Out of a decent, civilized roadster, you get an awesome, supercar-beating 4-wheeled bike! Which you've built by yourself.

BTW, wasn't your MX-5 all rusted out?

to get an mx5 to perform like a roadster you have to sell it and buy a westfield.

Or rip the mx5 appart and as Mr Chapman said "Simplify, then add lightness"

TT

My wife asked the same question. My response - Because I can!

Or reply with another question - Why do you have so many shoes?

Lol. That's right Alga, my mx5 is a rusty pile of crap, that's why I bought it, otherwise if I bought a half tidy one, I couldn't bring myself to break it. But, according to my wife, it's fairly tidy, needs a luck of paint here and there, and a bit of filler ! Lol. The mechanics are perfect ! Both rear arches need completely replacing, ns floor pan needs replacing the list goes on. That's why women shouldn't buy cars, because you will be Fred Flinstoneing it within a month ! Lol. It could be done, but as I told her, it's cheaper to build the roadster than to restore the mx5. She bought it ! After watching algas video of the caterham, I now fancy a 180 bhp duratec engine ! Don't tell the wife, she will chop my nuts off, all this hassle & after 1 bloody video I may have bought the wrong car !:eek:

Stick with what you started with, get used to it i think you might be suprised with it then if you feel like you will be happy handling a crazy lump, upgrade later.
I think personaly that a lot of people have gone big then got bitten on the a**e when the rear goes around the corner before the nose.

Just a personal outlook

Arfon

My next build I am planning on using sierra parts with a view to going crazy with duratec later so if all goes as planned I will be in the market for sierra parts after after christmas once I got the man cave sorted out and maybe bought a new welder bench drill and a decent compressor also fancy a tig kit so just a load of new man cave toys really

A friend of mine has been looking for an intact Mk2-Mk3 MX-5 for a couple of months now, in vain. All of them are bubbly at the bottom, even if the arches look fine.

Don't rush! You'll have lots of fun with the standard engine, and then you can tune it when you get bored. Several months after the IVA the financial burden of building and registering a car will be gone, you'll have some disposable income and free time again. Then you can spend some energy and money on engine tuning.

I know for a fact that the weakest part of my car is the gasket between the seat and the steering wheel, even with the standard Zetec and factory ECU.

stick to your original plan. my dreams were saab turbo omega bits and ford bits. but figure I can spend 5 years building the perfect car. or 2 years to build something fun. then build something perfect in the following 3 years. cos I will have learnt everything from the first build. then swap everything over including the numbers on the chassis ;)

build it how I want it not for the sva. and practice makes perfect. the chassis is the cheap bit. its everything else.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how quick it feels with a dinky little mx5 engine in there. I know I was!
You can always stick a turbo on it if/when you decide you need more power ;)