Amazingly enough, I did manage to modify a car today.
The MX-5 now sports a harness bar and 4-point harness for the driver, plus a rear strut brace. Now all I need to do is find a convenient weekend to fit the rollbar and I'll actually have some space in my garage back...
Tsk - an OnTopic post an no one replied! Do you not have harnesses for the passenger? Or is it strictly a 'driver only' track machine? Is the roll bar something that would fit the inside line of the roof? Like those ones Merc SLK that pop up when you roll, but like, it wouldn't pop up, it'd just be there all the time? Do you have a photo of what it will look like?
I just had a thought - how come people on track days with an MX5 always have the roof down? Is it a rear visibility thing or just cos it's cooler that way?
I wanted a front strut brace for the Vee, but no one made one and 172 one wouldn't fit cos the strut tops were totally different or something. The Vee had Koni shocks with Eibach springs as standard, which must've needed some different stuff or something. Anyway, I and quite a few others in the club wanted one, cos we felt it would actually make a noticeable difference to the Vee's front end which was a bit iffy at the best of times...
Personally, I don't fit in my car with the roof up and a lid on. I might if I bothered to engineer a seat that was about 4 inches lower.
Cars in the MaX5 and American Spec Miata racing series don't have roofs, partly for lightness I think and partly because the Mazda roof doesn't fit over the full cage.
I've currently got the regular passenger seat in - the second bucket seat (non-matching the drivers seat, very JDM) needs its rails modifying before it'll fit and then I'll get a second harness.
Yeah, pretty much so. This one bolts to the floor behind the seats, the rear chassis rails and the sills. I just need to get some steel so I can make up some strengthening plates as those have gone missing.
Rear visibility isn't that great with the fabric roof on, so I tend to leave it down if possible. I do actually prefer the hardtop for trackdays as it's got a much bigger window but I CBA to put it on every time I go on the track.
Mine looks fairly similar, only that it is polished...
There are very few seats that allow you to sit as low or lower than in the standard seat, the Border CF seat I have in mine being one of them. With most other seats you end up sitting a little higher, which really doesn't work well with the roof up.
I think it's mainly because of the scaffolding - the roof actually doesn't weight that much...
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