A NB8B Turbo progress.

[IanR]

I had a Lotus Elise for a bit over 6 months, have been in an Exige and have been dríven around a track in an Exige by the winning ATCC driver of that year.

They are great cars but I define them as "perfect weather" cars. I opted not to keep the Elise as it was just too difficult day to day, whilst the MX5 was just much easier.

That said Ian, you have easy access to great roads - I had to fight traffic and drive a distance before I got to nice driving roads.

I'm crossing my fingers a little, this was the real question in my head, the mx5 fits my surfboard and my dad gets in and out ok when we catch up weekly, but the exige will not do either I dont think (looking into soft top conversion??).

My drive to work takes 15 minutes and its pretty sweet through the back streets, I dont spend any time in traffic unless I go to sydney...worst place to have a performance car, it is horrible in the city even in the mx5. Im going to relish the drawbacks and accept that I have a street legal track car, live for the putty road and cams events ($100 a day insurance with my insurer if its a cams event).

Lotus Vs Mx5?

At the Noosa Hillclimb in August this year, a streetable MX5 with well under 300hp placed ahead of all the Elise's and an Exige...

I can't see one of them being quicker than what you already have out of the box....

....but I'd like to play with one of them too (if I could afford one!)

Im only playing, and its usually the driver...and im just playing there too.

I just gotta know will it spin the wheels

Billy, Lesson on burnout. 1st gear, clutch in rev to 4500 take to friction point then drop clutch and immediately go 3/4 throttle and light pressure with left foot on brake pedal, keep only enough pressure on brake to slow forwards movement and enough throttle to keep at 6000rpm but not at limiter. Done.

I'm looking forwards to showing you lads the car, ill be collecting mid week so should have a video or something to share soon. Thanks!

[Nevyn72]

A nice replacement if you are willing to accept the limitations.

They've even been know to tag along on club runs........

[IanR]

Well the car sold today and it was dríven home by it's new owner, a young fellow from Brisbane. He seemed pretty blown away...

We went through Galston George as part of the test drive experience, the car's ability to generate speed is still pretty shocking to me even after all the times i've dríven it. Heading towards a 15kph hairpin in 3rd with the foot flat does add some excitement

Wasn't a pretty sight as the car drove away down the street, I was proudly noticing how well its sits and the 225 tyres...sounded great too, however my two young girls were crying and my wife was glaring at me saying "are you sure you haven't made a big mistake?"... progress takes its toll.

Pick up the lotus on Tuesday...

[Staaahp]

Congrats on the sale Ian. It's been great following the thread thusfar.

Really love both the Exige and Elise so keen to see some pics when you pick up the car!

[billybunter]

one must always make sacrifices but things will get better by Tuesday

this ended up on another thread dunno how that happened

[slyfox2151]

There will be an update on this car in the next day or two, when i get time. I have had quite an adventure in it over the last week.


I am the current owner of this BEAST! It's my 3rd Mx5 and my 2nd turbo charged one. Its performance is nothing like my last two, I'm blown away. Literally awestruck the first hairpin Ian took me through. I found it scary and amazing the speed this thing could carry through corners and then explodes out the other end with a push of the throttle.


The craziest part is i have only experienced this car at 50% ethanol and 12psi, IT GOES UPTO 18!

I'm typing this on my phone at work so thats all for now. I want to post the full story from finding the car online to taking it up nebo last night with a few guys on the forum. So expect an update tomorrow night or monday.

[billybunter]

.........and I believe one SE will boost to 23lbs scary enjoy your new ride!

[slyfox2151]

Does the SE have a 2860rs? :p

[billybunter]

just the ihi factory turbo which I think with a few mods added does a pretty good job. but your car and mine are from the dark side of the force so we are pretty close to - PIP partners in power

[NitroDann]

Billybunters engine, which I also built, has a GTX2863r, it also hauls arse.

I hope you enjoy the car, and Im actually kind of chuffed that it went interstate. Show everyone, I think the whole community there will really appreciate it, it really is a complete package as far as road cars go.

Dann

[slyfox2151]

Billybunters engine, which I also built, has a GTX2863r, it also hauls arse.

I hope you enjoy the car, and Im actually kind of chuffed that it went interstate. Show everyone, I think the whole community there will really appreciate it, it really is a complete package as far as road cars go.

Dann

Loving the cars you have tuned, Here is the blue one viewtopic.php?f=73&t=71648 i bought a few months ago.

It might be for sale on here in a week or two for anyone interested. Depends if previous owner wants it back or not.

[slyfox2151]

Ok bit of back story, I have had 3 MX-5s now. Black 2001 stock except for tein street advance coilovers. Blue 10AE turbo charged viewtopic.php?f=73&t=71648 and now this monster.

I bought the black MX-5 as my second car when I was on green Ps for 5500. it was a great car except for the faulty CAS, worked great until it got hot and stalled. my first nebo run with you guys it died twice up the hill. Coming from a 1992 toyota surf TD I thought the car was VERY FAST! But it was nothing like the next one.

I got my open licence in February 2016, I wanted more power and had read about turbo charged MX-5 being a whole lot better! So I kept my eye on the for sales for a few weeks when the blue one poped up. I didn't stuff around I organised to see it after work and made a deal with the owner an hour later and picked it up not long after. Took it to Nebo that weekend. It was so much fun, Tuned in such a way the power just ramps up with half throttle.

6 months I was hooked... I wanted more! I had looked at other cars... A 33 Skyline with 600hp, Toyota supra with 750hp... Neither were really what I wanted, Too out there. I wanted something you don't tend to notice, A sleeper. I looked at tuning the blue one and working out prices deciding exactly what I wanted from it, But the blue car is perfect as is. modifying and spending ridiculous amounts of money on the car would ruin what the car was intended for. A perfectly balanced street machine you can take to the track and be competitive. You can belt on it all day and not have any issues.

Then about 2 weeks ago up pops Ians thread, I started reading it to get ideas on what I wanted in my next car. I was at work didn't have much time to read and skipped towards the end, the last post on the thread was a link to Gumtree. As soon as I saw the color (I love white and silver 5s), The list of mods and the price. I KNEW it had to be my next car. I contacted Ian straight away and made a plan to see it that Sunday.

I sorted my finances out planed the trip from Brisbane to Sydney with intentions of flying back.. Turns out I suck at planning. I hadn't realized Newcastle was not near Sydney but some 200ks away. Too late to change flights without incurring significant extra costs Ian suggested I get the train to Hornsby from the airport. Sweet I love trains and will get to see Sydney on the way through.

I found Ian and the car, It looked a lot nicer and lower than in the pictures, we took off and it drove beautifully, but much rougher and harsher to my previous 2 cars. ( due to having racing seats) then we got to the canyon, The beautiful swan turned into a speed demon. Firmly planted in the racing seats I couldn't believe how quick and agile an MX-5 could truly be. MY blue one would have crashed and burned at these G forces. It was just so unexpected. It just pulls from 3500rpm and keeps getting stronger right upto redline.

I had already made my mind up to buy it when Ian pulled over and we inspected the car before letting me have a test drive. It was perfect, Nice is how Ian described it and that's exactly what I was after. We went back up the canyon with me driving, Ian warned me about the Clutch but I found it was perfect with a quick take up. I Didn't even push the car just got used to driving it. I actually found it quite difficult to drive as the seating position is very different along with a roll bar blocking some of the rear view.

20 minuets later we decided on a price. I was happy to let Ian keep driving it knowing how much he loved the car, we went and got lunch and then made the trip to Newcastle. As it turns out I think his daughter loved the car more then he did they were very upset to see it go. I setup some music filled the tank with 98 and set off for the VERY LONG trip back to brisbane.

Stopping every few hours for food, drink and a stretch. Turns out racing seats suck for long distance trips... who knew. It was a rather uneventful trip, just a nice easy drive never pushing past 3500rpm... until just before half way. I stopped in at a servo. It looked a bit dodgy with a group of people hanging around I just got a bad vibe from it and decided not to stick around. I had just under half a tank and figured that would get be around 300ks, I assumed there would at least one fuel station between... well as it turns out every fuel station I passed was either closed or under maintenance or reconstruction. As the needle headed towards empty I knew I was in trouble. I pulled over and looked up google maps. the next closest fuel stop was 137ks away. I had already traveled 200ks from the last stop so there was no way to make it back.

This was not my first time running low on fuel in an MX-5 so looking at the needle and comparing my experience with my other 2 MX-5s I estimated i had about 120ks left of fuel if I kept traveling at 100-110kph so i turned on hyper mile mode and stuck to speeds between 90-95 knowing the car should be most aerodynamic somewhere around there. As the gps counted down the distance and my fuel gauge went below empty I really believed I would get close but not make it, I started planning what I would do if the worst happend and figured if I was with in 2 or 3 ks I could possibly push the car the rest of the way if it was safe enough.

With a sigh of relief I spotted the servo. Now upto this point I thought the fuel tank was 44-45 liters but the bowsers pumped past that and finished on 47.4 I couldn't believe it... just 600ml left. At this point I was near Lismore, Not far to go now with one final stop at Mcdonalds before pulling into home.

Next post will be the first Nebo trip last friday night.

[billybunter]

pretty good read

[luzinit]

I got nervous reading about the fuel part, we've all been there!
Congrats on the new ride.

[Lokiel]

:
As it turns out I think his daughter loved the car more then he did they were very upset to see it go.
:

Awww, you made a little girl cry!

No idea what you paid for the car but rest assured, you got a bargain and a well-sorted car (slow builds are expensive and you often change your mind along the way, discarding some upgrades for even better ones, or eliminating them altogether).

What about the QLD RWC?

What's the car's name?