Mx5, Chapter 2

[The American]

Hi had my first ever track outing in the Mx5 at the Mount Cotton HillClimb track run by the MG Car Club of Queensland. Here's how my day progressed:

55:01
54:01
52:75
51:41
50.98
51:15
Lunch
50:76
50:02
50:11
50:30
50:21

About this point, the heat and my failure to bring sunscreen were starting to get to me, and I called it a day.

A friendly fellow from Accurate Suspensions was there. He took the group I was in to walk the track and explain the nuances and things to watch out for. He also came to find me after a few of my runs to give me some pointers on lines for one of the corners. In all, a well run day with some friendly people, and lots of interesting machinery.

[speed freak]

Thats some great progress throughout the day. That would have been Ken from Accurate Suspension. When you need a wheel alignment done he is the man to go see for mx5's (plus others) he is located in Underwood.

[The American]

Here's a link to my fastest time of the day at 50:02. The scrutinisers asked me to secure my camera with a tether, and so in this clip it's attached to the mirror, and it's not as easy to see track position.



Edit: I clearly don't know how to make these videos post properly!

[The American]

On 23 November 2014, I joined the Holden Sporting Car Club of Queensland for a combined Khanacross/motorkhana event, at the motorsport precinct at Willowbank, Queensland. The course set out by the organisers was adjacent to the drag strip, and had to be adapted to work around a casualty from the previous night’s drag racing: A Chevrolet Impala had been left, parked and without a tail shaft by someone whose night of racing clearly hadn’t gone completely to plan. Unfortunately it was in the middle of one part of the Khanacross course. I wonder what the owners would have thought about their decision to leave the Impala there, had they known that only a few plastic barriers separated it from mad khanacrossers…

This was my second motorsport outing in the white NB8C, and it took me a little while to get back in the swing of handbrake turns.

here's a clip from one of the Motorkhana layouts:



It was good to meet Peter (CapitalF) and Jeremy and their turbo NA6.

[The American]

and, a clip from the Khanacross course:

[CapitalF]

Your 5 looks and sounds fantastic Hanson. I'm sure its a wild ride under WOT too. It was a very hot day out there yesterday, hence a bit of an early finish . I would like to chat more about your setup. The main kx course run yesterday was a bit shorter and tighter than is often the case (due to extra M'khana course running). If you get a bit more open track you will enjoy the KhanaX even more. The extra 80+ HP would make a difference then too.

Cheers,

[The American]

Not entirely in order, but these are the updates since sorting the tune.

(1) Extinguisher bracket and 1kg extinguisher.

I followed a design that uses the passenger seat rail front bolts as the mount point. This was pretty simple to make from a piece of aluminium sheet. This may not be the final resting place for the extinguisher, because even my rather long arms can't reach it while I'm secured in a harness in the drivers seat.

(2) Mx5 Plus Tallboy single diagonal ROPS.

This was about a day's effort to fit. The nut fitted inside the seatbelt tower that is not riveted in place was the only difficult task. A right-angle drill head fitting was also necessary to get the holes drilled for the backstay bolts. I fitted this by myself - Definitely worth getting a friend involved for the lifting in and out of the car, as this happens a number of times (more if your silastic around the nut mentioned earlier fails), and it is awkward.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, this bar is an easy install compared to some others, and is easily complianced in QLD. Once I had the harness installed, it was apparent that the mount points for the shoulder straps are higher than the AGI bar which is much more comfortable for me.

(3) Garagestar seat rails

A very neat solution, that put my seat nice and low and (I think) a little more reclined than is possible when bolting a Sparco to factory rails. These also provided a little bit of sideways adjustment. These came to me courtesy of Sailaholic.

(4) Sparco Sprint seat

I picked up a pair of these from Racer Industries on the Gold Coast. I've fitted one of these on the Garagestar rails, and I'm looking for another set for the passenger side.

Removing the factory rails, means you lose the factory seat belt stalk which is bolted to the factory rail. Mx5 Plus sell early NA seat belt stalks which mount to the transmission tunnel. A harness mounting plate is required in addition to the stalk.

(5) Schroth HANS ready harness.

Once the seat was in, it came out again to mount anchor plates and eyebolts for the snap-in ends of the harness. I don't have a HANS device, or a helmet with posts, but that pathway is open.

The Schroth harness uses seatbelt webbing where the HANS device is designed to sit, and this webbing does a lovely job of chaffing your neck.

(6) Other
The underbody plastics that make up the under tray and wheel arch inner (which on my car covers the air filter) have all had some wear and tear. I spent some time stitching these back together using small electrical ties, and replacing missing Christmas tree clips.
All in all, I've had the car for 10 months, and have done under 2000km. I've got to find time for more seat time!

[The American]

Thanks to the Christmas break, there actually has been a little seat time... :-)

[luzinit]

Nice videos - can you show us a picture of the fire extinguisher mount (and more of the car overall as it sounds like a great example!)?

Cheers,
Tony

[The American]

There I was minding my own business, just driving out of Mount Glorious, and it happened. The Nothing.

The Tachometer dropped to 0, and I rolled to a halt. The engine would crank but not fire. Fortunately I was able to roll the car of the road and into a car park at the picnic ground. A quick google suggested the EGI relay might be the culprit. I opened the under bonnet fuse box and checked all fuses and managed to (accidentally) pull the cover off the EGI relay. I put it back together, and the engine fired up. The casing of the relay was very hot.

This was repeated once more on the way down the hill, and again after a short cool off, it started and I drove home.

Further googling suggested the Cam angle sensor could also be to blame. Mania are sending me one of those, and Automotive Plus are posting me a replacement EGI relay.

Let's hope this beats The Nothing.

[ManiacLachy]

Hmmm hope you sort it out with those bits. Lucky you weren't fully stranded. How great is it to have the internet in your pocket whenever you need it these days!

[The American]

I attended the test and Tune at Mount Cotton hill climb today, and caught up with Jeffrey and his supercharged Mx5 and met MINX.

I improved my PB on the course to 49. something and then to48.75, which I was quite happy about!

Some very neat machinery was there as well.

Before this event I replaced the Cam Position Sensor and I took a spare EGI relay with me, thinking this would enable me to eliminate one or the other as the culprit. As it turns out I eliminate both as the culprit!

I had no issues driving the 45km to the event, or during the event itself. Just outside brisbane after 20 mins of freeway driving, The Nothing struck again. I concluded the problem must be the EGI relay. Although I had a spare with me, I thought I might make it home after a spell of cooling. Sure enough, the car was able to restart after about 5 mins and I continued on my way. Within 5 minutes it cut out again.

This time, I replaced the relay beside the road, and continued on my way. As a consequence of the relay change, I had stopped for longer than at the first stop. I made it to the other side of Brisbane city and it happened again. Clearly neither the EGI relay or Cam Position Sensor are to blame.

The symptoms of this bug are a sudden kill of the engine. There is no sputtering or hesitation, it just stops. Althought still in gear with engine turning as the car slows, the tachometer drops to zero. The car can crank immediately, but won't fire at all. After a few minutes, it will restart and drives normally.

This appears to be heat related! Any ideas?

[Crapweasel]

There is a regular Mt Cotton Hillclimb event and it's not just a once a year thing hosted by the MG people?

This is something I could get into!

Could someone be so kind as to PM me some details of requirements?

Sorry for the thread hijack, I hope you can get your "nothing" sorted out soon.

[The American]

PMed!

It would be nice to see a selection of Mx5s competing. Jeffrey with the s/charged NB is a regular, and I'm hoping to be.
Alas, I can't make the first round due to a good friend's wedding!

[ManiacLachy]

PMed!

It would be nice to see a selection of Mx5s competing. Jeffrey with the s/charged NB is a regular, and I'm hoping to be.
Alas, I can't make the first round due to a good friend's wedding!

Can I get some info in this as well please? They look like a lot of fun