Mal's NA, Rocinante

mal.com · Postby **mal.com** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:09 pm

Hi all here is my MX5, I bought it form a guy in Sydney on the 19th of December (on my wedding anniversary, as Sir Humphrey would describe "a courageous move) and drove it home the next morning. As we live south of Batemans Bay, the trip home involved getting out of Sydney, down the Hume and down through Kangaroo Valley to Nowra and then down the Princes Highway to home. The Kangaroo Valley bit is MX5 bliss.
The car I'm calling "Rocinante", is/was a great find, after missing out on a couple of similar cars I pounced on this one. I think its a 3 owner, low mileage 1990 model, with only 107950km when I picked it up. The previous owner had done a lot of modifying, eg. wheels and tyres, SS exhaust system including headers, a leather seat job, alloy radiator, yellowspeed coilovers, jazz headlights and mesh blinkers. The condition of the car is a credit to the earlier owners, most people on seeing it refuse to believe its age, The paint is a bit tired, in keeping with a 30 year old car, and will be staying as is, in all its patina.
The car had been set up for track days, I suppose, the suspension was set very low, speed humps and drive ways required a surgical approach, and the dampening set on hard.The first job I did was to raise the car 20mm and move the dampening to softer, I then had the alignment re-done. I can now negotiate the driveway and speed humps with vigour.
The low suspension and big wheels meant that the inner guards had been removed and the lugs flattened, to allow clearance for the tyres.
luckily the inner guards came with the car but not the little plastic clips, I asked if the were still available at the local Mazda dealers, only to find that they would cost $12.60 each, and you need a heap of them, so I'm going to make do with generic ones and cable ties. I replaced one guard today, and cleaned up and painted the caliper on that side, other side tomorrow
Were taking the car to Tasmania for a month over March, so I'm doing everything to make that trip more comfortable.
We're off to the mX5 club coffee morning tomorrow morning in Milton.
cheers
Mal

Magpie · Postby **Magpie** » Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:53 am

Welcome, do not confuse ‘hard’ and track. Like for roads, track suspension can be soft it all depends on the conditions.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Feb 04, 2020 8:33 am

You've been watching too much The Expanse.

Wolfgang · Postby **Wolfgang** » Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:20 pm

If you want OEM arch liner fasteners...

https://www.mx5parts.co.uk/wheel-arch-l ... p-883.html

StuwieP · Postby **StuwieP** » Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:27 pm

bruce wrote:You've been watching too much The Expanse.

Could have called it Serenity?

mal.com · Postby **mal.com** » Fri Feb 07, 2020 2:09 pm

Hi Back yeah thanks for the link to arch liner fasteners, I was wondering what they were called. I got some generic ones from Repco. I have the inner guards in and tested in the rain today. The R888s are scary in the wet & standing water.
"Rocinante" goes back a bit further, back to 1500 century Spain, & Don Quixote
cheers
Mal