Welcome to Tinker's page!
pg1: Diary, overview
pg2: The DARKSIDE
pg3: Other Miscellaneous Vehicles
Tinker is a 1996 Special Edition which came with high maintenance tan leather seats, funky Satellite Blue (purple) paint, Momo Daytona steering wheel, stainless scuff plates, and yummy BBS wheels, pwr windows, pwr mirrors, pwr steering, no-aircon...
The Satellite Blue was a JDM limited edition colour in '95, albeit with red interior, 15" BBS wheels, torsen LSD, Bilstein shocks etc. Too bad I didn't get those extras!
Modifications summary:
engine
- titanium muffler 1.7kg
- TURBO! (installed 17-sep-02!!)
- MiataLink ECU (installed 17-sep-02!!)
- Mazdaspeed exhaust
- cone filter
- crankcase breather
- Redline MTL transmission oil
- Redline 20w50 engine oil
- ACT pressure plate + Tribco kevlar disc
suspension
- Koni adjustables
- King Springs
- performance alignment
- Dunlop FM901 tyres
- "Mazdaspeed" shock tower brace
- Mintex 1144 brake pads
cosmetic
- Garage Vary front/rear bumpers
- Voodoo knob
- aluminium handbrake handle
- leather shifter and handbrake boots
- carbon fibre sills. ooohhhh....
Hello world...
My Miata diary...
- 30-Jan-04 About time for an update, added Garage Vary front and rear bumpers - so much for the sleeper look! Also picked up a super lightweight titanium muffler while overseas ... 1.7kg!! The Mazdaspeed muffler was >10kg. What a difference. Pix to come...
- 17-Feb-03 Weighed my Cobra bucket seats and discovered they're not much lighter than stock!! Well the seats are, but the hefty steel mounting rails aren't! I've cut them down a bit, using a metal blade on the trusty jigsaw. Saved about 1 kg apiece.
- 14-Feb-03 Ahh, valentine's day - a perfect day for installing clutches, flywheels and hot brake pads :) The custom chromoly FW is a little disappointing, as I don't notice any difference in rev-ability. The starter makes clashing noises sometimes now, but nothing toooo bad... Changing gears perfectly (rev matching) takes a bit more skill now though.
The clutch itself is nice, bites firmly with a lower engagement point, a tad more effort and a smaller 'slip' zone. I still need to break it in for ~1000km.
The Mintex pads seem pretty good so far, feel is about the same as stock but it stops faster. Much easier to lock up the tyres! While breaking in the pads, I sussed out that 'gradual braking' thing from the driver's education day. Stops faster than if you just slam on the anchors, which makes everything lock up and slide!!
- 03-Feb-03 Received my new clutch. ACT heavy duty pressure plate and Tribco kevlar disc. The chromoly flywheel I ordered should be fabricated next week :)
- 19-Jan-03 Had some minor dents removed by Dentmasters. Good job, and cheap too! Drove Tinker over 1000km over Xmas, no problems whatsoever. Apart from the speed limit ;)
- 7-Jan-03 Added BOV filter and Redline 20W50 synthetic oil.
- 7-Dec-02 acquired a black interior, and some Mintex 1144 front brake pads. Both unfitted so far.
- 14-Oct-02 fitted leather shifter and handbrake boots. Ahh, the heady aroma of leather :) Also some carbon fibre sills, but the old stainless ones are a bit reluctant to come off...
- 3-Oct-02 acquired a shiny aluminium handbrake handle. Swapped my schweet 4-1 headers for it + cash.
- 20-sep-02 fitted the Cobra seats. Schweet. A lateral force to be reckoned with!
- 17-Sep-02 Mwahahahaha... the turbo is in....
- 12-Sep-02 I'm thinking of scrapping my nice tan leather interior for a regular black one. Why? So I can turn it into an M2 inspired Roadster! This is the purest form of MX5, the original uncompromised concept, and ... me like!
- 8-aug-02 I looked at some Cobra seats the other day. Caved in tonight and bought them. They come with MX5 mounting rails, harness slots, and are lighter than stock. Excellent, dude. Considering swapping the tan interior for a more manly black interior to match the seats...hmmm. ALso, more turbo shenanigans (see pg 2)
- Jul-02 Took Tinker in for a pre-turbo dyno. Strange results! Torque averaged about 190 Nm (140 lb/ft), falling away to about 175 Nm after 4500rpm. Reported power was only 52 kW! Yeah right. Since the dyno used road and not engine speed, I think the Power figure must have been erroneously derived. :P
- Jul-02 Had the 15" BBS wheels polished up. They've gone from scruffy to straight up awesome!! The polished lip is almost mirror like and reflects the spokes like crazy. Bling-bling! 15" on the left, 14" ultra-lights on the right...
- Jul-02 had yet another performance alignment done after installing the lowering springs. Specs are: front -1.0 deg camber, 0.5 mm total toe-in, 4.0 deg castor. Rear is -2.0 deg camber, 2.0mm toe-in. These settings are with my skinny butt (67 kg) in the driver's seat.
- Jul-02 bought some turbo bits that someone else upgraded from. Namely, tubular header, VJ20 (GTX) turbocharger, and downpipe. :) :) :) :) :) :)
- Jun-02 Factory front lip spoiler. Also from mx5mart. It was scuffed and twisted a bit but I finessed it onto the car using some large self-tapping screws. Nice. Beefs up the front profile beautifully.
- Jun-02 King Springs. Height is now 13.75" using top perch of Konis. Surprisingly the ride has improved and pitch and yaw movement is greatly reduced. This is how an MX5 should look and *feel* !!
- May-02 Added even more bass-shakers, going from 1 to 3 - 2 of them bolted to the drivers seat. There's actually a lot of bass now - even from outside the car! Small and lightweight - cool.
- May-02 BBS wheels. Again. Bought a set of scuffed 15" BBS's from mx5mart. Haven't fitted them yet, I want to polish them up to a presentable standard. I plan to use these as my 'street' rims, and fit them with some suitably crappy/amusing tyres for drifting. Mwahaha...
- Nov-01 Koni sport shocks. Amazing impovement in ride and cornering :) Bumps which used to reverberate thru the body are now efficiently absorbed by the Konis. Soft setting is good for city commuting, while harder settings rapidly become pretty punishing, while also firming up the ride.
- Aug-01 MazdaSpeed shock tower brace. Meh. Mostly cosmetic. This did make more difference pre-Konis. I removed it for a while post-Koni, and couldn't tell any difference.
- Aug-01 Redline MTL transmission oil. Slight improvement in shifting. Gears have more feel to it, but the 1-2 shift has improved, but is not perfect.
- Mobil 1 engine oil. Can't remember what it was like without it now, so...
- MazdaSpeed sport sound exhaust + resonated mid-pipe (replaces catalyst). Not bad. Sporty noises as promised, slight improved revability. Nice mandrel bends and slightly bigger 2" piping. Bolted right up.
- A'pexi super spiral 4-into-1 exhaust header. Quietened exhaust note a lot! Definite improvement in torque all over the place.
- thermotec header wrap
- generic "Racer" dual-funnel style cone filter. Cool - adds snorty noises and I'm sure the power improved as well.
- lost some weight. Didn't do it all at once, so haven't really noticed. Car goes fast though :)
- Lanny's alignment. Great stuff! Wheels were all over the place before, wearing tyres and making the car "nervous" in corners. Much more predictable and grippy now :) :)
- freebie timing bump. Noticeable increase in torque - highly, highly recommended.
- polished Voodoo knob. Good for at least +50 hp ;)
- Sony high-pwr CD-receiver. 4v output, optical output, radio and CD naming etc. Cool.
- MB Quart 5.25" components
- aura bass shakers-s-s-s-s...
- custom, hand made twisted-pair RCA interconnects with carbon shielding.
- Soundstream 10th anniversary Continuum (aka chromed Reference 705) 700w, 5 channel amp.
- alarm with keyless entry and dual zone microwave. I also custom fitted an extra LED in the middle of the HVAC console, as the original one was not obvious enough.
- driver training at Pukekohe raceway. Highly worthwhile.. even in the pouring rain!
Pre-turbo, as Bwob intended: A'pexi header, STB, filter, crankcase breather
Wishlist...
- torsen or clutch-type LSD
- Link ECU (aug-02 done!)
- mild street cams. Maybe webcam 505/515 ?
- stiffer springs and sways. Although I seem to corner pretty well already...! Jun-02 Done!
As you can see, it's almost all go-faster goodies. It's hard to justify spending money on other stuff (like chrome gas caps, altezza lights, lo-pro headlights, chrome interior stuff...) when I could be spending it on juicing up the engine/suspension...mmmm...
MazdaSpeed exhaust with 3.5" tip
more pix to come...
(this page a perpetual work-in-progress labour-of-love )
