Anyone know what happened to this Le Mans car that was found by MX5 Restorer about 1.5 years ago?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp2FyjxLbxA&feature=youtu.be
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nsFwsanefgg
No Idea. Doug (occasional poster) has one - his pride and joy, that’s not his I’m sure. He did a great job of tracing all the Le Mans NA’s left roadworthy, including resprayed ones, but passed the list over to Andrew Fearon, former Club Archivist. I recently posted an update for one car, which now sits in Normandy, with a good friend of mine. That is original, not resprayed. The resprayed ones were unsold in original format, and were in some cases resprayed by dealers in an effort to sell them - more’s the pity. My mate Clive has one - resprayed original orange, another oddball. Same story, dealer could not sell it in original finish. He’s now known universally in the Club as ‘Jaffa’ - because of the car’s colour! He flatly refuses to change it back to original format or sell it, as it’s now unique. Also his pride and joy. It still has all the original decals though, unlike the other resprayed cars - you may see it at a Club rally. One of the best kept cars in the Club, for a 1991 NA. If you catch him near the car, ask to see the engine bay - it’s a picture I can assure you.
No, not mine Gerry. However it was great tracking down these two and dispelling the rumour that the two black LM’s went to Japan
Thanks for that Gerryn, good information
I’ve found out that MX5 Restorer still own the car and it is in their queue of cars they are restoring. They are aiming to put more videos on their YouTube channel once they start working on it. Should be interesting to see how the restoration progresses.
Not so ‘Unique’ as you may think.
A long time missing Orange Le-mans has been found in a barn not been seen for something like fifteen years or more. Club Members and NC members benefits officer Steph & Colin Haynes, with their family garage business are restoring the all Orange example back to it’s former glory
Get ready to see a lot more of the oddball orange as the 30AE is going to a (very) close relation.
Former Chair Roger Mead has most of the LM owners in a list and as an owner himself I have asked if he can gather as many as possible for invitation to the Club’s 25th Anniversary Rally in September.
The Orange one that Steph and Colin recovered was the May picture in last year’s Club Calendar.
Anyone know of this still has the original logos on? Clive will be interested. - Not to buy it though!
Barn find? Somebody had no idea of the value of this one. I hope it wan’t a leaky old barn, with mice etc.
Clive’s car is still unique anyway, AFAIK it’s the only one with an FM ECU and full tunable facilities. - One of the few left in the whole club.
The original NA 1.6L with turbo developed 150 BHP, but according to Clive, his topped 200 BHP. IIRC, previous best from any modified NA with the old 1.6L block developed 240 BHP. Car subsequently sold and owner long gone to pastures new, as are several others. One of the NEM members (then) bought one which had been fitted with an FM bored out 2L block, but that engine did not come with the car. Whereabouts still unknown.
Pity, as the car went like stink apparently, the owner said it was as almost more than he could handle.
Most of the old ‘timer’ guys bought bigger and better cars. They felt they’d gone as far as they could with an MX5 and the 1.6L block. Next step in that previous owners case was a Porsche, another was looking for a Skyline to have a go at next. Saz - with his phenominal memory will remember all these guys, in my dotage, names have gone - forever. I used to follow them closely, miss that chatter now. Nowadays few owners actually upgrade their car themself, they’d sooner pay some one else to do it for them. The car is still an mX5, but the DIY spirit has gone.