far:

- MX5+ Rollbar
- LSD
- Coilovers
- F+R swaybars and strutbars
- 8 inch + wide wheels all round
- Big brake kit
- Recaros/Brides or any other bucket seats

No power modifications just yet, I want to focus on learning how to drive this car and how to improve on the handling and braking aspects of it first before I start adding power. I look forward to learning more about these cars and getting to know some faces on here. I've run a track day with the MX5/AROCA club before (in the honda) and I should be doing more with them in the future, so I look forward to meeting some fellow MX-5 enthusiasts. Here are some quick pictures to start things off.

On the day I bought it


It's first wash




Cheers,

Alex

Welcome!

ALso don't worry about brakes for quite some time. You've got to be pushing pretty hard before you'll hit the limit on stock brakes with decent pads.

dfdc2r wrote:No power modifications just yet, I want to focus on learning how to drive this car and how to improve on the handling and braking aspects of it first before I start adding power.

Great to see someone going about things the right way instead of barrelling into moar power as the 'solution'.

Agree with Jeo, You already have the largest brakes available pre-NC so just good pads, fresh quality fluid, and maybe braided lines and you will have more than enough braking power.

dfdc2r wrote:But my plans are so far:

- MX5+ Rollbar

Cheers,

Alex

Hello and Welcome Alex!

In case you weren't aware, MX5-plus are a forum sponsor and have the TB rollbar on special for the month of January only at 15% off.
See this thread -> viewtopic.php?f=82&t=61592

This puts the price at roughly the same level achieved in a group buy done a few years ago on these forums!
Even if you just buy it now and install a bit later, it's more $$$ in your pocket.
I've ordered one already and shipping to Sydney was $99, I imagine it would be something similar to Melbourne.

Also, I've always liked those factory wheels, shame they didn't make them wider than 6.5"......

Thanks for the kind comments guys. I will be heading to Winton this sunday to give the car it's first track run. So in preparation I have done the transmission fluid, racing brake fluid and a fire extinguisher install under the passenger seat. It should be a good day exploring the limits of the car and learning how to drive it properly, really looking forward to it!

Managed to pick up this Sparco Ultra for an absolute bargain, installed it just then in preparation for Winton on sunday. Took a bit of minor modifications to get it to fit but nothing major. It sits a bit lower than the stock seat and feels absolutely awesome, not sure how it will be on longer trips though. I really hope that the cops won't hassle me too much for having this seat...

What modifications did it require?


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sailaholic wrote:What modifications did it require?


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It required 2 new holes in the rail plus I had to shave away a bit of the fibreglass seat for the rail lever to be able function properly.

sailaholic wrote:What modifications did it require?
:

Dark sunglasses

So I took the MX-5 to Winton on Sunday to see what I could find out about the car. The car is an excellent car in stock form, the handling characteristics are great, you'd expect it from a well factory set up ~1000kg RWD car. The engine was also very healthy and it felt powerful enough for the car. However I did find some flaws in the car, it was a seriously hot day at winton (probably 40+ degrees on the track) and the car began to overheat after 3-4 laps even with a low temp thermostat fitted and the heater on full, I guess most other cars were experiencing this issue as well but it is something that I would like to improve. The old Toyo Proxes 4 tyres simply werent up to the task, there wasn't much grip and I was fighting to keep the car in a straight line on corner exits. As for the brakes, the car already had TRW pads, they were ok but I think that could also be improved. Even though the car handled great, there was a lot of body roll while cornering which made me feel less confident in the car's handling. The hot weather probably didn't help with the power output/straightline speed of the car and as a result it didn't feel that quick in a straight line, but I'm happy with the stock power for now as it is manageable with the current set up of the car and my driving ability.

I timed myself on the Racechrono app and here are the results:
Session 1: 1:58.86
Session 2: Timer lost GPS position
Session 3: Timer lost GPS position
Session 4: 1:56.17
Session 5: 1:53.93
Session 6: 1:53.01

I'm pretty happy with the times, but I know that it can go a lot quicker once I have some more track time with it and learn how to drive it better. It should also be quicker once I address the basic issues of the car, hopefully the next track day will also be cooler.

Here is a quick snap of it at the track


Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Alex