MX5s, hardtops and rollbars

Yes - have a look at the 'hard dog' range of rollbars. Pretty much any rollbar that will fit under the softtop will fit under a hardtop, too.

However be careful with buying a used rollbar - the ones that you get from Japan tend to bolt down behind the seats and you'll lose a lot of seat travel as the result. Which means that your average sized European will have a problem fitting the car afterwards.

Aha. I will remember this for when I eventually have money to go shopping for such a thing.

Hard dog ones are 'merkin aren't they? The MX-5 racing scene is big in them there parts, so I'd expect the hard dog ones to be cheap and approved by some sort of motorsport body.

Beware of shiny 'style' bars which look beefy but are held on by 3 or 4 self tappers.

Heh, I barely fit in mine as it is, although I believe the seats in the one I've got are a bit higher than the earlier MK2s and MK1s.

They aren't that cheap - around $350 or GBP350, depending on where you buy them - and I don't know if they're approved, but then again the American approval means sod-all over here. I have, however, heard lots of good things about them.

Indeed. Pretty much everything on fleabay then. Also make sure that you're getting everything if you're buying a used one; I've lost count of the number of times I asked the seller to confirm that the spread plates are included, only to be confronted with "wot's a spreader plate?"

Oh, and the other one is that there are several "roll bars" out there that only bolt to the parcel shelf (the hard dogs mentioned above bolt to the seatbelt towers and their rear bar goes through the parcel shelf). I don't know how good these are, but I know how flimsy said parcel shelf is. I wouldn't.

Even with the gen-u-wine Mk1 seats like in my '89 Mk1, you can pretty much forget about a rollbar that bolts down behind the seat if you're over 5'5" tall...