Well I've always had one of these, (had 4 before) but managed to just muck about with the polo for the last 4 years.

I've always kept and eye out though and couldnt resist this mx-5 as its a spec and colour combo I've always loved!

I know they are not everyones cup of tea and before anyone starts on the I'm jumping on the mx-5 bandwagon, I had my first one in 97 and always had a 5 up until 4 years ago.

Cost me £1100 with full history 3 owners and a hard top and piratically everything else like original hand book and original bought mazda hardtop wall brackets and tonneau.

Picked it up in late March.

Said id keep it stock and just enjoy a bit of top down driving...... that plan lasted about 3 mins....

I then bought the oem side skirts and front li - no photos of them on yet.

Then i bought these wheels.... from the states as I wanted Hyper black which is not a colour they do over here.. they have a royal polished lip and the colour looks somewhere between chrome and black depending on the light. 15x8

Then i bought this full manifold back exhaust system including high flow cat - again from California. They just seem to have all the best car stuff over there.

Its not raspy - i spent ages finding the one with a nice deep tone thats not boomy. 2.5"

Then I bought these real roll over protection bars in the style of hoops. Not style bars but i didint want a full bar. These are actually stronger than anything you can get in the UK. Again from US.

I'm going to be powder coating them as they are not staying black.

This is someone else's car with the same bars -

On their way at the end of May are a nice set of coilovers....

I've also had a friend who does mx-5's do the rusty sills and the chassis rails which are the 5's Achilles heel.

Oh yeah, remember this was going to be just a bit of fun, well i sought of accidentally bought a MP62 supercharger kit for it.

This is the same kit but on the car its coming off. Need to sort a ECU - in the process, and I've bought a GTR fuel pump (direct swap more capacity) and RX8 injectors.

I need to get myslef a small crank overlay pulley though as this one is too big - its good for 270+bhp and I want less as the engine will be on the limit of its tolerance stock at that much power/torque.

Looking for about 225-250 max as I dont want to start moving the weak point around with each mod.

Yes the whole thing has escalated beyond plan. I've only had it 7 weeks!!!!!!!!

The mx5 isnt for me to work on though as thats why I have the polo.

The 5 is just for driving etc, (mainly in the summer)

Ill get more photos done when all this is on.

Cheers

JC

Edited 13 May, 201511 yr by Retrotub

bet thats great fun!

looking forward to seeing new pics with all the mods...

Sitting in s Costa. I took my polo up to Barnsley where I'm going to attempt to respray and my mx-5 is in Winchester.

Been a bit boring without my projects.

I'm about to test drive my mazda now it's had most of the upgrades. I have a feeling the tuners have not been told it's too powerful very often, but I'm thinking that 270bhp is going to ruin the car!

I only wanted 200bhp!!!

Nice project! Should be some fun summer time driving!

Just in case anyone is interested. My other project has progressed.

In the summer the coilover went on, new upgraded bushes in the suspension wishbones (upper and lowers etc etc = expensive and time consuming! )

The sills were done and the front chassis legs. The OEM lip and side skirts went on as did the new wheels.

The new exhaust system and high flow cat all fitted beautifully and the MS2 ECU with the MP62 charger have all gone on. This is it when I got it home.

This is the charger instal - I bought the kit second hand, so while its a good kit there are a few bits to tidy up at some point.

This weekend the weather was so warm for december I decided to instal the roll bars. What and mental job - so involved, I cant explain how I was supposed to drill holes in the chassis I couldnt get a finger to let alone a drill - with the short days it took nearly three (i might have been doing other stuff at times) to get it on.

The roll bar is far better than any you can get in the UK which tend to be bad copies of another american sourced bar. It is race approved etc by some autocross organisation of america or something. OK not like a full cage but I wanted the car to still look good.

I really had to strip it down.

Here you can see the first of three bolts that go in this part of the feet you have to drill the chassis for - the box section of the frame and the car generally prevent you from seeing the two bolts behind. Nightmare. They go through the chassis and through a thick steel backing plate on the underside. (20 of these bolts overall)

I had to trim carpet and underlay in places - scrape of cauk (or whatever its called) and heavily modify some of the plastic trim as well as slightly re-align the seatbelt reals. For me, it was a huge job. Nothign was impossible but it just took a lot of time, a lot due to access to the areas you needed.

The whole car had to be off the floor to ensure the chassis was straight otherwise it doesnt line up. (these doen actually flex much but you just know a few mm out is going to cost you.

Also needed access underneath for the backing plates and bolting up.

Final picture - not completely finished but mostly there - spot the two places I damaged the outer powdercoat :(

Cheers for looking - a lot of stuff on a 5 given its a polo forum. But interesting for me to do, and my polo is not here due to building work at the house. I learnt a lot about the car and how amazingly well over engineered it its.

Its also a lot safer now - but my god does this stiffen the already good chassis up!

Cheers

JC

Love these mx5's the gfs dad has one and it's a hoot to drive. Just a standard 1600 but the earlier more powerful one (pretty sure they were detuned later)

I can't spot the damaged powdercoat lol the car looks very nice and I love the bars. I see your numberplate light hanging out..is that because of rot? One on ours must have hung out partially for a while and allowed moisture in so it's absolutely rotten and needs a new boot lid and the lights keep falling out...just wanted to know if this was a common occurrence with these?

Edited 11 December, 201510 yr by wizardmanjm

I'm sure I've told you before JC that I'm not the MX-5's biggest fan.

I appreciate they are a very well put together car with a great little engine and chassis in standard form. I have actually rallied a stripped out one round an industrial estate in the past and it made me feel like I was on one of those autotests that people do in the Classic Minis. But even that didn't convince me.

A mate of mine has an MX-5 with a 2.5 BMW straight 6 engine in it. I'm sure he said he was on MX-5 Nuts or something so maybe you have seen it? That thing is genuinely insane! So much torque and power coupled with a low ratio BMW gearbox and the 1.6 MX-5 LSD, it will hang on the bumper of my M3 until 95mph when he hits the limiter in 5th! Again I've driven that....just something about it I didn't like.

Maybe it's because I know I look like a bit of a tool in one. Some skinny tall bloke with hardly any hair driving a tiny little soft top can't be a good look?

I've heard the mk2 is a bit bigger so maybe I wouldn't look as bad in that?

As for yours, I like the packaging of that supercharger kit. It is nice to see one a bit different, seems these days (probably after the MCM boys did it) everyone goes on about turboing their MX-5. Which is still pretty cool in it's own right, but it is all over YouTube these days.

But I do like the fact you have gained enough confidence working on your Polo that you're willing to drill into your MX-5 and fit a roll bar.

Hey Steven, shame you didn't like the mk-5 experience. We are all different. I really don't get why people want to make Polo's fast - I like the retro character of it and its looks. But fast - its terrifying - they barely handle or stop.

But you are right, working on my old polo has given me the confidence to do more with my other car. I wouldn't have dreamt of buying this roll bar a few years ago. Modifying stuff myself doesn't come naturally to me but I'm getting more adventurous.

I had a friend fit a turbo to my fist mx-5 back in 2000. Those days it was a rare thing and most people who had done it knew or knew of all the others. No I fear in a couple of years its going to be hard to find a non rusty mx-5 that hasnt had a turbo cheaply strapped to it and driven sideways until its nearly dead.

Yeah the BRP MP62 kit is a real quality bit of kit and the auto tensioner seems to be very good.

Wizard, its a weak spot in the mk2 in particular. its complex, but the boot is connected with the interior and the area the drain channels take water. Basically condensation sits in the boot lid then in the end and rots the light fittings. My next bit of work is to fix that probably next week.