mx5cartalk.com

For the past few days I have been back to living with my car as a daily. For the past 6 months I have seen more of my MX5 from the rear vision mirror of the Amarok than I have out of its windscreen.
Untitled by Eipeip, on Flickr

My build in the beginning had no real direction, however in the end I aimed to make a naturally aspirated car that was fast on a track but could be used as a daily.

Is it fast on the track, well with a better driver it would be. I'm still learning to drive it. If I was to give any advice it would be learn to be a fast driver FIRST and build a fast car second. It takes so much more skill to drive a slow car fast and those people who can you have my utmost respect. However like a petulant child I did not listen to the advice and just went on my own journey. The very young do not always do as they're told, how true.

In 2016 the plan is for more driver training and less car mods, but I digress...

As a daily.
1. Tune
The car is tuned via TPS/Load and not AFR so it is not the most fuel economic way to have a daily. Roughly 200km on a tank of E85. At WTAC about 2 ltrs a lap.
Daily traffic almost impossible to cruise below 2,500 rpm due to the first harmonic making the throttle very touchy. 100 kmh is about 3,000 in 6th. On the track car does not go below 5,000 so no issues there.

2. Creature comforts
No carpets - you hear EVERYTHING from the fuel pump whine to small rocks hitting the floor panels however it does not mask the sound of the engine as it climbs above 5,000.

No radio - makes you concentrate more when driving as a daily. You get to see what is happening around you, plus you can't use a mobile It is amazing in stop start traffic however many cars on the road only have one occupant in them, sad! It is also sad that if you leave yourself space for safety somebody just has to occupy it. I feel safer on a track traveling at 190 kmh with somebody overtaking than I do in the 100 kmh zone with somebody less than 1 second behind you not trying to overtake.

Suspension - as a daily it is not harsh on most roads, and this is suprising. On the track it needs to be upgraded as it is starting to show its age and limitations. You can't knock the OEM rear sway bar for both track and daily use, there is no need to go for a bigger bar under any circumstances unless you are 100% track orientated

Tyres - AD08's or 595 RSR's no problems, however I would not use the FZ201's, R88's or DZ01's as a daily tyre as without any heat they are a handful.

Alignment - running -2.5/-2.0 F/R camber is not too aggressive for the street, however for the track it does need (tyre dependant) at least -3.5/-3.0 camber is much better. This is a hard decision as without buying the tools and learning the knowledge changing the alignment at home is not possible. Having an aggressive alignment for the track and then using it on the road will increase tyre turnover. This is a hard decision. Anyway the car is off the Accurate Suspension for a full checkup and alignment next week, alignment will be what they suggest based on recent feedback given on the car's handling.

Brakes - OEM calipers so no issues here. Pads, I'm surprised how the pad combination Winmax 6.5's and W3's are for use as a daily. Now they are very dusty but do give good brake torque from low temps when used for daily duties, however if it was going to be used as an extended daily I would scale the pads back to A1RM's. Track wise the rear brakes (when using FZ201's) are locking up too early so a manual brake bias valve is needed. Living with a manual brake bias as a daily would be no issue and in fact could improve its braking.

Mirrors - the small lightweight mirrors are great for the track, however as a daily I'm beginning to question the passenger side one. Between the diagonal cross bar of the roll cage, the wing end plate changing lanes to the left needs to be done with care as there are a few blind spots, despite the best adjusted mirror. It would be great to have electric adjustable mirrors for a daily as it seems people just have to bump/play with them.

Seat - No complaints from using the Sparco Sprint 5's as a daily seat, they are actually very comfortable.

Sun visors - not the smartest decision to remove. The windscreen banner from WTAC was a bonus, however it is not legal as it MAY obscure too much of the drivers vision. Need to either reinstall the sun visor for daily duties or conform to the QLD transport rules on a windscreen banner.
The tinting must not extend lower than a horizontal line connecting the uppermost points of the arcs swept by the vehicle manufacturer’s original wiper blades or upper 10 percent of the windscreen, whichever is the lesser. The tinting may be of any shade but must not have a reflectance of more than 10 percent.

As a daily it is liveable with, however I question why I should. Getting from home to Milton in the morning is quick, however leaving Milton at 1615 to drive home takes about 70 mins in the most horrid stop start traffic between Cootha roundabout and Fig Tree Pocket. I can leave work at 1615 walk to Milton train station and catch a train then drive home from the train station in LESS than the time it takes to drive. Cost of the train is about $6 (each way) and this is less than the cost of the fuel I use driving. I don't pay parking (company provided).

As a daily I'm sick of people trying to drag me off or rev their engines at me for a 'race', however I do enjoy the thumbs up and people that ask if they can take a photo or have a sit in it. The looks on children's faces when they get to sit in it and act like a race car driver so their parents can take a photo makes the build worth it. Actually some of the adults that sit in it get the same look as the children

Conclusion... It is a daily as well as a track car, whilst it is a compromise I'm happy with the end result. But it is horrible in peak hour traffic (irrespective of the car I'm driving) so it is back to public transport and ENJOYING the drive from the train station to home (15 mins). There is a very nice section which goes from 70 to 100 and I always manage to be in 3rd gear when I reach this transition... Isn't this is what it is about ENJOYING what you have built.

Well, well, well.

Its mind over matter innit?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. right? If it rocks your boat.....its cool. Perhaps not in my eyes but that's not the point. Ive been there & done that. My car has been to hell & back several times. Its been raped & pillaged over the years. some things worked some didn't. Huge disappointment in some ways when id bitten off more than I could chew. I can live with that. Its a process.

My car went from a N/A street monster back to basics. Parts of it I regret taking off or changing back. Thosde parts will come back. not for a while but they will. I keep entertaining the thought of of going F/I but its not an option as I have 1 learner driver & another in 3 years.

The way Patchy is right now is exactly where I want her right now. She's been resurrected from hell & is once more a pleasure to drive. Even my son comments on how different it is now compared to a few months ago.

Next big purchase is a roll bar. a blingy one. Its one of those things I regret selling off. When the righjt bar comes up & i happoen to be able to afford it. Thats when it will be. Then some cams maybe. Lumpy ones so when you hit 5k it just recites poetry but is still derivable in peak hr traffic.

for me personally, driveability is the most important thing. Handling & road feed back are close after that. I hate rattles. Power...its nice. but you don't can kill yourself with 65RWkw just as much as with 165.

Sounds like your car is a pretty hectic drive. While that's not my style I must admit though, the most exciting car Ive ever dríven was a 1960 Bug Eye Sprite. Its done a few Tasman Targas.
But it was so loud in 3rd gear. OMFG. My son who was prolly 13 at the time got scared shitless. LOL. The poor kid. He was screaming to stop. I couldn't help myself. But it went like a wild pig shot in the behind. But no car has left a smile on my dial like this one. I'm not sure I could handle it as a daily. But geez driving it every so often would be a real treat.

BARMY has become more and more track oriented over the last 4 years. Even lost the air con and most of the interior recently. It's now only just comfortable enough for road use but I could live with it as a DD if I had to, although there's now also another car for regular use and when BARMY is being worked on.

The other car will probably see more use on the road when BARMY shortly gets poly bushes and a more aggressive alignment.

There is no way I could daily my car. Not only is it hard to drive at anything under 3000 rpm, but it's loud, rough, hot, uncomfortable and basically an assault on all your senses at once. It's a blast on the road even driving well under the limit, even just for the lunacy of it trying to drive it... but it would only work in short doses. Not only that, but I don't want to wear out my race engine and tyres with useless road kms.

My b-spec was my daily for 5 years before kids. The little 1.6 revved nice and was a pleasure to drive, very much like driving a go-kart on the road. Not that fast but good fun. As soon as I started running it on the track, it got compromised with excessive lightening. No power steering, air con, heater, underfelt etc etc. I really I can't see how you can have a both a daily and a track car with a MX5. To get reasonable on-track performance it needs way more power, way less weight and that combination makes it useless as a daily. Go get a Lotus Elise instead!

I've now got an OS Giken clutch in Gina which is nowhere near as forgiving as the OEM clutch, or my DD 5-speed Mazda SP23 (I let one of my neighbour's sons learn to drive a manual in my SP23 and he thought he was "a natural" until he started driving a manual VW). There's no way I'd want to DD Gina in the stop/start rush hour traffic on Old Cleveland road; I'd probably get used to the OS Giken clutch in those conditions but for now, I don't care to.

I've eliminated the power steering too in Gina. You quickly get used to it and can actually feel the front tyre grip through the steering wheel which I miss when driving the SP23. Reverse and parallel parking is a bit more hassle but as long as you're rolling it's OK.

The A/C will stay though - normally I drive with the top down but the days I've needed to use the A/C I wouldn't want to drive the car without it.

The main reason I don't DD Gina though and bought another car specifically for DD duty is that people just don't see a Ti MX5 or automatically think I'll give way. My route to and from work is quite congested and there are a lot of aggressive drivers so I don't dare DD Gina after having too many close incidents in the first few days. My SP23 is bright yellow and can even be seen in most 4WD blind spots - I haven't had any incidents in over 9 months of DD (touch wood). Yellow is a brilliant "see me" colour!

My car's pretty stiff too which is great as a driver - would hate to be a long-distance passenger though.

Buying a bike for commuter duties sure made the occasions I got to drive my car feel more special. Did also make me realise how much I had invested in a weekend toy though.

I hated it for long highway drives but the occasional trip around town wasn't too bad. The clutch and seat probably made the biggest difference for road manners in mine.

I bought my NA8 Clubman as a pretty much standard car, and over about 2 years i have built it to perform very well in the local hillclimbs, and i still drive it to work every day.
MCA Blues and NC seat conversion has definitely helped in making it reasonably comfortable to drive, even on average roads.
I really dont like the Exedy cushioned button clutch as it shudders when riding it too much.
It has a VVT engine swap with built bottom end and Nitro Dann turbo swap, making more power than i need, but still drives almost like a standard car under 3k.
No A/C does get annoying in summer, but im not old enough to care much yet.

That's pretty intense magpie I don't think I could live with that now.

10 years back I did have a K11 Micra with cams, coilovers, semis, etc. I went through and stripped the whole car, roof lining, sound deadening, and all the vents and heater behind the dash. It was loud, uncomfortable, fogged up like crazy during rain, and really just made it unbearable as a daily. I thought I could live with it, but I couldn't, and was lucky enough to sell it in that state.

Even when I think back now, modifying my BRG, it was much more playful and forgiving before. Now it feels alot more serious. I sort of miss that stock balanced feeling of an NA6. That's the thing, when we start modifying, we always make compromises, and then we mod more to compensate for those imbalances we've created, but really its just a never ending cycle

happy modding all

While I haven't finished my mx5, I did have the engine in a modified car previously and yeah it got pretty old quickly in summer.

Prior car was a mazda sp20 which engine was had:
Custom Weisco ~12:1 Pistons with 21mm wristpin.
3SGTE Rods
3SGTE Oversized Bearings
Modified Crank to Suit Bearings (i.e. tighter tolerances all round) + Achieve thicker bearings.
Samco Radiator Hoses
AWR Engine Mounts - 70 Durometer
Modified Head - 5 Angle Valve Job, Blending, Ported and Knife-Edged Intake Ports, Ported and Knife-Edged Exhaust Ports.
Twiggy Cams
Adaptronic e440D
Zentrix Flexi Fuel Module
Innovate MTX-L Wide Band Kit
DocB Racing Oil Pump
Peterson Pressure Release Valve
Modified MBSP for Oil Return
Oil Filter Relocation Kit:
- Works Engineering Oil Adapters
- Aeroflow AN10 Fittings All Round
- Aeroflow Black Tubing
Focus Adjustable Cam Gears
Jay Racing Thermal Spacers
FS-ZE Intake Manifold
626 Throttle Body (FS-ZEs use them stock)
MSP Oil Cooler
Stant Low Temperature Thermostat
K&N Typhoon CAI
Air Diversion Panel
Autoexe Headers 4-2-1
Custom 2.5" Exhaust + Mid Pipe. High Flow Magnaflow Cat
CR3 Motorsport Radiator Brackets
RR Racing Bush Kit
RR Racing UDP
Mfactory LSD
Fidanza Flywheel - 7.5lb
Custom NPC 760kg Clutch
eBay Short Shifter
Qford Bushes
Mazdaspeed Protege Weighted Gearknob

Was epic fun to drive. But every day you cursed it when driving to work in stop start traffic, no airflow, no aircon, an engine that didn't really like anything below 3k and dressed in work clothes meant you sort of got steamed in your own juices in hot humid feb mornings. However, come night time or no traffic, it never ceased to put a smile on your face. Also sounded nice which helped.

Oh and the drone was pretty horrible inside the cabin unless you had the windows down, guess thats something i won't have to worry about anymore

Hahaha ... been there, done that!

The GM started as a stock car, running track days in the standard class ... then the BD bar went in, followed by Koni/Kings, ... a Loch Stewart intake ... then the engine work ... trick brake pads ... LSD ... Haltech ... Sparco Sprint seat ... Bilsteins ... bushes ... and more wheels than I can shake a stick at ... and it was grumpy, lumpy beast which did not like cold Canberra mornings, or traffic humps, or stop/start traffic, and it was great fun, but ... not enough fun to offset the downsides.

So the decision was made to get a racecar shell, and swap in the good bits = cheap racecar. Then the GM's engine dropped a valve at Eastern Creek, and the racecar wasn't quite so cheap

But the GM lived on as a sporty, but much more civilised car before going to sports car heaven. GM2 will take up the reins, but the temptation to go too far down that slippery slope will need to be constantly watched.

maybe consider that grey area between daily and track car that is the weekender ride. Lesson the burden of compromise, reduce the the grinding of teeth brought on by the peak hour commute, build a car that excites you on hump day as the weekend draws close. Plan weekend roadtrips aimed at the drive, with the destination being less of a concern, rather a place to recuperate for the return journey back home on the saturday/sunday.

My favourite is going down to coffs, up the dorrigo range, over to armidale and then on up the new england highway to glenn innes, and finally back down the great divide to grafton. Plenty of easily accessible camping areas, points of interest and photo locations.

3gress wrote:maybe consider that grey area between daily and track car that is the weekender ride.

Yeh, that's a good way to have it. Sometimes I regret going too far with my MX5 since it was such a great car when it was close to stock but my problem is that modifying cars is such a slippery slope and I lack restraint

My MX5 is a pain to drive on the road but every time I go out to the track I realise why I love it, ƒü¢k it's a great car to drive on the track especially for someone who doesn't have a trailer and needs something reliable.

My daily is a 270kw (over 300 on E85) Evo 10 so It’s not all bad..

Dan wrote:

3gress wrote:maybe consider that grey area between daily and track car that is the weekender ride.

Yeh, that's a good way to have it. Sometimes I regret going too far with my MX5 since it was such a great car when it was close to stock but my problem is that modifying cars is such a slippery slope and I lack restraint
:

That "grey area" is exactly where I've decided to maintain Gina at, not really suitable for DD duties but perfect for weekends and fun track days. I don't plan on ripping out the A/C, carpet or adding aero aids and hope not to gain the attention from the boys in blue.

As Magpie alluded to in his initial post, you really need to decide what you want your car to be and build it fully knowing the consequences.

Lokiel both you an Gina are invited to the next dodgy day, I'll even make sure there some shade for Gina. Plus I'm sure I can find so 17" wheels to put on a NA.