My NA8 Pit Crew Racing Roadster Build

[Delboy]

So we begin with my car, which if not for some like minded enthusiast/mildly excessive car hoarders would never have seen British soil, Namely James aka Madaboutmx5 and Russell aka Vindi. Now the story goes that James found the car on a online Japanese car auction, and proceeded to purchase the car with the intention of removing a few choice bits for his own car (owning a pit crew himself) now why this may seem crazy to some, it must be understood that certain parts are extremely hard to obtain, and to get them it is not unusual for someone to buy a car just for certain parts, Even if it is the other side of the world! The user name madaboutmx5’s certainly rings true.

It was during the Time the car was being shipped I believe James contacted Russell, a friend and fellow enthusiast with a view to purchase the car. Having meet Russell before and followed his build threads it was no surprise to me that he took the opportunity to own such a car. When something like this comes available you act now and worry about the wife later.

It was at this point I first heard of the car after a thread on mx5nutz, and even got to see pictures of it sat at the docs in Japan prior to shipping.








It was established the car is fitted with a plethora of rare parts some I never even new existed myself. It was obviously in need of some cosmetic fiberglass repairs, but that didn’t matter I was immensely jealous of his new purchase. It is understood prior to this car only 2 other full pit crew’s exist in the UK, madaboutmx5 owns one, a very well sorted and highly regarded Black car and I believe his friend owns the other a Red car that’s just recently been recommissioned back onto the road.



Both cracking examples!

[Delboy]

So after several weeks at sea James took delivery of the car for a short period, removed his parts (the front bumper bars and single wiper conversion) before being delivered to Russell, this is the last I heard of the car for about the next 6 months, that was until I heard a whisper. Somebody was thinking about selling there pit crew, and I immediately had a felling who it was. I fired Russell a message and sure enough he was thinking about it, but was still very much up in the air about it. A change in heart knowing he wouldn’t want to use it every day, bringing him to the point of sale. We arranged to meet at his place for a chat and a look over the car.

I arrived the next day to find the car on the drive in the same condition I had last seen pictures of it some 6 months previous. I must say It was a bit of a surreal moment having never actually seen one in the flesh before, and now find myself looking at the car I was “o” so jealous about. After a lengthy chat it was clear he felt it had to go to the right person, and luckily that was me! A deal was stuck and I arranged to collect the car the next day, a sleepless night ensued excited much!

Arriving back the next day we set to loading the car up and taking it home yay, not before Russell handed me a box with some lights and retro fitting he had amassed along the way. Thanks mate!



Back home and time to give it a look over.





Looks like it has a black eye! A look around the inside yielded some amusing finds, including a pair of chopsticks a Japanese McDonald’s receipt and fuel/Toll card


In the ashtray/cubby they appear to be ball bearings but they smell like perfumed josh sticks.




Holes behind the driver’s seat and in the passenger foot well, more on this later.




There is also varies service stickers dotted about.





The shaken(vehicle inspection program in Japan)





I don’t know what Albatross is about, but it does make me think of Fleetwood mac.

In the Box of bits I was given with the car was a pair of tri point Lucas lights. The very first thing I did was to pop the light in to take away that Black eye.



Looking better already! A quick wash and into the garage she went, and time for an oil change. With all the tooing and throwing on- off the trailer-being moved about at the docks etc and the fact its sat for a least six months not on the road, the oil smelled of fuel.



I thought it was amusing the fact it said “pit work” on the filter never heard of them before. With a bit of googling these oil filters are also used by HKS Japan on their race engines and are known for superior OEM quality. So nice to know it hasn’t been shy of quality service items.

A genuine filter would replace it.



Now I had some thinking time! I know that the front would need sorting, but I needed to way up my options with the rests of the car, as regards to paint. Generally the paintwork was very good however it had suffered in places due to a cover being used; there were some light scratches on the tops of the rear quarters , some clouding in the lacquer on the top of the windscreen surround, and a scuff mark on the rear bumper, which look like it was from the bumper bar. To paint the front properly it would need blending in back to the doors and the bonnet. That only leaves the rear end which isn’t particularly big anyway. So I was pretty sure early on it would be going for a full respray.

A good friend of mine owns his own body shop, have used him for years and always go to him for my paint work. I arranged with him to pop over first to give me his opinion on the body work and secondly did he want the job! We shared the same opinion- with painting the front it would be silly not to do the rear. We talked figures and booked the car in, this was no “mates rates “ the car needed to be done right.

Strip down commence I had a few weeks before it was due to go in so there was no rush on this front, biggest problem is storage space at home. I’ve pulled a part numerous roadsters now so I don’t need a lot of time.

Arch liners out



Winglets Off



Rear Exhaust off



I took some references as to badge placement, the pit crew one has gone missing at some point during the import. (It can be seen on the pre import pics at the docs)



I don’t have any more pictures of the strip down but you get the idea, hopefully some of the under body/wheel arch pics go some way to showing just how clean this car is in its untouched state.

Glass out Locks out and ready to go

[Delboy]

The car was dropped off at the body shop. I would give him a few days, to check it over in his own time then pop up for a chat. I was quite surprised when I called round!





We did discuss about the front having to come off but it was still a surprise none the less. However it did now allow me to replace the front wings, so a pair off genuine Mazda wings was ordered up.

While the car is in the shop it gives me time to prep for its return, starting with the exhaust. I had already given the one side of it a wipe when it was on the car, but it was going to need more than that. Started by using Bilt hamber surfex HD to break down the carbon deposits with a nylon brush, followed by britemax twins metal polish









When I get a bit of spare time or I feel up to it I keep going back and doing a bit more-





It’s not finished yet I’m still on the cutting compound stage but we are getting there.

[Delboy]

Ever Since getting the car (or any of my cars for that matter) I have been trying to find out as much history as I can about it. I have seen numerous pictures of pit crew roadsters online and generally they are of the same cars. Now with there not being too many of them out there I was adamant there must be info-a picture even! of my car out there somewhere. The biggest contributing factor was the sheer number of bits on the car, for there not to be any think out there about it.

Going back to the car it’s self for a bit It was quite obvious the interior and wheels did not match up with the rest of the car. I mean the standard seats and wheels just don’t fit in, and there was evidence of some think being fitted hence the holes behind the driver’s seat and passenger foot well.

A bit of lurking around looking at pictures of other roadsters in japan, I came across this roll bar-




I had found something I didn’t know existed a pit crew roll bar; at some point in its life my car had one! You can still get them knew but they aren’t cheap Like a $1000 not cheap. To add to that I also found out about the gear knob and hand brake sleeve they do. Looking back through my pics it would appear that my car does indeed have the hand break sleeve fitted. But it has always been missing the gear knob. With all the other bits and pieces I’m pretty sure this would have had the matching knob, but has been remover along with the roll bar and possibly seats prior to it going up for sale in Japan. Taking all this into account there is very little that they manufacture that hasn’t been fitted to this car. Even the badges including the missing one-

Pic from Japan of the Pit crew stall at a Roadster meet



I was more adamant than ever, there must be pictures some were of the car in Japan. I searched and searched and searched. Going of the Reg of the car in Japan it was registered in the Mie prefecture which basically puts the car in the Suzuka area. So narrowed my search down a bit more, checking for Roadster meeting in that area. I then stumbled across a blog “Oasis Roadster meeting 2007”

It was while I was scrolling through the pics that I saw it……………………………



I had finally found a picture of the car In japan, continuing my search I turned up some more pics from various different blogs now I had narrowed it down.










You can’t quite make it out but behind the car are the trader’s stalls, and not to far away is the pit crew stall. After all that searching I had dried up finding any more, I was a little disappointed not to have found any clear pictures of the inside, still It was nice to see and add some more pieces to the puzzle.

[Greasemonkey2000]

Pitcrew miata is my dream miata....with a v8 of course. Look forward to the progress and hope you find the owner that did/had the conversion done.

[— Vegard —]

Looking forward to following this. I'm active on minkara carview, and have a feeling I've seen yours, if it pops up I will give you a heads up!

[★ revlimiter ★]

I read the whole thing. Love it. I've always had a soft spot for the Pitcrew.

[This is a Lamp]

Love the story, and have a feeling it'll be even better than now

[Delboy]

Thanks for the comments guys, I thought a build thread would be appreciated on here. I kind of jumped in with know introduction about me before hand, but it's safe to say i have a "mild obsession" for the wee little Roadster's owning more than 1.
I know these cars divide opinion's,but that's cool we cant all be same right.

more updates to come.....

[Fishbulb]

I love this photo. It's like a Japanese barn find...

Good luck with the build, and thanks for the updates!

[—tsingson—]

I love it. Silver with a Pit Crew front. Love it.

[— Madaboutmx5s —]

Nice one on getting the car. I kind of regret selling it but would have been greedy have two pitcrew roadsters. I have seen it with FD RX7s and in Japan enthusiasts have habit of working their way through a tuners parts catalogue. It would not surprise me if easily removable parts were taken before I purchased it through the auction. I know the steering wheel was wrong as the boss wasn't even a Mazda boss. It spun loose when I gave it hard turn. Lucky only on the drive as could have been dangerous on the road. If memory serves me right the black cloth seats in it when I got it were loose suggesting they had been quickly put in place. I kept back the single wiper, front bumpers and the pitcrew badge and left the rest for Russell. Good luck with the restoration. I've just purchased another pitcrew exhaust so have both types soon of the centre exit type. I look forward to seeing this car done.

[Delboy]

Cheers James, Seems to make a lot a sense with the bits and pieces having been removed, just doesn't add up with the rest of the car.
I think i know the exhaust your referring to, as i kept looking at it for a future project I have in mind.

[Delboy]

Popped in to see the car today and its progressing nicely, new wings are on and the fronts back on for good now.

[Delboy]

Now i know what your all thinking "why didn't you round the bonnet" ha ha.
well i came really close to doing this, and there was a couple of train of thoughts. Once it's been done there is no going back, as it stands now i can always go down that route in the future. secondly they were never designed to have the rounded bonnet, so thought it would be cool to run it as is for the time being.

Just to add! if any body does come across any info or pics of the car feel free to post away. That would be greatly appreciated.