So.. having not kept up with previous readers ride threads I've made, I'm making more an effort with this one! I often find myself browsing RR and having recently met Ray from here reminded me what a wonderful community this place is, old style forums are rare at best and often very specific/specialized, but this place has remained active throughout the years and ever friendly/helpful.
This first post will be far too long and far too boring, some form of ramblings from my car history.
If you're interested in the MX5 Content skip to the next post, that's my primary focus in this thread but I intend to include all other 4 wheel related endeavours as I often end up buying things I don't need or want...
So.. I'll treat this like therapy but cheaper. The strange MX5 Obsession started when I was a teenager, browsing Pistonheads and at the time every other thread was MX5 based, and the answer was always MX5, I didn't get it.. why MX5? What's the obsession? They're cheap rotboxes? Or were at the time..
So i bought one.. back then i paid £1100 for a Silver early Eunos that had recently been resprayed.. crazy to think of the price. my friends thought i was stupid for paying £1100 for a car that you could easily buy for £500 back then! After a week of driving it, it all made sense, what a car, even with the low powered 1.6 it was fantastic, on evenings where i had nothing to do and i was bored id often just take it out and drive it, for fun, wherever the local lanes took me. I was always into my cars but this spurred that obsession on in a big way.
The only pictures i can find, from a terrible camera phone probably back in approximately 2011/2012? Cant remember. They're in this Thread i made a while back: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/212112/civic-track-car-various-projects I'll leave them there rather than overfilling this new thread with old pictures.
The day i sold that MX5 I don't think I realized how much of a lasting impression it had left on me, as over the next 10+ years I'd buy lots of MX5's and enjoy every one of them, leading to my current keeper of a 5' and my odd obsession.
So i'll use this first post to document what i've owned in the past 5 or so years, since approximately 2019 since that's how far my phone photos go back, give my thoughts and some pictures.. i'll then move onto the blue 5.
Back in 2019 i got a very good job offer, giving me the opportunity to work at a level i'd wanted to for a while but wasnt technically 'qualified for' the company took a punt on me, and i proved i was capable. Upon getting this full time role i treated myself to my first 'nice' car, prior to this Alfa id never spent more than £2000 on a car and i was mad for buying this but i wanted it and for the first time in my life i could somewhat justify it.
So i pulled the trigger and bought it, a 2004 Alfa GT with the legendary 3.2 V6 Busso engine. If anyones driven a car with this engine you'll know why it has the following it does, it's fantastic, and i honestly think while the GT isnt as cool as the 147 GTA it offers some practicality, and this was my daily.
was it reliable? No. was it good on fuel? No. Did it make insane V6 noises? Yes.
I had the car for a little over a year and used it daily, it wasn't practical and cost a lot to maintain so i decided to move on, but i can say I'm very glad i experienced it and would happily own another if it wasnt my only car!
A few pictures
And one last.. in its natural habitat! This was on a weekend away down in Devon.. my girlfriend was not pleased.
At the time of owning the Alfa i bought a MK 2.5 MX5 from my best friends father, great little car and one of the few i kept standard! Used it as a weekend car and it briefly took over daily duties when i sold the Alfa. It even got me to work in the snow we had that year.
Following that i bought a truck, i wanted a big comfy Auto and the truck came up at the right time, i had bought a 2007 Civic off a guy i work with and hated it, boring, slow, but very good, so i offered somebody who was selling this surf p/x and he wanted it, so a deal was struck and i swapped the sensible civic for the big beauty!
What i didnt actually know at the time is this was about the best Hilux surf you could buy, it was a Gen 3 so essentially a Land crusier underneath with all the toys. I cleaned it up and put some modular steels on it, and it was a great daily, these really were fantastic trucks.
i dearly regret getting rid of this car, it blew a headgasket on me so i spent well over £1000 getting a new head and rebuilding it myself, then shortly after it popped another radiator and was never the same.. I lost hope on it and couldnt have it as a daily like this.. Thankfully i sold it to my best friend and he still owns it! I intend to buy it back one day if he ever sells it and do a restoration on it, i loved and still love that truck.
He ended up fitting a new engine eventually and all has been well since.
During this time i also bought 2 more MX5's.. first was the MK2.5 Turbo, came up locally at a good price, standard apart from a turbo kit, a local guy had been developing kits to turbo them and this was one of the cars he tried it on.. so a deal was struck and i took it home.
Secondly was another MK2.5 Sport, standard this time a friend had owned it and didnt want it, i didnt actually end up keeping this one as it was poor timing having just bought my turbo one! So i flipped it for a profit.
I tinkered with the Turbo one and used it a fair bit, it wasnt overly powerful, it was approximately 180BHP, which actually was nice, it was very smooth and almost felt OEM+ or like the level of power they should have had from factory!
Had this one a fair while, and then sold it.
The entire time of owning it as much as i liked it, it didn't have pop up headlights and i regretted not buying another MK1.. so i did! A nice white eunos came up 5 minutes down the road for a fair price, so i went to have a 'look' this look ended up in me driving it home.. had this one a little while, enjoyed it and then sold it as winter came around as it wasn't getting used as much.
The big upside of selling the surf to my friend is i still see it, a few months back we took it to one the arrive and drive days over Bristol way for some off-roading, it was great fun!
So when said friend bought this, his fleet was reaching dangerous levels of old curse word, so he sold me his truck, a D22 Navara, as it was reliable unlike mine and i needed a daily.. i actually quite liked this truck, downside was it was a manual, i kept and used it for a bit then sold it on.
Said friend also had a few MX5's and unfortunately recently sold his MK1 Turbo, had i been in a position to buy it i would've, but hew also owned a fairly standard MK2.5 Track car which we took up Castle combe on a slip and grip track day. Covered 170 miles that day purely on track, never set a foot wrong and was great to drive.
Around this time i bought what i lovingly refer to as the 'F*ck Trump' MX5. A £300 Mk1 that was £300 for good reason, it had a F*ck Trump sticker on the sun visor, i toyed with the idea of restoring it as i hated seeing 5's get scrapped so i begun stripping it down to assess.. not worth saving.. way too far gone.. but it meant i had a large collection of MK1 spares which i knew id be buying another MK1 so i kept them.
Also in Navara ownership i saw a Metro GTI for sale on here.. I'm sure some of you remember the advert, i have no interest in Metros, or anything like that.. but i was interested in getting a track car at the time, so i figured worth a look? Spoke to the chap on here, he was great, nice as anything and lured me in to have a look/test drive, you knew what you were doing sir.. you filthy filthy man.. knowing once i drove it.. i had to buy it..
Went up to just outside London.. took a friend along for the ride, as i arrived the seller had to pop out, so just threw me the keys, said take it for a drive then drove off, i was baffled! Took it out for a drive.. bought it.. drove it back down the M4 and couldn't stop smiling, nor could people seeing it fly past them at the speed i was doing! What a car.
it had the 1.8 Rover VVC engine, a MGF Trophy front subframe, a PG1 Elise gearbox, fully independent rear coil over spring suspension plus much more, it was built well and it showed
I did nothing to this car other than replace a CV boot and drive it, it was perfect, took it to a few local cars and coffee meets and it was adored, unfortunately due to COVID and financial situations it never got to the track.. and it was sat around doing nothing, i couldn't even garage it at the time as i'd bought the curse word green MX5 that was taking up my garage space so i decided to part ways and let somebody enjoy it, a lovely chap from Wales came down to get it, he had various over Metros also and was happy with it, while i don't regret selling it i regret not getting to beat the life out of it on track!
So the Metro was i think January last year.. so were almost up to date. there was other vehicles between and random other bits, but not worth posting here.
So i worked out.. everytime i sold an MX5, i ended up buying another one.. and they werent getting cheaper, especially the MK1's!
I now had space in the garage and decided i should just buy one and stick with it.. but if i was going to do that it had to be the right one..
The criteria i set was:
Early 89-92, Eunos, Mariner Blue or BRG. I would settle for a nice Sunburst yellow California edition but they were all later.
Engine etc were unimportant as i knew i could built it however i wanted, main criteria was not completely rotten/too far gone.
Browsing ebay i saw a G reg Mariner Blue Eunos, down by the coast, it was bidding and was at about £1200, had a read of the advert and it seemed good.
Messaged the seller asked if he had a price in mind and if i could come and view, he said he was letting the auction run no matter what but i could come and view on Friday if i wished. So with the prices of early 5's like they are i went down on the Friday with the intention of offering up to £2500 cash to try and take it away then and there, i didn't want to be outbid and lose it, the Mariner blue cares are so uncommon now!
Set off Friday after work with a friend, about a 2 hour drive in lovely weather, half way down we stop for fuel and my phone notifications are showing me the auction has ended... how? It had 7 days or so left.. So i call the guy, confused as i was on my way down.. He was an older gentleman and had accidently ended the auction, assured me it was still ok to come down and look, phew. So onwards we went.
Pulled up to where it was, retirement bungalows as far as the eye could see, the old chap came out, opened up the garage and reversed it out into the sun.. My first thoughts were it wasnt as nice as it looked in the advert, few scratches, dings etc, far from perfect. But it was unmolested and in good condition overall.
I asked him again about buying it.. he said "Were you leading the auction when i ended it?" I was! I had bid up to £2500 and i was winning on £1500 when he ended it early, he said fair is fair, he would honour it and take £1500.. i was blown away, i was more than willing to pay up to £2000-2500 for it. So more than happy we shook hands, i paid the £1500, insured it, put the roof down and headed home, my friend drove my car back for me kindly.
It drove back faultless, the autobox was lazy but relaxing, just wafting home in the sun through wonderful lanes id made the right choice to buy another even if it wasnt ideal for what i wanted! I think if i had stuck to finding the 'right' one id still be looking now.. id rather make this the right one.
So, a few pictures from when i got it.
Cant find any pictures from the interior when i got it but it was standard cloth, i fitted some MK2 leathers i had lying about and it was used over the summer for me and the girlfriend to waft to pub lunches, and a few car shows with a friend.
I already had a lot of parts from stripping down the F*uck Trump car and i had various plans in mind, but for now the sun was shining and i was enjoying it.
November came and went, at this point it was put into the Garage in hibernation and i began working on it.
That's where i'll leave this post for now, ill update this thread further, there's a fair bit of work i've put into it now and a fair bit more to come.
I started writing this post earlier today after i finished doing some work on it.. I'm now 3 beers deep so apologies for the rambling.
Alongside the MX5 content i may post some other bits about various cars i buy/tinker with. From a daily point of view its boring now though, just a terrible modern Audi A3 which does the job, soon to be replaced with a big wafty auto modern car.
This first post will be far too long and far too boring, some form of ramblings from my car history.
If you're interested in the MX5 Content skip to the next post, that's my primary focus in this thread but I intend to include all other 4 wheel related endeavours as I often end up buying things I don't need or want...
So.. I'll treat this like therapy but cheaper. The strange MX5 Obsession started when I was a teenager, browsing Pistonheads and at the time every other thread was MX5 based, and the answer was always MX5, I didn't get it.. why MX5? What's the obsession? They're cheap rotboxes? Or were at the time..
So i bought one.. back then i paid £1100 for a Silver early Eunos that had recently been resprayed.. crazy to think of the price. my friends thought i was stupid for paying £1100 for a car that you could easily buy for £500 back then! After a week of driving it, it all made sense, what a car, even with the low powered 1.6 it was fantastic, on evenings where i had nothing to do and i was bored id often just take it out and drive it, for fun, wherever the local lanes took me. I was always into my cars but this spurred that obsession on in a big way.
The only pictures i can find, from a terrible camera phone probably back in approximately 2011/2012? Cant remember. They're in this Thread i made a while back: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/212112/civic-track-car-various-projects I'll leave them there rather than overfilling this new thread with old pictures.
The day i sold that MX5 I don't think I realized how much of a lasting impression it had left on me, as over the next 10+ years I'd buy lots of MX5's and enjoy every one of them, leading to my current keeper of a 5' and my odd obsession.
So i'll use this first post to document what i've owned in the past 5 or so years, since approximately 2019 since that's how far my phone photos go back, give my thoughts and some pictures.. i'll then move onto the blue 5.
Back in 2019 i got a very good job offer, giving me the opportunity to work at a level i'd wanted to for a while but wasnt technically 'qualified for' the company took a punt on me, and i proved i was capable. Upon getting this full time role i treated myself to my first 'nice' car, prior to this Alfa id never spent more than £2000 on a car and i was mad for buying this but i wanted it and for the first time in my life i could somewhat justify it.
So i pulled the trigger and bought it, a 2004 Alfa GT with the legendary 3.2 V6 Busso engine. If anyones driven a car with this engine you'll know why it has the following it does, it's fantastic, and i honestly think while the GT isnt as cool as the 147 GTA it offers some practicality, and this was my daily.
was it reliable? No. was it good on fuel? No. Did it make insane V6 noises? Yes.
I had the car for a little over a year and used it daily, it wasn't practical and cost a lot to maintain so i decided to move on, but i can say I'm very glad i experienced it and would happily own another if it wasnt my only car!
A few pictures
And one last.. in its natural habitat! This was on a weekend away down in Devon.. my girlfriend was not pleased.
At the time of owning the Alfa i bought a MK 2.5 MX5 from my best friends father, great little car and one of the few i kept standard! Used it as a weekend car and it briefly took over daily duties when i sold the Alfa. It even got me to work in the snow we had that year.
Following that i bought a truck, i wanted a big comfy Auto and the truck came up at the right time, i had bought a 2007 Civic off a guy i work with and hated it, boring, slow, but very good, so i offered somebody who was selling this surf p/x and he wanted it, so a deal was struck and i swapped the sensible civic for the big beauty!
What i didnt actually know at the time is this was about the best Hilux surf you could buy, it was a Gen 3 so essentially a Land crusier underneath with all the toys. I cleaned it up and put some modular steels on it, and it was a great daily, these really were fantastic trucks.
i dearly regret getting rid of this car, it blew a headgasket on me so i spent well over £1000 getting a new head and rebuilding it myself, then shortly after it popped another radiator and was never the same.. I lost hope on it and couldnt have it as a daily like this.. Thankfully i sold it to my best friend and he still owns it! I intend to buy it back one day if he ever sells it and do a restoration on it, i loved and still love that truck.
He ended up fitting a new engine eventually and all has been well since.
During this time i also bought 2 more MX5's.. first was the MK2.5 Turbo, came up locally at a good price, standard apart from a turbo kit, a local guy had been developing kits to turbo them and this was one of the cars he tried it on.. so a deal was struck and i took it home.
Secondly was another MK2.5 Sport, standard this time a friend had owned it and didnt want it, i didnt actually end up keeping this one as it was poor timing having just bought my turbo one! So i flipped it for a profit.
I tinkered with the Turbo one and used it a fair bit, it wasnt overly powerful, it was approximately 180BHP, which actually was nice, it was very smooth and almost felt OEM+ or like the level of power they should have had from factory!
Had this one a fair while, and then sold it.
The entire time of owning it as much as i liked it, it didn't have pop up headlights and i regretted not buying another MK1.. so i did! A nice white eunos came up 5 minutes down the road for a fair price, so i went to have a 'look' this look ended up in me driving it home.. had this one a little while, enjoyed it and then sold it as winter came around as it wasn't getting used as much.
The big upside of selling the surf to my friend is i still see it, a few months back we took it to one the arrive and drive days over Bristol way for some off-roading, it was great fun!
So when said friend bought this, his fleet was reaching dangerous levels of old curse word, so he sold me his truck, a D22 Navara, as it was reliable unlike mine and i needed a daily.. i actually quite liked this truck, downside was it was a manual, i kept and used it for a bit then sold it on.
Said friend also had a few MX5's and unfortunately recently sold his MK1 Turbo, had i been in a position to buy it i would've, but hew also owned a fairly standard MK2.5 Track car which we took up Castle combe on a slip and grip track day. Covered 170 miles that day purely on track, never set a foot wrong and was great to drive.
Around this time i bought what i lovingly refer to as the 'F*ck Trump' MX5. A £300 Mk1 that was £300 for good reason, it had a F*ck Trump sticker on the sun visor, i toyed with the idea of restoring it as i hated seeing 5's get scrapped so i begun stripping it down to assess.. not worth saving.. way too far gone.. but it meant i had a large collection of MK1 spares which i knew id be buying another MK1 so i kept them.
Also in Navara ownership i saw a Metro GTI for sale on here.. I'm sure some of you remember the advert, i have no interest in Metros, or anything like that.. but i was interested in getting a track car at the time, so i figured worth a look? Spoke to the chap on here, he was great, nice as anything and lured me in to have a look/test drive, you knew what you were doing sir.. you filthy filthy man.. knowing once i drove it.. i had to buy it..
Went up to just outside London.. took a friend along for the ride, as i arrived the seller had to pop out, so just threw me the keys, said take it for a drive then drove off, i was baffled! Took it out for a drive.. bought it.. drove it back down the M4 and couldn't stop smiling, nor could people seeing it fly past them at the speed i was doing! What a car.
it had the 1.8 Rover VVC engine, a MGF Trophy front subframe, a PG1 Elise gearbox, fully independent rear coil over spring suspension plus much more, it was built well and it showed
I did nothing to this car other than replace a CV boot and drive it, it was perfect, took it to a few local cars and coffee meets and it was adored, unfortunately due to COVID and financial situations it never got to the track.. and it was sat around doing nothing, i couldn't even garage it at the time as i'd bought the curse word green MX5 that was taking up my garage space so i decided to part ways and let somebody enjoy it, a lovely chap from Wales came down to get it, he had various over Metros also and was happy with it, while i don't regret selling it i regret not getting to beat the life out of it on track!
So the Metro was i think January last year.. so were almost up to date. there was other vehicles between and random other bits, but not worth posting here.
So i worked out.. everytime i sold an MX5, i ended up buying another one.. and they werent getting cheaper, especially the MK1's!
I now had space in the garage and decided i should just buy one and stick with it.. but if i was going to do that it had to be the right one..
The criteria i set was:
Early 89-92, Eunos, Mariner Blue or BRG. I would settle for a nice Sunburst yellow California edition but they were all later.
Engine etc were unimportant as i knew i could built it however i wanted, main criteria was not completely rotten/too far gone.
Browsing ebay i saw a G reg Mariner Blue Eunos, down by the coast, it was bidding and was at about £1200, had a read of the advert and it seemed good.
Messaged the seller asked if he had a price in mind and if i could come and view, he said he was letting the auction run no matter what but i could come and view on Friday if i wished. So with the prices of early 5's like they are i went down on the Friday with the intention of offering up to £2500 cash to try and take it away then and there, i didn't want to be outbid and lose it, the Mariner blue cares are so uncommon now!
Set off Friday after work with a friend, about a 2 hour drive in lovely weather, half way down we stop for fuel and my phone notifications are showing me the auction has ended... how? It had 7 days or so left.. So i call the guy, confused as i was on my way down.. He was an older gentleman and had accidently ended the auction, assured me it was still ok to come down and look, phew. So onwards we went.
Pulled up to where it was, retirement bungalows as far as the eye could see, the old chap came out, opened up the garage and reversed it out into the sun.. My first thoughts were it wasnt as nice as it looked in the advert, few scratches, dings etc, far from perfect. But it was unmolested and in good condition overall.
I asked him again about buying it.. he said "Were you leading the auction when i ended it?" I was! I had bid up to £2500 and i was winning on £1500 when he ended it early, he said fair is fair, he would honour it and take £1500.. i was blown away, i was more than willing to pay up to £2000-2500 for it. So more than happy we shook hands, i paid the £1500, insured it, put the roof down and headed home, my friend drove my car back for me kindly.
It drove back faultless, the autobox was lazy but relaxing, just wafting home in the sun through wonderful lanes id made the right choice to buy another even if it wasnt ideal for what i wanted! I think if i had stuck to finding the 'right' one id still be looking now.. id rather make this the right one.
So, a few pictures from when i got it.
Cant find any pictures from the interior when i got it but it was standard cloth, i fitted some MK2 leathers i had lying about and it was used over the summer for me and the girlfriend to waft to pub lunches, and a few car shows with a friend.
I already had a lot of parts from stripping down the F*uck Trump car and i had various plans in mind, but for now the sun was shining and i was enjoying it.
November came and went, at this point it was put into the Garage in hibernation and i began working on it.
That's where i'll leave this post for now, ill update this thread further, there's a fair bit of work i've put into it now and a fair bit more to come.
I started writing this post earlier today after i finished doing some work on it.. I'm now 3 beers deep so apologies for the rambling.
Alongside the MX5 content i may post some other bits about various cars i buy/tinker with. From a daily point of view its boring now though, just a terrible modern Audi A3 which does the job, soon to be replaced with a big wafty auto modern car.
