Stolen tread located here: viewtopic.php?t=10663
Welcome tread located here: viewtopic.php?t=10385
Basically 2013 hasn’t been the best year for me for cars. Had my MX5 stolen, then a few months after that, a lady run a red light and totaled my Subaru. Therefore the above two cars are no longer functional.
Anyway, as you can imagine, having something taken away from you isn’t an easy feeling to be living with, I have had a lot of people telling me to build another blue MX5 to replace it. I know to a lot of people that this would most likely be a good opportunity to try something different, a different vehicle etc, but I think for anyone that has had their car stolen, they just want that same car back, that feeling that their previous car gave them.
I search for quite a while to find a Mariner blue NA6, but they were nowhere to be found, it’s like those times when you are playing with lego, you seem to see a piece that is of no use to you therefore you ignore it, but when it comes to the time you need that specific piece, that goddamn piece is nowhere to be found.
After some searching, I was able to find a Laguna blue Eunos Roadster, this colour is available between the years of 94 and 95. It was indeed an NA8 instead of my wanted NA6. Some factors that I didn’t like about NA8’s were people’s comments about less rev happy BP engines compared to B6. I didn’t like the fact that some of them come with airbags, the lack of the oil pressure gauge from an NA6.
Here is the first picture I took of the car on my first test drive, this particular vehicle is an S Special which came with no airbag (Normal indicator and wiper stalks, instead of the newer airbag fitted cars that had raised stalks), Bilstein suspension, BBS Factory alloys, front and rear subframe bracing, front and rear strut brace (Rear one is where the seatbelt tower is), torsen LSD, Nardi interior consisting of non airbag steering wheel and gear knob and of course the usual NA8 items alike larger disc etc and the stainless steel speaker surrounds and sill plates. To my surprise, the standard seats not only had the normal speakers within them, but they had mini subwoofers build into the lower section of the seat.
The owner was kind enough to accept my offer and I took ownership of my new MX5 that same day
which I named it Jellybean v2.0 (Since my old one was destroyed)Their were some issues with the car, namely a misfire which I diagnosed to be cracked spark plug cables, passenger side electric window not working (Both my new and old MX5 have this problem), and a roof that isn’t practically weather tight in heavy rain, and finally, couple of large dents on the front passenger side fender caused by a rubbish bin in bad weather. But it did come with a Mazdaspeed axle back muffler
Good news is that the people that stole my old car left the hardtop in the backyard along with some parts that I was able to use with my new car, sadly window parts were not available.
From there, I took your advice and went to go get my insurance and alarm sorted
had some time to play with the lights aswell.After that, I drove the car as is and waited for my parts to arrive.
First of the parts to arrive were my BC suspension. As I have had good experience with these before, I opt for these again as I had no complaints and also I wanted warranty due to the amount of km’s I drive.
I also put on my old Watanabes RS8’s that I had in storage. Rolled the guards and pretty much left it at that for a while.
Driving impression for an NA8, I felt that it was more comfortable for daily driving, the increase torque seem to give a better useable power for daily commute. As for rev happiness, I felt that it was pretty much the same, it used a little bit more petrol against NA6. To my experience, the petrol tank is 5L more in capacity. Overall, it definitely felt like a better car, but then again, this car is 6 years younger than my previous car and also done a lot less kms.
Certification time, if you had noticed, I have swapped with my friend’s hardtop which was painted before he sold his MX5
. But as always, keep things legal.
It was around this time that I purchased two Bride Zeta 3 seats, I have always loved genuine Bride seats, FIA Approved Zeta III in red, these have not been fitted until recently.
A month or so later, my friend (The red MX5 that was pictured earlier) was selling up, he sold me the replica Equip 01’s and the Garage Vary front lip. He was moving onto something that uses triangles.
Service time, the Subaru in the background is my replacement to my crashed Subaru. It’s hard to tell because its exactly the same, Subaru Impreza WRX STi Type R version 6 (long name) I did my annual Taupo GTR Elite trackday and parked it at home I have had no time to swap over parts, it’s been sitting patiently waiting ever since.
Did I little photo shoot I suppose.
At this time, I really missed my woodgrain Nardi, so I imported a classic Nardi Woodgrain.
Bonus was that I also purchased a new Works Bell quick release kit (Rapfix II) with locking mechanism
Funny enough, the Works bell kit needed a Momo pattern boss kit, lucky enough, I had a spare from my old Jellybean which I upgraded to a Nardi bosskit.
Now this pretty much brings it to its current state.
Basically, I would like to thank everyone that has help out or spread the word regarding my previous car, although it wasn’t a happy ending for that vehicle, I do hope that I am still a part of this community of roadsters.
I do really miss Mariner Blue, that classic look of a Roadster, but Laguna blue is growing on my me.
And good news, I have also just finished installing my two Bride seats, but I am not able to get any good pictures so will wait until a good sunny day. Basically the Bride L brackets were not going to fit to the standard rails, so I had to go to KW NZ to get their L brackets that have longer reach.
Here is what I can mange so far.
Thanks everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't waste too much of your time.
There is still a few things that i would like to add to the car and that will should finish this car for now.
hehe
