Car modification philosophy

[PeterB]

RACE IT, BREAK IT, FIX IT!

Yep I agree, MX5s were made to drive as often as possible, but I have found it is impossible to have an everyday car which doubles as a track car, so we have two MX5s.

First is a stock NB8A that has racked up 165,000 km of daily driving and country running, usually roof down. The only extras are an acceptable stereo and air conditioning, with a hard top available for Canberra winters.

Second is my NA6 road/track car, Britney, that was recovered from a reject bin and then developed for a bit more go, but mostly for durability. She is still registered and used regularly around town and for local club runs, but if going further than Goulburn she goes on a trailer as she is not comfortable enough for an old fart to drive long distance. As her primary purpose is trackdays, any money spent is to improve performance/durability - as anyone who has seen her knows.

Pick a class and fit safety gear, the best tyres and brake pads and then drive it as much as possible. Then, when you have a handle on the car, progressively make performance modification to the limits of the class rules.

I still admire the modified and immaculate MX5s in the club, but for me I have to be able to jump in and go without regard to possible chips and damage. Our NB8A has done plenty of dirt roads and similar which she handles well, but has plenty of chips and car park dings inevitable from a daily driver.

[mloo]

Stumbled across this thread during my pre-exam procrastination. Great read too! My miata is my first car and I can say its definitely been a fun trip so far. There has obviously been the up's and downs. She was very dirty in the beginning, being such an old car etc. A few faults here and there; A/C and dead coil pack, sh*t paint etc.

Mods are coming along slowly as I'm quite low on budget being a university student. I would like a bit more power, but when I'm just cruising along, sometimes I find I don't actually need the power. I have never been to a track but would definitely like to try my luck further down the track. A lot of my mates who are older than me are already rocking turbo snails because they are off their p's (evo's especially). So when we do go cruising, I'm normally at the back of the pack. But engraved in my mind is the mindset; "power isn't everything."

After all, power comes at a cost, more petrol = less money haha

For me at the moment, I'm in the phase of having a car that can get looks ( being a young one ;) ). Looking into getting some mad lowz and new wheels, 15x8+0's.

I would love to keep the car as my daily as far into the future as possible, after all she is my first car and I have had some great memories in my year of ownership. But I won't lie and there have been definitely times when I wish i had something less raw, with a little more space and power. Then I jump back into my mx5 and those thoughts disappear as soon as they appeared.

Something about having a go kart with a tiny turning circle (compared to evo's again) and the ability to have the roof off is just so enticing to sell up and move on to another car.

[manga_blue]

I've kept mine as a daily driver. The philosophy has been to make it tough for regular track days and still have a usable DD. It's been pretty successful at that. It's done over 2,000 competition laps, collected 2 NSW Club Modified Class championships and only DNFed once in 7 years (operator error destroyed the gearbox). It's still at full weight with all trim, A/C, cruise control and power steer. There's nothing about its appearance that suggests anything more than a stock vanilla MX5 except for aftermarket but modest wheels. It's always been inspected for rego without any special preparations.

Any change it gets needs to be at least as tough as the original. Basically I want to be able to drive the nuts off it all day at the track. Most of the mods are not really mods, more like corrections of early mistakes by Mazda design and manufacturing. So the engine is balanced, with better bearings, the ports have been tidied up and matched but not really re-shaped, the original ECU has been decoded and reprogrammed with better fuel and timing maps and a higher rev limiter, all mounts and bushes are stronger, the brake bias errors are fixed, the coolant follows a proper path, the clutch is lighter to use but stronger, the whole standard of assembly and service is much higher, etc. The only real mods are coilovers with rock hard springs, full exhaust and cold air intake. If I wanted to return to 100% DD requirements and no trackwork then I could back all the track focussed stuff out in less than a day.

With NB8B seats it still does 5 hour runs to Sydney and 10 hour runs to Melbourne and general cruising up and down the coast. It carries surfboards, fishing rods, dogs, groceries and building materials. The only big limitation is country night driving where the low seating position makes it difficult to deal with glare and the likelihood and consequences of hitting large marsupials are too great.

[7StringSamurai]

I saw a black Toyota 86; it has been lowered and stanced, had bright orange wheels, what were practically no-profile tyres, and it looks like he'd set the rear wheels to about 10 degrees negative camber. And the owner (a green P-plater - if you'd believe it) had plastered "BTO" and "Built To Order" stickers all over it. In short, he'd ruined it.

And this made it a perfect case-in-point for my own modification philosophy: there's only so much masturbation a car can handle.

[Lokiel]

I saw a black Toyota 86; it has been lowered and stanced, had bright orange wheels, what were practically no-profile tyres, and it looks like he'd set the rear wheels to about 10 degrees negative camber. And the owner (a green P-plater - if you'd believe it) had plastered "BTO" and "Built To Order" stickers all over it. In short, he'd ruined it.
:

That's what I think when I see a way-too-low NA/NB running on 17/18" rims, they've ruined it.

I really don't understand it, you're not going to get any "street cred" in an MX5 , it's "a hairdresser's car" as far as most people are concerned.

Mazda built one of the best driver's cars of all time so why screw up its greatest attribute? Trying to "stance" a car that nobody's going to respect anyway and will be almost un-drivable is just dumb? Buy something else instead.

Charlie's car in its final form was one of the few MX5s that ever gained any respect and Pat's must be right up there too but they've been built to be functional on the track too.


Something Richard Larsson from MX5 Plus told me when I first bought my car that has proved true:

"Mazda spent a lot of time getting the MX5 "just right", whenever you change anything it upsets the balance of the car so you need to tweak something else to compensate."

If you keep that in mind you will do more research on your upgrades and hopefully not waste too much money on "modz" that just don't work and turn the car into something you no longer enjoy driving.

[NitroDann]

I saw a black Toyota 86; it has been lowered and stanced, had bright orange wheels, what were practically no-profile tyres, and it looks like he'd set the rear wheels to about 10 degrees negative camber. And the owner (a green P-plater - if you'd believe it) had plastered "BTO" and "Built To Order" stickers all over it. In short, he'd ruined it.

And this made it a perfect case-in-point for my own modification philosophy: there's only so much masturbation a car can handle.

What a quote!

10/10.

Thankyou.

[16bit]

my philosophy is simple.

cheap, light, strong - you can only have two of these things.

but yes as people change so do priorities.

i have basically stopped modifying and concentrating on maintenance mechanically, then maybe aesthetically.

[JayMo]

Yeah, I hear you...

I started with my first car (an RX5) a perfectly unreal car and ruined it, added power, needed bigger rear tyres, made it push, messed with the front geometry and lowered it, got the front to bite... got it orrite in the the dry... got scary to drive it in the rain, either end would let go a combined push on throttle with lift off oversteer .. for my 18 through 20 year old brain it looked sick, went hard, I was different... my mates in falcodores were slower than me in a straight line, my long svelt coupe with wooden steering wheel and classy alpine stereo pulled "the ladies" (yeah right!)...

Went to Europe Drove a boggo 1982 Corsa TR S in 850 kilos of two door sedan on three inch tyres through the "Picos de Europa" and had fun that I never knew existed. Pissed the RX5 off when I got back

Did theCommodores, WRX's, turbo Forresters and stuff, culminating in a 5.5 second AWD Passat, stepped into an eight year old NC1 MX5 last year and havent looked back... Just got a decent Blue tooth/ipod/usb double din head unit with Bosectomy and that is it... SUV spec suspension and all (didn't that come in handy between Dungog and Gloucester last week!)... Don't care... Don't like the stanced look due to the engineering wrongness involed, must be turning into James May..... Did I say I cared??? Nah Just enjoying what I gots! If something happens to this thing... might look at an NA for the purity of it all (but need the 4 airbags and ABS in it order to use it for work and charge kilometers)...

[7StringSamurai]

my philosophy is simple.

cheap, light, strong - you can only have two of these things.

The variant I've heard on that is "fast, cheap, reliable: pick two".

[Si.G]

I think philosophy definitely changes over time as life changes and as you experience new things.

I used to want a street car that I could take to track - great, but then I ended up with a broken street car to much - learning changed my philosophy.

I bought a peugoet 205 GTI (In the UK) for the track but kept it streetable, I did some night rallies which were cool, but then one event went through forest that is used for special stages - it was amazing - next job was to build a rally car - an experience changed my philosophy.

Doing the odd mod over the weekend was out and a full build from the shell up was the way to go. Forest rallying is absolutely an amazing experience, the ultimate driving challenge in my opinion. But then I moved to Australia and rallying over here in Perth is so inaccessible - again a change of car and philosophy dríven by life change

All of the above only accounts for the ''what'' for your car - ie what the results are, but what about how you got there....

You can probably look to some of the standard psychometric tests, to throw in personality types into the mix. A psychometric test I did recently said that I have a strong preference for new learning - this is true - definitely why I do my own work, but I am not a perfectionist, where others are and these personality types will influence philosophy.

After all that is said - fundamentally I think I just adjust my philosophy to guide me to happiness

[22Silver]

my philosophy is simple.

cheap, light, strong - you can only have two of these things.

The variant I've heard on that is "fast, cheap, reliable: pick two".

There are infinite variants for things to do with all aspects of life because that's what life is quite often found to be; a series of compromises to best suit certain needs.

Uni:
Good grades, Enough sleep, A Social life- Pick two

[hks_kansei]

I'm having a lot more fun restoring and showing an old Kingswood than I did modifying the MX5.


Tracking down reproduction or original parts, tracing old brochures and photos to research how things are supposed to be installed, and then after that cleaning everything and sitting back watchign as people look at the car and comment on originality/condition/etc.



The MX5 is a great car, and goes harder in a straight line, and corners, and everything, than the Kingswood.
The difference is that I know that if I wanted to I could buy another MX5 and have the same package in two seconds flat.
Where with an old car you need to hunt and hope the right one comes up.

[Lokiel]

It's a million times easier to work in the engine bay of a Kingswood though, you can literally straddle the engine and swing your legs almost in there, you don't need to me multi-jointed or have "girly-arms/hands" or special tools to get access to most places.

[hks_kansei]

It's a million times easier to work in the engine bay of a Kingswood though, you can literally straddle the engine and swing your legs almost in there, you don't need to me multi-jointed or have "girly-arms/hands" or special tools to get access to most places.

That's another appeal.

"Lets change the oil!" reach in and undo the filter.

"let's change the MX5 oil!" spend an hour trying to undo the filter from the top with the 2 fingers you can get on it, then end up jacking the car up and removing a wheel and spend another hour now using 3 fingers hoping it moves just enough before it comes free and pours oil all over the side of the engine and the undertray.



Hell, even fault finding and fixing is easier, running rough? check the timing and change it as needed.

MX5 was running rough, after multiple sets of plugs, leads, cleanouts, all that, it was the o2 sensor sending it rich, but only when it felt like it... so you couldn't tell exactly what it was.

[NitroDann]

I remember we have a 5 page thread about oil filter removal, the answer: Dont do it up tight, spin till it stops, then turn just one more hour. Problem solved.

Dann