JoshO's third times the charm white roadster.

[josho]

Hi all,

As you may have guessed from the title I have done it again, this will be the pinnacle of N/A NA roadster that I've always strived for but never quite achieved.

The base car is one I've known about for a while, its previous custodian is a member of this fine forum and a friend I've known for over a decade now.

A perfect storm occurred, Tim wished to sell the white roadster, and I had been complaining since the day I sold my red car about missing roadsters. Noises were made about the car being sold to me but I did not have sufficient funds available.
Enter man in van that decided to reverse into my dad's car. Cue my dad needing a reliable daily and me happening to own one. A deal was made, my dad would buy the Fabia, and i would get my Roadster.

A plan was devised, and a chicken fox and egg scenario occurred. Needed to get the Fabia to my dad, pick up the many parts coming with the white roadster, and also pick up the white roadster!
Decided to grab parts for the car on the final long run in the Mighty Fabia, my dad would pick the Fabia up on the first weekend of November, I'd then pick up the Roadster the following weekend with Saad.

Without further ado, here's my new to me white NA Roadster







Will update with the spicy spec in the next post.

All for now.

[Zed.]

and, according to the dVlA it's registered as a Eunos Roadster

nice to see one regestered properly

I keep thinking of jumping-through-the-hoops with the dVlA about getting both of my Eunos's logbooks corrected - I drive past their offices daily

Rich.

[swordspork]

Love a white eunos! Looksv really tidy. I've seen this car online before. 1.8 vvt swap?

Where could one source one of those cool 'Super NA' decals?

[josho]

Nov 20, 2022 15:13:46 GMT swordspork said:

Love a white eunos! Looksv really tidy. I've seen this car online before. 1.8 vvt swap?

Where could one source one of those cool 'Super NA' decals?

You're correct, it has a vvt engine swapped in, but the vvt is not yet functional!

[josho]

So, the spec list so far.

It's been VVT engine swapped, vvt is yet to be wired up, high up on the to do list.
It's got a host of nice parts already, 4-2-1 manifold, decat and a cobalt exhaust, DDM works/ramair intake, gofasterbits COP conversion which is properly trick and uses motorcycle ignition coils. It has a super lightweight flywheel fitted with an oem clutch.
BC coilovers all around, Jass brake stopper and a TR lane roll bar.

I'm sure I've forgotten some of it xD

There's things to sort out, like fitting my old torsen diff and getting vvt working, and slightly later down the line I intend to fit ITBs of course, no MX5 is complete without them imo. Along with a 6 speed box this should make for a pretty potent setup.

All for now, will clean the car up properly and take some better shots soon.

[FFS Corders]

Should fit some itbs m8

[josho]

So, for the first time in ever, I'm actually writing an update on the same day as doing said work on the car! 😱

First and foremost I should mention I wasn't intending on doing anything to the car today. I was supposed to be making my mums Rover Mini MOT ready, as well as my new to me Honda VFR800 motorbonk. After having successfully completed both of those tasks I was itching to do something, anything to the mighty white roadster.

I spied something in the corner of the workshop that would certainly scratch that itch somewhat.



Whoops no not those, not yet anyway 😬

Maybe in this box?



Darn it, no not there either.

Perhaps this one?



Ah yes, there we go, a bride bucket seat.

Can confirm very bucket, much seat, so comfort. I completed my journey home approximately 13.867 seconds faster thanks to the superior bum huggery of the bride seat over the standard one.

All for now!

[josho]

Something feels different.

Had a rare free Saturday off work, so I decided to abuse the work car workshop. So I guess I still went to work even though I wasn't working 🙃

The purpose of the visit though was to fit a tasty 4.3 torsen into the whitecar, it's in fact the same diff that's been in my previous two roadsters so it has some history with me that's for sure.



After that I popped on a carbing tow hook I had kicking about.



I then had to ensure that my mods worked properly, so headed on down to the Chalet cafe brekkie meet and saw Corders and some of the rest of the gang.



The reason I have so few Saturdays free are because I've spread myself too thin over about 7 vehicular projects.

This fine creation being one of them.



My dad's classic mini, with the engine from his late dad's Honda Civic. It's a D16w4 that should make about 130hp, about four times the original output of the A series 998 that previously powered this car along. Might make a blog for that in other cars.

All for now guys.

[scottydugg]

Would be interested to see some mini content, I'm sure everyone else would also.

[josho]

So, I can't leave things alone.

I was ebay surfing as I often do, and spotted a 6 speed incorrectly listed as a 5 speed, it was up for a reasonable £150 start price and wasn't a million miles away from me.

I sensibly watched the auction and wondered about whether or not I should buy it. Fast forward to about 2 minutes before it was due to end, there were no bids and I had definitely less than £150 in my account. Foolishly I placed the start bid and won it.

I managed to scrape together the £150 to purchase it and went and collected it.

I then promptly left it in my workshop for a couple of months as I didn't have a shifter for it 🙃

Now, the reasoning behind fitting the torsen diff in my previous post was mainly because I missed having one in the car, the open diff was unpredictable and also noisy.

But also so I could more happily take part in Learn to Formula G. Hosted and organised and owned by my good friend, alum of this forum and all round absolute good human bean, John aka Moca2cv.

Went on over to Brands, just a 20 minute drive from my house! Assisted the previous day with setting up and was fed a fine dinner of fish and chips for helping.

Onto Saturday, with borrowed wheels and tyres front and rear, troubles in the morning with power steering and helping Dean aka Dweenimus with his exhaust, I started to get the hang of rotating the car enough to get around the obstacles but not too much to slow me down, wore a set of old tyres down to cords, and somehow managed to scrape the win, and had zero idea until my name was called! I won entry to a round of FG and realised just how capable this little car could be.

On a high after that event I decided to set about procuring a shifter for my 6 speed and starting looking at what diff to pair it with, in previous cars I've had a 6 speed and 4.3 diff, great for acceleration but basically rubbish for anything else. Sitting at 60mph on the motorway at 3800ish rpm is not fun! Now that I'm older and have need to use the car for daily duties, a more sensible option was preferred, a 3.9 or a 3.6 torsen would be ideal. And I managed to find myself a 3.6 torsen, and the guy happened to have a stock 6 speed shifter that he would throw in for free!

Went to collect that recently and then on Good Friday with one of my best mates, we swapped out the crusty noisy 5 speed and 4.3 diff for the 6 speed and 3.6, and man is it nice to be able to cruise at 70mph and not be revving the engine over 4k!
An added bonus is the 1st to 5th on the 6 speed with the 3.6 is slightly shorter than the 5 speed and 4.3, and I have 6th to cruise on the motorway. The 4.3 torsen will be going to Batousan of this fine forum for his stunning black NA6 build.

Final note, I have ordered the parts needed to bring the VVT online and also fit the ITBs, watch this space!

All for now. Will update with photos later on