Over the last few months I've been acquiring a few parts for the car, I've gotten around to installing some of them.
The first was a small thing, a set of Racing Beat adjustable sway bar endlinks. The benefit of these is that you are able to adjust the length so that the swaybars are parallel which means the sway bars are more effective (the angle the bars end up at on a lowered mx5 with standard end links are quite bad..) Cheers to Cheyne for getting a good price on them. I installed these with orangemx5 as he had access to a hoist which made the job a fair bit easier! When I first drove with them I didn't really notice any difference, however I got the rear lengths wrong and when I re adjusted them at home to the right length it made a subtle difference to the handling of the car, it was noticeable that the rear was slightly stiffer.
On the same day as fitting the end links we fitted quite a special part to my car which I was given a little while ago.
I'm not sure exactly what these extractors are (beyond them having a Jasma stamp indicating they're Japanese) but they're a special part as they came off Sasso's car. They were fitted to his car while it wasn't turbo'd. I also had a set of Jackson Racing extractors at the time and these looked to be a nicer flowing system. Although even if they weren't I would have used these extractors anyway due to their significance.
The difference in the car with these fitted was pretty noticeable, a fair bit more mid range torque which smoothed out the power band making the car feel less peaky. They also took some of the anger out of the exhaust note...
I also have a set of his brake pads fitted (Hawk HP+) They are 1.6 pads... However, I run 1.8 brakes. My rotors were a bit worn so I decided to try fitting some of the Hawk NA6 brake pads I was given.. And guess what they fit perfectly as the callipers are the same! I never had a problem with the stopping power of the na6 setup ( I only bought the 1.8 ones as they were a good price and look better) so I'm happy to keep running these pads until the 2 set run out. However the lip on the rotor looks a bit funny!
With the next extractors fitted the positioning of my exhaust changed and the catalytic convertor stated to hit the PPF.
I figured that it was a good chance to replace the catalytic convertor, something I've been meaning to do for a long time. I went with getting a 100cel cat. The two benefits were size (fixing the issue of hitting the PPF) and flow (fixing the issue of a dying cat)... I liked this option due to the price too. I didn't wan't to de-cat due to the environmental implications and threat of the $10,000 EPA fine, and there is no way a 100CEL will be a flow restrictor on an N/A MX-5... The other side of this was the new sounds the car makes. It's a lot louder & angrier... but it still quietens up on constant throttle when cruising. If you hit the right revs when changing gears it occasionally pops too!
The final thing installed was a Lock Stewart CAI which I was lucky enough to pick up for free in the MX5 Vic club magazine. I installed this yesterday with Orangemx5. We also built a DIY one for him. It has seemed to make a bit of a difference to the responsiveness of the car and a little power. Unlike the Mania intake this isn't what I would call obnoxious. It actually has quite a subtle sound in comparison and doesn't rattle the car to pieces like the mania one. Although maybe it would sound more intrusive if you had a quieter exhaust. I like more noise to come from the back of a car than the front so I'm very happy with the sound I have now.
One of the other parts i have coming soon is a Torsen diff... However I want to keep the same diff ratio so if anyone has a 4.3 gear please let me know! I can run a 4.1... Which ratio do people think is preferable on the track?
(it actually feels really nice to use and looks the part too!!!)
