I've just agreed to buy this:
After costing up most of the options, this one + a decent roll bar and a(nother) 1.8 LSD worked out best.
You're gonna have fun doing the window cables. I do, however, know someone who can do 'em in about half an hour a side.
Otherwise, looks like fun, that.
Yup, been there, done that.
I'm slightly ahead of you in that inasmuach as I've got a spare passenger side regulator assembly already. I'll get one of the non-cable ones for the driver's side. Both are a PITA to change but hopefully I only have to do that once.
Yup, and it's in pretty good nick, or at least was when I saw it a few months ago. *Much* better than the one I just sold and it still worked out cheaper than having mine sorted bodywork-wise and then fitting the s/c with all the uprated bits I would have wanted sooner or later.
Nice... just make sure you get it nice and warm and check for smoke, before you hand the cash over.
Looks like a good laugh that! If it's as tidy as it looks in the pictures/when you last saw it then it looks a good buy. Although am I right in saying style roll-bars are just there for the looks, and don't actually offer any protection? Assuming they are fakes, I'd want shot of them asap. I really like the wheels, at first I wasn't sure, but when I'd read it and then enlarged the pics they actually suit it really well don't they? Oh, only one other small "Hmm" for me is the twin exit exhaust (assuming they both actually work...).
Good choice :-) I'm in no position to give you advice on looking for faults on a 2nd hand motor, and JackH covers the main bits anyway. I'd add to that though and say get the bonnet up before you drive it and make sure it's totally stone cold and they haven't just given it a blast half an hour before you got there to get rid of oil smoke coming from it being a bit weepy somewhere inside, where oil has been able to collect places where it shouldn't and then all gets turned to oil smoke when it's used. I am certain you'd thought of all this anyway, but it's the thought that counts :-)
My old 405 used to give a little if left standing over night. Then when we went on holiday and it was stood for a couple of weeks and I fired it up, most of the village was in a cloud for the rest of the day...
They're not called 'mousetraps' on the forum that the car is advertised for nothing. The plan is to replace it with a proper rollbar anyway. And not a chromed one, either.
Oh yes. They're proper old school JDM wheels - I love the looks of them, plus they're quite light as well.
Oh yes, both work. Not my favourite mod either but if I don't have to pay for a performance exhaust, I'm not complaining.
I will. That said, the guy who is selling it is a member of the MX5 forum that I use and a bit like this place here and UKRM, word would get around if people were flogging duff cars...
Remeber I know a guy with a turbo'd 1.6 MX-5, and runs a small parts business? He knows the guy who built this one you just bought, and he provided some of the parts.
Normally moments like these are accompanied by a drum roll then a list of known problems.
I like that a lot.
I always wondered what you could get away with in a chassis that size.
How much horsepower can they take before they turn into doughnut monster ?
Indeed.
It appears you just can't get the staff these days.
You can go sideways in them without modifying the engine :).
The chassis seems to be able to handle quite a lot more power -
200-250bhp isn't unheard of. I've been in another one with similar power and didn't get the impression that the engine was a lot faster than the chassis. Of course it does make a few quirks of the car a bit more pronounced, namely the fact that it likes to wag its tail.
I know of a Supercharged 1.8 probably coming up for sale soon if anyone else wants one :)
A 1.6 needs rain, or cheap tyres, to acheive that feat.
Mate of mine has an MX-5, and a dead Audi A8 4.2 on the drive, I keep telling him the engine from the audi belongs in the mazda...
The one I've just flogged had an LSD. Kinda screwed up the whole 'sideways' thing unless you were very committed...
What's wrong with the A8. No, don't tell me.
AFAIK it needs a starter motor and that actually makes it beyond economic.
WHAT? That's ridiculous. How much does he want for it? (The car, not the dead starter)
Erm, doesn't Timo also have that combination on his drive? - or did someone buy his A8?
Eh? The one I just sold (which has a 1.8 LSD fitted) would go sideways quite easily if you skipped the bit about mechanical sympathy. And that was on a bog standard engine.
In fact, to go sideways properly you *do* need an LSD:
I'm pretty sure it won't fit. Certain Ford small blocks do fit, though...
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