Finally!! .....My MX5!!!!!!!!

py2006

Hi guys,

Here at last, after a month or so of deliberation is a pic of me standing over my MX5. I finally picked it up last Thurs evening. I am really happy with it. It took a day or so to get used to it as its very different to the Focus that I am used to driving. There is a link below to view more pics.



Click here for more pics http://www.yrsites.com/mx5/mycar.html

EDIT: The pics of the interior didn't come out too well as the sun was beaming down on it

Thanks

mike65

I see you have "vanity plates"!

Mike

py2006

mike65 wrote:

I see you have "vanity plates"!

Mike

I presume your being sarcastic! Photoshop is handy!

unkel

After that massive thread I see you've finally made your mind up

Good luck with your new motor and just as well those plates are "virtual"

causal

Sweet. Well wear

causal

CrowdedHouse

Best of luck with it and safe motoring.

bonzai bob

meh, whatever you're into.

Ernie Ball

Nice looking motor!

JohnCleary

Are these RWD? I drove a GTR Skyline yesterday and I swear my next car HAS to be RWD

Ernie Ball

JohnCleary wrote:

Are these RWD? I drove a GTR Skyline yesterday and I swear my next car HAS to be RWD

MX5s are RWD as all respectable driving machines must be.

RicardoSmith

Great drivers car. I think they are brilliant. Some people aren't gone about the image. But that says more about them than the car

fletch

Not a huge fan of MX5's but she looks mint! Body kit and wheels set if off nicely.

Alfasudcrazy

Nice car - well ware - is it a Jap import?

causal

Don't be ridiculous - of course it's not imported from Japan - don't you know Mazda are an Irish company

causal

Blut

Very nice, how much did it cost? If it wasnt for insurance reasons I'd be making a big effort to pick myself up one..

Alun

Where did you get it from BTW? Was it the guy in Stillrogan who was mentioned in an earlier thread?

vector

Whats with the rear side indicator?

Squirrel

I do believe they're both reflectors, or some form of parking lights, if you notice that the side repeater is on the wing, not on the bumper

Ernie Ball

vector wrote:

Whats with the rear side indicator?

Is that maybe the standard in Japan?

Alun

Probably just reflectors that caught the flash from the camera maybe? BTW, I know someone with an MX-5 who had to tape these over to pass her NCT

cormie

Can I have your focus for free please? (I'm serious by the way)

Thumper Long

Good luck with the new motor, I was seriously tempted to buy one myself but could only afford one new car and needed a bit more space, i drove a mx5 for nearly a year as a company car and loved it, is yours the 1.6 or 1.8, and is that bumper an aftermarket bumper it looks well with the fog lights, dont remember seeing that bumper as standard, good luck

JohnCleary wrote:

Are these RWD? I drove a GTR Skyline yesterday and I swear my next car HAS to be RWD

Is the GTR not 4WD with a rear axle bias ratio of approx 60:40, where as the MX-5 is a full on rear wheel drive.

unkel

Ernie Ball wrote:

MX5s are RWD as all respectable driving machines must be.

Indeed. Only respectable driving machine not RWD I have ever driven was an Alfa Romeo 156 and I suppose that's only valid to a certain extent. 156 GTA < M3

Wasn't that an infamous quote by Saab engineers about a decade ago that FWD and engine > 200bhp are not compatible?

ubu

unkel wrote:

Wasn't that an infamous quote by Saab engineers about a decade ago that FWD and engine > 200bhp are not compatible?

Yea, i remember hearing that aswell, something like the absolute max a FWD car can handle is 220bhp otherwise its just not possible to transfer the power to the wheels

unkel

I suppose the 156 GTA kinda broke that rule but the base point is still there

py2006

Alun wrote:

Where did you get it from BTW? Was it the guy in Stillrogan who was mentioned in an earlier thread?

Nope I got it from a garage in Malahide. It cost me €12,800. They threw in 4 new tires and got me to pick out a stereo of my choice.

I wouldn't have been able to rest easy if I got it from a private seller, especiallly that guy we were discussing a few weeks ago

I forget now who asked me about the bumpers, not sure about that one. They were there when I bought it.

In the main pic, they are just reflectors reacting to the flash of a camera.

py2006

cormie wrote:

Can I have your focus for free please? (I'm serious by the way)

Hehe, I will give it to you for a fiver!

py2006

Thumper Long wrote:

Good luck with the new motor, I was seriously tempted to buy one myself but could only afford one new car and needed a bit more space, i drove a mx5 for nearly a year as a company car and loved it, is yours the 1.6 or 1.8, and is that bumper an aftermarket bumper it looks well with the fog lights, dont remember seeing that bumper as standard, good luck

Its a 1.8. As I said I couldn't tell you about the bumper. It was there when I got it. Its a jap import so maybe they are standard over there.

Squirrel

py2006 wrote:

Hehe, I will give it to you for a fiver!

How about a tenner . Very nice car. What year is it? Sorry if it's been posted before, but I never saw it

prospect

Well done py2006, it looks very well.
Hopefully we will see you and your motor soon at a run, or tech day.

py2006

Squirrel wrote:

How about a tenner . Very nice car. What year is it? Sorry if it's been posted before, but I never saw it

Sorry dude, it aint for sale. I share the Focus with my father. I dont think he will be pleased if I sold it behind his back for a tenner!

its a 04

vector

Alun wrote:

Probably just reflectors that caught the flash from the camera maybe? BTW, I know someone with an MX-5 who had to tape these over to pass her NCT

Yep, I'd say reflectors

I was thinking maybe they were "U.S. amber running lights" which are flashing in the image because yer man just opened the door using a key fob

py2006

vector wrote:

Yep, I'd say reflectors

I was thinking maybe they were "U.S. amber running lights" which are flashing in the image because yer man just opened the door using a key fob

Didn't I already say they were reflectors!

py2006

One thing I noticed is that the petrol gage stays up when the engine is off! Is this normal for MX5's or should it be go down when engine is off and pop back up when engine is turned on?

prospect

RE: Reflectors/Lights:
They are reflectors, that look like lights either because the camera flashed or because we actually had some sunlight over the last few days.

RE: Fuel Indicator:
I'm not sure, I'll have a look at mine this evening.

py2006

prospect wrote:

RE: Reflectors/Lights:
They are reflectors, that look like lights either because the camera flashed or because we actually had some sunlight over the last few days.

RE: Fuel Indicator:
I'm not sure, I'll have a look at mine this evening.

Cool, thanks! Also, I find that I am driving in 5th gear more now as the rev counter seems to want to go passed 3000 very easily!

EDIT: Uh oh, startin to rain on my MX5 for first time

ambro25

py2006 wrote:

One thing I noticed is that the petrol gage stays up when the engine is off! Is this normal for MX5's or should it be go down when engine is off and pop back up when engine is turned on?

It's normal. One downside is it shown 'bad guys' how much juice is in if they're thinking bad things...

PY2006, one *big* thing in passing, as it's starting to rain and (by your previous posts) you seem to have been a FWD man so far: watch yourself on the wet with the MX, and treat the go-pedal with gentleness and care

py2006

ambro25 wrote:

It's normal. One downside is it shown 'bad guys' how much juice is in if they're thinking bad things...

PY2006, one *big* thing in passing, as it's starting to rain and (by your previous posts) you seem to have been a FWD man so far: watch yourself on the wet with the MX, and treat the go-pedal with gentleness and care

Whatcha mean? Are they MX5's dangerous on wet roads? Or should I say do I need to more careful than I normally would be with any car on wet roads?

Ernie Ball

Read this. You'll find it helpful.

unkel

Ernie Ball wrote:

Read this. You'll find it helpful.

Very good article, Ernie. It should be compulsory reading for anybody posting here. Quite funneh as well:

Front-wheel drive cars are like bad sex. Rear-wheel drive cars are like good sex

Even bad sex is fun. But why choose it?

Squirrel

Good article, but I learned alot about FWD and RWD cars off Gran Turismo. And that progressed into real cars, for a 16 year old I've driven a disproportionate amount of high performance cars, both FWD and RWD, Rear all the way

ambro25

py2006 wrote:

Whatcha mean? Are they MX5's dangerous on wet roads? Or should I say do I need to more careful than I normally would be with any car on wet roads?

What I'm saying is that I am supposing that you've gathered a good bit of your experience on the wet in that Focus of your dad's.

It's a very good hatchback, I've never driven one but hold from a good source that it has rather superior road manners for a car in its class, in all conditions. I'd have one as my family car if I wasn't already sold on Imprezas' .

Compared to your new Maz' , however, the Focus has got (again supposing it's a 1.4 or 1.6)
_less BHP ('power')
_a higher centre of gravity
_is slightly heavier
_and the front wheels do all the work (they pull and steer the car: I'd gues that if you mash the go-pedal in a turn on the dry, the steering will start to feel quite heavy, power-steering or not, and on the wet it will eventually understeer, e.g. go in a straight line even though your wheels are turned)

Now, with your Maz', more BHP + lower center of gravity + lighter car + all power to the back wheels on the wet = adherence limit 'zone' much more tight than in a FWD. By that 'zone', I mean the combination of physical forces resulting from your accelerating that are just a fraction below 'out-of-control oversteering', i.e. depending on the turn you're making, the speed you're at and whether you're accelerating or not, where your Focus would so far have gotten out of the turn with no bother, your Maz' just *might* loose its ass... It's a bit dark for an explanation I know, but that article of Ernie is quite good (if not quite specific enough about wet driving with RWD, but you'll get the principles). As a tip, I usually have my tyres 0.1 to 0.2 bar below the recommended tyre pressure in autumn/winter = slightly larger tyre/road contact size, less propensity to loose grip.

Best advice I can give you is something I always do when I get a new car: find a nice, big (very big), empty car park someplace and put your motor through its paces to find its limits before they find you in the middle of traffic

Ernie - most excellent read, nice linkie

prospect

py2006, you have a bit of a habit of starting obscenely long threads

py2006

ambro25 wrote:

What I'm saying is that I am supposing that you've gathered a good bit of your experience on the wet in that Focus of your dad's.

It's a very good hatchback, I've never driven one but hold from a good source that it has rather superior road manners for a car in its class, in all conditions. I'd have one as my family car if I wasn't already sold on Imprezas' .

Compared to your new Maz' , however, the Focus has got (again supposing it's a 1.4 or 1.6)
_less BHP ('power')
_a higher centre of gravity
_is slightly heavier
_and the front wheels do all the work (they pull and steer the car: I'd gues that if you mash the go-pedal in a turn on the dry, the steering will start to feel quite heavy, power-steering or not, and on the wet it will eventually understeer, e.g. go in a straight line even though your wheels are turned)

Now, with your Maz', more BHP + lower center of gravity + lighter car + all power to the back wheels on the wet = adherence limit 'zone' much more tight than in a FWD. By that 'zone', I mean the combination of physical forces resulting from your accelerating that are just a fraction below 'out-of-control oversteering', i.e. depending on the turn you're making, the speed you're at and whether you're accelerating or not, where your Focus would so far have gotten out of the turn with no bother, your Maz' just *might* loose its ass... It's a bit dark for an explanation I know, but that article of Ernie is quite good (if not quite specific enough about wet driving with RWD, but you'll get the principles). As a tip, I usually have my tyres 0.1 to 0.2 bar below the recommended tyre pressure in autumn/winter = slightly larger tyre/road contact size, less propensity to loose grip.

Best advice I can give you is something I always do when I get a new car: find a nice, big (very big), empty car park someplace and put your motor through its paces to find its limits before they find you in the middle of traffic

Ernie - most excellent read, nice linkie

ehhhhhhh (me thinks me needs to read that one a few times)

py2006

prospect wrote:

py2006, you have a bit of a habit of starting obscenely long threads

Well it wasn't that long when I started it!!!

I guess I just create popular threads that leave plenty of scope for thought provoking discussion............and all that crap!

Ernie Ball

To echo what ambro25 is saying:

Your MX5 will, in general, handle a lot better than the Focus, due to the factors ambro25 isolates. However, when it does go (i.e. when you lose control), it will tend to happen more suddenly and more dramatically than on the Focus. And this is particularly true in the wet. A lot depends on how your car is set up, but if you push it too hard in the wet, you'll probably find that the rear wheels lose traction and you'll spin out. If you're anyplace where you don't have lots of room, spinning out is a Very Bad Thing. As that article makes clear, this is different behaviour to what people have grown used to after years of FWD cars and it takes some adjustment.

In short: take it easy in the wet.

py2006

Ernie Ball wrote:

To echo what ambro25 is saying:

Your MX5 will, in general, handle a lot better than the Focus, due to the factors ambro25 isolates. However, when it does go (i.e. when you lose control), it will tend to happen more suddenly and more dramatically than on the Focus. And this is particularly true in the wet. A lot depends on how your car is set up, but if you push it too hard in the wet, you'll probably find that the rear wheels lose traction and you'll spin out. If you're anyplace where you don't have lots of room, spinning out is a Very Bad Thing. As that article makes clear, this is different behaviour to what people have grown used to after years of FWD cars and it takes some adjustment.

In short: take it easy in the wet.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh, you speak English too!! Thanks for the translation.

I will be careful, I am a careful driver as it is.

I drove the Focus again today. My god I felt like I was driving a tank. I was soo high up.

py2006

Here is a clearer pic of the interior for anyone thats interested:

vector

py2006 wrote:

Well it wasn't that long when I started it!!!

I guess I just create popular threads that leave plenty of scope for thought provoking discussion............and all that crap!

if only you could put the same effort into your homework

py2006

vector wrote:

if only you could put the same effort into your homework

Ok, are you suggesting that I am a school kid or are you pertaining to the fact that I have little knowledge of whats under the hood and all that nonsense that doesn't really make a difference to somebody who just wants to drive the feckin thing!

Borzoi

unkel wrote:

[Mod Baiting]
Wasn't that an infamous quote by Saab engineers about a decade ago that FWD and engine > 200bhp are not compatible?[/Mod Baiting]

Then they went and made liars off themselves - up to 250BHP in the 9-5 Aero with a 2.3 litre HOT (High Output Turbo) - Nyom

But anyway, nice car py2006 and as with all convertibles half the fun is had just showing off