A "result of efforts" update to the build ...
Well ... my wife had a couple of weeks holiday. We'd organised a week in the Clare Valley (SA) as we haven't been there in over 25 years! Beautiful scenery, interesting history ... and wineries! We aren't really Riesling drinkers which is what the area is famous for, we both prefer red wines, so we'd already decided we probably wouldn't be buying much to bring back, though there are a couple of reds from the area we like, so maybe one or two
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Anyway, with Mexie pretty much in good shape now, I mentioned that with pretty good weather forecast for the area, it might be a good chance to give the girl a real test out and see how we felt touring with her for a week. My wife was real keen and enthusiastic! Loved the idea of a week of topless touring. Me? ... I was nervous
Decision made, the first challenge came after we finished packing our suitcase, took it out to the car ... and ... it wouldn't fit !! Boot is smaller than I thought ... DOH!! So began a search for other suitcases hidden around the house, in the caravan, in the shed ... working out which suitcase would fit! I was determined to leave the spare wheel in place as well as take a small emergency tool kit, so this was becoming a bit irritating. Finally after we had tried a few and found one suitcase and a soft bag that fitted in, we then had to reduce the half house we were use to packing in the back of my Tarago, to a week's essentials only. Love my wife, not one complaint the whole time.
So who said MX5's were impractical? The end result of some careful packing of a week's items looked like this:
Ready to go
After a horrible drive through the endless South Road roadworks we finally hit the open road and started to relax ... until about 2 hours in a couple of rain showers suddenly hit lol. Yup, roof was down, it was raining ... and we laughed our heads off. I said we'd get soaked if I stopped to put the roof up as the rain was going over our heads while I kept driving, so we decided to keep going. The only water that eventually made it's way in came over the side windows blown in sideways! Apart from that we went through a few showers during the drive to Clare and it was fine
Very different!
Arrived at the Motel - hope I'm not breaking any rules here, but have to give a plug to the Clare Valley Motel after a lovely stay. Such a comfortable place and such nice friendly owners and staff that I have to give them a mention.
Travelled about 800+ kms during the week mostly top down and not too many issues. One very frustrating issue after all my work on the dash lighting - drove to a restaurant one night and lost half the instrument panel lights! Three of the new LED's had blown in one day!! Not happy!! So next day quick walk to town to pick up some new globes and quickly fitted them in. Just ordinary Narva T10 5 watters fitted without the green condoms and actually ended up looking quite good! Actually brighter than the LED's and better coverage but not the clean white look. More to come on some changes I'm trying with the lighting over the next week so stay tuned ...
The only other issue, which doesn't show up as dramatic as it is in reality in the following photo ...
Those marks are actually reasonable dents - about 3 dents and 5 deepish scratches on my driver's side door
That's what happens when a panicked cat runs flatout across the road in to the side of the car!! Luckily I was only doing 50km/h at the time. I had a car up my rear at the time so couldn't brake or swerve much. My wife had seen it running full pelt from a garden the other side of the road and yelled out, but I only saw it as it came within a couple of feet of the front of the car. I swerved a little to the left and missed hitting it front on, but it was running so fast it still hit my door flat out. Huge bang!! Must be dead! Nup!! looked in my side mirror to see it just miss the car behind me running back the way it had come! So looks like I'll be trying out the "hair dryer, can of air" Youtube dent removal method
Look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about, quite fascinating.
Trip home bought about another challenge ... fitting these in
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Yeah so much for not buying much wine haha .. $800 poorer and about 3doz to find space for. Back shelf became handy for about a dozen, then the suitcase emptied and the remaining bottles carefully placed in there and the clothing pushed in loosely to the small gaps around the boot lol.
Oh yeah, and regarding any comments about MX5 drivers being obsessed ... nah ... just 'cause she got cleaned nearly every afternoon when we returned to the Motel during the week
Final thoughts on our first effort touring in Mexie? Great...bloody fantastic! We both loved it! Can't believe the amount of attention the car got!! Every place we stopped someone would come up and start talking to me about the car. Easy way of making friends lol!!
Another great thing about touring in Mexie? On our way home drove past a sign. Quick u-turn and this is where we spent an unexpected afternoon:
Collingrove Hill Climb was on!!! Never been there before!
Best thing? Met up with Marque from the MX5 Car Club SA who was racing his NA:
Many, many thanks to Marque for all the info about racing and the SA MX5 Club and even more so for the fantastic passenger experience up the climb!!!! WOW!!!! Awesome fun!
Maybe not now, but am pretty certain that Mexie will be hitting that hill at a "come 'n try" day in the future sometime and who knows where from there
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So at that point I decided further action was required. The plastic cover thingy that was in the way looked like too much hassle to remove, so with a stanley knife, I just cut away some of the plastic to allow better access:
