The Red Munter (MX5 track hack project)

[AdamR]

Picked this up today, just run out of MOT but would pass with very little work... Anyway that's not important, is getting ripped apart and turned into something that can be spanked on track and (hopefully!) cost very little in the process!

Car was £500, already sold the roof for £100, wheels will go on my daily as the tyres are getting low on it, so have given myself £600 to do all the rest of the work.

Anyone who gets precious or sentimental about cars shouldn't follow this thread, it may get fairly brutal!

Plans are... No engine / power mods at all, build myself a roll bar / cage and chassis bracing, find some 13" wheels so I can get cheap slicks, get it as light as possible (within reason - I won't be spending hours stripping looms for example!), GRP seats, probably some DIY aero (no big gay wings though!), and a fairly significant modification which won't be reversible...!

I'll bang more pics up as and when I've had chance to get stuck in

 

[imprezaworks]

Subscribed, this will be good.

 

[Paul.M]

This is more like it! Mine was a £500 red mx5 too, good taste!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

 

[AdamR]

And you're also from the best part of the country, triple whammy

Got 3 hours in this evening. 2 knuckles skinned so far, and the start weight was 954kg (including a pile of 90s CDs and a floral cushion).

 

[Euan94]

Sorry, where's the windscreen!! I presume this is the irreversible part.

I'm also not sure you can call it red! Look forward to reading more.

 

[Mr Burns]

Hmmmm, interesting... I have been offered almost exactly the same project, even with a unit to work in. I should take notes!

 

[AdamR]

Windscreen is on the floor of the workshop 14kg! That is the irreversible bit, yup...

Haha, I know, the paint is such a mess!

Will try and get a few more bits done this week.

 

[Scrooge]

Flol!

 

[Jamie86]

Lol chop shop? I have some daisys with pretty worn 888's if you are ever down this way

 

[AdamR]

Yep, getting brutal with it! Cheers dude, I'll see how I get on for wheels

 

[Addicted]

Subbed, could be very interesting!!

 

[AdamR]

A few more pics I took along the way... Been uploading them from my phone so far so it's been a pain:

Snail wheel weight:

Cushions and CDs:

The 'bad' side: terrible paintwork, covered in s**t, window mechanisms failed, missing wing mirror...

So, the first task was to weigh it - using scales that cost twice as much as the car, haha.

Ignore the corner weights, the platforms weren't levelled up and tyre pressures all over the place as I just wanted the weight of the bare car

 

[Goodj]

Bare car? pfffft, loads left on that! :wink:
After stripping it down to the bones, how much tupperware will get bolted to the bumper and bootlid?
Just a quick point. None of the wings, ever, make the slightest difference other than to incur extra drag

 

[AdamR]

Oh yeah, there's still loads to come off, only had a couple of hours last night to get started :smile: Edit: Oh I see, I have no idea why I said bare car! Meant to say complete car, or something like that, what a r****d...

Tupperware, haha! No, I'm definitely not going for the 'scene' look, only functional mods will be done. At the moment I'm thinking a modest front splitter / air dam to help with the infuriating high speed understeer, something to box in the rear shelf so it's not like a big parachute, and a couple of Gurney flaps - one on the boot lid, one on the aeroscreen. Apparently these should be around 1-4% (in height) of the length of the flat section they follow, so they will be pretty small.

 

[Euan94]

I have to say I wish I had a workshop to work on a car properly. I'd love to do this with my old mk2 that I'm struggling to sell at the moment.

 

[AdamR]

Just break into the PalmerSport workshop at Bedford Autodrome, be reet!

 

[Goodj]

The OEM lip is genuinely worthwhile as it had actual aero testing done on it.
But even the OEM rear lips are pure tupperware only.

Little gurney-style lips (as opposed to duck-tails) are alreet.

As for your understeer, you'll cure that with 20 minutes of alignment settings and OEM-size 15" wheels and tyres.

Good luck tho chap, looking forward to this one

 

[AdamR]

Yeah, I have a front lip on my race car, definitely made a difference (to both front lift and drag - to the tune of 0.25s down the back straight at Anglesey!).

IMO think the only thing that would cure the high speed understeer is some front end aero, I find balance is good at low speed (the little bit of 'push' allows excess rear grip so you can get the power down early). You need to run these parallel both ends (or a tiny smidge of toe out at the front, less than 10 mins) or there's too much scrub and it reduces straight line speed. The OE wheels are 14" actually on this model, very light as well, but hard to get tyres

Not sure how the wheel size would change handling balance (unless you use differenct sizes front to rear of course!) - you seem to have a lot of knowledge though, happy to be enlightened!

Cheers, don't need luck when you have graft :wink: haha

 

[Goodj]

Its not the diameter, it's how wide you can get the tyres. An extra 10mm at each corner completely transformed my daily Mk2.5.
That said, any of the OEM ENkei 15s will be lighter than the daisies you have now too, which I'm sure would be handy.

guessing it's got an LSD already?
EDIT: Ah, no, as it's UK, quite possibly not. That would be an instant purchase

If so, then if you're already running some front camber then yeah, aero it is. Or raise the rear very slightly but not enough to leave you on lock-stops at every corner.

 

[AdamR]

I getcha! I'm not too bothered about outright grip as long as the car is balanced, and I reckon some 16cm slicks will have plenty of footprint for the weight of the vehicle. I only want to go 13" for cost reasons and it will lower the CoG a bit (an inch) without upsetting the geo too much.

I'd love some Enkei's but this is a budget build! Same goes for the shocks, they don't have adjustable spring platforms so I will be corner weighing it by moving the battery around the boot and I can't adjust the rake either...

I actually raced for a season on an open diff (now changed to a vLSD) and I think I prefer the way the car drives with the open. It doesn't have enough power to spin the inside wheel up unless it's wet, and even then this helps prevent the car bog down.

Front camber and caster will be maxed out, I'd run over 3 deg front camber if I could, but I think realistically any more than 2 will be a bonus given the restraints.

 

[AdamR]

Bit more progress last night / this morning, although it was halted somewhat when I came across Satan lurking within the wiring somewhere...

So I did what every non-paedophile would do*, gaffer taped the s**t out of it and hid it under the panel for the ECU.

However, the car then wouldn't start. Fuel pump wasn't running, arse. Pulled the panel again and found a loose connection, fired up after that - phew! Very very glad I checked...

*Studies show that the level of patience and commitment required to meddle with automotive wiring is on par with that necessary to groom a small child, ergo you must be a paedo if you like wiring.

Hopefully if I do get any more issues there will be a wiring diagram somewhere as it seems to be a Mazda OE fitment...

So once that was sorted and all the bits of glass vacuumed up, I tackled the engine bay:

3 more hours spent and two more knuckles skinned. I can also add a massive amount to the budget now, found 20p hidden under the carpet, result!

 

[Mr Burns]

I've just been in talks with my brother about buying his project... The inspiration is here.

 

[AdamR]

Gerrit bought :wink:

 

[AdamR]

Another 5 hours spent, no further skinned knuckles! :lol:

Started tackling the 'outside' of the car, complete with lots of rusty fastenings... My friends for the evening:

I forgot to include Mr Hacksaw and Mr Blowtorch in the picture, but you get the idea.

Front end all stripped down:

Then decided to swap the front brake calipers for some better ones I have. Pulling the brakes apart was always on the list as I also plan to use braided lines (which arrived today along with a full set of rubber radiator hoses), however there was a fair amount of corrosion...

And the same with the rear:

So much in fact that the fitting was completely stuck to the brake line. Arse. That adds a fair bit of work and some extra onto the budget

To drown my sorrows I ripped the back end of the car apart as well:

Also picked up the tubing for my cage this morning, including a load of ~100x120mm plates, £35 for the lot - bargain!

Pricing stuff up it looks like I might go about £50-60 over budget... if anyone has any fibreglass seats going cheap so I don't have to buy new that'd be awesome!

 

[Mr Burns]

You fitting a kit car body??

 

[AdamR]

Nah, the original panels will be going back on mostly, but you have to remove everything to get rid of the slam panels - also means it'll be easier to work on in future though

 

[Cub.]

Great work so far

Looking forward to seeing the end result!

 

[dann2707]

So good! How many Mx5's do you own now? 3 is it?

I assume you'll be giving me hairstyle advice on the 24th then?

 

[dmallett]

How much do you have to spend on seats? Ive got two that i will be selling soon.

Motordrives one grp, one carbon.

I like threads like this, i like seeing cars being ripped to pieces

 

[AdamR]

Great work so far :smile:

Looking forward to seeing the end result!

Cheers dude. I'm hoping it will be... different!

So good! How many Mx5's do you own now? 3 is it?

I assume you'll be giving me hairstyle advice on the 24th then?

Haha, 4... Yeah I can do that :wink:

How much do you have to spend on seats? Ive got two that i will be selling soon.

Cheers dude but they are way too posh for me! Sorry I wasn't clear, meant plain old GRP skins, I've got not much more than £100 to spend on the pair...!


Bit more progress last night, but kinda slow going again, little bitty jobs and some tidying up / car swapping...

I hereby present my trump card / cheat code for this project - another MX-5. This used to be my track hack and I had so much fun in this thing, it's the main inspiration for this project I guess. Some of the bits from the blue car will be going into the red one, not the wheels though obviously :laughing:

And here's a video from over 2 years ago (time flies...) at Cadwell. Such good fun!




So the Red Munter now looks like this - I got excited to play with the roll cage tubing, pipe bender and chop saw:

And one last shot of three quarters of my MX-5s - gayness to the max.

 

[Mr Burns]

I love the preconceptions compared to the reality of MX-5's on track... Pretty much everyone got out of mine with a completely different opinion of the little gay car. They're just great fun, and that's what it's all about IMO.

 

[AdamR]

Agreed and have found exactly the same! I think that blue one has been responsible for converting at least 8 or 9 people to hairdresserism.

 

[Paul.M]

Loving the work already Adam, give me a shout if you want a hand getting the paint red again (if any painted panels survive!) I'll happily pop down and help

Also are you going to Three sisters sunday?

 

[AdamR]

Cheers Paul! I think it will stay faded tbh, although I might polish a smiley face into the bonnet

Yeah I'll be there early doors, not sure which car, but I'll try and find you if you'll be about? Happy to jump in with you for a bit on instruction if you wish too.

 

[Paul.M]

I'm hoping to get down yes, that would be excellent if you wouldn't mind!

I'll give you a message saturday when I know for sure

 

[AdamR]

See you in a few hours Paul? I'll be in a totally standard silver Mk1 MX-5 :up:

----------

Managed to get a few more hours in before work, after work and yesterday, so there has been some reasonable progress.

The Blue Beauty needed stripping down to the shell so I could 1) make space and 2) nick some bits off it, so that was attacked...

Hard to believe that lot comes out of such a small hole, haha.

Had a massive issue with one of the rear shocks, the captive nut in the lower wishbone broke free, so in the end I'll just swap the whole wishbone - bit of a pain having to free the upright though.

Anyway...

Neglected and relegated to outside!

It got revenge though:

This, however, left me with a pile of bits for the Red Munter...

Picked up some seats Thursday night, 3 hour round trip to Stafford but it was worth it - they are much better than I expected, being a 3 piece affair so they are hollow and mega light, about 3.5kg each! Seats were something I thought would eat up the budget but I managed to claw a bit back on these at £140 a pair...

How to fit them though? Well, I wanted the drivers one on a runner to accommodate for lanky freaks, but the standard MX-5 runners were nowhere near. Then I found a left hand Corbeau mount for a Pug 205 (can't remember how I ended up with it, I've never owned a 205!)...

It met Mr Chop Saw and Mr Welder...

And the rest, as they say, is history. You'll have to take my word for it as I forgot to take a pic!

Next up I decided to get rid of the gash bendy dash hoop and put something in that would hopefully offer a bit of lateral stiffness too. I decided the cage tubing would be a bit overkill as all it effectively has to do is hold the steering column up, so went for some box - which made for some interesting chopping angles:

All went in nicely though, and the column mounting piece out of the old dash brace even ended up in the perfect place once it was welded to the new bar!

Did a few more bits and bobs like fitting the rear bumper, chopping out the inner skin from the boot lid and had some food, then started tackling the cage.

Spreader plates were bent / formed and then the roll hoop was held in place with gaffer tape while I measured up and cut the supports.

Don't have any posh tools to do this, so had to do the mitres with a grinder, came out pretty well though!

And here it is at the end of day 6, a bit different now to how it was!

Should get a few more hours in today, so plan to get the rear part of the cage finished and welded in, then I can crack on with... I'm not sure yet, there's plenty to do though!

 

[Mr Burns]

That's amazing, I'm so jealous of your skills!

The guy in Stafford wasn't an MX-5 racer who lived on a farm by any chance??

 

[Paul.M]

I got called in to work unfortunatley, I got home about an hour ago, good to see progress on the 'mx5' though, if I can still call it that.

Was it a good turnout today?

 

[Addicted]

Im confused, how many MX-5 are being slaughtered to build this? I count 3 possibly?

awesome work so far!

 

[AdamR]

That's amazing, I'm so jealous of your skills!

The guy in Stafford wasn't an MX-5 racer who lived on a farm by any chance??

Haha, don't be, this is actually a photo of me:

Nah, it was a chap called Anthony who had an old Ginetta. Seems to be MX-5 races all over the place though!

I got called in to work unfortunatley, I got home about an hour ago, good to see progress on the 'mx5' though, if I can still call it that.

Was it a good turnout today?

Ah bummer, next time! Yeah it will look, er, different when it's done...

Was pretty busy early on but I spanked a session then headed back to crack on with the munter!

Im confused, how many MX-5 are being slaughtered to build this? :smiley: I count 3 possibly?

awesome work so far!

Haha, just two :smile: The race car and my daily are escaping unscathed... Cheers dude, more below...!

Had a fairly free weekend so managed to crack through a few more bits. The project will stall completely for the next week or so though due to work commitments, but at least it will give time for some of the bits I've ordered to arrive.

Braced up the cage (and finished welding it together, no pics of that cos we all know what a DIY weld looks like, lol):

Cardboard templates for the more tricky spreader plates...

And in place. These are now welded in but it looks like Stevie Wonder did it, I'm hoping lashings of black Hammerite will help with that.

Fingers crossed it's stuck well enough!

Note: stuff gets hot when you weld it. Putting one of these spreader plates on a piece of carpet immediately after attacking it with 150 amps for 20-30s makes a sticky mess!

Then I moved onto the 'doors'. These are made from 4mm correx (think estate agent for sale boards) ended up stiffer than I thought. Held in place with a load of penny washers, bolts and rivinuts, doubled over at the top. Will be adding a brace between the front top of each one which will double as the support for the aeroscreen (which will be made of the same material).

And clamped to the chassis with a flat strip at the front where the doors would normally bolt on, so it seals the cockpit rather than channeling water from the front tyres straight onto your lap!

These can be removed in a few seconds if I want - doors will be braced over with additions to the roll cage.

Then I moved onto brakes. The brake system was designed for a 323 (FWD) so the MX-5 is really underbraked at the rear: http://blackartdynamics.com/BrakeBasic/BrakeIndexMX5.php (also shown by how many sets of front pads you go through vs rear ones!). To help with this, you can take the plunger out of the compensator (see below) or do away with it altogether as I will be doing, running stainless lines through the car.

Another couple of mods I do to the pedals to help with left foot braking and heel & toe:

Dull video but got the same setup in my race car (skip to 2:10 for the best example of how it can be used):



And then made up a master cylinder brace in true pikey style - couldn't be arsed faffing with a posh one that bolts to the strut tops, so just welded it on. In the background you can see a pair of old boxers soaked in water covering up the fuel lines, just in case...

So that's it for now, another couple of weeks of work and it should be ready!