The right hand pedal on my car is an “On/Off” switch![:D]
My '5 hasn’t been on a track yet (at least, since I bought it!), so this is limited to public roads, however at least when there’s nobody in front of me getting in the way, I find I tend to use first up to about 15-30 mph (depending on how hard I’m accelerating), then second until I either hit the speed limit (or 60, if motorway/dual carraige way then third), then once I get to the speed limit, stick it in an appropriate gear for cruising at that speed. This gives it a bit of a thrash up to the red line (I’ve hit the rev limiter a couple of times already - at about 30 something (36 according to upthread!), usually because I’ve been too busy steering to change gear. Worried me a little the first time I did it, but I worked out quickly enough what it was!
The manual recommends 4th gear for 30, and 5th for 40, if I remember correctly.
Of course, if there are twisty bits, then it goes back to counting as accelerating, so I’d probably drop back to third. I should give lower gears a try some time, make some extra fun and noise! Need to go a bit further from home first though - too much of my driving is in busy built up areas. :-
Went for a drive this morning using higher revs in the lower gears, what a difference in the way the car goes. Handles well and feels like a different car and what a lot of fun as well.
To hell with mpg you cant put a price on fun.[H]
Fitted a new stainless steel exhaust to the 5 last weekend and managed to mangle my cat in the process tragically requiring the fitting of a silenced decat. Ever since (when conditions allow) I’ve stretched the cars legs more than normal and am AMAZED by how different the car feels in the higher rev ranges.
Bags more torque, feels way more planted and it purrs!
Be careful Noddy. You will need your cat fitted come MOT time.
Mine is pre-92 and I get away with. I see yours is 93 registered so it will get the stricter emmissions test [:(]
Yeah, thanks for warning bafta. I’ve kept the cat but I need to drill out a snapped stud in it then refit at the end of July for some MOT action 
Thats not true
Yor 1993 import will go on the 3.5 co2 test and WILL pass a MOT without one 9aslong as it has now fueling issues)
Mine passed last year.
Just make them do the test off your chassis No not what it says on the back of your car(most imports are rebadged MX5)
http://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/forums/t/1258.aspx
see above for details
Alan
Dont think that I have consciously taken mine over 5000 rpm. Mechanical sympathy on my part.
Mine gets regularily redlined - it loves it! Fuel economy ranges from 31-37 per tankful depending on where I am driving. Although I expect track use will see that get a lot lower…
I can confirm the gearing on the mk1 1.6 V-special I used to own
does limit the top speed of it to just over 140ish. It had a turbo
system.
I had remeoved the small screw limiter in the speedo board. Although my cardidnt tell me what speed it actually was (imports speedo’s stoping at 120) the revs kept on building and the mk2 with me had gone off the 140mph speedo.
Obviously this should only ever be attempted in the appropriate environment.
To be honest it was horrible and the mx-5 isnt a nice car much over 100-110. Its far better suited to b road blasts.
My advise is to rev it regularly (once its warmed up properly - the oil takes a lot longer than the water to heat up) these engines are designed to do their best work up high. Mechanical sympathy is misplaced if you dont open these up.
A good rev won hurt it otherwise they wouldnt have put the rev limiter where it is and then sold 800,000 of them with a warranty.
forgot to say I get high 30’s tootling
and around 12 mpg on track
hit the rev limiter in 4th at the ring on sunday
and often bounce off the limiter on sprint courses as its better to have full control of the steering than of the gear stick
Alan
On my daily 30km commute into Christchurch I’ll drive carefully (particularly for the first 5km until warm) then at some point I’ll let it go up to 6000rpm+ in third and fourth for a quick ‘blast’. Then on the way home, at around 20km mark I hit the motorway(!!) feeder where it’s great to let it rip just up to the legal 100kph (or so [;)] ) - what a pleasure! Exhaust note changes beyond belief at around 4000rpm and the whole car feels just fabulous.
Don’t you just love Roadsters?
I have always loved taking mine to just under the redline. Hitting the limiter only wastes fuel and time as the accelration plateaus bouncing off the limiter. Change up a couple of hundren before the line and the revs drop back perfectly into the peak power band for the next gear. The MPG does take a bit of a beating but it’s a price well worth paying.
Bob Hall (father of the Miata etc etc) said:
Actully I seem to recall specMiatas disable the rev limiter, and will change at 8k without issue. Bouncing the rev limiter on a sprint of hillclimb is rather annoying.