Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

broady · Postby **broady** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:36 am

14x7 +7. So Alex's are a fair bit more aggressive. May even need a pull on the fronts depending on tyres/camber I reckon.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 4:15 pm

You might be right. Below is how they sat at the front left with no one in the car. The x7 +7's looked very good, will keep that in mind.

tobias · Postby **tobias** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:34 pm

What size tyres are they? If you need a guard roller let me know I bought one for my car and have gotten a fair bit of use out of it

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:56 pm

Alex's are 15x8 +6. Hmm, keen on giving the guard rolling a go actually, will chat to you about it at garage cafe =)

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:40 am

So here is another picture two pics of the car with awesome wheels.

When you drive an mx-5 roads like the Hume Highway get particularly boring so on my last trip down from Sydney I decided to do a bit of adventuring. I've always be fascinated by the old Hume Highway, I think the Melbourne to Syndey drive would be so much more interesting if it was broken up by some towns and a few interesting corners, so I tried to find the remnants of this road.

Parts of the road are quite easy to find, starting from the M7 the Camden Valley Way is part of the old road. To continue on the road you take the route over Razorback mountain through Picton, Tahmoor and Bargo. From here you're forced onto the new highway until the exit to Mittagong which allows you to follow the road from Mittagong to Berrima.

From here it was about finding extracts of the road left which aren't really on the map (although I did miss one largish section I found on google maps today). The photos below are from this attempt to find hidden remains of the road, part of which run alongside the new road, others heading off in slightly different directions.

I was very surprised by the number of gates and cattle grids on the road. Some of the gates were left open where others were closed blocking through access on the road. However a few of them were able to be opened.

The other surprise was how sections of road would end for no reason, either barricaded to shop through traffic along the road or just stopping altogether with grass growing over what is left of the road.

My other adventure on the day was a loop up and through some of the Snowey Mountains area. The sections of road both here and on the sections of the Old Hume highway reminded me quite a lot of Putty Road in NSW actually, nice fast flowing corners broken up by shorter twisty sections.

The Mx-5 now has done over 276,000 kms... About 30,000 more than this time last year..! Not that it bothers me much, adventures like this, or deciding to drive to Bathurst from Sydney at 10pm at night are the reason you own an car like an Mx5.

Bizi · Postby **Bizi** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 11:30 am

Ben, you could write a story of your NSW old Hume Hwy detective travels for the NRMA Open Road or for Tourism NSW!

CheyneX5 · Postby **CheyneX5** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:02 pm

That would have been a lot of fun mate, how much more time did the detour add to your journey home?

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:50 pm

That's an excellent story Ben. Reminds me of the classic photo from WHEELS taken over the shoulder of Mel Nichols whilst punting a GTHO down the old Hume at 145mph (233km/hr)! It was perfectly legal at the time, although when they first printed the photo, they edited the position of the speedo needle.

Incidentally, that old 160mph supercar scare is a bit laughable now. These days, there is no shortage of family cars that are limited to 250km/hr (155mph), and plenty more that are much much faster. The introduction of speed limits, seat belts and booze buses had a much more significant impact on the road toll.

Wheels_228_on_the_Hume_1280x998_wallpaper by Guran5, on Flickr

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 8:14 pm

Thanks for the compliments guys =) I think that with more planning and two days to do the trip in you could write up a story which would be worth telling and get some excellent photos (the ones in my write up are just from the iphone with some quick processing). In total this trip took around 12 hours, I can normally do it in around 9.5.

Guran, it was that photo and the magazine stories that I've read about that road that prompted me to search for whats left of it. Almost every trip I do I make at least one detour to explore as it makes a quite tedious drive much more interesting. I'm driving back up again in October so will probably explore the section I found on google maps and another I found on this trip which was going north.

Bizi · Postby **Bizi** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:07 pm

Ben, in Sydney right now, Ch31, there's a drive of old restored trucks doing an Old Hume run, from Camden and especially Marulan via Gunning to Yass, for the parts they can drive through.

Great pic too, Guran.

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 9:53 pm

Geez Ben, if you want to make a tedious drive more interesting, why not avoid the Hume all together? Up to Corryong, across Kosciusko to Cooma, from Canberra to Goulburn via backroads (Tarago etc), then up to Blue Mountains via Taralga & Oberon. It's a hell of a drive! :mrgreen:

BTW, I'll dig out that old WHEELS article and post a scan for your entertainment. Was a great read.

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:38 pm

That would have been an interesting thing to watch!

If I'm ever doing the drive over two days or with two drivers I might give that one a go Guran, sounds like a lot of fun! Will be interested to read the article =)

Guran · Postby **Guran** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:27 am

OK, here's the original article from October 1971 ...

Wheels1971-10-26-27 by Guran5, on Flickr

Wheels1971-10-94 by Guran5, on Flickr

And here is the 25th anniversary article from October 1996, which tells the story behind THAT photo (and several other GTHO Phase III stories too).

Wheels1996-10-78-79 by Guran5, on Flickr

Wheels1996-10-80-81 by Guran5, on Flickr

Wheels1996-10-82-83 by Guran5, on Flickr

Wheels1996-10-84-85 by Guran5, on Flickr

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 11:49 am

Awesome!!! Fantastic reads, thanks for that =)

bensale · Postby **bensale** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 8:46 pm

Had some time today so gave the mx5 some much needed love in preperation for interstate challenge at Wakefield on the 23rd of October.

First job was replacing the tie rod end, as you can see below it was much needed.

This isn't a hard job providing you have the right tools. Firstly you remove the pin out of the castellated nut with a set of pliers. The loosen but do not remove the nut. Then undo hold the tie rod with a set of grips and loosen the lock nut on the arm (I found this step a bit difficult as the nut was pretty well stuck). Mark the position of the tie rod end so you know how far along the arm to put the new one.

You'll need a ball joint puller for the next step to pop the ball joint out. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a good one which made the job easy. Make sure the castellated nut is still on the thread as when the bearing go's pop (I wasn't expecting it to be as violent and loud as it was :shock:

) you want the nut to stop the tie rod end flying out and potentially doing a lot of damage.

And then it's all removed, installation is the reverse of removal.