Hi all, new to posting but have been lurking since November.
I’d like to introduce you to The Girl Friend.
Named because the original number plate began with GF and I’ll clearly be spending all my money on her
A joke that fell flat with my wife, who initially wasn’t keen on me having it due to buying it whilst she was away… (something about a midlife crisis and living dangerously )
Until that is, she saw how much pleasure it brings me and I took her out for a spin one sunny day. Now she understands why I’ve been calling it the Sunday Lunch car and is all in favour of me having it!
It’s an MX5, every mile brings a smile!
Thing is, I’ve been on something of a medical adventure these last few years and it’s left me thankful to be alive, albeit with a few mobility issues. Every moment is precious and not to be wasted. There’s no point delaying your pleasure for some mythical point in the future when everything is “perfect” .
I fell in love with the RF the moment I saw the first images in 2017. It reminds me of the Datsun 240z which was parked on my street as a kid. I drooled over that every morning on the way to school, just as I drooled over the RF.
Those mobility issues however have left me unable to drive a manual these days. I can shuffle one around a parking lot if needed but soon tire if I have to drive more than a few miles. An auto wouldn’t be my first choice, and the MX5 desperately needs a DCT box, but what it has is ok for my use case, a toy for the weekend on the twisties.
It’s not a track weapon but I do have an upgrade path in mind as I fettle it to bring more precision and finesse. I’m looking for an OE+ outcome. A “sprightly GT” feel where I’m as comfortable taking my wife away for a weekend in it, just as much as I am throwing it around the B-roads at the weekend
It was stock when I bought it in Nov 2024 with 9,871 on the clock. Overall it’s in great condition with just a couple of small rust blisters underneath (that I can see ofc) and some light swirls in the paintwork
I’ll be taking care of those issues later in the year with a Dinitrol underbody coating and some paint correction/protection.
Since then I’ve swapped the rear cluster and side repeaters for smoked ones and bought some new rims. When the paint protection is done I’m going to swap in black badges. If you knew me you’d know everything has to be black
The old stock rims have my “winter” tyres on, Pirelli Cinturato All Season SF3.
The new rims for the summer, are Team Dynamics Motorsport Pro-Race LT, with Bridgestone Potenza Sport
I got the Team Dynamics rims because they only weigh 7.5kg each, less than stock and so removing some unsprung weight
As I mentioned in another thread I recently had an alignment done to the Flyin’ Miata figures which has massively improved the handling. It now feels like the rear is glued to the road. Unfortunately during that alignment, it was discovered one of the bushings on the FOS was spinning and preventing the camber from being adjusted properly so the front end still needs a bit of work.
I’m now looking into replacing the bushings all round and weighing up sticking with rubber or moving to poly.
I’ve put a mild Versatuner remap on it to open up the bottom end torque and let it rev more freely at the top end. This has helped with getting a bit more life out of the long gearing of the auto
Currently, I’m very happy with it. Actually, that’s very much an understatement. I’ve fallen in love…
I’m not going to do anything else but the bushes and protection this year. I wanted to drive it for a full year to get a feel of it and work out how I want to tweak things before any real mods but I do have a path mapped out through brakes, bracing, intake and exhaust, suspension, LSD, and finally, in several years time, a BBR Super 220 engine rework. I’d go for their new supercharger upgrade but I don’t think the auto box would handle it. 220bhp is as much as I’d dare put through it and tbh absolutely plenty for my use case.
That’ll do for now. I’ll update this thread as I go along detailing the changes I make.