MX5 Mk3 - Best mods, bang for buck

[Emley]

Hi

Just bought a 2006 Mk.3 2.0i Sport with only 30k miles.
Got it well under market value and it is absolutely mint.

So can spend a little on upgrades.

I will probably do 3 or 4 gentle track days a year in it ;-)

What upgrades would you guys recommend in terms of "bang for buck" ?
Not interested in going silly, and getting into realms of "diminishing returns"
Just good quality, value upgrades that will give me tangible improvements.

List in order of "bang for buck"

Was thinking.
Eibach lowering springs & geo.
Eibach arb's
Or are coil-overs (meister etc) going to give me better bang for buck?
Yellow stuff pads
braces ?

Sorry if this has been asked before

Also

Can anyone recommend an MX-5 performance specialist in Yorkshire / North East?

Regards

[g40steve]

Meisters, RB mani, remap, uprated fluid & pads job done.

[Munter]

Take it to roddisons in sheffield. ( http://www.mx5-racing.co.uk/ ) Get the geo sorted, change fluid and pads, stick some good rubber on it. Drive.

[MX-5 Lazza]

Driver track tuition

[Emley]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Driver track tuition

Already a driving god thanks

[juan king]

Munter said:

Take it to roddisons in sheffield. ( http://www.mx5-racing.co.uk/ ) Get the geo sorted, change fluid and pads, stick some good rubber on it. Drive.

THIS!

[Emley]

juan king said:

Munter said:

Take it to roddisons in sheffield. ( http://www.mx5-racing.co.uk/ ) Get the geo sorted, change fluid and pads, stick some good rubber on it. Drive.

THIS!

Cheers

Will give Roddisons a call tomorrow, re suspension and brakes.
The 185bhp exhaust and remap looks great, but not sure I could justify £1800 for 27bhp

The car came with 4 virtually new Avon's on, presumably these will be okay-ish till I trash them?
Then a set of the Federals?

[g40steve]

My car was used to develop the 185 Kit.

The difference between standard & now is huge.

[Emley]

Okay

And Meisters over Gaz, or just springs & geo?

Tempted...

[wheels-inmotion]

Meisters without question in my opinion.

[MX-5 Lazza]

wheels-inmotion said:

Meisters without question in my opinion.

There we will disagree

We have GGP on our track car, I have it on my own car and almost all Max5 & Ma5da race cars have them.

Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Saturday 30th November 11:21

[MX-5 Lazza]

Emley said:

MX-5 Lazza said:

Driver track tuition

Already a driving god thanks

So why haven't you got an F1 race seat
Everyone can benefit from more tuition, it makes a much bigger difference than any car mod.

[Gilhooligan]

If you are going for just springs then I wouldn't go further than the 30mm lowering ones. My mate has a mk3 2.0 sport with the Bilstein shocks and he opted for the 45mm springs. From an aesthetic point of view its better but show it a bump in the road and the car bounces all over the place. It also scrapes over speed bumps now.

[g40steve]

Don't bother with the springs go for the meisters.

Few ideas below, all tried tested & declared to insurance.

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1...

Edited by g40steve on Saturday 30th November 16:42

[wheels-inmotion]

MX-5 Lazza said:

There we will disagree

We have GGP on our track car, I have it on my own car and almost all Max5 & Ma5da race cars have them.

Edited by MX-5 Lazza on Saturday 30th November 11:21

Don't get me wrong i really like the GGP but felt let down with some inherent issues that finally tipped my cap.

[nikpro]

If you really want the best for your car you would fit the Ohlins kit - it makes the others pale into insignificance!

Then a Good Geo on a Hunter wheel aligner to round it all off :-)

Then take it to one of the recommended wheel alignment specialists here:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Edited by nikpro on Sunday 1st December 23:57

[Emley]

nikpro said:

If you really want the best for your car you would fit the Ohlins kit - it makes the others pale into insignificance!

Cheers nikpro, I know where you are coming from.

I was contemplating the Ohlins on my Porsche Turbo, but decided it was too nice to track.
If I was still in the realms of wanting the best, I would still have the Porsche.

But will have to look at the cost and wether I can justify on a cheap fun project.

Trying to establish what the optimum bang for buck compromise might be.
I.e. if I get 90% of performance for 50% cost, that will do.
Even if that means Eibach springs on the Bilstiens.

Will have a look at the Ohlins, can you recommend a vendor?

Regards

Emley

[nikpro]

Emley said:

Cheers nikpro, I know where you are coming from.

I was contemplating the Ohlins on my Porsche Turbo, but decided it was too nice to track.
If I was still in the realms of wanting the best, I would still have the Porsche.

But will have to look at the cost and wether I can justify on a cheap fun project.

Trying to establish what the optimum bang for buck compromise might be.
I.e. if I get 90% of performance for 50% cost, that will do.
Even if that means Eibach springs on the Bilstiens.

Will have a look at the Ohlins, can you recommend a vendor?

Regards

Emley

I wish I could but I'm not allowed to as I am actually a vendor and we do lots of work on MX5's.

We currently run a team that races in the BRSCC MX5 championship and build championship winning engines for MX5's and Lotus Elises.

We supply Ohlins, Gaz and Miester R for the MX5 - the Ohlins are an expensive option but they are quite frankly in a different league!

The Meister & Gaz are also good dampers with little to choose between them - we match all the dampers we sell on our own damper dyno and for the price the damping curves from both the Meister and Gaz are fairly good. We consider dyno testing an important step on cheaper dampers as they are quite different due to manufacturing tolerances - if they are not matched across the axle you might as well have different springs fitted to each corner of the car!

If you plan on using the MX5 on track days you will definitely need after market coilovers fitting and a good Geo - the place you choose should take into account what your individual requirements are and tailor the Geo to suit.

We use the latest Hunter Hawkeye Elite TD Imaging aligner for all our alignments, however whilst the aligner is absolutely superb, knowledge of the user is also very important.


So, IMO the best value upgrades for your car are:

(1) Good Tyres
(2) After market Suspension
(3) A Good Geo tailored to your needs.

Some Info here:

http://www.blinkmotorsport.com/fd2.pdf

[g40steve]

Emley said:

Trying to establish what the optimum bang for buck compromise might be.
I.e. if I get 90% of performance for 50% cost, that will do.

That will be the meister R's then