Fireblade MK Indy RR and Turbo MX5

Haha! Massive compliment that dude! I don't think so though, I still have loads to learn, I just damn love it so much. Maybe stupidity and 'having balls' look the same haha!  

You up for Oulton on the 23rd?

So I have been getting a bit itchy since the 350z went for a pretty boring e90 3 Series daily. The 350z was probably one of the best all rounders I have owned, Tein mono sports, sticky tyres, uprated brakes and seats and harnesses made the car amazing to drive every day, on GTs, Nurburgring trips and track days all year round but with Lucy on the way I needed a car with 4 seats.






Decided I needed a more practical track toy to compliment the MK since the Kit car is a little bit crap in the winter months and not inviting to drive on the road in the slightest so i set about looking for something for a bit of fun during the colder months...


Mx5 Turbo time

Found this pretty mint base with just 60k miles and 2 previous owners and jumped on it. Being a sport version meant it already had the LSD and the MeisterRs and Roll bar/harness bar had just been fitted before sale.

Really like the moulded in ducktail spoiler and quickly got about putting the JR wheels with semis on.

Been busy fitting the Motordrive seats and Turnone harnesses amongst other things too and started researching/buying parts for the Turbo install.

So far I have...

T25/28 Hybrid turbo freshly rebuilt
stavaro manifold and downpipe
inconel studs and nuts
alloy rad
megasquirt Enhanced ECU and wideband o2
upgraded injectors, jackson racing leads and plugs
Fast5 intercooler
Mocal Oil cooler
Stack mechanical boost gauge
nrg boss and quick release
side steps
front bumper
aftermarket system
relocated washer fluid bottle
silicone hose kit
painted inlet and rocker cover
upgrade fuel pump

few bits I have probably forgotten but ahh well. Just can't wait to get it built up and mapped in the next few months.

Still a few bits to get like the coolant reroute mod, a wilwood front brake kit, upgrade rear pads, braided lines and fluids, Geo and corner weight oh and probably best to do clutch at some point before NUR.

I wasn't after a mental monster power build. More of a responsive peppy install which i hope i will get from this setup. The install should see me around 240hp and the turbo should spool very quickly making it very drivable on track.... that is all in theory anyways! Nice to know the motors are so cheap i could pick up another and build it up with forged rods/pistons, change turbo and get remapped for 300hp . I am getting ahead of myself there mind!

That is one good looking mx5 i get abuse for preferring that shape to the pop ups but i think it looks way better also that is a good list of parts you have

Great thread mate, very entertaining read and a touching tribute to your friend, I'm sure he is very proud! The Devastator is an absolute weapon!

I'll be following this thread closely, I'm currently on the hunt for an NB Mx5 and yours is goals!

Thanks bud, Bloody love the MK. Really is so special to me. Thanks for the kind words, means loads.

MX5s are pretty cheap these days. Deffo worth spending a bit more to get a good base mind. Few friends have bought £500 ones and ended up ploughing time and money into them retrofitting Lsds, repairing arches etc.






Seats mounted directly to floor and harnesses in. Pretty painless exercise but not that fun drilling holes in the floor.

Busy weekend ahead fitting all this lot too>>

few last bits for the Turbo MX5 build arrived over last few days! Jeez I didn't really think I was going to do anything other than the bare minimum... but as it turns out the 'bare minimum' to ensure you cover all known weaknesses changes and develops as you go...

Having seen many boosted and raced MX5s suffer from the screws dropping out of the throttle body and lunching the engine I looked at simply lock tighting, brassing or even glueing the screws in to the butterfly rod. Turns out this would do nothing as the root issue isn't actually with the screws... it's with the throttle body bar that the butterfly bolts on to! It seems the bar is a weak link and can/does break leaving the screws and shrapnel to be ingested by the motor eek! So I begrudgingly went and bought a Skunk2 throttle body to cure this...




I was also going to just use the OEM clutch and see how i went. But the motor needs to come out anyway to tap the sump for the oil return and i just cant be arsed to pull it out again so I placed an order with FlyinMiata for a clutch up to the job. With the same view I thought it would be silly not to go for a light weight flywheel so I bullied myself into one of those too 10lbs, should help the turbo spool a little faster haha!



Also heard a lot of horror stories about turbo manifold studs constantly coming loose so I decided to go for a set of inconel studs and stage 8 fasteners.... some nasa shit haha. All the time really feeling this build is starting to get more out of hand than i wanted but I just want to learn form others common issues/failures and knock them on the head from the get go. Surely the perfect track day is the one where all you do is check tyre pressures and fluid levels instead of battling problems.



Another issue was the coolant route. The oem route takes a double pass through the motor leaving many boosted engines prone to failure on cylinder 4. Simple kit from skidnation reroutes this and makes a single pass through the motor...





So now ready to crack on and get this sucker built up! Will take a few weeks to get it initially done. Have it booked in so we can make a custom turbo brace which will take the strain off the manifold (tracked turbo mx5s are known for cracking manifolds under the heat/strain). Then it will be a case of putting 500 miles on the clutch to bed it in before i go to Blink motorsport for mapping and geo.

few bits left to buy yet including oil cooler and boost gauge. I am sure the list will grow!

Only final bit of the puzzle then is the brake upgrade. I could run oem caliper setup with some expensive pads or accept that using a cheaper pad will need changing much more frequently. To combat this it is actually cheaper in the long run to buy a wilwood big brake kit (or atleast that is how i have justified it to myself) and you can buy caliper spacers for the rear to run bigger disks.



Have felt that the MK is being neglected yet again so booked on to the chequered flag / Track Addict Curborough Sprint day.

Was a fantastic event, brilliant selection of cars and great to meet so many like minded and chilled out people. realy was a very sociable atmosphere and we all had a great laugh. The MK ran great all day, shame i couldn't get the slicks on but had fun skidding it about on the skinny wet tyres!
















Tiny bit of onboard footage too

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD0Krlu1sk0

Another Sunday spent on the MXTurbo build.

Once again nice steady pace just chipping away at each part of the install. Took friken ages removing all the old gasket sealant on the sump and windage tray but I really didn't want to rush when it would be another engine out job if there was a leak. The engine stand made flipping the motor and fitting sump a doddle!

Clutch and fly went on easily and the motor slotted back in without much headache... it was at that point we noticed the damn turbo was touching the chassis. So out came the motor and the out came the grinder. Nothing major and ten mins later it was in again. Do think a set of the harder mounts are going to have to be put in now though. It has a good amount of space but i have seen how much they move on stock mounts!!

It was at this point I realised how tightly packaged everything is! Managing coolant lines, turbo coolant lines, vac lines, oil drain, power steering unit/lines, air filter and intercooler is friken tight and has taken some thought to tackle heat transfer/management. Enjoyable task non the less. Lot's of fire sleeve and shielding has been ordered.

Same at the rear with coolant lines, brake pipes and downpipe!

Not too much to do now. Will tinker over the week throughout the evenings but then have another solid push next weekend.