RobinJI

Bob Fossil surely:

Haha, yep, he's some mental guy who crops up in loads of alien conspiracy type 'documentaries'. Main one I can think of's the "Ancient Aliens" series. Hence the meme, as he's always enthusiastically coming out with insane theories about aliens. Most of them are on Youtube, and make kind of amusing viewing. I've watched a few as they tend to lead me to reading up on some interesting (completely non-alien related) stuff from history that they've highlighted as some sort of 'proof'.

Haha, glad you got it sorted, especially with such an easy fix. I've done it my self and I've seen it done plenty of times. Luckily I now own 2 cars that's leads can't go on the wrong cylinders!

Paul, check the plug leads are on the right cylinders. It seems silly but it's way too easily done at the end of a long stint of working on it. I know I've done it before and it does exactly what you describe. Sadly my k-jet knowledge's non existent, so I can't help further than that I really need to carpet my boot properly. I'm bored of the car getting really loud and tinny sounding when the seats are down. Long shot, but does anyone know good places to get MX-5 parts? My usual resources of GSF and ECP seem to list sod all and MX5parts.co.uk seem a bit expencive. Main thing's that they list head bolts at £5.76 each! That's £58 just for the head bolts. Maybe I've just always been spoiled by how cheap bits are for VWs.

Yeah, it stands for torque tube, as they deal with the torque reaction from diff. 924's are actually a few % rear heavy. Arguably the box at the back but infront of the axle (like a corvette or the exotic rarity that is the Volvo 340/360) would be better, what with inertia and stuff, but they 924 set-up's still nice. The 924 box is basically the same configuration as you'd find up front on a Passat/A4, but with a massive spacer shoved between the bell-housing and block to push the box back far enough to drive the other axle. Clever engineering, cheap/easy to produce and develop as well as being technically rather good.

I'm sure you can get them cheaper than Halfords, but at least that gives you the part numbers to look for elsewhere. Craig, it's a really cool stage yeah. Nice weather meant there was a decent turnout of spectators, we dashed up between servicing and I shot that short exterior clip. We got 2 graves stages on camera too which I'll stick up once Ben's uploaded them.

Halfords sell/stock bars to suit, you can search by reg and having stuck Mikes in it looks like there's a changeover in the fitting method in mid 2005.

Nice progress Paul. Should be much nicer with everything cleaned up and painted. Not to mention working properly! Ben's (the guy I co-drive for) just uploaded this video of his Dad competing in the Astra we use. This is his dads first time on stage in over 20 years:

Ah, fair enough then. I've spent most of this afternoon scrubbing away with de-greaser to get the MX-5's engine looking a bit smarter and make it much nicer to work on without a coating of grime everywhere. The old things done a fair few miles and it looks like there's been a slight oil weep from the front of the engine for a good number of those so it had a thick coating over loads of it. Sadly I forgot to get any before pictures, but it was really caked, you could barely tell what shape the steering rack was and most of the front of the engine was in a similar state. I'll replace the seals/gaskets that are the most likely culprits before it goes on the road, and now it's nice and clean it should be fairly obvious where it's coming from if it's still leaking. In fact I'm probably going to pull both manifolds off and give the block a damn good clean and a lick of paint sometime before it goes for a test. This is how it was looking when I locked up, a massive improvement in my eyes, much more inviting to take the spanners to: This is the bumper I'm thinking of fitting, I'm not 100% about the look but at least it's relatively subtle/plain looking. The main thinking's that it eradicates most of the overhang which will help reduce front end lift and should cut down drag a bit too. It'll make fitting a proper splitter easier too. If I don't mind the look of it once fitted then the spotlight holes will probably eventually get used as vents for ducting to the brakes and air intake (split horizontally). As I said, it needs a little repair work! It feels lighter than the original bumper too, and loosing weight's one of my main aims with this car, there's quite a bit of weight to be lost from it once I've removed the previous botched repair work from the back too, so it should give a decent weight saving in an important place once repaired properly.

Probably worth buying some isn't it? They're pretty much essential if you want to do your own servicing/maintenance.

So I went and got the MX-5 at the weekend: Yes, that is a very big, gay wing. By the end of the weekend I'd checked it all over and pulled the front bumper off: Then this evening I spent a while playing with seating positions (trying to get the seat a touch lower) before having a look at my idea of fitting a 1.8t VW throttle body. This is because the MX-5's throttle body doesn't have a proper position sensor in it, and has a messy and somewhat clumsy by-pass idle control system on the side, as well as bits of vapor control emissions stuff built into it. The 1.8t VW throttle body controls idle by simply electronically tweaking the throttles position and has a proper position sensor in it. Also, I've got a spare. It looks promising, amazingly 2 of the mounting holes actually line up and the air-path its self's easily close enough that I can port out the manifold to match it nicely. The other 2 mounting holes are close enough that slotting the manifold slightly will get them in. Just need to look into the mods the ECU will need to control the idle with it. I knife edged the butterfly while I was at it too, probably won't make any difference, but every little helps and I felt like tinkering with something as the sun was shining.

I'm a bit in the middle on this one. I completely agree that a car should be presentable and shouldn't look like it's destined for the scrap yard, but I also think it should look used. It's the battle-scars; the dinks, the scratches, the warn paint, the scuffed bumpers etc.. that gives a car its story, it gives it a sense of history and shows that someone's had a lot of fun in it. But it does come across in an instant when a car's just not looked after, rather than being used hard. It just looks tatty and abused, which removes that sense of history.

A colleague's got the one you linked to and it's impressive for the money. Definitely decent value and worth a go.

Just booked a Beavertail to go and get the MX-5 on Saturday. Looking forward to getting it home and starting tinkering. Adam, out of interest, what suspension set-up do you run on your race car? I recall you mentioning it in the past, but it's a LONG thread to check back through!

Out of interest, why the UK? Out of the 189+ countries in the world, what makes it the UK that's the most appealing?

Pop into a local tyre place for a free alignment check. You'll get to see if your alignment's ok, you'll get to have a good look around under the car for any potential issues, and you'll be able to see the exhaust clear as day. (PS, Personally I'd make it a branch of a big chain so I wouldn't feel bad about wasting their time, unless you think you might actually get them to do the tracking, in which case just go somewhere good!)

I think I should go onto a New-Zeland based forum and start posting about how hard life is, because there's no mountains near by to do my hobbies, and the waves here aren't as good, and it's colder here, and lands expencive etc... Oh wait, what would that achieve? CriminalRider, the point you keep trying to dig up is that quality of life in England is generally better than in Russia. The fact is, that may be so in some cases, but you could have it a LOT worse than you do, and a large portion of the world does, the difference is they're out there making the most of what they do have, rather than sat on the internet moaning about what they don't. A well off person in Russia will have a better life than a poor person in England does, so it's not like you're stuck in a completely hopeless situation like a massive proportion of the world population is. Most of this forum have been lucky enough to be born into a world that it's relatively easy to stay comfortable in, and very much possible to prosper in with some effort. I'd like to think most of us appreciate that fact and enjoy our lives for what they are. It's not like we're ramming it down your throat or trying to convince you that everything's fine in Russia, so I'm not sure why you're constantly moaning to us about it. I'm sorry to hear you've not been lucky in the same way, but you've just got to think positively and be grateful for what you do have.

Basically this: http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=uk7dayx7;ct=5973~Chard;sess=#forecast 6 deg C, 8-13 mph east-south-east wind, dry and cloudy. Otherwise known as 'normal'.

Yes and no. Technically speaking, the shocks inclination and the swing axle length will effect things too, but on the whole, the effect of these on a McPherson strut's small enough that you don't need to account for them. The inclination won't be effected at all by wheels or spacers, and on a McPherson strut the swing axle length won't really be effected enough to matter either.

Really? Mine always used to manage 30ish, dropping to high 20's if thrashed. My Scirocco (with a 1.8t engine) manages 40ish mpg at 70 on the motorway and 45ish at 60. My old commute on open a-roads returned ~37 average while my current steep back-road commute manages ~31 average. Weighing 400+kg less than a Cupra I'd expect worse on the hilly stuff, but probably a little better on the motorway thanks to the longer gearing with big wheels. I really must get a diesel box for the Scirocco, it should help the economy on the motorway a fair bit.

Oh yeah, also, we got this working again at the weekend, I'm massively jealous of my friend who owns it:

I just updated my Scirocco's thread over on Retro Rides, incase any of you are interested:

Sounds good, maybe make the mechanical grip balance a little more tail happy but then pitch the wing a touch more to keep the high speed stability? Heading up to look at the MX-5 again later and sort what bits are coming with it as the current owner's back from Germany for the day. Be nice to have a bit of a better look with an eye towards making plans. Looks like I'll be collecting it in 2 weeks time, just need to sort someone to trailer it home for me.

How to guarantee no ones gives a toss about your opinion in one easy step: Refer to people as 'sheep'

Am I right in thinking you've got coilovers on it? If so that's pretty much the norm. Just fit helper springs if it worries you, but it's fine to leave it really, as long as they re-seat when you put it down without being guided it's not an MOT problem.