The carbon fibre time attack/superlap MX5 NB twins blog

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:22 am

I bought a new shell for the crashed nb8b. It is an na6 that had been partially stripped to remove everything he needed to make a lotus clubman type car.

As bought-

First mod, c.f hardtop.......... No just using the shell to assemble one. I will have one (c.f top) on permanantly and no softtop after it is all put back together with everything from the nb8b, inc interior, full elecs, driveline and subframes.

Kikuchi · Postby **Kikuchi** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:41 pm

aww no, you're going back to the na, means less chance of me getting nb cf gear from you. =p
good to see you still have the motivation to do this after the crash though. good luck

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Fri Nov 25, 2011 11:08 pm

I was going to wreck it. And i saw the na6 shell for $500 and thought that is not a lot of money to have a road going mx5 again. So for the price of a couple of track days i will have a car again. I started stripping the silver nb8b at about 7:30pm. Pic shows 3 hours work tonight. Luckily they are small and there is not much on them. Just have to take off the steering column, pedals and the dash wiring. Then all i have to do is pull out the driveline. I plan on spending most of sunday getting as much done as possible. Hopefully i will have at least the driveline in the na6 by the end of sunday. Tricky bit will be moving the shells around. Might need to have a group meeting at my place to lift the body. I normally do all this stuff myself and find a way.
And if anyone wants an NB8B softtop i have one for sale. $545 plus 10% MST (my service tax) is $599.50

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:56 pm

Well the NB8B is stripped to nothing now. Just have to take out the windscreen.

Motor, gearbox, diff, subframe, suspenion, brakes, wheels are on the new shell now. That's the easy bit.
Still have to strip out the fuel and brake lines, clutch and brake res's. What is left of the interior. Etc.
Then put all the NB8B stuff in.
I was happy to discover that the holes for the abs lines where already in the na chassis. I gave the engine bay and the motor and good wash before installing.

I picked up an axle stand and the thing slid down and bit me pretty hard, and i didn't want to stop working as i had to finish what i was doing before the wife left, so there is a lot of blood drops on the garage floor.

The new extractors - i bought them off a guy 3 houses down the road. He stopped by and said he had them from an mx5 he had, and never put them on.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:46 pm

After many delays the NA8B is almost done. Just have to find the radiator plug, to be able to drive it. I drove it out onto the front lawn, and it was good to have it going under it's own steam. It is going down to the exhaust shop tmorw. And will be all ready to go for the 1st sprint round in feb.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 8:06 am

Still have a few things to finish it, but it is driveable now.

tobias · Postby **tobias** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 4:19 pm

Was the dash an easy fit?

Postby **Okibi** » Sat Dec 31, 2011 6:44 pm

Another epic post in this thread, looks like you'll be giving Lou a run for his money in the "most MX-5s owned" stakes.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:30 am

orangemx5 wrote:Was the dash an easy fit?

Yes, there is info on the net if you look it up. I have the NA doortrims on at the moment, but when i get time i will either put c.f doortrims on or the oem NB8B ones. Brendan doesn't know it yet, but he is going to do the wiring for the headlights, pop-up motors, and electric windows. And in exchange i will make him some c.f doortrims. Might as well make 2 sets, and put a set in the NA8B. Goodwood revival is on now, so gotta go.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:43 am

Okibi wrote:Another epic post in this thread, looks like you'll be giving Lou a run for his money in the "most MX-5s owned" stakes.

Hopefully this is the last one. When the c.f car is done i might sell the NA8B and buy something completely different.

Postby **beavis** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 7:19 pm

lightyear wrote:Brendan doesn't know it yet....

I'll come past this week and sort it out.

Managed to work out what wires need to go where, just gotta hook it all up.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:32 pm

I was told i wasn't to go on the track again without a rollbar, i don't want to spend $750 on a brown davis rollbar (too heavy as well for my liking). So i had meridian bend me a bar to my specs (cut out a template), and fishmouth a bar for the stay. Then i went out tonight and made some plates to bolt onto the car, and welded it all together (with a loaned welder, as someone has loaned mine). It is very light, i would say 4-5 kg's. I will weigh it when the paint is dry. I also welded a camers mount on the front. You may have noticed i also quickly made a carbon fibre hardtop, the red one has to go back to it's owner. And i don't like running with a softtop, too girly. :lol:

I will get a better pic tommorrow.

Jace · Postby **Jace** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:41 pm

What do you think of NB8B power/driveline in the NA? I'd consider that upgrade if the wiring wasn't too hard keeping the interior NA and no ABS etc.

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:57 pm

It feels really good. But it is way too expensive to do normally. You could spend the money on an na6 motor and have more power (talk to dan). You can keep the NA interior, and you don't need to use the ABS. I liked the idea of using as much of the nb8b as i could. I like the fact it feels like a modern car, with factory remote boot release, bells telling you the light are left on and doors are open. The dash and 6 speed also helps with the more modern feeling.