Marco's black NB8A

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:24 pm

About six months ago, I began to think I should find out why so many people talk so highly of MX-5s. I'd read many glowing reviews of these cars but always remained a bit skeptical. However, reading the many mentions made by Peter Egan in his old Side Glances column in Road & Track made me think that if one of my favourite automotive writers thought they were a good thing then maybe I should find out what the MX-5 thing was all about for myself.

Turned out I could get a tidy NB for a few grand more than what I could likely sell my 1971 VW Beetle for, so when I decided I was done with the whole classic/old car thing, it was mere days between the Beetle leaving my garage and my putting an MX-5 in there. I could have spent months finding the best NB in the country, but it so happened that there was a very neat and tidy example for sale locally for a pleasing sum and so rather than overthink the whole thing, I decided to spend no more time looking and just get driving. So I bought it.

There's probably not much call for a picture as I'm sure you can all imagine what a black NB8A looks like, but here's a not very good phone camera snap anyway:

It's a 1998 with 159k and looks to have been a well maintained car that has spent much of its life in Canberra, which is a good thing. MX-5 Club sticker on it also made me think it had been owned by someone who would likely have looked after it; and it is very clean and tidy. One of the best cars of this age I've seen.

Initial impressions after two weeks are that this is a hoot to drive, and is far more fun than any car with so little power and torque has any right to be. Dropping the roof adds a whole new dimension to any drive, and the handling and steering responsiveness are nothing like any other car I've ever had. I feel too high off the ground when I get out of this and into one of our other cars...

Downsides? Feels like it needs more power (for straight lines, not that that's really the mission of this car) and feels slow to rev; and I'd like better tyres as well (who puts Bob Jane tyres on a car with such a nice chassis?)

Going to enjoy myself with this, I think!

MadMikey · Postby **MadMikey** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 3:40 am

Welcome Marco! What future plans do you have for you 5?

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 6:22 am

Marco if you think it handles well now, wait till you put coil overs, a proper wheel alignment and decent tyres. Steering input will be immediate. With the oem suspension , there is a delay in turning as you have to wait for the springs to compress as the body leans on them
Nitro Dann can fix your power issue.

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:47 am

MadMikey wrote:Welcome Marco! What future plans do you have for you 5?

Not sure yet...at the moment it's a case of drive it and drive it some more. In the immediate future, definitely better tyres and just fix up a couple of little things that aren't quite right. I'm not a big modifier of cars (my basic view is that if you want a fast car, best to get one that's factory fast rather than try and transform a slow one) but we'll see where this journey takes me.

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:51 am

lightyear wrote:Marco if you think it handles well now, wait till you put coil overs, a proper wheel alignment and decent tyres. Steering input will be immediate. With the oem suspension , there is a delay in turning as you have to wait for the springs to compress as the body leans on them

I have noticed a bit of lean/delay, yeah. Hoping that at least some good tyres for a start should improve the sharpness.

Going to take it for a proper drive through the hills near my place this morning if I can to get a better feel for its handling, it's all been around-town stuff so far.

speed freak · Postby **speed freak** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:15 am

Welcome to the obsession

When you do get new tyres (something like Bridgestone RE002 or Kumho KU31 for street is good) make sure you get a custom wheel alignment done not a factory alignment. When you add some negative camber, not a drastic amount, it really transforms the car. Probably best to take it to a proper suspension/wheel alignment place thats good at setting up a car, they will be able to get the best out of it.

Happy motoring

lightyear · Postby **lightyear** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 3:54 pm

I will leave this here.

http://www.racingbeat.com/mazda/perform ... rades.html

tbro · Postby **tbro** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:48 pm

Go and see Russell @ Carco in Belconnen, he's forgotten more than most here know.

As a MX5 club car he will already know it.

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?biw=142 ... sic&dg=brw

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:53 pm

Put another layer of wax on it today but I'm still not happy with how the paint looks up close. It looks good from a metre away but needs some correction work done to get rid of a whole heap of scratches. Unfortunately it looks like some bird poo has been left to sit as well; the marks from that may never come out.

Anyway, also went for a drive in the hills (Tharwa to Honeysuckle Creek, for those who know Canberra) but the road didn't seem to suit it - it's in worse condition than I remembered, with lots of undulations and poor surfaces everywhere. Still fun, but had to keep on top of it. Suspension travel a bit of an issue here and there, as were the general public in their miserable SUVs getting in the way. On the whole it does better on good surfaces; I love chucking it around roundabouts and tight suburban corners.

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:08 pm

Update for update's sake, plus quiet day.

Took this on a run through the Snowy Mountains last week - 583km all up on this route (clockwise):

Probably not really twisty enough to completely suit the MX-5 but what the heck, it was a good day out. Best section was just coming down into Talbingo (on the map it's the squiggly section to the right of where it says "Green Hills State Forest" - lots of tight corners and elevation change which made it worth doing down, then up, then back down again just for the heck of it. What was starting to feel like a lack of power cruising around Canberra wasn't an issue on this trip - it made the most of it and I'd say a day of being revved hard and generally being run for hours on end was probably good for a car which I think has spent most of its life pottering about the suburbs at two tenths.

The Hume Hwy stretch from Gundagai to Yass wasn't much fun on a hot day with the roof up and non-working A/C though, and I got sunburnt despite sunscreen etc. Still, good drive, would recommend this route. Have also been using this car for every other purpose where I don't have back seat passengers to take - going to the shops, going to work, taking my wife out on date night....

Couple of gratuitous pics:

Going from one thing to another, I put better tyres on it about a month back (Michelin PS3) with the effect that the new stickier tyres have arguably made the car less fun. They're obviously better overall, but I had been amusing myself chucking it into corners and getting the back just a little bit unstuck at pretty low speeds - now I chuck it into corners and it just whips around them. Maybe the people who put the Prius tyres on the 86 have a point?

Finally, black paint. Aaargh. It's not just the dust that settles within minutes of washing it, it's also the fact that you can see hand prints on it that you just don't notice on any other colour. Looks great when clean but requires three times the effort to keep it that way. On the upside, my wife bought me this polishing kit for Christmas so I'll get stuck in with that soon and see what I can do with some of the scratches and so on:

...and we're up to date.

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:10 pm

Marco_NB8A wrote::
Finally, black paint. Aaargh. It's not just the dust that settles within minutes of washing it, it's also the fact that you can see hand prints on it that you just don't notice on any other colour. Looks great when clean but requires three times the effort to keep it that way.
:

When I first started work I was living in Adelaide and one of the highly-paid managers from Melbourne used to drive his new black Honda NSX to Adelaide instead of flying (can't blame him for that, some great empty road stretches to really push the car). His BIGGEST complaint was fingermarks since everyone who looked into his car would lean their hands on it to peer in and every day he had to spend time wiping them off - it used to drive him nuts since you could spot them from a mile away; he expected the fact that the black car would gather dust easily but not the hand smudges.

Snowmotion · Postby **Snowmotion** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 5:05 pm

That looks like a fun drive... The road from Mt Selwyn to Tumbarumba is a super twisty road that is a lot of fun and adds a bit more length to the route you took.

Black is a challenging color to keep looking good. I used a paint restoration polish on my car recently to good effect.

Jeo · Postby **Jeo** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 10:15 pm

So I just put this together now but you're the Marco who was asking about an NB on PF a few months ago, right? Welcome!

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:22 am

One and the same

Marco_NB8A · Postby **Marco_NB8A** » Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:20 pm

tbro wrote:Go and see Russell @ Carco in Belconnen, he's forgotten more than most here know.

As a MX5 club car he will already know it.

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?biw=142 ... sic&dg=brw

Finally got myself organised to take it round there next Friday and have its 160,000 service done.

Other than that, not a lot to report...just driving this car and loving it, then driving it some more and loving it some more.