Mazda always has a special place in my family. My dad in his 20s bought a Eunos 800 (known as Xedos 9 in UK) as his first car to pick me up from hospital only few days later. I had so much fun in it while I was still a toddler (according to my parents at least) until few years later when it broke and was scrapped.
Fast forward to 2022 it only makes sense for me to buy a Mazda as my first car, and no it’s not an MX5, but an ordinary Mazda 3 as a daily car. So far I have put 40000 miles in the past 2 years without a single fault. This is my forever car.
MX5s always have a special space in my heart, just like a lot of people at my age I watch Phil being built, broken, and rebuilt on Car Throttle YouTube channel. Owning a red mk1 has been something I could only dream of.
An opportunity came in November 2023 when a red mk1 came up for sale, and it only makes sense for me to open my piggy bank and bring it home. It didnt come in the best shape, with a large hole on the exhaust, large enough for me to miss the missfire.
2 weeks later disaster striked. The 4 bolts holding crank pulley sheared during a sunday drive, the pulley fell off taking the 2 aux belt away with it. I had no choice but to pull over and call the AA.
Winter and university study means I had no time or motivation to fix the car, after failing to take the pulley boss out I gave up and took it to a garage. 3 hours later it was fixed and I was back on the road, or so I thought…
2 days later I saw my coolant gauge jumped to H when sat in traffic, I took it home stopping multiple times in the 0.5 mile drive to let it cool down. The short drive before my stopping on the prior incident means the car slightly overheated and put a crack on the head gasket.
This time I jumped right into action, stripped the head out and got it machined before putting everything back together with some help from a mate who is familiar with MX5s. At the end of the day the car refused to fire up.
At this point I have spent over £1000 and only driven it for less than 400 miles. (half of which was driving the car home on day 1) I honestly gave up on it at this point, and took it to a MX5 specialist nearby and 2 months later (August) it was back on the road. The drive home was honestly the best time I’ve ever had in the car.
It was also at this point when I realised how much more work was needed. Garage mentioned the misfire and flat power throughout the rev range. I also noticed patches of rust starting to show on both arches…
Last month I finally decided to part ways with it. This car brought me joy, but even more frustration. All the problems slowly took my love away from it.
However owning an MX5 is still something I want, and I was straight back on the market for another mk1, this time knowing better on what I want.
This brings us to the present day. I picked this 1.8 Eunos up from a fellow member few weeks ago and already done more miles in a month than what I did in the red car for a year! It has been tastefully modified in and out, and there is not one thing I dislike about the car. The clutch has been acting up few times and I suspect it needs bleeding or a slave cylinder replaced, nothing too difficult I hope.
Long term plans I do want to change the coilovers to address the bumpy ride, and maybe a turbo kit to bring the power up to how it should be.
and become a Heart car i am on my third Mx5 now enjoy it does become an addiction