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Truenotch's-Old-Man's MX5 - MX5RacingNZ


Truenotch

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Figured I should probably do a thread for this since I've been driving it so frequently ( :( ) .

It came to the household as a damaged car that had been de-registered, but the only real damage was a cracked tail light, a few scratches and a bent top arm in the front. Simple fix! Then it sat doing nothing for around 5 years until the free storage ran out.

Earlier this year the old boy decided it was time to sort the shit out. He'd accumulated some parts and had 2 sets of Bilstein shocks, 1 set of KYB coilovers, a hardtop, a pod filter kit and a few other things stashed away by the time we got to it.

Since then it's had the half cage welded in, water filled up and the fuck thrashed out of it. And it loves it! I did 2 rounds of winter series, a couple of test days and a trackday on Federals and had a shitload of fun doing skids and posting surprising times for the quality of rubber.

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Some of you will have seen it at Manfeild or at 1vaknd's Taupo Trackday - the general consensus is that it goes bloody good for a standard car! All it has at the moment is a half cage, coilovers (with very soft rear springs) and an induction kit... Even the exhaust is stock as a rock.

As you can tell, there's some work to do on the setup, but overall it isn't too bad.

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Videos:

Lap times:

Manfeild

- 1:29.321 (Road tyres on the canvas)

- 1:27.020 on New semis with need for a harder bum (aw-stopit)

Taupo

- 1:58.500 on dying road tyres

Pretty happy with how it goes but it's starting to show signs of a possible head gasket issue... Hasn't died yet, so we're not too worried! It needs harder rear springs and a noisy exhaust before we can get it going Really well on the Semi slicks. Watch this space, I reckon there's a low 1:26 in this car.

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^^ iunno?? Standard 1600cc mazda mx5 engine that has a good flat torque curve and not much power :P . Still too fast for the RS cup though.

really must finish my car and start doing the series , that ae82 nzgt 5 door in the picture above is my mates old car we used to race on gravel was a wicked car

Yeah, hurry up!!! So you're mates with Jimmy too? It goes a better now with LSD box instead of a locked diff :) .

Steve - the 5 door and 3 door were pretty identical in lap time, but the 5door has a silvertop and rally suspension and the 3door has less power but is 6 speed and stops on a dime. So they're pretty even.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Haha, I should have had the camera running dammit!! Such an intense day of racing, skids and some light contact...

Had awesome races with cars that should have been a lot faster - racing seems to even the playing field somewhat. In race one I had a 4-5 lap battle with a blue S1 RX7 - he had the straights, I had the brakes and corners. It was tough, but I managed to get past a couple of times before being overtaken again on the straight... Until the last lap when I was committed to getting in front! So I attempted to go deep and around the outside into the esses... Caught the slippery side of the track and went deep into the grass, came over the ripples sideways and back onto the track after hitting a few lumps. I made it to the hairpin to see the RX7 half on the grass - it was back on!

Then half way down the straight I noticed that the steering wheel was not pointing the same way it used to... Hmm... Understeered my way around the final two corners and took the flag behind the RX. Damn! But it was an epic battle - we both enjoyed every minute. Got back into the pits to check the systems - bent tie rod. Tried straightening it but it was fucked. A short trip to repco and $9.95+ GST solved that problem and we were ready to roll within half an hour 8) . These cars rule for cheap running and parts availability!

I spent the rest of the day on the back of two H22A powered civic race cars (both with old men and sloppy suspension). They would fuck off down the straights and hold me up bigtime in the corners... Unfortunately this resulted in one getting a nudge in the bum and the other getting a slap on the side as he "closed the door" (I was infront of the B pillar though :wink: ), but there was no real damage to speak of.

Again, awesome day. Lets do it again, NOW.

Managed a 1.26.2 for those who know the track.

Beast is still standard apart from Tyres and suspension - we haven't even lightened it yet :shock: . I'd say that with the 205/50/15 R888's, lightening and a track that isn't soiled by oil it will be well capable of 1.25's. Very impressed! Bring on the MX5 series!

Truenotch i met your brother (Jake) the other week out at raumai reserve! He drove your guys forester and jammed on his minikit haha. Hes a good bloke

Ahh it was you!! He mentioned that someone knew of OS / me / road and track etc. Rock up to a monthly meet next time. We'll be doing "Cheap dinner tours" for the Palmy meets now, so no need to be over 18 :wink: .

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Yeah, factory engine with factory extractors, factory exhaust, factory cams, factory inlet (mostly) and a pod filter. They're actually a bloody good engine and have a very smooth torque curve right to the limit... So you don't notice when it's getting close to 8000rpm sometimes.

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  • 2 months later...

Giving the right hand side a tickle up before the race meeting this weekend:

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Another car built for the series (will be on 15" wheels ASAP)

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"Liberacé" - it's a little gay :P

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Triplets

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Hopefully I can beat the other two this weekend! We're running with SS2000 instead of the RX7's (which was the original plan), so it should be interesting!

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