lowender's BRG mk1

[lowender]

Not driven it yet (just off for a shakedown). I've set them initially to 10 clicks from hard all round as per the manual. I'll let it all settle in and then fiddle about and see what suits.

[niklas]

Nice, seems like a good ladder of upgrades

[richa]

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these, they are on the list for when I refresh my suspension

[lowender]

May 17, 2019 17:27:51 GMT richa said:

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on these, they are on the list for when I refresh my suspension

I put 200 miles on the car at the beginning of the week to get them settled in ready for alignment next Tues. First impressions: they really are excellent. The car is nice and stiff, but never uncomfortable, in fact very smooth with all the rattles and thumps gone. It deals with mid corner bumps and uneven surfaces better than anything I've tried, even the Sportdrives when they were fresh, and gets even better the harder you drive it. I'm still mucking about with settings, and I've dropped the fronts 10mm from the factory specs to give a bit of rake. Absolutely no sign of running out of travel at the rear. So far I'm delighted. 

[Zed.]

May 17, 2019 18:49:36 GMT lowender said:

running out of rear travel is something that means youve either lowered too much OR are arriving at the scene of the accident (as the first car there  )

I've got the older non-hight adjustable Ohlins (well, you can adjust the hight by adjusting the springs pre-load but not the damper-unit's hight like the newer ones) and they are superb.
with the Ohlins it seems that the more you push, the better they work - not fade.

Rich.

[noobie]

May 17, 2019 21:06:04 GMT Zed. said:

May 17, 2019 18:49:36 GMT lowender said:

running out of rear travel is something that means youve either lowered too much OR are arriving at the scene of the accident

Or simply a sign of not enough total travel and a damper design poorly matched to the space available in an MX5. Having very good damping curves masks the issues remarkably, but on track you are bound to pick up an unexpected push or snap oversteer in a bunch of places.

We went through the same thing with a set of AST's (long before they built the gen1 xida).. could only be cured with a ton of rebound. 2cm longer damper bodies fixed everything that a year of tuning and adjusting didn't.

Not implying that the ohlins are similar. I wouldn't know unless someone could measure total travel on them.

[lowender]

The only reason I mentioned travel on these is because it isn't an issue, despite some internet 'wisdom' emanating from the USA, although to be fair, most of that relates to the NC and ND. I've set the ride height to 330mm rear, 320mm front, same as I had with the P5s. So pretty much in the sweet spot. Had the alignment done this morning, and then drove my 'test track' of the most punishing roads in the area. The car is stable and settled on the cambered, broken surfaces, grip is constant, body control spot on. It gets smoother the faster you go. Steering inputs are instant, and it's easy to get the car balanced. I'm using the standard ARBs. I'm sure the 3.8kg wheels are helping a lot on these rough roads. Since my use of this car is probably 80% road, 20% track, handling on the road is the priority for me. On the rare occasions I get on a track, I spend most of the time getting my head up to speed (I'm 66), never mind getting anywhere near the raggedy edge. Although the way the car is feeling at the moment, I'll probably do more.

[mrwallace]

Love the look of this and sounds like a great setup, light wheels really help the handling on these too!

[lowender]

New steering wheel, an early 90's Nardi. Nice. And a D1 spec quick release hub for extra security.

[lowender]

Found a BRG front bumper fairly locally, great condition, for not much dosh. Been meaning to replace this for years, old one was really scabby and cracked.

Before:



And after:

[V6]

That front end looks mean and clean


I had the low pro's for a while. Then some electrical gremlins arrived. So I took the opportunity to lose their mass.

[lowender]

Bought a Jackson Racing cold air intake from Crumpets (cheers Jord!) this week. Needed a few extra bits - throttle body coupler, bonnet lifters (no room for the standard strut), and a slimline fan, as I've got a Fast 5 rad which is quite deep. I put the new fan on the front of the rad to give as much room as possible for the intake. Here's the result:

[gbuk]

Jan 9, 2020 17:14:59 GMT V6 said:

That front end looks mean and clean


I had the low pro's for a while. Then some electrical gremlins arrived. So I took the opportunity to lose their mass.

I think one of the gremlins survived the courier trip when I acquired them from you
Would it be the flapping up and down type gremlin?? 
No worries as it only comes out to play very occasionally, as does the car lately...hardly turned a wheel for a couple of months  

And agreed that front end does look nice.

I really should track down some decent bumpers sometime, but best when I can park it away from my dodgem style parking neighbours

[Crumpets]

May 16, 2020 17:07:57 GMT lowender said:

Bought a Jackson Racing cold air intake from Crumpets (cheers Jord!) this week. Needed a few extra bits - throttle body coupler, bonnet lifters (no room for the standard strut), and a slimline fan, as I've got a Fast 5 rad which is quite deep. I put the new fan on the front of the rad to give as much room as possible for the intake. Here's the result:

Looks the Mutts Nutts that! Was great to meet you mate. Enjoy.

[V6]

Well that was awkward lol. I think it happened to me twice, both times with Wannabe laughing near by.

I assumed the electrical issue was in the main fuse box or engine bay somewhere, rather than on the mechanical parts. I did some brief research and people were saying about swapping all sorts of electrical parts - relays and stuff to track it down somewhere. I couldn't be rear canoed working my way around the cars loom for that. I don't really recall what was on the actual lamps now other than the motors, push rods, plus emergency mechanical winding things. I don't recall them having any electrics as such? Although I was shocked how heavy they were! The replacements save a HUGE amount of mass as they are like an empty shoe box each.