Ekona Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I've been after one of these since January really, but the search kinda went cold as cash flow was diverted elsewhere and with an upcoming holiday I'd decided to wait until I got back before continuing. That is, until I popped my head on eBay this week and saw the absolute ideal car in perfect spec and literally 5 mins from where I worked. It would've been rude not to take a look, and when it turned out to be exactly as described and at an utter bargain price, how could I say no? Picked her up today just as the sun came out: Not bad for £850, eh? She's a Eunos Roadster 1.8L, 123K miles but on her third engine which was only replaced in October with a 30K miler along with the clutch, plugs and leads. She was imported in 2001 and I've got every single MOT and service record since then, along with a bunch of receipts for the work done. There's no rust on her anywhere as the previous owner cleared it all up and sprayed her up to a fair standard. She's not perfect by any means, but then she doesn't have to be as I'm going to strip her down and use her as a cheap-as-chips weekend/trackday car. No fancy bits will be going on, I don't want to make it fast, I just want to make it fun for as little as possible. A few issues to solve: 1. Slightly erratic idle. Fine when I test drove it, fine early on today, but sitting anywhere between 1300 - 800 when I got home after a run. Got a can of 10K boost to run through the intake to see if that helps first. 2. Tyres are cracked to high heaven. Didn't notice that when I first looked, just checked for loads of tread (doh!). £30 a corner isn't too bad though. 3. Rev counter sometimes raises itself by 500rpm at 70mph for no reason. Revs don't rise, just the counter. Dodgy connection somewhere probably. 4. Central locking doesn't work on the driver's side. Meh. 5. Leccy windows are really slow. Driver's does go down eventually, but gave up waiting for the pax one to do the same. Needs a good re-grease of the runners. Other than that, and the other bits I want to do, she's a beauty. Looked at the suspension a bit closer today and under the grime she's sitting on the Bilstein dampers and springs which makes her a fairly desirable S-Spec model, bonus So wonderfully controllable on the throttle too, just enough power to get the back end out to play and hold it there. She's currently on utterly atrocious mixed tyres, Firestone Firehawk TZ200 on the front and Federal SuperSteel 657 on the back, and they're as bad as you think. It's a shame that all four tyres are really badly cracked as my plan would've been to run the car on mixed tyres and give a fair report of just why it's a bad idea, but they're too far gone to risk it. Best feature? The button that makes the pop-up headlights come up without the lamps coming on too: I was driving round with them up and giggling to myself at both how old-school and ridiculous that is but also just how incredibly cool it is too. She's awesome. Proper fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beavis Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Bargain and ideal for days like today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Mcgoo Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 I can touch your roots up for you anytime, sweetie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EH 370z Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 power steering? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Sadly yes, it's pretty good but too light really so will look to fit the nonPAS rack at a later date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoogyRev Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Very nice Dan If you want parts and service bits, I always used http://www.autolinkuk.co.uk/ when I had mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Mcgoo Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 I can touch your roots up for you anytime, sweetie Just a wash and blow required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Very nice Dan If you want parts and service bits, I always used http://www.autolinkuk.co.uk/ when I had mine Diamond, cheers fella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 MX5!!! Really good mine before i sold it - although that was on koni street dampers, dual exit exhaust, rollbars, and dotz alloy wheels... Really really great car - handles like a gokart and is so nice with the roof down. I paid a bit more for mine, but you cant have more fun for £850 Here was mine: And its not a hairdressers car, this is a hairdressers car... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Thats going to be a lot of fun for the money, enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 good looking track toy, i'd also run a can of BG44k through the next fuel tank, as that will help clean the injectors and fuel system etc. need any help with it drop me a line, always up for a car fiddle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Track toy to be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted March 26, 2012 Author Share Posted March 26, 2012 i'd also run a can of BG44k through the next fuel tank, as that will help clean the injectors and fuel system etc. Already done, although I used Redex injector cleaner as it was all Halfrauds had. Track toy to be? Yup, but it'll be done very much on a budget though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted March 27, 2012 Share Posted March 27, 2012 Track toy to be? Yup, but it'll be done very much on a budget though. That'll be an absolute blast!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Update time! I needed to remove the stock seats from the car today to get a measure up for fitting the new ones, as I was unsure if the OEM rails would either fit the Cobra seats or whether I'd need to come up with a creative plan. There's also the minor issue of removing the little humps of metal which are spot-welded to the floor pan and need to come off if you want to get the seat really low (which I do), and then I'll need to drill the floor pan itself and bolt through. I decided to take out the quite pretty and in very good nick chrome roll hoop structure thing, and whilst I was removing things I decided to remove the stereo as it's pointless keeping it in there so I set about dismantling the centre console which can be done in 7 screws and 3 mins, I kid you not. Stereo came out easy enough, but then I thought that with the bare aerial lead in there floating around I might get some weird noises from the speakers, so they should probably come out as well. And then there's the door cards themselves... I ended up with this little lot ready to go into the shed, it's all utterly mint: I assume there's no issue with running without door cards? Just got the plastic sheeting there covering the central locking (which I managed to fix on the driver side, yay!) and the electric window motor. Doesn't look pretty but it's lighter! Would any of this cause an MOT failure? I don't think so, but it's only 10 mins to put the cards back on. It feels a little bit more like my car now, and so in good fashion I just had to put some stickers on it, which will give a hint as to the secondary colour that I'm going to use for some cheap-ass viper stripes... Just waiting on the sticker company to get back to me, and then it'll be pink vinyl all the way baby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 looking good my hair cutting friend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cragus Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Loving the stickers. We all know you leave your straighteners in the glove compartment though! Bargain at £850 - I am certain it will bring you £££s worth more fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 Well, what was supposed to be a big day in getting the car sorted turned into one massive failure Big plan was to get the humps of metal removed and the seats in, but that first of all means you have to remove the carpet. Simple job thinks I, until I discover that the carpet is in one piece and you need to remove the entire dash to get it out! I don't see the point of getting every last bit out really, so decide to sacrifice the carpet by making a couple of cuts and just leaving the remaining 4" square section under the centre console in place. With that done, I start to get the seats ready. Pop the new rails on them, get them in the car to make sure they'll fit where I expect them to, and then when I try to relocate the seatbelt clip (as it is mounted to the stock seat normally) I discover that it interferes with the seat itself and I can't get it to mount safely. New seats go back in the shed, and OEM seats go back in. In short, I need to get the roll protection and harnesses in at the same time as the seats, and with only two weeks to go before my one and only likely trackday in it this year as I'm due to be laid up for the entire summer after a back operation, then it's £500 I can do without shelling out right now. They will have to wait until September at the earliest, which is a bit of a bugger. Still, at least it weighs a bit less now, and after running a can of 10K Boost through it (amazing stuff, you really must give it a go) it's idling a lot smoother and quieter now. Almost as much of a pain as trying to fit a set of front discs and pads to the Impreza this morning. Old pads out, one caliper bolt free, go for the second one... Snap. Shears off and I've no helicoil to remove it with, so I have to put the thing back together again and take it to the local Subaru specialist first thing on Monday whilst giving Jo my truck to use for the week until they can get it fixed. It's a common thing apparently, as the bolt is steel but the bracket is aluminium, so they corrode together nicely. All in all, a very unsuccessful day spent on cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Not such a good day Dan. Loving the Roadster though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 22, 2012 Author Share Posted April 22, 2012 Proper depressing day mate, I tell you. Haven't had such a bad day on cars for a long time, guess I've been quite lucky really! Pics as of this AM: I've left the centre console in for now as I'll need to relocate the window switches first, but eventually that can come out too along with the underside of the dash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 So today was the first track day in the MX-5, and I thought I'd put a few thoughts down about it. The day was at Bedford and it was the long 3.8 mile GT layout, and given that the MX-5 had just a measly 130bhp from the factory you may well expect it to be somewhat underpowered on a long layout like that. Well, you'd be absolutely correct! That's not to say it wasn't immense fun, because it really really was. Bear in mind that this is a 124,000 mile car, on stock brakes with the original springs and dampers and the worst possible tyres you can get, and you kinda realise that it's never going to be a lap record setter. Once you get past that, and adjust your driving style to suit, it becomes a huge challenge and a huge grin-producer at the same time. You absolutely must be smooth with it, as while the chassis is very forgiving, because it takes so long to get any meaningful speed out of it you can't afford to shed any more speed in the braking zones than you have to. That's the real challenge, and I was keeping some S1 Elises and 996 Carreras pretty honest through the twisty parts. Under braking and in a straight line they left me for dead, pretty much as expected, but the transition between turn in to getting back on the power was closer than I had thought it might be. On crappy tyres too, remember... Speaking of the tyres, which are Event no-name 185/60/14s, they're horrendous. A bit of water and they're everywhere, sidewalls so floppy you could poke one and watch it wobble for hours, and tyre roar like a lion being raped by a hippo. That said, were they actually any worse than something like the T1R or 452 on track? No, surprisingly they weren't. They actually held up better to the heat than the T1Rs did, and that was very surprising. Perhaps I've mis-judged these pikey-spec tyres, and you might as well just buy the cheapest you can if you're looking to save a few quid rather than settle for a middle ground. Whilst I'd love to get a set of R888s on it for the next track day, I have other areas that this bargain bucket car needs money spending on it first. That would be the suspension then. I've never actually ran a car with knackered suspension before, but I suspect it the definition would look something like this: On the road it's crashy and banging, seemingly over damped and under-sprung, but on a racetrack smooth surface there is so much bodyroll that I needed elbow pads to stop grazing my arm on the left handers. It's awful! Well, for 120K+ miles I guess it's amazing that none of the dampers are leaking or the springs cracked, but at the same time they're clearly well past their best. This really needs doing before the next trackday for sure. Interestingly, the part I expected to be the weakest, the brakes, held up the best. The brake fluid is a horrible colour and clearly needs changing, and the discs and pads aren't too far from destruction, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that they got significantly better as the day wore on and I got more confident with using them. They never ran out of feel, and the fluid never boiled, but the stopping power increased markedly so it just goes to show that sometimes a bit of a workout on the brakes can do wonders for them if they've not been used in anger for a while. Considering I bought this car a couple of months ago for £900 and have done nothing to it apart from the tyres and changing a very dead aux belt, you could forgive the MX-5 for giving up the ghost at the first lap and screaming "Enough!" whilst p*ssing all it's fluids everywhere. Instead it came alive and showed me that while it's clearly far from the track machine I'd like to make it, it's still perfectly capable of driving 3 hours to and from track and doing 135 very hard miles on one tankful of fuel and putting a bloody great smile on your face at the same time. I'd perhaps forgotten just how much fun trackdays can be when you're not travelling at Warp 10 everwhere, but this rust bucket of a '5 has certainly shown me the error of my ways. As an aside, my brother took his Cayman R out for it's first track outing today, and we both swapped cars throughout the day. He was far smoother in the MX-5 than he was in his, and whilst I was outrageously quick in the CR and it's clearly a purpose-built trackday monster, I found myself wanting to drive my car more. I'm not for one moment suggesting that the '5 is better than the CR in any way, as it's clearly inferior, but it wasn't just me who found that fastest is not always funnest. And yes, that's clearly a word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightRacer Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I know exactly what you mean, i felt exactly the same about my 5. Having done some track time with some other mx5's i would really fancy a charged one! I also had best intentions to leave mine alone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 There were a couple of race-spec mk1s there today too, and it was both depressing and exhilarating to watch the ease they blew past me as technically they're exactly the same car so I shouldn't be that much slower (!), but then it was also good to know that eventually mine will be that quick too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brillomaster Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 aww sounds like a great day out! Im not that surprised the 5 was ok on brakes, its only got 950kgs to stop after all, and bedford would have a lot of long straights to get some air to the brakes. Have to say, the suspension was a weak point on my 5 - bodyroll was comical as you say. I bought some KONI STRT springs and dampers, which made things a lot firmer with less roll. i really miss being out on track in a cheap car... best day out you can have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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