track day / fast road upgrade suggestions

[jamhow79]

Just purchased myself a uk 2004 1.8 and am already in love !!

Still have some pennies left over and intend to start using it for track days next year. Any suggestions on where to spend my money to get the best gains ?

- air filter / exhaust; All i've read seems to indicate that spending money here will do nothing other than improve the sound ?

- Suspension; My first thought was to uprate and lower the car (as it currently looks a bit 4x4 style) but after a few hundred miles of driving I really dont want to upset anything as the ride quality / grip is fantastic as it is. Any advice on a kit which will tighten things up and lower the car a bit without destroying whats already there would be appreciated.

- Brakes; A "spirited" drive across the yorkshire dales a few nights ago and they were pretty much toasted. Ive wasted cash on uprated disks before and felt very little improvement. Will braided hoses and uprated pads be enough for track use ?

And Finally chassis bracing / anti roll bars. I know they were worth every penny on the mk1 but there seems to be less info about on my mk 2.5 - had Mazda done a good enough job of upgrading things by 2004 or will I get the same gains as the older cars do ?

Thanks

[skinny]

how many pennis is a few?

suspension, if you go lower you have to go firmer. i would start with a set of uprated antiroll bars. these should affect ride comfort too much but will make the car more responsive.

a decent exhaust pretty muhc worth doing for the sound alone - any power increase is really a bonus.

bracing, the only thing that will make much difference to that car is a roll bar - they have loads more bracing as standard compared to a mk1.

brakes, get some decent pads on there, im guessing they are genuine discs in which case they are fine. look up mintex M1144 or axxiss ultimates, get some decent brake fluid in there, make sure the caliper pins (sliders) all move freely, and the pistons aren't gummed up. it's a pretty capable set-up.

[jamhow79]

Thanks for the advice - Have about a grand left to play with so will start with the brakes and the anti roll bars. Think im going to have to try some lowering springs to because much as I love the ride the HUGE gap between the wheels and arches makes me sad everytime I walk up to it !!

Know what you mean about the exhaust too - Its not quite got the growl a sports car should have right now. Plus it will hopefully drown out all the "GAY" comments from the random chavs in their god awful saxos whilst driving through the city centre.

[skinny]

yeah, i've sacrificed ride comfort on mine and to be honest i think it was the right thing to do.

a grand should do you some adjustable dampers, stiffened and lowered springs, (£500) uprated ARB's (£150), brake pads (£100), and an exhaust (£300).

[jamhow79]

Any advice on where to buy from ? I have found mx5parts.com on the net and prices seem ok but not really found anywhere to compare against.

[MrV]

If it was me

P5 http://www.performance5.com/handling_suspension.as...

Gaz gold http://www.gaz-shocks.co.uk/product.html

Don't forget to allow for the cost of a full geo after the shocks have been fitted

http://www.blackboots.co.uk/mazda-mx5-handling.php

[MX-5 Lazza]

I've done loads of mods to mine - shocks & springs, supercharger (230bhp), roll bars, Elise seats, light-weight 15" wheels with track tyres but I'm still not as fast on track as someone in a completely standard car who really knows what they are doing.

If you really want to improve your track driving you need to improve the weakest link first and that will be the driver. Spend at least half of the money on tuition and that'll make more difference that any money you spend on mods.

[T S Magnum]

I rencently got the Koni Sport kit on my Mk1:

Lovely build quality, adjustable rebound damping, lowers 30mm (or more if you're braver than me), tightens the handling up without damaging ride too much. Love it so far. 500 squids from mx5parts.

As said above, my Hard-Dog roll hoops also firmed things up nicely. The car also came with 17s(!) which were shocking for the handling.

[MX-5 Lazza]

T S Magnum said:

The car also came with 17s(!) which were shocking for the handling.

Though on a Mk2+ 17" are ok. I have 17s for road use (OZ SuperT so not particularly heavy but not exactly lightweight either - probably twice the weight of my 15s) and hardly feel a difference between them and my ligtweight Rota 15s. A little less cornering response but a little more settled at speed on the motorway.

[kevham]

MX-5 Lazza said:

If you really want to improve your track driving you need to improve the weakest link first and that will be the driver. Spend at least half of the money on tuition and that'll make more difference that any money you spend on mods.

A grand will buy you 5 days tuition with Walshy at Carlimits.com

I guarantee it will be money better spent than a grand on car mods. You will have fun. You will learn a lot and crucially, you will go much faster than you will if you spend a grand on modifications.

[thewildblue]

Ive gone for TR Lane roll bar with diagonal and harness bar.

Greenstuff pads and Spax coilovers.

The roll bar made loads of difference and made the car feel alot better.

Am yet to try the spax properly but they replaced bilsteins.

Next on my list are up-rated discs, but seeing how at brands the standard discs were fine and I had no fade whatsoever Im still not sure on this.

When Ive saved some money it will be bucket seats, uprated clutch and hopefully a nice turbo conversion. However Im also slowly creating my cbr400 track slag as well....