In September 2012 I purchased my fifth (and possibly final!) MX-5!
‘Maggy the 5th‘ was a black 1993 1.6 Mazda MX-5 BBR Turbo. In theory this was the perfect MX-5 for me – not modified as such – the BBR turbo kit was approved and factory fitted by Mazda, and in insurance terms, wasn’t modified either – so the insurance dropped from £700 to a mere £200 a year!
True, the turbo kit wasn’t up to modern standards and the 220bhp+ turbo set ups; it only upped the 1.6 litre engines power from 114bhp to a little over 150bhp; but in a car that light and nimble, it’s plenty. And I’d rather have reliability that going down the modified route and the disaster that was Maggy the 3rd.
At this point though I still had 3 other cars:
- The Blue MX-5 AKA Maggy the 4th
- Nissan 300ZX
- Toyota Celica
Having 4 cars for one person was somewhat ridiculous (and costly) so I sold Maggy the 4th Oct 2012 to a pleasant chap called Dan who I’ve remained in touch with on Facebook and I’m pleased to say he’s given her a great overhaul and it’s great to see he’s enjoying her as much as I did.
I was still trying to fix the various issues with the Nissan (and buying, an ever, a variety of used car parts from eBay), so was struggling to sell her. I also put the Celica up for sale and scraped a mere £900 back in December.
A day before Christmas, I decided to treat myself, and bought a ‘sensible’ diesel.
Only it wasn’t that sensible – it was a 2008 Alfa Romeo Brera.
Oh, it was beautiful though – sumptuous ribbed leather seats, stainless steel everywhere and dials that were angled towards the driver – I could sit and look at both interior and exterior all day long.
So, on Christmas day 2012, I had the Nissan 300ZX, the new Brera, and the MX-5 BBR turbo on the drive way. All I needed to do was get rid of the rusty Nissan, and I’d have the perfect set up – in theory!
I couldn’t bring myself to hide the rust issue on the Nissan – it could have been pretty dangerous if the radiator had dropped out at speed! – so offered it as a project car on the specialist forums to someone who could do the work themselves cheap. In the end some chap from the Ukraine (or thereabouts) had a look and said:
“It good. Not problem. I know good guy at MOT place, yes? We take.”
– and I managed to get a poultry £1500 back for her.
So by February 2013 I had a gorgeous but practical(ish) diesel, and the perfect MX-5, things couldn’t be better, right?
I had go and mess it up…
Next part of the story: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it