Track Car Dreaming - NB-C

[Snowmotion]

It all started a 4 years ago, I reached a point in my life where I decided it was no longer ok to dream about some aspects of my life but it was time to act on these idea's.
So I started exploring the idea of getting back into Go Kart racing that I had done 16 years earlier, before kids. But I soon found that the Karting world had changed a lot with lots on new regulations and subsequent cost. This was not looking an idea I was going to follow through on.
Looking around I could see I could get a MX5 for not a lot more than a competitive go kart was going to cost me. This sounded better, kart like handing and I could drive it on the road. So a couple weeks of searching and I found my budget entry MX5. A well loved (read heavily used and not maintained perfectly car)

I loved it, set to improving what I had and and 12 months later I had a great weekend and track car that was lots of fun to drive.

But I started realizing to go faster I would have to start stripping weight out or change the car in a substantial way. I like this car too much.
So the thought start about what sort of dedicated track car I could get. I spent a bit of time talking and looking at what people did to their MX5's for competition. I started to hear a few people tell me that the NC is the perfect track car package with the slightly bigger motor and a better rear end suspension that required minimal changes to make it fast on the track. So the research started.
I was particularly watching for a damaged car I could buy and repair and prepare for track work. I had enjoyed the process of building up the NB so this could be a good release from work. After watching Salvage auctions for a few months I started to get an idea about what a car would sell at. I watched a saw a car become available in Adelaide. So no way I can get to Adelaide to inspect the car. I checked out the 5 photos on line, It looked all good in the front end of the car but there was damage down the passenger side and wheel pointing the wrong way. The rear bumper was falling off but could not see too much damage. Lets try, see what happens.
I registered to bid and listened at work whilst the auction went through the earlier lots. It was now up to the MX5 NC I had seen. Bidding started, I listened and then put a bid in, I was quickly over bid and I tried again, back again the bid came, one more and again over bid. The car was now just over $3500 for a repairable written off car and I had no idea of the real damage but it was enough for an insurance company to not repair. The doubt, what to do. Just one more bid I thought, this is getting more than I wanted to spend for my bargain and I still have to get it back from Adelaide. I placed a bid and almost hoped some one else would bid back this time. This time it was silent, no more bids was the call, SOLD. I now owned a 2006 MX5 NC in Grey with no more information.

[Snowmotion]

So from Augustr 17, I had a few weeks wait to get the car transported from Adelaide to Sydney. This was a real test of patience but a friend was helping me keep the cost down and it was worth the wait.
Friday the 1st September, the car arrived in Sydney. I hired a trailer and went to the transport depot.
At first sight I was relieved, the car did not look too bad. Except for the problem that the car was crabbing up the car ramps and the back left wheel came off the ramp. Fortunately the guys at the freight depot were interested to see the car and willing to help lift the car up and over. A drive across Sydney and I had it at my work and could get to see what I had really bought.




So the inspection showed.;
* Passenger door smashed in (need to replace)
* Passenger rear guard smashed (needs panel beating)
* Passenger sill valance missing
* Passenger rear wheel bent
* Passenger side rear suspension bent (appears 2 trailing arms)
* Rear bumper damaged (not repairable)
* Mounts for bumper damaged
* Both tail lights cracked

So a bit of damage and parts to find.
The good points were that the car had one main key and the spare metal key, log book and appeared to be in generally good condition other than the flat battery. The log book showed it had been a Melbourne car with 2 owners. The first owner had serviced it perfectly by the log book to 135'000 km. The second owner had bought it from a used car dealer and seemed to have only had it a short time before the accident where it appeared to get caught between a car and something else as there was small amounts of damage on both side of the bumper. The oil was full, looked clean and had lo leaks. So mechanically I was pretty happy.

Now to find some parts

[Snowmotion]

So I decided I need to understand all the problems and parts I needed so I stripped all the broken parts from the car.
With a shopping list of parts I started trying to work out where and how much could I get these parts from. New was going to be too expensive and necessary on a track car even with a friend who could get me trade price on parts.
I found a wrecker in western Sydney that had purchased some NC's for parts from Japan and had all the parts I needed. There advise was almost perfect except for the roll cage they sold to me telling me it would be CAMS compliant. (this was not true and I suspect they already knew this)
So with a passenger door, passenger sill valance, rear bumper, pair of tail lights and used rear suspension cradle and all the the components except the diff, I went back to the car to start dismantling further. The parts at $750 was a good buy but the roll cage being another $700 on top was the annoying part. But I now had my own race car so I focused on the positives.
The rear suspension trailing arms were relatively to fix and appeared on my eye wheel alignment appeared to solve the rear suspension problems.

[Snowmotion]

With some parts arriving to fix the rear bumper I was able to fit the replacement bumper and the car started to look complete.
I saw a a Goodwin single tip muffler offer for sale and grabbed it to help with the weight reduction. With the door cleaned up, the bumper fitted and the new tail lights it started to look like a real car.


It was not time for some panel repairs and off the panel beaters to fix up the passenger rear guard.
From the panel shop it was booked in with Deckspeed for a 1/2 cage, kill switch and tune. The job was done really well and read for me in Early December. With new OMP race seat fitted it was getting closer. RX7 FD wheels fitted and CAMS Log book inspection complete.


MCA Race prime suspension ordered but delivery is expected at the end of January.

[Custardtart]

Looks like an fun journey so far. The race primes are top of my list, why the wait til January for them?

[Snowmotion]

Looks like an fun journey so far. The race primes are top of my list, why the wait til January for them?

I am writing this as it happened but that was about 15 December 2017. So with production shut down over Christmas and order backlogs there was a 6 week wait. It was a similar wait with most race oriented shocks.
So far I am upto about 15th January 18.

[Magpie]

MCA Race prime suspension ordered but delivery is expected at the end of January.

MCA Gold?

[Snowmotion]

MCA Race prime suspension ordered but delivery is expected at the end of January.

MCA Gold?

No, I went for Race Prime which is equal to Red's but they choose the valving for you.

[MrTurkey]

I am writing this as it happened but that was about 15 December 2017. So with production shut down over Christmas and order backlogs there was a 6 week wait. It was a similar wait with most race oriented shocks.
So far I am upto about 15th January 18.

Oh, so am i reading that you have the coils and a few other things done earlier this year? (2018)

[Snowmotion]

I am writing this as it happened but that was about 15 December 2017. So with production shut down over Christmas and order backlogs there was a 6 week wait. It was a similar wait with most race oriented shocks.
So far I am upto about 15th January 18.

Oh, so am i reading that you have the coils and a few other things done earlier this year? (2018)

Yes, The car is up and racing last week in the MX5 Cup.

[Snowmotion]

After a work trip in February I had some weekends back to work on the car and this saw me installing the MCA Race Prime suspension and Braided brake lines. This left the car sitting at a much nicer ride height and not making the 16 inch FD wheels looking so small. Fortunately installing shocks on the NC is a little easier than the NB.
My panel beater also insisted on me bringing the rear bumper in to paint in the same colour as the car. I was not so worried about having a white rear bumper but the car does look much better in the same colour as the car.



The final detail that was now needed was to make it actually look like a race car. Time for some stickers.

The photo above is at Wakefield Park where I took the car in March for its first run in the track and a shake down.

[Snowmotion]

The first track day at Wakefield Park went really well. The car was balanced and fun to drive.
I had fitted the GV lip on the car but not the rear wing for the first 2 sessions. The car was fast but with only the front lip I found the car a little unbalanced with too much front grip in faster corners making the tail loose. Turn 8 at Wakefield was a bit loose when trying to go around with 100% throttle. At this stage the car was lapping at 1:12's. I decided to fit the rear wing that I had picked up second hand from the previous owner of Custards Tart's car. Once the wing was fitted the car was much more predictable in the higher speed corners. This helped me improve my times to 1:11.6.
I was really happy with the day and very impressed how quick the car was compared to the NB (PB 1:15.6 on the older track).

Now I was ready to enter some events. The first event I entered was the MX5 Clubs Supersprint at Eastern Creek South Circuit.

The car was really fun and easy to drive around this circuit and the day saw a PB of 1:04.3. This was a time I did not think I would see.

Rob Wilko takes great photos for the MX5 club and I really appreciate all his efforts in taking these photos.
This is a video of a good lap from the day. Not the best but still working out the set up of the cameas.
https://youtu.be/nOeGXZjasHI

[colburge]

That was a good read, looks like a lot of fun.

Col

[Snowmotion]

That was a good read, looks like a lot of fun.

Col

Thanks Col, I should have a little more to add to bring it up to date.

[Snowmotion]

I was really happy with the car set up but I kept feeling that there was one more thing needed. I loved the open top racing but I kept thinking that a roof would make the car little faster on the high speed circuits.
A carbon roof was found and fitted to the car.


I loved the new look and now I could at least secure the car.

The next outing was at the MX5 NSW club track day at Wakefield park.
I had a brake pedal that did not quite feel right after changing the brake lines so the first session was taken carefully with a best time of 1:11. Not too bad given the lack of confidence I had in the brakes.
With a bit of help I was able to bleed the brakes and get ride of the variable brake pedal. I was now was able to push a bit harder and got down to 1:10.6.
I was having some good dices with the other NC drivers and received so good advise on how the NC is different to the NB to drive fast. This advise was great and I was able to get a PB of 1:10.11 in my second last session. I was really happy with this result.

So now I had firmly in my sights the idea of entering in my first actual race. The MX5 Cup looks like the the right sort of race for me with good friendly racing and with a view of contact is frowned upon. So to do this I needed to upgrade my CAMS licence to a competition licence. To do this I needed to do a series of tests and and OLT so I needed to find another opportunity to get to the track.

I booked in with John Bostrom at Trackschool days Open Pitt lane at the end of August to do this final test.
Ian Combes was there for the day and we had some great dices during the day. Thanks Ian.
The OLT was successfully passed and my Competition licence issued.
Next my first MX5 Cup race and the last race of the MX5 Cup season at Eastern Creek GP circuit. (a new circuit for me)