Anyone know the date of the first registered uk model mx5 ?
At a guess 1989 but a precise date Iām unsure. Someone with more knowledge may do better.
Editā¦that other thread suggests 1990 as the first reg in the UK, so ignore me.
They went on sale in UK on 14th March 1990, so that would be the official first registration date. I know of one locally to me from that date and still with the first owner. I believe there could be a handful of cars registered earlier, and, if so, wonder if these might have been demonstrators (if it is the case).
Just stumbled across this thread and I wondered if anyone might have any further updates on what has become of G204 RKM? I owned the car between 1992 & 1994 and absolutely loved it. I bought it from racing driver, Mark Lemmer, who finished second in the 1990 MX-5 UK Cup series. I think heād raced it and then returned it to road spec. It came with a very raspy sports exhaust, lowered suspension and a lovely Momo racing steering wheel. He also let me have a load of spares including some extra wheels with slick tyres and the original exhaust system. The car was in a nasty accident in March 94 when I was run off the road by an articulated lorry and ended up backwards in a ditch (!) It was professionally put back together, but I sold it a few months later to a garage in East Horsley, trading in for an MR2. I think that was an error. I had two more MX-5ās - but nothing really compared to G204 RKM. I see from the DVLA website that itās last MOT expired in 2016 so I imagine itās probably gone to the great scrap yard in the sky. Would love to know what happened to it though if anyone on here has any info.
DVLA have no record of it on their vehicle enquiry site (Vehicle details could not be found) so I believe youāre right based on the only car Iād ever scrapped doing the same thing after it had been scrapped.
Itās possible it became a parts car either privately or through one of the restorers to rescue other cars of course.
Its also possible it took to the track again in one of the MX5 race series
You can see the detailed MOT history online from 2009 to 2015 and sadly it appears to show that the car was becoming increasingly knackered, so I suspect it probably has had it. But I would still be really interested to hear from anyone who owned G204 RKM in the 30 years since I passed her on. It was a great car which had an eventful life and, as it turns out, it was one of the very first.
Maybe you should start a new thread with the reg in the title since thatāll get more notice, a letter in the club magazine wouldnāt go amiss either.
You could also try the main restorers to see if they keep records, though data protection would limit the info they could give.
My old MX5, the old SAZ9961 (now J485GAL) I thought had been scrapped after goijng MOTless for 5 years after 2011. I had hoped it had been saved after in 2017 someone had put some money into the usual sill work.
Then it disappeared again in 2019, and photos of it popped up on another forum
https://www.mx5nutz.com/threads/j485gal-anyone-know-it.383679/#post-4493931
I wish I didnāt know now. I sold it in 2005 as pretty much a mint car, with a full respray in 2004, new Mk2 wheels. Then it turns up 15 years later, parked under a lorry trailer with a rolled paint jobā¦