First thing I’d do would be too check your insurance if you to go ahead……
I worry as to how many making mods let their insurance companies know.
Good point, every single one of my 60+ mods are on my policy.
This is a good point, something i did want to ask about. For those who have made changes to their car, whats insurance look like after? Are you quite limited to certain companies or its pretty fine?
I’m lucky its like £250 a year for me currently with whoever meerkat displays is the cheapest any given year. I’m back around to quotemehappy this year I believe.
Ian, I see you went with the:
from your mentions here, would you recommend the route you went down, or going with the 30th aniversary style brembo kit if you were to do it again?
Thanks Paddy, how do you find your Meister coilovers?
What mods have you done so far? i’ve taken a look at some of your photos. Taking a lot of inspiration from you and Ian i think.
I’ve been thinking about an exhausts, any recommendations? Cobra offer some:
I’d go for central positioned one, or the over the top 2 each side.
I’ve always done modifications on a budget, sought discount, or bought used. The LE is a good starting point though, nice to have the Recaros etc.
The Meisters are great, for a road car they are all you need, height and rebound adjustable. Money no object, I’d go for Ohlins.
Mods are down to personal taste, so I wouldn’t recommend anything over other choices. All I would say is start with handling improvements, suspension, arbs, droplinks, geometry etc. Decent tyres make the biggest difference probably.
Exhaust and a remap are more than enough for the road, perhaps not necessary. Standard brakes are more than enough with decent pads, braided lines and fluid. If you’re tracking it, all these things will add incremental performance.
In my experience, do one thing at a time, you’ll learn more that way. I do all my own work and servicing now, learnt a fair amount doing that.
Good luck 
I went down the FreakyParts route as it was the best “bang for buck” option from my research:
| Brand | Description | Price | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilwood | 4-Pot | £900 | BBR |
| Brembo | 4-Pot Clio/Megan Cup | £1,100 | FreakyParts |
| Wilwood | 4-Pot | £1,150 | BOFI |
| Wilwood | 6-Pot | £1,200 | BBR |
| Wilwood | 6-Pot | £1,700 | Racing Beat Europe |
| Brembo | 4-Pot Mazda | £1,700 | MX5Parts |
Note, some of the above might include fitting so and others are estimates so take everything with a pinch of salt 
When I was looking I wanted bigger (Freaky Parts also comes with a larger 2-piece disc) and weatherproof after by Wilwwods decided to leak out of the seals giving me three options:
- Oversized O-Rings (plaster rather than a fix)
- Custom Pistons (expensive and could still be an issue
- New Caliper (could still be an issue)
- New Brakes
I chose option 4 and haven’t had any issues since fitting earlier this year and I have done quite a few miles to say the least!
The FreakyParts kit and Wilwood from BOFI are the only ones on that list with larger discs, the rest mount onto the factory discs (or slightly different factory discs if talking about the Mazda Brembo kit discs).
I’ve got Brembo parts from Amazon in the past (you can look for Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.it) delivered straight from Italy for a much lower price than buying locally and it came in less than a week.
You must have been unlucky, had my 6pots for 7 years and no problems at all.
Hi.
If you have any issues with insurance for these types of conversion then please feel free to drop me a line.
Regards,
Dan.
I had the Eibach springs on my ND2 RF and they were fantastic for fast road without compromising it’s daily use.
I have Gaz coilovers on my Turbo NA and frankly, for road use, I always feel like I’m trying to make them do something they are not designed for - be compliant and set relatively high.
(and I’d recommend Adrian Flux also, my NA is with them with a long list of declared mods, for a reasonable price. They also “understand” the car \ mods!)
You are limited. It also depends on the modifications you make. Some insurers won’t touch any modifications at all, others have a restricted list, and then if you go to a specialist broker you should get almost anything covered.
I’d happily recommend A-Plan, although A-Plan has merged with Howden since my last renewal so I don’t know yet if that will affect the experience: Car Insurance Quotes and Cover | Howden Insurance
Edit: having checked my email it appears that Howden bought A-Plan a couple of years ago and the change is, according to them, just a rebrand.
Hmm, my flood risk house was with A-Plan for the last twenty years, but this year they wanted triple the already high premium via LV=. I queried the Market and ended up at 90% of last year’s premium through Aviva. Curiously, the first year I insured the house (1971) it was though Norwich Union, now called Aviva.
Look around and make your own mind up. A-Plan have been excellent for my house in the past, although they always quoted about £40 more for our cars than I could find with several decent companies while ignoring the el-cheapos. So they never handled my car insurance.
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Would there be any recommendations for Strut Braces?
Are aftermarket ones more or less the same, given the simplicity of what they are?
The Cobalt front strut brace from Moss is well made as is the one from Davefab. The rear one is not worth bothering about as there is already a lot of strong structure in that area.
I would say a lot of the strut braces will accomplish the exact same thing, all are sturdier than the OEM one.
I went for Cuzco because I liked the styling and it actually came in cheaper than a lot of other options.
Plus it was confirmed to fit a UK car (Moss imply the Cobalt one is LHD only) and it is a shiny well known Japanese aftermarket company so what isn’t to like 
We have taken them off our race cars to save weight 
In a blind test they made no difference
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Well dont let anyone put you off modding the car however going down that route needs deep pockets unless of course you can do mods your self I decided this time not to go the power gains route so much just changed out some cams and a little map upgrade to give me more torque between 3rd/ 4th gear light weight clutch/flywheel, suspension, lighting, and cosmetic mods …thats as much as I gone…to look see what I been on there is my modding page “tonys Modding Page” good luck with the project … 
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