I’ve seen that BBR have relauched their turbo MX5 conversion, this one is £5000 + your MX-5 and they’ll factory restore it with a choice of colour and interior. Fit big brakes, after market suspension and turbo charge it to 220hp
I was thinking of doing this when I’m a bit older and have some money instead of buying an impreza or RX7, 220hp in a light care would probably keep up with an impreza or rx-7 which I think are around 280hp and be cheaper to insure.
Save your money; its a Begi turbo kit with some bells and whistles.
£5k buys you the phase 1 kit fitted; thats just the turbo. £7500 gets you a turbo, repaints and leather seats; not the same as a full body restoration. Big brakes, suspension etc, are all optional extras. Wouldn’t surprise me if you were to tick all the boxes, and get the body properly done, you won’t have change out of £15k.
Insurance will be the least of your worries with a RX7; the need to have your own oil lake, coupled to maintaining a rotor tip slush fund are major drawbacks. Imprezas are starting to acquire a bit of an unsavoury reputation, similar to what Cosworths had a couple of years back, such that by the time your mind wonders back to them, they will be unaffordable again.
Yes but £7500 includes a car!
http://www.bbrgti.com/product_details.php?id=11646
The costs of “fully renovating” the bodywork of a 20 year old MX5 are unknown. If the turbo alone is £5k fitted, how far is £2500 going to go:
£500 to retrim (and thats using lower end grade materials)
Brake kit; £7-1000 for parts.
Suspension; new upgraded shocks, springs, parts; £500
Fresh set of bushes; £3-400 in parts
ARBs; £400
Welding work; unknown. If the rear outer panels have gone, the only true restorative repair is to replace the entire rear wing. Weld-in repairs, whether using panels fabricated from flat steel sheet, or cut from patter part panels, are not a long term solution.
Repaint; Cheap end “top coat”; £1000-1500. Thats a flattening of the paint, rectification of minor dents. Paint car with windscreen and other fittings in place. Not a bare shell repaint. The paint will look fine from a distance, but get close up, you might see some overspray, pinholes, maybe even a run or two.
Replacement of damaged trim parts; door trims, beltline, other minor parts can lead to a few hundred extra in parts. Not a fully renovated car if you get it back, and its got rusted through door trims, split windscreen seal and so forth. These are all parts that are expected to be in less than ideal condition after 20 years. And not forget the roof; factor in, on average £500 for that; you can get a cheapo roof, but hey, you’re lashing aout over £7500, on top of purchase price, on a 20 year old car, so it would seem rather penny pinching not to fit the best possible hood.
I don’t believe that for £7500 you will get a “renovated” MX5; by renovation, I interpret that as “as new”. The true costs of fully renovating such a car, assuming it is all solid, to a showroom condition, is actually closer to £5k (or more).
I would say £7500 is a starting price for a car with turbo, fresh paint and some leather seat covers, and then it goes up, depending upon the amount of rectification work needed. In no way will it cover upgrades to the rest of the drivetrain and braking department. BBR suggest £1000 to fit their turbo, which is no more than a 2 day job, so a £80/hour labour rate. At that rate, a modest suspension kit (nothing fancy) would be £900 fitted @ 4 hours, brakes; not far short of £1000 fitted, if the kit is similar to the MX5parts 4-piston kit. And that assumes the brake lines won’t need replacing, nor the master cylinder.
When Mazda did a refeshed Roadster programe, they went to town on the cars, replacing all the wishbones etc with Mk2 parts straight off the shelf etc. These cars started at over £7k, with effectively £12k worth of restoration work (on rust free sheels). To put that in context, for Japan, at the time, a base brand new Roadster was about £9k. Although they aimed for 30 units, I think it was actually less than 20 sold, over a year.
http://clubroadster.net/vb_forum/showthread.php?p=497516
EVO has misread the press releases, or got their maths screwed up.
If £7500 includes a car, one has to shudder at the thought of the state of the donor vehicle; a rot box is £500, one with flakey sills; £1000.
So I guess it would be cheaper to get everything done seperate.
What’s the going rate for a supercharger fit these days? Arn’t they cheaper than turbos?
I think all BBR’s prices were without VAT too, so add another 20%.
They’re not really any cheaper, and in fact, can be more expensive. Check Moss prices for a basic setup. They all come from the US, so exchange rate is against us.