Putting the problems described in detail elsewhere on the forum on one side, the Mk4 has brilliant potential as an extremely competetive race car, yesterday at Pembrey during a 20 minute race the two Mk4’s came very close to laping three Mk3’s driven by very experienced MAX5 drivers
The ND is a great platform, just needs the known bugs ironed out.
As far as I am aware -
Stability - At least one member has discovered how to program this problem out
Gearbox - Lets see how the later gearbox stands up to race conditions
Engine mounting - Currently cast out of ‘micky mouse’ metal and is prone to breaking a more substancial part could be cast or fabricated
Anything else?
Am I right in thinking that what your saying is that it is a software problem/solution?
Burton, first time I have seen that mentioned anywhere, are there more details or pictures?
I’m guessing that the “mickey mouse” engine mount and the fragile gears are due, at least in part, to the “gram saving” element of the “sky active” design philosophy. Am I right?
This comment really applies to the race cars, the engine mountings on Mk4 are not a robust or forgiving as on the Mk3
I will ask Paul if he has any photos or broken parts
Hi Burton please could you let us know the answer. Many thanks.
Paul touches on the subject in post 25 from about a month ago -
Re stability
some of you will remember my first mk4 getting backed into the pit wall at Anglesey November 2015. I thought I was just having a bad day…so purchased another mk4 January 2016 this also ended in very similar damage…now even I’m not that unlucky!!!
so fast forward a bit and at Donington I was pushing the car through old hairpin when again it fired me off, this time luckily no damage and I was been followed by a mk3 with video footage that shows the car stepping out and leaving massive black rubber marks where the rear wheels had ‘braked’ trying to bring the car back straight. Unfortunately at 60-70 mph the car rotated.
so we then went back and looked at the footage from my car on previous occasions…yes VERY SIMULAR
this footage was sent to Mazda (owners club aware) and also shown to the accident investigation guys at South Yorkshire Police. Between SYP and BTCC driver Dan Welch we managed to find a solution. No thanks to Mazda. Mazda don’t see an issue…
now only last week (I must find out how to post pics) I was contacted by a salvage company asking if I wanted to buy any mk4 parts…when I saw the pics guess where the damage was???
yes you got it…the rear!!!
now remember this is a road car that someone just like YOU have purchased from Mazda and are using on the road, damaged on the road not on track.
would I let my wife drive one…I sold my road car!!!
IF Mazda or anyone on here are brave enough to lend me a car I will happily demonstrate this in a safe and controlled environment.
evening guys
im not too hung-up about engine mounts personally as they do fall apart when the car crashes or rides the Kurbs hard, however both myself and the other race drivers can live with this as an acceptable minor issue and now carry spares.
the gearbox and stability is what you the everyday owner needs to worry about.
as burton said above another gearbox failure at pembrey this last weekend, yet again not good publicity for the car/Mazda.
personally my feeling is Mazda will not supply us with a new gearbox because should that fail it will put ‘egg on face’ and show the later gearboxes are also not up to the job!
On another tangent…
as some of you may knoww we had brake pads made to upgrade the n/d brakes, this resulted in another issue and we eventually fitted bigger discs/calipers…however…my supplier/manufacture contacted me last week to see if I still had any of the pads we had made kicking around as a well known racing driver had contacted them wanting upgraded pads for an n/d, it looks like Mazda has given him a car to do some track work with. Hopefully this is Mazda starting to do some ‘homework’ all be it a little late.
if the above is correct I just wish they’d come clean and speak to us and we could
a, save them time and money
b, resolve the issues quickly
ps I’m not holding my breath!!!
Thanks! I’ll take that as “YES”!
Duplicated
Wiil Roddo turn his back on MX5 racing now he is winning races in the Mk4?
The modified box developed by Roddinsons Motorsport was tested under race conditions by Paul Roddison and Dan Welsh at Donington between 9:30 and 4:30 on Nov 2nd, there were no problems, their laps times were 1.25 on average, 1.22 was the best achieved, passengers were in the car for many of the runs.
The cars next outing is to the Race of Remembrance on The Anglesey Circuit this weekend (Nov 10th onwards)
Is it not fair to say that Paul has now raced ND’s both with the uprated by Mazda gearbox and his own design of upgraded gearbox and to date there are no issues with either of theses gearboxes.
On one hand your right…the last Mazda gearbox didn’t fail but was taken out before it did imo we have however had a failure of the same gearbox a version 3 prior to this. We fitted OUR gearbox as our Max5 season is over and we wanted to test OUR gearbox as much as possible with extreme running (12hr endurance race) so we can offer this service to other competitors in 2018