As a new member of the Club, I received recently my copy of “Soft Top Hard Top”.
It is clear that many people modify their cars. Some are quite extreme modifications, to the extent that the original elements are perhaps little more than the body shell.
At what point do cars with such extreme mods (e.g., shoe-horning a V8 into one of the smallest cars on the road) cease to be an MX-5?
I am not criticising these actions in any way - I think they are an amazing feat of engineering - but I do wonder if any make or model of vehicle can really be considered to be whatever they started life as, when there is little of the original car left. To some extent, the same could be asked of “barn finds” that are totally rebuilt and barely retain any original components.
It’ll always be an MX5. That’s the great thing about them, there is so much scope for modifying and personalisation for those that want it.
It’s like being a teenager again with a Ford Escort.
I agree with you up to a point. Some of the highly modded cars share little with the base cars they were created from. Then again a lot of those cars might have gone to the scrap yard years ago if somebody didn’t rebuild them. I will say I’m not a huge fan of the ‘super slammed’ massive wheeled strip cruisers. They just look like they’d handle like a dog on an icy pond on a sweeping B-road. My view is keep it stock or do something that makes it better e.g performance and handling. But then ‘better’ is highly subjective if you enjoy looking at your car more than driving it.
There’s many a WW2 Spitfire been ‘rebuilt’ from a salvaged tail wheel and an old logbook yet we all stand and stare when one growls overhead.
I think you need to have a unique aspect of a car for it to cease.
RX7 has a rotary and once you drop a ls1 in there to me it’s not an RX7 any more.
The MX5 doesn’t really have any unique aspects so it seems like free game to do what you want. I think you’d have to do something stupid like a fwd conversion for it to cease to be an mx5, something totally uncharacteristic.
The same applies to a lot of motor sport like BTCC. They call the car a Ford Focus or Seat Leon or whatever but in actual fact it only looks like the road car. Every bit of it is replaced or heavily modified.
They always were and will be a blank canvass from which owners can make them their own from boutique blings & fripperies, however yucky, to radical engine & driveline modifications in my view.
Mazda’s own Mazdaspeed turbos were no less a Mk2/M2.5 than cooking cars…just more of the same.
At any rate, a 5 like any other marque is only “original” when it runs off the production line really.
Fair game after that. Many have been saved from the crusher by various levels of expensive “resto-mods”…including mine. If I could, I’d Rocketeer mine tomorrow.
I’ve Rocketeered mine and what a job they’ve done. In one sense, it’s just the same, in another it’s totally different. The key factor is that the 1.6 that came out is the same weight as the alloy V6 that’s replaced it. So the ride, handling and steering are just the same. But more power and more torque needs an LSD and better brakes. Hats off to Bruce and Andy and the good people at Bassett Down Balancing. Job magnificently done!!
Has an RX7 Rotary Engine been fitted in a MX5?
In short yes it has been done and was on the front cover of soft top hard top in October 2020. You can also get a replacement front subframe for all sorts of engine transplants.
As long as it looks like a 5 it is a five!
It’s the spirit of the thing, I’m not a “petrol head” but I have lower and wider profile tyres to keep my MX5 on the road. That’s my bling, I appreciate them all from vanilla to supermod, I think of it as music, we all have our tastes and moods, I appreciate all music for the talent but I cannot listen to some it. I even have a unique mod, a car seat for my 9 year old, didn’t see another one of those at Thruxton!
