I bought this earlier in the year from motoring journalist and author Rich Duisberg. He’d owned it for sixteen years previous and it had sat in his garage for over a year. It’s a really early one (july '89) and believed to be the earliest silver uk in the country. I paid £750 for it and £250 for it to be delivered from Leicester to up here in the North East.
So a grand for a car with hanging rear arches and no mot.
The rear arches were letting the side down along with a crusty drivers door.
It’s a lovely little car and is quite famous. It’s been to loads of tracks both here and abroad including the Nurburgring.
There is a great build thread detailing a full strip and overhaul. It has new powder coated subframes, coil overs and if fully poly bushed.
Couple of curious things about that car to warrant some further photos.
July 89 build, so obviously I assume its an early Eunos Roadster. Has the hardtop fitting kit, so someone in Japan ticked off the hardtop accessory; Japanese market cars didn’t have the hardtop kit as standad, but UK market cars did. It also appears to have the lighting setup of an early UK car, as I see the heatsink that you see in UK cars, but not in JDM.
It won’t be July 89 build. RHD JD cars started rolling off the line in June 1989, Australian spec cars a few months later. UK cars were launched March 1990, so likely the first UK spec cars were made tail end of 1989. The first “UK spec” car was registered in January 1990, but its actually a Eunos Rodster converted with some, but not all, of the European spec parts.
Hello. I’ve also bought an early eunos this year but it is in need of serious welding repair. It is a Feb/Mar 1990 build and was imported into the UK in 2003. It has the short crank engine and one hole in the bonnet landing panel. which I assume your one will have as well. These early eunos are becoming desirable, I hope! Definitely worth saving.
It’s a uk car. It also has the single hole in the slam panel.
There’s a face book page called G reg mx-5,s I gave the host the vin and he told me the build date. Which is different to the registered date.
Anyway here’s a build thread on it detailing all the work done about 5 years ago.
I bought it in the summer. I’ve done loads to it personally since then. My mate has a body shop. He replaced the rear arches and gave it a respray for £800.
It’s probably standing me just over 2.5k with the roll bar fitted.
I wonder what it’s worth now.
It’s amazing how much material is in there. It took about ten laps before it was all out. It did have a nice throaty sound to it afterwards.
When I looked underneath it had been patched loads so decided to replace it. A mate had a second hand ss back box that he’d tore trying to split it. He gave me it for nothing and it cost me a tenner to have it welded.
Thanks for the positive replies. I’s still mint underneath, I don’t think he drove it much after the restoration and kept it garaged. I’ve put it in the garage myself about a month ago for the winter. It drives amazing and handles really well although I may have span it once or twice on the track.
I replaced the rotten drivers door before the respray. I got it off my mate’s donor car whose currently nearly finished an exocet build. I can’t wait to have a blast.
My passenger door on my 96 import went in the same place, but I caught it early, so could treat, and put in a bit of filler.
The panel sealant on these cars hardens off, then cracks, creating a moisture trap. Also at the base of the A-pillers. Better off to pick off suspect sealant, treat and paint.
