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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
Vindi Roadsters
Been signed up on here for a while, so thought its about time I introduced my cars and what I've done to them so far... I'll start at the beginning, which was a Motorbike crash in 2009 and try to do everything in order... may take a while!!
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
I'll start with the reason I got it... used to commute to work by bike, had a VFR800 first and then managed to pick up this beauty, a BMW Boxer Cup
I was was knocked off in January 2009 and smashed my wrist etc...decided 4 wheels was safer, especially with 2 young kids!
The car when I got it in March 09, £950 off ebay... sight unseen apart from the usual few dodgy photos! Jumped on a train to South wales with a fistful of notes and my fingers crossed. Luckily the guy I got it from was really nice, took time to show me round the car and explain how everything worked, any quirks, his top ten things I ought to do to get it perfect (he had written them all down), etc... rear brakes were the only thing that really needed sorting, so I did ok I think.
Wheels were made by Rays which was a nice bonus too! See, even my son loves it ("Its better than the noisy orange one")
First mod was a strut brace and a front lower brace bar, followed by ditching the style bar and replacing it with this
Old exhaust was rusting through and rattling, so fitted a Racing Beat one I managed to pick up 2nd hand. Was bored one evening so made this:
but wrecked the carpet while doing it... bit of overspray... note to self, put down paper next time
Got a friend to powdercoat the rocker cover... and must have fitted the M's air filter at some point too
I have a habit of getting a bit excited taking bits off the car... this is me changing the brake pads...
well you can't deny it makes access easier...
Russell.
Last edited by vindi49; 05-24-2012 at 04:12 AM.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
I did a few more bits and pieces on it - changed the shocks to Cusco ones and was contemplating uprating the brakes, fitting better suspension (the Cusco were rubbish!) and changing the interior, but eventually decided it made sense to buy a car that was in nicer condition and with most of the upgrades already done...
So here's MX5 number two
At this stage I'd already changed the wheels and added a hard top, but the basic spec was good already:
1991 V limited, 1.6 Long Nose Crank engine
HKS filter, uprated plugs and leads
Borla exhaust, 4-1 stainless manifold and decat pipe
Performance 5 Puredrive shocks
Carbing front and rear, upper and lower braces
Hard Dog M1 Double Diagonal Roll Bar
Uprated ARBs and fully polybushed
Uprated to 1.8 brakes
It had been owned by Phil at Performance 5 so had been a test bed / demo vehicle for their shocks and had been really looked after
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
The first few months with the car were just swapping over a few bits from the silver one and getting used to it... managed to get a Ratsback Carbon Fibre front lip and some Ratsback Carbon Fibre sill plates off a guy locally for a good price. Swapped over the exhaust as well, much preferred the Racing Beat one!
Initial findings were the car was really good, just needed a few bits to be tidied up. The bonnet had peeling lacquer everywhere and had bonnet pins which I didn't really want. The rear bumper had a few too many stickers, and I wanted a spoiler... more on that later!!
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
Spring 2010 - Its at this point that I got a bit carried away, and I genuinely can't remember which cars I bought in which order... something like this...
Black Mk1 (my 3rd) - Bought this jointly with a friend at work. It was mildly modified and slightly crash damaged, so I sold off the mods (Tein suspension, Safety 21 Roll Bar, lots of tacky chrome inside) and put it back to standard spec (S-Special) while replacing the front wing and bumper. He still has it and 100% loves it!!
Blue Mk1 (my 4th) - A daft project car... this had a Mk2 1.8 engine, a nice ducktail and was £450!! I was going to put a mini supercharger onto it... I gathered all the parts as well as the SSR Mesh wheels you see here, a set of wide arches and a load of other bits...
Then I woke up and realised I couldn't really see much difference between my plans for the green car and this, apart from the green one being a lot more solid... so this one got sold on
Blue Mk1 Rs Limited (my 5th)
Bought this because it was an RS Limited and was really cheap... sold it because the rear arches, sills and a decent chunk of the chassis needed replacing!! I had tracked down some cheap arch repair panels, some of the Recaros and some BBS wheels but it would have put the cost of the car to about £4000 and you can buy a decent one for £3000!
Decided to sell on my kit car as well...Vindicator Sprint with a Focus ST170 engine on Jenvey TBs etc, bit too focused for me (no roof, doors or windscreen, 575kg and 200bhp.
Russell.
Last edited by vindi49; 05-24-2012 at 08:52 AM.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
I decided at this point I really ought to see if all the changes I'd made actually made the car any faster... so off I headed to Rockingham Circuit for a day with Mazda on Track...
I got all the disasters out the way before hitting the track, first I got lost twice on the way there and then when I got there, I'd missed the first briefing. Nick and the guys kindly sorted me out quickly so I could join the sighting lap.
I then went to switch on my camera to record my first session, and found that when I was attaching it at 5.45am I must have switched it on... so the battery was already flat!
So disasters out of the way, Nick D (from Mazda on Track, and a member of my local MX5 club) offered to give me some tuition, so I did a bunch of laps and he showed me the lines...amazing how quickly it makes sense when you're sat next to someone who knows their stuff!
Its this way!!
At this point its worth mentioning that the track at Rockingham is sooooooooo wide, so spot on for a first track day. I found I wasn't worried about the other cars too much, its a long track so there's lots of space and you can pass people fairly easily if you want to.
I then bumped into Malcolm off MX5Nutz (who is building a very serious race car), and then promptly ran off (sorry!!) as Nick D had offered me a ride in his (at last all sorted) Supercharged Mk2.5 Sport... really useful seeing the lines done as they should be. Especially fun when someone dared overtake, everything went a bit blurry for a bit and the limits were well and truly explored!!
Had a chat with Malcolm about wheels/ tyres, and the build he is doing.. Had a sneek preview of the tubular wishbones... want some!! I then took Malcolm out for a spin (not literally, I don't think its posible with 116bhp and these tyres!) so he could get something of a feel for what 15 x 9 6ULs and 225/45/15 R888s are like. I have to say that I am certain I got nowhere near what there tyres can do, but they just seem to grip forever. The tyre size is perfect for the wheels so the only problem is the cost of tyres in this size. My conclusion after today is that I honestly don't care! I am certain that it is these tyres giving me so much confidence in the car, enabling me to corner a lot faster, get on the power earlier and overtake cars that were faster than me!
Break for lunch was well timed, let the car cool down and put some faces to names etc.
Went out again after lunch, got a bit quicker, break for a bit to cool off, went out again, another break.. you get the idea. I felt like I was getting faster throughout the day, I think I only looked at the speedo a couple of times (mainly at the end of the straight), but the revs at certain points were definately higher and I was getting into 4th a bit more, I even found the limiter a few times
Enough talk, a few pics!
I think my conclusions from today are as follows:
Why on earth hadn't I done this before? I mean seriously, I had been talking about this for almost 11 years
Tyres are the cheapest thing you can buy to make your car go faster. Forget Superchargers or Turbos, get some sticky trackday rubber and go embarass something expensive!
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
November 2010 - Nothing major, but I at last fitted the Mk2.5 Sport front brakes. It showed up that the rear calipers are totally shot, so I got some new (well off a 1999 Mk2 RS anyway) rear brakes that went on a week later.
Also at last got my first one piece bootlid / spoiler made, along with my carbon doorcards... getting addicted to carbon is not cheap!! Managed to save about 8kg with the bootlid, and 5kg withthe door cards...it all adds up!!
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
December 2010 - Another few jobs sorted... managed to sort out my knackered handbrake... not perfect, but it'll do! Also managed to fit a new dash (mine only went to 100mph, and was in KM/h).
More importantly, fitted my new toy... a Pit Crew Racing Carbon Dash Cowl!
I think this comes in 3rd place in my favourite car bits... 2nd is the Zoom Engineering Carbon interior mirror, first has to be the 6ULs for the way they totally transform the car!!
Russell.
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5,000 rpm - there be torque here!
Russell, thank you for sharing your build. I have admired your car, and your duck tail spoiler for some time now. I think your car is amazing. Well done!
-Cheers,
Jim
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
Spring 2011 - Next up was an engine swap... the car did well on the track day, but I really wanted a load more power... something anyone reading this will relate to!! The 1.6 was doing ok, but 184,000 miles on it so I didn't really want to spend any money on it... after hunting round I decided on a Mk2.5 Sport engine - the VVT one.
Probably spent a week trying to create enough space in the garage for the car... its a double garage with bench space at the back!! So the car fits inside, space around the front to work and the bonnet is removed
Got the induction off, and the heat shield... marinade all the bolts in oil and wait for a few hours!!
Thanks to Raydar27 (Steve), Valentinik (Mike) and Jibberingloon (Mark) for helping out throughout the build... and my dad for helping out at various stages too!! What was intended to be a couple of weekends work is hopefully going to finish tonight, over a year later... here's a few pics from along the way!!
Cleaned up the clutch (Spec II) and flywheel (lightened), and mounted them on the new engine.
Started stripping the inlet manifold off the engine
Test fitting the strut brace
Got the engine back in
Lots of friends over to help, as usual!
So with the engine sat in place, I messed about a bit and got it all wired up... got it fired up at some point last summer, so nearly done right? Nope, change of plans was just round the corner!!
Russell.
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2,000 rpm - light wheelspin, no bog here!
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