This thread is about an NC. But like everything you nearly always hear about most complaints online and not the xx percentage of happy people
True OP has an NC, there’s also discussion from an ND owner in the thread who’s experiencing difficulties.
However many happy owners there are though it’s how a business responds when there’s a problem.
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I know he’s got an NC that’s why i said it you even quoted me saying it. 
the person i was replying to said it was more about ND’s which is why i was pointing it out… so thanks for pointing out that i pointed it out
I wonder how much harm has been done to BBR by this thread alone ? They’re certainly not coming across very well so far.
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we all use the standard ecu, its just reflashed with new firmware that adds/unlocks additional features (ecutek firmware in mine).
my car is a BBR 185 NC and has achieved 186.9 HP at 73500 rpm and 156.5 lb ft torque at 4300 rpm on the dyno.
I have digitised a standard NC engine power curve and that one has 158 HP at 7087 rpm and 142 lb ft torque at 5157 rpm
+28.9 bhp and a little bit higher redline +14.5 lb ft at lower rpm for my car
to get that much gain for a practically unmodified naturally aspirated engine is pretty good gains and tuning if you ask me.
my guess on the breakdown where this gains came from
change of exhaust manifold +7-10 bhp
high flow catalysts + midpipe + rear eng can ~5 hp
tuning is the rest
And what you don’t appreciate is the engine noise my car does.
I paid quite a bit of money for the BBR 185 kit and without a doubt I can say it transformed the experience driving my car. I get so much pleasure from driving the car and in my mind if I had to do it all over again I’d do exactly the same thing. I do empathise that some people have had a bad experience going to BBR but I still think you need to figure out where you stand if you want to modify an NC. They are old cars now and some people will have issues if they try modify an old engine. Maybe it was BBR’s Friday afternoon job, maybe aftersales BBR customer service is rubbish, maybe it was just luck (well lack off)…
I have to say sometimes Neil isn’t the easiest person to converse with that maybe due to time or some other personal issues.
Can you get the same thing elsewhere? probably. You could buy the bits from BBR and fit them yourself or you can buy stuff from elsewhere. The high lift cams are definitely not manufactured by them, they just buy them in.
For example when I wanted to get my suspension sorted I bought the ohlins from bofi and had them fitted at roddinson’s. I paid Paul to weight balance and align the car to my requirements. I didn’t go to BBR for that because IMHO Paul’s more knowledgeable in setting up cars. When I wanted to underseal my car I took it to the MX5 restorers.
Would I go back to BBR…? probably if I was going to redo the same thing I have done. If you want to modify your car and try get near 200 bhp… remember its a 10y old car and has 50k+ miles … (mine is on 92k at the moment) 
In that case I’d be looking at taking the engine apart check and refresh/upgrade some bits thinking about the future…
Doesnt roddisons offer a package for these. I think id prefer them to work on a car to be honest
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We certainly do
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If i find i nice one ill be in touch…as long as your customer service is better😂
Can’t be any worse lol
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Sounds bloody awful.
I’m pretty sure I have seen you smile… 
well… it be a bit louder but not much difference in regards to performance IMHO
ecutek ecu firmware features for the NC
the BBR map and ecu configuration mapping (AF - injector timing etc) is basically part of what you pay to have the kit installed and have them tune the car on their dyno.
I’ll stand corrected if I’m wrong but I think now Blink has gone we are the Only company who thought test all our products on track before (many years in most cases) we put them to market….
And just to make sure we also put ex BTCC drivers (animals in most cases lol) out in them
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Yeah i got my manifold and tune from blink, sad they don’t exist any more.
Skuzzle are another one to go bye bye. But BBR will live on no doubt because of their high profile as the go too guys.
This thread is scary.
The negative experiences of the OP and his BBR’d NC and the other BBR’d ND driver sounds similarly bad.
Are there other specialists that can fix BBR mod problems or restore a car to factory settings ?
Does BBR offer such restore-to-factory service?
After reading this, the wife will be happy to know that the ITB’s or Supercharger upgrades will take a back seat for a bit.
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Had a short 20 odd mile drive in a very low miles Mk3.5 in which the BBR (former) Cosworth SC had been installed.
Took a bit of fiddly stuff to get the mapping download from BBR as I recall.
Cannot recall any issues as such with BBR.
That example ended up benchmarked or whatever on a well known rolling road that tunes up the Knockhill track dogs I think. it had about 260bhp but I don’t know where…flywheel…tyres…
What I did note was it’s ability to go just as quick from low speed to XXX in 4th as the original could probably not achieve in 2nd. Better overall MPG as well.
Looked 100% standard too.
Tree pulling torque…
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We choose not to frequent these forums, preferring our valued clients to share their experiences. However, having been alerted of this thread by a client today at 11.00am we feel obligated to respond as there is a huge amount of misinformation and inaccuracy.
We are an engineering company that are very passionate and thoroughly enjoy what we do; developing conversions and enhancing MX-5s adding to the owner’s enjoyment. It is safe to say that we have designed and developed more conversions for the MX-5 models than any other company globally and as such convert and modify a great number of vehicles (over 500 annually).
The original poster coley62 has a MX-5 NC with our Super 200 conversion fitted in July 2020. This package was released in 2014 and now has in excess of 1000 conversions fitted and sold DIY, many of which are successfully used on-track frequently. The only known issues to date with this package have been due to poor installation, incorrect timing and damage caused by valve to piston contact (exactly the same which can happen with standard Mazda components). Our camshafts, a profile which took us a huge amount of labour (changing of camshaft profiles) and dyno development time are machined from blanks and have an identical base circle to standard camshafts as well as a lift which is perfectly safe to use with standard valve springs.
coley62 visited us approx. 14 months later to listen to his engine as he was concerned of noise. We listened to his engine and notified him that we could hear nothing unusual, higher lift camshafts with steeper ramp angles on solid tappets do make marginally more valve train noise. A year later we were contacted again concerning engine noise with the report that it was knocking and extremely bad. coley62 was adamant that BBR was responsible, demanding the vehicle inspection and collection to be arranged by us. We tried to explain that the work we carried out is well proven and that it was done over two years ago. The vehicle had dyno runs after work was completed and given the length of time since this could not be an installation error. We also could not imagine how a camshaft (untouched) could 2 years later cause intermittent knocking. Reluctantly we arranged third party transportation as otherwise it would have been a 370-mile round trip for us. This involved obtaining quotes from two sites, negotiating and arranging a reasonably prompt collection time.
On arrival of the vehicle, as it was being driven off the trailer/unloaded, we asked the transport driver if the engine was noisy when it was loaded (as it sounded perfect being unloaded) to which he replied “no, it sounds absolutely fine to me”, this coming from a complete stranger. We left the vehicle idling for approx. ½ hour before driving it at high revs around the local bypass. We were expecting to receive an undrivable vehicle with a knocking engine, but with still no noise or issues identified, we contacted the client to notify them and asked what they wanted to do. Still adamant that there was an issue with the vehicle due to BBR’s work they requested we inspected our work thoroughly. Again, we explained that there was nothing carried out by BBR that could cause the issues described. At coley62’s request we went through the vehicle thoroughly, checking fluid levels, compression test, leak down test, cam cover removal, visual inspection of the camshafts, the combustion chambers and cylinder bores with a bore scope, checking of engine timing, valve to piston clearance and onto tappet clearances. Tappet clearances were towards the upper end of the manufactures specification, but we could find no fault with the vehicle or BBR components fitted. We proceeded to contact coley62 to report our findings along with the suggestion at the cost of three hours further labour we would set and reduce all tappet clearances in an attempt to lessen valvetrain noise, however in no way did we consider it was noisy. coley62 did not want this expense it was therefore agreed that we would reassemble and return the vehicle. coley62 was charged 3hrs labour in total despite 6-8hrs were spent, the transport costs to us plus £24.50 which in no way even covered the wages for the person who organised this.
One week after the vehicle was collected and returned, coley62 notified us by email at 8.30PM (out of office hours) that the vehicle was stalling and the engine was making a metallic knocking noise. As I was supporting a US install via email at the time, at 8.55PM we responded that it was such a shame it did not happen or exhibit any such faults when it was with us and to help us restore some faith we would arrange transport back to us 100% at our own cost. Since then, we were notified by coley62 that there is damage to the front wing 4 weeks after the vehicle left our premises of which we know nothing about but have offered to look at this on the vehicles return. We have spent time on the phone with their local Mazda garage on the morning of 12/09 and they have confirmed hearing no metallic knocking and could find no fault. Our last email to coley62 was on 13/09, they are using the car at the moment for a short trip to the Lakes and we are awaiting their update.
Given this, we are more than surprised at coley62’s thread starting and the context of their later posts. Fortunately, since the vehicle arrived with us, all correspondence has been via email. We are happy to share the full correspondence with coley62’s permission. We believe this will give a true representation of the event and our customer service.
Without turning this post into an even longer essay it appears First_rider_off has jumped on the band waggon. We have heard nothing from him since June 2021 and were completely unaware of any problems until an email on 12/09, but see that he has been very active on this thread prior, strange? We are unsure as to how this helps us resolve any issue for him? Again, as correspondence has been carried out solely via email much the same applies.
Cars modified or standard do exhibit problems. Unfortunately, it is too often the case that when a vehicle has been modified, the most recent modification or person to work on the vehicle is immediately held responsible albeit incorrectly so. We do hope the instigator of this thread allows us to share our personal and confidential correspondence so that any potential thread reader can see exactly how BBR deal with any issue and therefore the standard of our customer service.
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Very good response, back to the OP methinks.
Forums are far too often used to air a perceived problems, whereby anyone with an opinion, based on fact or not, feels the need to chip in. This thread has proved a classic example and has run out of control with some very knowledgeable replies and some very biased utter ■■■■.
I would suggest this thread is now closed and a new one started if the OP agrees to open up with the emails with BBR.
Trying to trash a business’s reputation on a public forum, always attracts Trolls willing to throw dirt based on neither fact or experience.
It does this forum a disservice, they should be ashamed, but i doubt the Trolls understand the meaning of the word.
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