Why so many BBR turbos turning up for sale?

Technical Area Forced Induction & ITB
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Currently 3 on eBay and BBR have one for sale as well. Can any previous owners on here tell me their reasons for selling after spending £9k on the conversion? 

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To be honest some people keep cars for years after they make it their owm like after a BBR Turbo Conversion.

The majority of people after a few years or less want a “new car” and they have a special blindness as to how much they have spent on their existing car which they have no interest in being reminded of.

Therfore the car is a few years old an it has to be sold for something more sensible or something else special, just the way it goes.

The company will sell of their demo cars after a while in order to either finance the lastest demonstrator car with the latest tweeks or they are maybee getting out of that maeket if they have satisfied the demand for those cars or the demand for the cars is no longer at a level to make staying in that market worthwhile.

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There are numerous conversions of cars of all makes out there. They don’t necessarily tick the boxes people thought they would. At the end of the day it is still an MX-5. The great thing about MX-5’s is you don’t have to be going that fast to enjoy them. You make them faster and suddenly you need more space and you are still nowhere near Porsche territory or BMW 330 grunt or comfort and most people live in urban situations. 

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Interesting observation Alec and informative answers.

I would add that there are many who care not a whit about “return of investment” and never had to resort to overdrafts or the “Life of Cyclical Credit Cards”.

Think also of, in this day and age of speed-traps etc, how much time is spent “off boost”, and how often on our crammed roads to people get the chance to use 300bhp…apart from track events. Sooner or later, the shine dulls. 

TBH, I’d rather fork out 10/15k for a solid (?) BMW Z Mpower or similar.  

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Well after buying my NC BBR Stage 2 turbo last month I cant understand anyone wanting to sell theirs.

Just did a track day at Anglesey on Sunday and the car was absolutely fantastic.

Looking forward to the next one.

I don’t use it as a daily driver mind.

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probably for sale as BBR won’t cover warranty on track use

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To be fair BBR warrantying the engine after doing the work on a car they are unaware of the history of would be a gamble to say the least.

Happy to stick a turbo on it for you but at your own risk. I wouldn’t want to warrant the engine etc there after.

You pay your money and take your chance.

 

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I did ‘pay my money’ and ‘take my chance’ NEVER AGAIN!!!

but that’s a long story…

hope to see you on a track one day. PS if your near brands we are there on Friday 

 

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Working unfortunately but I believe a few RX8 will be there from the rx8oc.

Not done Brands Hatch yet but maybe one day.

Have a great day, hope the weather is good for you guys.

Enjoy

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Was nt there a problem on Mk3 conversions where the manifold warped due the excessive heat?

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Any proof of that? - Are you sure you aren’t confusing the manifold issue with the early NA BBR conversions, where manifold cracks were common - and hard to replace?

 

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Definitely had lots of issue, I bought 5 kits and they cost me thousands of pounds to put customers vehicles back to standard. This is when BBR changed their terms and conditions NOT to cover track use.

 

BBR personally fitted a kit to my green/orange le-mans Mk3 that then caught fire at silverstone… I was never going to go shopping in it was I. ?? 

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The original post which gave more details about BBRs addition of a turbo charger to a MK1 has been removed at the members request,

‘I have taken some legal advice and I am in the middle of pursuing the matter’

A further post will be added when the outcome is known.

 

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Hi Gerry

Sorry to hear that you are having to sell your beloved car.

I think Rodders post has answered your question

 

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Are there problems more with the stage 2 than the stage 1 bbr turbo conversion ? Just interested, I have been considering the latter ! Jez 

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I think there are some barely- hidden agendas going on in this thread. The Stage Two takes power to over 300bhp and the main differences relate to a heavier-duty clutch and improved exhaust. Any turbo puts increased stress on an engine but BBR don’t tweak the boost up too high (less than 10 lb psi) but stress is stress. When you’ve got that power you use it rarely, so that helps. You need to drive with  bit of common sense or you’d get speeding tickets most days and your license would be revoked well before you got any problems with the car. When I got my stage 2 I wasn’t entirely happy with the new clutch and Neil changed it free of charge even though it behaved perfectly when we took it out for a test drive. I can’t fault his customer care. Only an idiot would provide an open-ended warranty on a vehicle which is being used for racing! He’s got a business to run but notwithstanding that, his customer care  is excellent.

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I was just looking at the silver 2007 on eBay and it says

Mapped by Neil at BBR remotely as they do with all kits. 302 BHP / 254 Ft/Lb as quoted by BBR. 

If it was remotely how the hell do they know it has 300bhp 

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I actually removed the turbo set up from my mk2.5 and sold the complete kit. 

Personally, BBR cars are great for daily use and the occasional fast road, but they don’t like the track. I had numerous problems and had to recondition the turbo three times over 3 years. 

NA cars where spending there whole day hammering it, whereas I had to tread around eggshells so ended up removing the lot and going for an ITB set up by BLINK. 

I would have gone for a BBR ITB set up as its simply amazing, but BLINK are 4 hrs closer and alot more experience in building track engines. 

Love the BBR, but don’t expect a reliable track experience. Nor do they claim to be track specialists. Great factory style car and customer service is second to none.Â