Please tell me about MX5's

Sorry Mods, does this thread belong in the question section? Please move if it does!

Mine is an early 1.6 and it goes fine... fast enough to be fun anyway. Mine managed the Ring well enough although it was a little slow up the steep uphill section after Breidscheid. Lack of torque but I doubt a 1.8 would be a great deal different.

Mechanically they are pretty reliable and fairly robust. Serious hoonage can break the diff (which I've managed) and now my gearbox is noisy but then it has done approaching 120k miles. Fortunately replacement parts for them are plentiful and reasonably cheap.

Try to steer clear of ones with tatty hoods as that'll cost you £300 (fitted). Hood drains behind the B post can block allowing the interior to get soggy. Not hard to fix this though. I just poked a long bit of coathanger wire down them to free the crud then washed it out with a hose. Another place they can leak is the drain channel around the bottom of the hood. It's made of brittle plastic which can split. Often if this is leaking the water ends up in the boot. A replacement is about £75.

If the carpet is shot it's a pain to replace as you need to pull the dash and heater out to remove it. Pulling the dash isn't all that difficult though to be fair.

Coilovers and minor performance bits are quite cheap. I paid £140 for new coilovers and £230 for a full stainless exhaust and manifold. 4x100mm PCD means a decent selection of wheels are available, although I run adaptors so I can use 4x114.3mm rims. Watch out if you're going really low. Unless the exhaust is tucked right up it'll beat it flat where it goes under the driveshafts. You'll grind the heads off the bolts under the diff and beat the life out of the chassis rails under the floor. I'm currently repairing mine and replacing the chassic rails with some ones made from 3mm thick box section

1.6 is fine. you`ll have fun whichever engine you get. buy on condition not age. good pcd 4x100 so excellent wheel choice, just look out for rust, they are really one of the cars that everyone should own/drive once, and lots of people never leave them. get onto mx5nutz, really nice bunch of people and really helpful.
I had a mk1 1.6 import and it was a fantastic car. if you go for a mk1 1.6 then get a "eunos" ie import as they were more powerfull than the uk 1.6,
when motoring journalists go on about "handling" I don't really see the point as 99% of modern cars handle well, but the mx5 is truly the car you`ll appreciate the "handling" of.
as long as its not a rust bucket you wont go wrong. also look out for a hard top in the hottest months of the year when they are taking up room in peoples garages as they are a lot cheaper than in the winter.
good luck, you`ll love it when you get one.