I bought an 1992 MX-5 a month or two ago, and think it's a fantastic drive. I understand the stigma around it that it's a hairdressers / mid-life-crisis / birds car...etc... but I'm not arsed.
That said however, I wouldn't mind 'beefing' it up a bit. Now I'll admit, I aint got a fecking clue about modifying cars, so I'll take any advice you've got.
First things first, I need some decent alloys. There are some standard Mazda
14"'s on at the moment, and they're pretty crap. I'm under the impression
16"'s would probably be best, without affecting ride quality (too much)... can anyone recommend any (preferably with a UK retailer)?
With the 16"'s on, I'm thinking I'll want to lower it a bit. Can anyone recommend decent springs? I understand someone put some 17"'s alloys on, and successfully managed to lower theirs by 40mm, without having to modify the arches.
Anything else anyone can recommend, feel free.
One deciding factor on what I go for is naturally going to be budget, but also insurance, as I'm only 19 with no NCB. Not a massive issue, but something to be aware of.
The new MX5 sports come with nice wheels (not sure if they're 16 or 17) but might be worth looking to see if you can pick up a set of those from somewhere.
There are also some very good wheel and tyre packages on ebay...
bah sod the wheels, get a supercharger or turbo charger kit for it! 200 horses would see it going properly :) think blitz make the turbo kit, original official bolt on extra turbo was made by BBR so there probably the best bet. think HKS make a super charger kit.
seen a MX5 grey turbo round my way a lot last year and it went like stink! :)
I understand though cannot confirm that the 17's off the RX8 bolt straight on- withe the RX8's tyres.
If you must lower it, do so no more than 10-15mm and have a proper 4 wheel laser alignment check and adjust done after.
Lowering it much more will totally screw the suspension geometry (unless you fit rose-jointed wishbones) and it will go from an entirely fun and predicatably handling go-kart into something which is trying to spin you backwards through a hedge at the earliest opertunity and /or wear out the tyres in less than 5000miles.
Here is a very interesting site for modified car owners.
formatting link
If you search the database you might even find the same model. It will show you what NOT to do, like taking a hacksaw to the springs fitten in an attempt to "lower" the car. Yes that has been done!
For God's sake don't go fitting blue washer jets that flash with the indicators like I saw on a 1litre Nissan Micra tonight. It could hardly move with the weight of 4 scally types all wearing baseball caps inside it and the lights dimmed to the music. Modified boy racer cars look silly, and often the person driving them does too. It can get out of hand and go too far. The best equipment on the car is what it left the factory with, the car was designed and built to handle a certain way. If you want a faster one, the solution is a car with a bigger engine. If you want to put giant ironing board or bookshelf spoilers on, then fit lowering springs and oversized wheels you'll luck a right plonker. Everyone will look and think, "why has it got that on the boot when it's dead slow". Before you know it, you will have a K&N induction kit to suck in hot air from the engine bay, then a dustbin sized exhaust to slow you down and sound like it doesn't have one fitted. Please don't ruin a lovely car, enjoy it for what it is. Then at l;east you will be able to sell it again. No one I know will touch a butchered/modified car as it's too risky. Don't forget, if you alter the suspension geometry and mess about with the set-up of the car, don't declare it and crash, you're not covered by the insurance policy. Hit or kill anyone else and you will be in trouble.
Please don't ruin a good car, remember the Golf advert ages ago that showed what people had done to them - they cried!
1) Chavs and the like, who bolt on things like spoilers that have no aerodynamic benefits just so the car looks their idea of good, which typically it isn't but one man's poison, etc.
2) Most of the denizens in here, who have a definite idea as to what they are trying to achieve, and can get advice about how they might go about getting it to work that way.
The first group don't need to know about mods, they just know they want lots and lots, and all that matters is to learn the current fashions and whatnot.
Your first question about wheels and lowering is a reasonable example. First, when you increase the diameter of the wheel, you reduce the profile of the tyre, and vice versa, so that the rolling radius remains the same. A wheel 20 inches from top to bottom, with a 14 inch diameter alloy, and three inches of rubber each side, is replaced by a 16 inch diameter alloy, with only two inches of rubber each side, it is still 20 inches from top to bottom.
The effect of a lower profile tyre is to reduce how much it can flex so that you feel the bumps a lot more, but the car will lean over slightly less when cornering. Same effect as pumping up the existing tyres, to some extent.
You don't want to change the rolling radius by anything significant, that's similar to buying bigger radius bullets for your new gun, it still works so long as you don't do it more than insignificantly, but beyond that it keeps blowing up and taking your hand off.
Since the RR is staying the same, there's no reason to lower it, but as a separate issue you can give away ground clearance in exchange for a lower centre of gravity, up to a point. The MX-5 is designed to be a sports car so it has already got a reduced ground clearance and low centre of gravity and you won't gain very much from doing this, but there might be options there for all I know.
What you really need to decide is what you want to change about the ride. There isn't a better or worse, as such, to be advised which you should want and how to go about getting it. Shocks and springs are a good thing to look at.
At the moment this is a bit like saying you are happy with the grip from the tyres, and they last ok, and look fine, but you want to change them. Any advice on what to replace them with? OTOH if you are in the first group and are doing it for appearance's sake, fair enough, they can say Pirelli or whatnot, it's not really sommat I know much about.
P.S. insurance is often greatly affected by modifications, but YMMV.
Be fair tho, most people in here advocate a nice set of wheels and even some sensible lowering :) More so the wheels than the lowering. The ride won't suffer that much from 16's, as some of them come with 16's anyway, so it can't be too bad.
In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, snipped-for-privacy@quickwatchsales.com decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows
That is probably the best bit of advice I've read in here. Mainly because it perfectly matches my own views on the subject
there should be a uk.rec.cars.chavs for the "lower it to the deck, paint it black, black out the windows, put a massive 300Kg sound system in and fit a dump valve" crew. People who's idea of making a car better is to ruin the ride and handling, fit so much ICE the weight distribution goes from 50:50 to 10:90 because of the MDF and batteries in the boot should really be shot!!
Yeah, wouldn't want to lower it significantly, and would make sure an alignment check was done too.
Yeah, there are one or two people who have lowered their MX5's successfully without affecting the ride quality - guess it's just about finding a suitable balance.
Haha... nice site. I genuinely think the people who mod their cars like that see something completely different to everybody else - they see a FATF supercar, we see a shed.
It's like cutting a window in a cardboard box, sticking a TV inside, and calling it a computer.
Absolutely agree with you - I can't stand the blue washer jets - they're not only very popular with the "evo on a budget" crowd, but also completely unmodified cars too. It really doesn't add anything to the car... at all.
Fortunately, I won't be doing anything like that. There are various cosmetic and performance 'improvements' available, how people choose to apply these can really make or break a car.
The terminology I used in my original post was probably deceptive - I don't want to add an ironing board spoiler - just an understated, rear-lip one (probably one very much like this:
formatting link
I don't want 'oversized wheels' - just ones which improve the overall look of the car. Compare this:
formatting link
for example, with this:
formatting link
I'm not overly keen on the particular rims in the picture, but you get the idea. What do you think?
LOL, very true comments for the majority of modifiied cars unfortunatley. I don't want to do *anything* like that! I have my own business and chose the MX-5 based on quality of drive, reliability, affordability and the understated look.
The modifications on the car will be few - I'm not going to hack it up. If anything, I'll endeavour to make it even more saleable. A rear-lip spoiler and new wheels doesn't, to me, denote a hammered-to-death boy-racer car.
I'll declare any signnificant modifications I make - and would get proffessional advice before doing ANYTHING to it. Before I do modify my car, I'll also ensure that a lot of thought is put into how it may affect the drive quality, and ensure the pros far outweigh the cons.
As I admitted in my first post, I know very little about modifications, and am by no means a car-expert. However I do have a clear idea in my mind about the desired effect I want to achieve - proffesional and under-stated. I posted originally because I understand there are people here who know a lot about this sort of thing, and will hopefully be able to advise me on how I can achieve the effect I want. I hope the fact I've posted here shows I've got a willingness to learn and demonstrates which group I'd rather be part of!
[Snip useful information]
Yeah - I'm continuing to look at the various factors that can affect ride quality and the aesthetics of the car.
I want to find a balance between improving the look of the car, and maintaining a good drive. The few mods I will make are going to be primarily for aesthetics, and secondly to maintain or even improve (if possible) the drive. I am not going to go overboard on modifications, in fact, here is an exhaustive list on the modifications I plan to make.
1) New rims & wheels - the current ones are, in my opinion, too small.
2) Lowering & springs - I had the impression that when fitting larger wheels, the car would obviously be higher than original. I'd really only want to maintain the current profile of the car.
3) Rear-lip spoiler - certainly no ironing board, see my reply to jsfinch for an example of what I'd be after.
4) Interior cosmetic improvements - new dials, chrome finishing...etc...
I'm open to other suggestions in regards to aesthetics and performance, but like I said, I don't want to go overboard. Quality control at each stage will hopefully ensure the car stays professional :o)
Yeah - this is also a deciding factor, and may limit what I can and can't do. But there's no escaping it, so just have to decide what I want to do, then price it up.
You'll want more power. Once you've fettled the suspension a bit and got some grippy rubber on it, you'll want more power to make it slide again. Or at least I would ;).
IMO, Interior is probably one of the easiest bits of a car to stuff up. I'd look at dash transplants from later models of MX-5 and perhaps a leather retrim. Other than that, I'd go for a stripped interior, oil pressure and temp guages and a pair of buckets. Taking Golfs as an example, I've seen Ford Grandad seats in a MK1. I'm sure they're very comfy, but big armchairs look pretty nasty next to the leanness of the MK1. Audi / Porsche bits, and retrimmed original stuff looks much better.
Depends on the company. I'm with Adrian Flux and they seem pretty relaxed about it (no extra charge for a mappable ECU to make it run on 95RON fuel if I want). Others refuse to even cover you with a modified car.
in news: snipped-for-privacy@pipex.net, "Dan" slurred
When you fit larger wheels, you would normally fit lower profile tyres to keep the rolling radius approximately the same.
If you don't do this then you will possibly alter the suspension geometry and increase stress on bearings and other bad things, plus your speedo will be out of calibration.
Having more wheel and less tyre gives the appearance of 'filling' the wheel arches more, even though the overall size is the same, and this is what you would normally be aiming at.
formatting link
Lets you find wheel/tyre size combinations which will be roughly the same size as the one you currently have.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.