Advice on 2002 NB supercharged

[davekmoore]

Please see car rego BIGGAR on carsales. Is $29,000 crazy money for this? Looks like it's been properly done but what do I need to look out for?

[davekmoore]

It's an 02 NB Titanium at $29,000 with 200rwkw

[mx52nv]

Link to advert -> clicky

Some pics:

Supercharger 200kw at the rear wheel. over $30,000 spent on engine. Never been on Track.
I bought the car new , regularly serviced by mazda. Modifications in 2005 by the MX5 Factory. This is an every day drivable car pushing 200kw rear wheel. Supercharger is made by BRP specifically for Miata in the US. It is air and water intercooled and has had a complete engine upgrade to handle the extra power. It is an excellent example of what can be done to an MX-5 to make it better.
List of modifications:
Semi racing clutch, High flow cat converter, iridium spark plugs, High performance lead set, Hot tank cyl block and components, torque plate bore and hone eng block, Reco cylinder heads, porting (turbo port inc full port job attention paid to exhausts ports and runners), Performance camshaft. Matched Ferrea valve spring andretain kit, Wisco Mazda mx5 forged piston kit, Brp Supercharger (complete kit includes air and water Intercooler all hardware and chip), Bilstein fully adjustable springs. Remote windows on lock. Just over $30,000 spent on up grade.

[Jeo]

Cheers Les. I'll be honest and say I saw this thread the other day but couldn't be bothered looking it up so I left...

I think you've really answered your own question there Dave

It's an 02 NB Titanium at $29,000 with 200rwkw

Do you want a 200kw NB?
Do you not want the hassle of building it yourself?

If you answered yes to all of those questions, then that looks like a hell of a parts list.
Talk to the guy and see what his reasons for both building and selling it are. Bare in mind that he is trying to sell the car so don't instantly believe everything he says (obviously) but he may also be a decent honest guy who is looking to move on to something new. Either way, the current owner can probably tell you a hell of a lot more useful information than any of us could, assuming none of us know the car in question.

[AB7]

I wonder how it goinng to pass the pit? Looks like a very well built kit. I like the air/ water unit. Very compact!
Is it worth it? If are not considering legality/ insurance... Then maybe.
I've see much more ridiculous figure than $29 k for modded NB, it's all relative.

Personally, I would just to buy SE and spend a bit of money on it.

[sliq]

I wonder how it goinng to pass the pit? Looks like a very well built kit. I like the air/ water unit. Very compact!
Is it worth it? If are not considering legality/ insurance... Then maybe.
I've see much more ridiculous figure than $29 k for modded NB, it's all relative.

Personally, I would just to buy SE and spend a bit of money on it.

ditto. would just buy an SE and whack on some go fast bits on it.

[davekmoore]

Cheers Les. I'll be honest and say I saw this thread the other day but couldn't be bothered looking it up so I left...

I think you've really answered your own question there Dave

It's an 02 NB Titanium at $29,000 with 200rwkw

Do you want a 200kw NB?
Do you not want the hassle of building it yourself?

If you answered yes to all of those questions, then that looks like a hell of a parts list.
Talk to the guy and see what his reasons for both building and selling it are. Bare in mind that he is trying to sell the car so don't instantly believe everything he says (obviously) but he may also be a decent honest guy who is looking to move on to something new. Either way, the current owner can probably tell you a hell of a lot more useful information than any of us could, assuming none of us know the car in question.

Thanks Les for the links (too clever for me to do).

I reckon the ad reads as if it means what it says. Haven't spoken to the guy yet but suspect he's got, or has had, plenty of money and simply wanted a special MX5 and did it right first time. I'm looking at cars like this because I can't trust myself to take a normally aspirated car to forced induction without making all the mistakes that could possibly be made and spending all the money that would be involved in making all the mistakes!

I worked for VW/Audi group in the UK and they "forced" me to have a new car every 3 months. I sold finance in dealerships that supplied VW/Skoda/SEAT/Audi/Lambo/Bentley etc. I'd usually choose something with a turbo as the company car .....

When with SEAT, loved the old shape Leon Cupra (aka VW Golf) with the 1.8 turbo and 180bhp (Golfs of the same era only had 150bhp). Sometimes, at least for 30 minutes a day, liked the Leon Cupra R with 225bhp even better but disliked its stiffer suspension, wider tyres which meant less communicative steering, and the narrower seats, which were narrower than me at the time. I discount the SEAT Ibiza equivalent to the Polo, and the Polo Gti, because with turbo'd 150/180bhp or 225 when "fettled", even with suspension mods, they always lost the plot at the first corner and properly cooked the brakes in the quick 10 minutes part of my regular 30 minutes drive to work.

Moved to Skoda (DON'T laugh) and found a car that had the best balance of power/handling/cost/fuel consumption/comfort of any I'd ever dríven up to then (in 40+ years of driving all sorts of interesting stuff). This was a Skoda Octavia 2.0 vRS with the same 200bhp/147kw 2.0 turbo engine and chassis as the then current Golf Gti. Sadly, might even admit to rather liking the 170PS Tdi Octavia vRS as the diesel donk pulled like a stump puller. And even had quite a soft spot for an Octavia Elegance with the 140PS Tdi and the DSG gearbox, but ....

Then went to VW and had a Pirelli Gti Golf V. Better again. More power. Loads of feedback. Great fun.

Incidentally, always turned down the offer of quicker "S" or "RS" Audis as they would have seriously slapped me for UK income tax, plus I can't drive that fast.

Then said goodbye to VW in UK and came to live in Aus and bought first a Golf Cab 2.0 (slow as), then an NA6 (the Boss gets a Honda MDX) and have enjoyed the NA nearly as much as the Pirelli Golf, I guess mainly because I've rediscovered rear wheel drive controllability which I'm NOT going to give up again (last had it with tuned MGs in the 70s), partly because it pulls from tickover to 7500rpm, when it makes GREAT noises, and partly because we have a climate here that makes soft tops actually useful, plus we're now empty nesters and don't need more than 2 seats.

But ----- I've changed my job from a 5 minute commute to one where I'm doing up to 200kms a day and getting in and out of the car 10-12 times a day. An NA6 is great, but ain't great for that. Love the NA6 to bits and might keep it at least until my son can use it when he comes over for Christmas. But meanwhile, need something a bit more civilised so I'm thinking ......

Don't like the look of NC so maybe ..... NB S2 so I don't have to add chassis braces, bigger brakes, glass rear window that you can see out of, plus I'll have things like remote central locking, boot opening, electric mirrors etc and will have some safety features thrown in like ABS and air bags, plus the 6 speeds that I've been used to for a long time. Plus I'm told NB S2 is way less raw than NA6 (good and bad of course). True, there's no need for 200rwkw, or for the bigger wheels, tyres etc that go along with that. The 147kw that old shape Golf Gti and Skodo Octavia vRS gave at the flywheel would be perfectly ok, especially in a lighter car with the dríven wheels at the correct end, and may be better again in that there's no need for silly big tyres, brakes or mega suspension etc.

So, finally, an answer to your question, and to others who've questioned the need for 200rwkw.... NO, I REALISE I DON'T NEED IT. And, given that the normally aspirated NB8 has, I think, 118kw, I'll pose another question .......

I'll raise $20,000+ if I have to for the right car, but would prefer to spend way less, at least to start off with. If the NB is less raw, and I'll cope with semi-raw, while liking some civilisation and safety, and I like about 150kw, and prefer something that I won't get tripped up by on a roadside inspection, and I definitely don't personally want to add forced induction to any normally aspirated car I might own, should I best get what I want by buying an SE with turbo, or should I get a normally aspirated and later add CAI, exhaust, cams, injectors, mapping etc??

Sorry for the long post and hoping for shorter answers!

Dave

[Jeo]

From what you've said there it sure sounds like you want an SE to me.
N/A mods on the NB will never get you that sort of power. If you think you're after turbo powah!!! see if you can find an SE you can take for a drive and see what you think.

Essentially I'd be trying to drive as many different options as you can; stock NB, modified NB, SE, etc. That will allow you to think about your opinion on the subject. If you're a member of your local, club I'm sure there would be a range of NB's in various levels of modification who's owners would be willing to take you for a drive.

[Garry]

I'd go for an SE with a few subtle performance enhancements, though it will most likely be over your $20K limit. You'll have much less hassles with insurance/registration/resale etc than messing around with an aftermarket jobbie.

You will get over 130rwkw without to much effort (somewhere up near 160 flywheel kw), easily enough to see off any unchipped VW GTI at the lights and even give the chipped ones a good run for their money. Unfortunately you wont get the instant torque of the VW products though.

In my opinion 200rwkw is to much for an MX5. I only have around 145rwkw in my car and I seldom have the need for any more power. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure lots of others will have a different opinion about the right amount of power for an MX5.

[bruce]

Easy answer for you - it will never be registerable in Victoria. It will need Vic Engineering certificates which no one will issue.
Go the SE or SP route.

[16bit]

buy it, you know you want to

[mhj]

haggle hard .....the GFC in winter should help with the price

looks great!!!!!!!!!!! wish i had the mp62 sc....and too much power is never enough

as 16bit says....buy it...you know you want too

enjoy

[davekmoore]

haggle hard .....the GFC in winter should help with the price

looks great!!!!!!!!!!! wish i had the mp62 sc....and too much power is never enough

as 16bit says....buy it...you know you want too

enjoy

....... and I sold the NA6 today (cue tears of joy and happiness combined).

[93_Clubman]

congrats dave! i assume from your earlier post above you're looking for a silver '00-'05 nb8b, as opposed to a silver '98-'00 nb8a?

[davekmoore]

congrats dave! i assume from your earlier post above you're looking for a silver '00-'05 nb8b, as opposed to a silver '98-'00 nb8a?

Well I'm caught between getting financed up for an S2 6 spd SE/SP or the supercharged car or similar or buying a cheap NB Series 1 such as the one I've dríven today. Underwhelmed by the lack of immediacy, the steering pulling left,the road noise (wheel bearing?), the lack of ABS, the tickover winding up to 2k when the a/c is switched on, and the pinging. Impressed by the better safety and convenience kit and refinement though and by the fact that it'd effectively cost me the 91 NA plus only $4k.

May have to do the upgrade in stages, e.g; make the NB a bit more interesting with exhaust/CAI etc, run it 6-12 months, then take the deeper plunge when I've built up more of a car fund.

PS If the Clubman on ebay is yours then you can tell how confused I am by the fact that it might have interested me as well if it had power steering and air con. Looks a nice car by the way and well priced.