New Miata (er, MX-5)

i CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING AS EFFECTIVE ;-) CD

Which makes no sense to me because the naturally aspirated version of the engine in that car has the redline set at 7300rpm. I've hit that several times in my 97 without ill effect, and did the same in my Kia Sephia on a nearly daily basis, and that engine had nary a complaint about being pushed that hard... but those engines were not turboed.

If you go to the hydra nemesis ECU you can raise the redline, but in the interest of "not-grenading-your-engine" you might not want to. Did your car come with the little enchilada or the big enchilada from FM?

Chris

I have the FSM for the 6 speed Aisin gearbox, and I see no evidence of a reverse lock-out. I could be wrong, but my experience with the guy driving the car who tried reverse at 45mph seems to indicate that it either isn't there, or isn't working on my car.

As a possible point of interest, it seems there is no reverse lockout in the 5spd box in my '97 either. However, the G5M that I had in my Kia -did- have a reverse lockout, and it was easy enough to test it even with the car off. Clutch in, shift into 5th, then try to come down into reverse. It won't go. Let the shifter go back to the neutral position and then try reverse, and it works. If you listen closely you can hear the lock-out click when you proceed forward into 5th gear. No such thing exists in either miata as best I can tell. The G5M and the mazda 5 speed box seem to share a very common design in the way the shift forks are arranged, the only thing missing is the final drive which on the G5M is in the gearbox(hence the term transaxle) whereas the miata puts that back at the rear wheels, i.e. a transmission.

Chris

Yeah - I've got the 6-speed FSM too, and after a quick scan I can't see anything that looks like a reverse lock-out either. So perhaps there isn't one... So I'm glad I haven't tried it out. Must tell my wife.

Little.

Nice choice! Assuming I can afford it, my choices on a newer Miata are down to the 2004 MSM and "maybe" some variation of the NC.

I am really leaning towards the MSM though, maybe with thoughts towards a low mileage 5 or 6 year old NC with the PRHT a few years down the road.

Congrats!

Pat

Thanks. I'm enjoying it. I still have to master the 6-speed. I'm finding little use for 5th, so far. I've missed gears a few times, which I never did on the 5-speed. The only negatives are pretty trivial. There really isn't enough space to the left of the clutch to rest my foot without it catching on the clutch pedal on the way up. And I have pretty small feet! And the spot where I rest my right elbow on the console is right on the hinge of the lid of the second cup holder. So my elbow sinks a little as the lid raises up. Also, I live in a townhouse and we don't have enough storage as it is, now I have to find a place for all the stock stuff that was replaced with the FM upgrades.

It's different than driving a stock MX-5, that's for sure. The extra power almost gets in the way in traffic. The car just wants to accelerate faster than you can.

(I said they were pretty trivial problems.)

I will have to pay attention to the pedal placement when I test drive one again. My feet are not that large but they are wide. Makes me wonder if the pedals can be tweaked a bit towards the passenger side without causing a problem.

Padded armrest upgrade for the elbow? That is cool that the PO gave you the stock equipment. It sounds like you found a nice one.

I would have picked it up for you, heh.

Sounds fun!

Pat

Actually, a friend offered to drive it back if I bought him a plane ticket to LA.

That would have been a safer option. I would have stopped in Big Bear Lake and would probably still be there. :-)

Pat

d a nice one.

I've made that offer a couple times, never had anyone take me up on it either!

Chris