MX5 Owners in here....bring your curling tongs

yeah, i have to admit, it's all v pricey to up the power on the NC cars (and presumably the ND too). When I had my MK3.5 I thought for about 2mins about a 200bhp route with BBR, but it's still too much when you think of the % of the car's value.

From memory the easiest way to get power out of the NC is headers like Racing Beat's and a remap, which i think comes to about a k fitted (and the headers technically fail a MOT, as it's removed the 1st cat) for about 175bhp and 180-185 inc exhaust with sports cat... Wanting more than that and it's expensive things like swapping camshafts and a new exhaust and going for 200-225 bhp with something like a BBR's options (£4.5k for their 225 kit)... FI is about £5k for 250bhp and 6k for 300bhp...

plus any supporting mods like suspension (£1k), ARBs (£500), better rubber (£500?) and possibly bigger brakes (£1k?).

obviously costs could be reduced a bit if you can fit the stuff yourself tho... (but, after seeing how rusty a 2-3yr old MX5 is, it could be a "fun" job on an early NC)

So, say you have a v decent couple year old MX5 for about 12k - it would be in great condition and you'd keep it for a few years. Want more power and FI and it's realistically £6-7k with some supporting mods. Now have spent over 50% of the car's value on mods... That's crazy... Yes, it would be rapid and embarrass a lot of more expensive cars, but in some respects it's still a MX5 and I'm sure the insurance payout for it getting stolen wouldn't be anywhere near the total spent. And, in some respects it seems even more crazy if the original car was only 5-6k, as you've spent over 100% of its "value" on mods... Yes, I'd love to own a FI mx5, but unless i win the lottery I can't see ~6k being disposable enough to FI a NC, and if i have that kinda disposable cash for a whim, then I would imagine i'd be driving something more potent than a MX5 to start with...
 
TBH most people who modify cars do it because they want to rather than it being financially sensible!

I've put more into my NB than I paid for it, supercharging it was probably at least 100% and then coilovers were another 25%.

It will make a great base for an Exocet now that the rust has gone far enough for the chassis rails to get an advisory though.
 
DereksDontRun said:
given how cheap the NCs are getting, there's (in my mind) little reason to go for a NA or NB, unless you're thinking of going turbo or down the MEV Exocet route in the future. AFIAK the NC engine is trickier (more expensive) to go FI and the mk3.5 engine is a little better/strong for that (forged crank, which I don't think the mk3 has) - 5k is a LOT for a FI kit, but fitted to a 5k NC and it would be a seriously fun/potent car for 10k (or about 12k with supporting mods, lol).
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You are exactly on the money with how much I spent on my NC, and it was worth it in my opinion but, as someone else said you don't spend money on modified cars for sound financial reasons! and given the quality of the BBR kit there is nothing stopping you swapping your FI install from one NC to another, which reduces the costs involved considerably.
DereksDontRun said:
So, say you have a v decent couple year old MX5 for about 12k - it would be in great condition and you'd keep it for a few years. Want more power and FI and it's realistically £6-7k with some supporting mods. Now have spent over 50% of the car's value on mods... That's crazy... Yes, it would be rapid and embarrass a lot of more expensive cars, but in some respects it's still a MX5 and I'm sure the insurance payout for it getting stolen wouldn't be anywhere near the total spent..
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Just to make a point on this, you will want to go with a specialist insurer on a heavily modified car, both of which I have been with offer like for like on modifcations providing you have the reciepts to prove it. I wouldn't consider going with an insurer that didn't as the mods on my car cost more than the car itself.
 
Just because NCS are cheap doesn't mean na or NB are not worth looking at. NCS in my opinion are ugly and badly proportioned. NC facelift is where it finally started looking good but before that it looks terrible. I couldn't deal with the design no matter how cheap it was lol.
 
grudas said:
Just because NCS are cheap doesn't mean na or NB are not worth looking at. NCS in my opinion are ugly and badly proportioned. NC facelift is where it finally started looking good but before that it looks terrible. I couldn't deal with the design no matter how cheap it was lol.
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Problem is unless you find a garaged or import NB they are all rust buckets. I have been to view 5 different ones all ranging from pre facelift icons to late 55 plate sports. NA's are very hard to find in standard or without rust. Decent NC's can be picked up for around 4k now. With a BBR 200 kit that will set you back 6k. It is a toss up between this and a 2zz MR2 for me although I am waiting for Spring as I have way too much on my plate at the moment with cars!
 
Skuzzle can do the 200 kit equivalent for a 3rd of the price of BBR. Didn't quite hit 200 on mine but a nice improvement and I've battered every BBR200 vehicle I have competed against. :p though to be fair I was doing that with ~185bhp level mods from Skuzzle :D
 
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it'll be a 1.8 then surely? a bit more research (admitedly only internet) says that there were only two engine flavours available as well, so I imagine it may be misadvertised? did you see the V5 with the engine size?
 
thats bizzare! must be a mistake on hpi checker possibly? did you get a chance to drive it as it would be noticeable I would imagine (also 1.8 only came with 5 speed so that might be a give away)

checking my NC 2 litre sport comes up with the same c02 output as well as the one you mentioned
 
Rich1988 said:
thats bizzare! must be a mistake on hpi checker possibly? did you get a chance to drive it as it would be noticeable I would imagine (also 1.8 only came with 5 speed so that might be a give away)
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Not seen it yet. A few other sites say the same so imagine it's been registered wrong with DVLA perhaps is my only thinking. Ad says it's 6speed with LSD.

Confusing!

EDIT: V5 shows 118kW so thats fine with me.
 
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Frozennova said:
How did they manage to go backwards on the 1.8?

146bhp in the NFL Vs 125 for the NC (Or 160bhp for some JDM 1.8s)
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De tuned for the same reason the 1.6 in the Nb is 110bhp vs the 1.8 vvt 146 I would imagine. if its not a big enough jump people would be less likely to spring for the larger engine size, and possibly emissions related
 
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