Housey's MX-5 Race Car Plans!

Housey

Housey

Housey

Man of Honour
Joined
21 Feb 2006
Posts
29,487
Some of you may be aware that I've been aiming to do some MX-5 racing at some point in the future being a good learning ground in which I can cut my teeth. Well this ambition is now starting to take shape as a group of mates and I are having some MK1 race cars built for the Ma5da and Track Day Trophy championships. Today my donor car arrived at the workshops to begin the final build process and though it is not a great picture I wanted to share the event and start a thread that I will add to when I have the time. I've not even seen the car in the flesh as it was bought from a mate who lives and breathes MX-5's and is of course not really bought with its road car ability in mind, simply as a donor vehicle we can use.

4adffc2a.jpg


I will fill in the gaps as I go so bare with me, but we are as they say, "off and running!" :D
 
Yea I know, there have been lots of things going on in my world that meant this ambition had to take a seat at the back for many months and in reality I don't really have much time or monies to throw into it right now but sometimes you just have to go with it when you feel most of the circumstances are right.
 
The cars are pretty controlled in terms of what you can do but effectively its new everything, brakes, lines, exhausts, shocks, bushes, engine blue print, rads, cage, fire control and to make it a race car with donor car you are probably in the region of £6K - £7K all in, though corners can be cut if you self build, which I am not. In motorsport terms it's peanuts but I will share build logs and all sorts of other stuff as we go.
 
Dup said:
Mines a Eunos 1.8IS, deffo has a Torsen under its bum ;) :D

Loving the team name! Will you be having a decal to that effect on the car?
Click to expand...

We will be carrying the team logo without question but we are also in discussions with various potential team sponsors which would have an impact on any colour scheme we may chose.
 
DiamondMark said:
Can i have a big sign on both sides?
Click to expand...

You provide the trailer you can have what you want...........on the trailer :D

In terms of sponsors we are seriously trying to get a full team sponsor so we can brand all the cars into one team colour, Gulf or Martini would be full of win, though perhaps over ambitious! :D
 
pcoltrane said:
Hi Housey,

Good on you for getting stuck in.

I didn't realise it was quite so much to build a car for the Mx-5 championships.
Did you consider racing anything else instead? The same sort of money would buy a decent single seater like a pre-90 formula ford 1600. Much quicker, easier to fix, races nearly every weekend of the year and even a dedicated championship starting up for them this year.
I understand though that a big part of the appeal may be the build itself and doing it with your mates. I have heard good things about the mx-5 racing.
I've taken the single seater route myself hence the question :)

Do you already have a race license or are you in the process of taking your ARDS etc at the moment?

Re: car trailer, what are your requirements and where are you based?
Click to expand...

I already have a race licence, took my ARDS back in 2009 and I had one when I was younger too.

The MX-5 championship is big, there are over 100 cars registered and some fo the races will see over 40 cars take the grid. It is a very good series which is well run with good support and TV coverage. The reality is you start breaking things on a FF1600 and your repair bills will show you the difference. I also didn't want to do single seaters as I am 43 and my ambition is simply to get into a VLN or Britcar endurance race and this is a good step on the ladder to achieve that. I would have course LOVE to do Le Mans but right now that is a pipe dream though achievable if I were to really focus on it.

At the moment I plan a few races this season and see how it goes. My feet are well on the ground and I expect to start towards the back half of the grid and spend most of my season there until I get some experience.
 
Phate said:
How many cars are their going to be? :)
Click to expand...

We plan to have 6 cars, though not at every event. There will also be a rental model for those with appropriate skills, accreditations and experience. I shall put up some thoughts on this as we progress as I would like an OCUK driver line up at one event in the future...
 
pcoltrane said:
Yeah, as I said I have heard good things about MX-5 series - you'll love every minute of it I am sure.
It's a shame that Le Mans is now so full of professional teams, back in the 80s when my father raced it, there were many more privateer teams racing on a relative shoestring, where today even a drive in a GT3 Porsche could probably cost you as much as a house! The VLN however is still relatively affordable. My hope is to do that too at some point, so perhaps we'll see eaach other on track :)

Incidentally - I'd say if anything a formula ford could be raced for similar money or less than the Mx-5 ... but that does depend a lot on what you work you can do yourself/level of competetiveness/and what you actually break. For example knocking off a corner on the FF might be a couple of hundred for a wishbone, where the same incident might write off the shell of the mx5? But equally - you have the benefit of widely available 2nd hand parts for peanuts on the Mx-5. The budget I'll be running my FF2000 on is tiny :)

I really look forward to following how you get on. Perhaps I should start a blog too!
Click to expand...

I know a number of people who race across the levels and there are always seats coming up, though Le Mans is a bit special and I am so far off being ready, qualified or funded to run there. Just a childhood dream to either race at Le Mans or compete in the RAC Rally..........or both. Let's start to walk first and then we can see if Le Mans is a long shot or a no chance.
 
Flibster said:
Excellent. :D

Change the paint job though... I know that one of the main inspirations of the the Mazda designers was the Lotus Elan, but there was no need to copy the paint job too. ;)
Click to expand...

It will be repainted in team colours when we decide what the team colours are!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom