Ive been out in Spain for nigh on 17 years now and this car with one previous owner was brought over here in 2010 and registered on Spanish plates… So its s RHD.
He’s all oroginal and its just about to hit 50k miles which seems like a good opportunity to reflect on the fun and decide what happens to him in the future.
Im getting on a bit now so boy racing in some styling isn’t the direction I really mean, but the performace upgrades, supercharger perhaps type options along with the usual uprated suspecsion etc. Many years ago I boosted my little m3 v6 and it was a real show car, thi scan be more subtle to go with my age.
Yes it is decalled ‘2000 Monaco’ in British racing green as a 1.8.
It has a bit more mileage than I would like for a poteneiial ‘classic’ but not really a reason it won’t make it… So I am actually undecided as to whether to keep it as stock and just focus on styling as it needs new roof and seats znyway after years in the spanish sun as you can imagine.
As I mentioned I had the FWD Mazda mx3 v6 a while and lived a lot with a bmw e36 cabriolet and the stance in the bimmer was different class to the Mazda around the twisty dusty mountain roads out here.
The Mazda has always preferred to go sideways under throttle and on the street I dont want to be catching those unexpected back end twitches, also just always felt a bit unstable basically so always would have benefited from some upgrades and anto roll.
I could add value to the car… but buyinga RHD isnt so attractive to people.
So I guess I wonder what the purists think? Stock or modified?
Hello and welcome from a soon to be winter UK, I suppose you can keep the top down all year in Spain I prefer to keep cars as near to original as possible, but then I’m no technician. I know many like to fettle
yeahh if I am actually using the car which looks like I will be for a while then I never put the top back up. It stored outside but under the carport and has to have about an inch of sandy soil removed from its innards every month or two
If im not using it for a while then the roofs likely to be up but not under shade, hence the roof is fooked but ive rarely seen a good roof this od even in a garage and I will likely replace with the stock vinyl simply cos its ten times more practical with all that dust I mention.
The only reason for me to keep it bog standard is resale value… If I think about is as an everyday car then I need to do some things, it handles like a boat in some conditions… Maybe some braces of a sort rather than change the suspension would keep it in stock at the same time. I suppose I should actually see this as removable upgrades, that might be the right balance then…
Regarding mods, it’s up to you. Sounds to me that you might want to look at some coilovers to tighten-up the handling, but do you have anyone local who knows how to set-up a 5’s geometry correctly?
Yeahh Mac, I cant say Ive ever really driven the nuts off this, it been a local second car and misuses hairdressers run and yeahh at one point admittedly it was always the girls car to me… With time tho it’s matured somehow and we have learned so much about what can actually be achieved with them that it held my respect.
Now due to circumstances, (me writing off the other motor) im taking over this thing properly. I went out and booted it up a few times and it feels quite floaty, I just cant help get the impression of it pointing slightly upwards at the front either and that makes me feel a little less confident…
Having said that I just did snake 200metres down dual carriageway at 110kmh catching a loss 3 times before just touching the barrier and it ripping the entire front off. That ‘rolling’ effect is what I am feeling in this. So maybe a bit more psychological edge to it… The write off was my first jump in the car after recovering 2 months with a broken foot from washing out my redbull style dtr x bike
