Josh's 1990 Na6 MX5

[nanotech]

Eyyyy my name is Josh and this is my Mx5! I'm still new to the forum and currently shopping for a Sprinter. Anyway this is my Mx5's story.

Around 4-5 years ago I was on the hunt for a silvia, well.. Anything cheap and rwd with a manual box. I'd checked out s13 after s13 only to find garbage bogan drift cars full of bog and knock off vertex kits and was nearing the end of my tether with shopping. It seemed like every car I'd tracked down ended up being a massive POS... Even the s14's I'd looked at that seemed immaculate in the adds had something fatally wrong like a dead gearbox, blown turbo, diff etc... So one day I found myself looking up random cars and stumbled upon an advert on carsales for this.



It didn't take much convincing after the test drive, I was in love. I'd always had a thing for Mx5's but I never expected to own one, especially an Na! To be honest, at this point I knew very little about cars and I thank this little red thing for inspiring a new passion. I've learned so much from this car over the years and met so many close friends as a result.
Anyway! I'd always had a thing for Mx5's from an early age as a good mate of mine's father drove an Nb8a which he bought new and later traded in for a special edition NC1. Sure enough, I bought the car.

After discovering google images, the mods began. Most of them regretful, but you live and learn. After the baffles died in the muffler, I decided to replace it with a 2.25" stainless steel cat back exhaust with a free flowing muffler, mandrel bends and free flowing exhaust. Well, that's what I asked for... Unfortunately the shop dicked me hardcore and gave me none of the above. I was left with this...

A crappy cheaply put together press bent mild steel stock system with the raspiest sound you'd ever heard. Unfortunately I was pretty shy back then and let the shop bully me and push me around, I let them win as a result and lost my money. But that's life I guess. I was young and didn't know any better.
Around this point I'd started to see the term 'JDM' come up a lot on forums, after some short googling this happened.

It's an RS*R GT2 Ex-mag cat back and holy hell was it loud!!! I also picked up a set of pretty haggered white wats that had been painted in what looked like fridge paint. I had them sandblasted and powder coated black. Oh and a Garage Vary lip
Unfortunately after losing my job, cash was very tight. Even unluckier my shocks blew. Left with no other option, the Wat's were sold and stock wheels back on. As sad as I was to see my ill fitting wheels go, this helped to fund my coilovers.

[nanotech]

The car stayed like this for some time, however I grew tired of how it looked and decided to mix things up with a few colour changes.
I resprayed the pillars and hard top black for something a bit different. I quite liked the look of the black topped NSX's and the Jap special edition mx5's with black a-pillars.

And this is probably the most embarassing phase the car went through...

I'm actually greatful for that bonnet though, it eventually became a blackboard in the garage and has come in very handing jotting down notes while working on the car lol.
Moving forward quite some time, I picked up some OEM JDM foglights for an absolute steal! They clip straight in and work with the factory loom, no wiring required. As I was still having trouble looking for work and with diminishing savings, I found it hard to save up to buy new tyres. I ended up buying a set of cheap wheels just for the tyres. I think they are Work Emotion knock offs? Either way, it was better than aquaplaning on bald low end plastic tyres.


Things went quiet on the Miata front for quite a while. Well, until I finished my nursing studies and found a job. After being a broke ass student for so long, I couldn't believe what having money was like again. As you can imagine, many impulse buys were made.


Maybe not the wisest decision but I figured after years of looking at amazing Mx5's I'd only dreamed of owning, it was time to make my own! I'm not going to lie, there was a lot of drama through the next few photos. I underanticipated how much work would be involved and it took a couple of goes to get it right. Hopefully the photos will do the talking though.

[nanotech]

I'm not sure when it was exactly, but I remember one day looking at the car and feeling depressed. In a lot of ways it felt like it had stopped being the fun car I fell in love with. It was now this object I looked at through the window and hardparking monster. Looking back on all the memories I'd had with the car, I realised the only time I was really happy with it was hammering through the hills and mountains. I guess the new income helped me to go a bit crazy and lose direction entirely. I'd completely forgotten the whole reason I loved my little Mazda in the first place.
It was moments like these


So with that in mind. I decided to start giving the car a hard look and actually have a direction for once. Off went the KG Works spoiler, Goodbye ST May shotgun exhaust, offset number plate, fog lamps, and rest. I repainted the flares and a-pillar red again and tried to make the car as simple as possible. I bought a retro fuel lid and a set of Runabout chrome mirrors to fit the theme. Finally I was happier with the car again.

[nanotech]

Happy with the car the mx5's journey really should have ended there. But you know how it is with us...

For a brief time, I had the car running an m45 supercharger at 9psi intercooled, on Megasquirt DIYPNP management. Unfortunately this was absolutely CRAZY loud and killed 99% of the fun of the car... The fun revvy throttle response had gone, the throttle was much heavier and although it was quite torquey and a lot faster than stock; it just wasn't the same. It's hard to put into words, but the driving experience reminded me a lot of my Dad's BA falcon. Sure you had power, but it was lazy and didn't give that same excitement revving the rings out of the car coming out of a corner.
The substitute plan was/is to turbocharge the car using an S15 silvia ball bearing gt2560r turbo. The reason I've prefaced it with 'was/is' is because the seller I bought the turbo off recently, tried to screw me and take the cash without posting the item. Luckily I was able to get my money back but it's left me wondering what to do with the car now. I'm in two minds about it.
As fun as the car is, B6 powered mx5's are very gutless. I know it's not about power, but after a few years the lack of power in an mx5 can start to get on your nerves. I'd like to retain the some revviness of the B6 but with more pull. I honestly would love to do headwork and bigger cams and so on, but for the price... I still feel turbo with a sensible tune will be better bang for buck with better driveability.

Bringing us up to date, I spotted a set of wheels I HAD to buy. I sold the Work Cr-01's, breaking even with the price of the new wheels

And that's how she sits today! The current plans are to raise the car and make it more practical and get it tuned for n/a until I work out what I'm going to do to the engine. It's the most fun car I've owned and although there have been MANY headaches along the way, I don't think I could part with it. With all the mistakes I've made along the way, I feel as if it's made it all the more a part of my life. I've neglected the car quite a bit this year as I decided to take some time off cars and plod along like everyone else. The car bug has hit again and all I can think fixing the broken interior bits, getting a tune and driving through the hills again.
Love to join some ae86 guys on the road and go for some cruises!

[dove grey 64]

nice thread josh, good to see you came back from that point of loosing what made the car special to begin with to being in love with it again.
i've felt like that a few times.
looking forward to seeing more mx5s on 86 club meets/drives

[mcBen]

Man that rice stage is terrible. You look back years later and think, how could I have driven that..

But good thread, makes me want an mx5