In the spring of 2014, my MX-5 guru friend James had fitted a ‘new’ (less than 50,000 miles) replacement engine to my beloved fifth MX-5, Maggy.
Maggy was back!
The RX-7 and MX-5 (‘Maggy’) grace the driveway
I was driving with a smile again.
There’s just something about the simple pleasure of driving an Mark 1 1990’s MX-5. The Japanese designed it with ‘Jinba ittai‘ in mind,
meaning ‘Horse and rider as one‘. And it’s worked – it feels like an extension of your body. There’s a great book about the MX-5’s story available at Amazon: Mazda MX-5: The Complete Story.
People often joke that it’s a bit of a hairdressers car. Most of those haven’t driven one. Or are wannabe hairdressers.
Yes, the original 114bhp 1.6 litre engine isn’t exactly powerful, but it’s enough to feel nippy in that light and brilliant chassis. And my 150+bhp BBR turbo has the perfect amount of power to turn that grin into an insane cackling.
I was happy.
But I still had to get rid of the damn beamer, and the RX-7 was still being rebuilt.
I’d disliked the BMW 3 series convertible almost immediately after buying her; although it was bloody powerful, it was heavy, and
I didn’t like the way it handled. It was also a bit too ‘flash’ for me – I’d happily drive a supercar, but only a 20 year old slightly battered looking one!
I’d tried to sell it back to the dealers, but summer had been ending and there was low demand for convertibles, so when they finally got back to me with a price, I hadn’t been sure whether to laugh or cry.
Needless to say, I’d kept her.
It was now spring of the following year and the perfect time to market a convertible. Up she went on Autotrader. 2 hours later, I kid you not, Sytner BMW ring me.
The same Sytner BMW Nottingham that I bought it from, who had previously offered me a pathetically small amount to buy it back.
Not so now. The model was in demand, and they were short on stock.
I still had the boot leak problem. Surely they knew about that?
I neglected to remind them.
They bought it back at a very reasonable price. I checked their site a few weeks later and saw that they were trying to sell it for £3000 more than they’d gave me, about £1500 more than I’d bought it for the previous year!
So, stock take.
Maggy, the MX-5 BBR turbo, love of my life, all fixed, running beautifully – very happy.
Dull & Unreliable BMW – SOLD.
“The Mistake I Had To Make” RX-7 – being rebuilt.
The Lexus RX300, Ducati 749s and Mazda MX-5 BBR turbo
So I needed a car with rear seats. I could use the girlfriends Lexus RX300 from time to time, but I’d already made my mind up to sell the RX-7 once I’d got it back from being rebuilt – I just couldn’t trust it anymore and for some reason, even though it was Maggy’s big sister, she’d never made me smile in the same way – so I needed a suitable replacement car.
I bought a Volkswagen Scirocco 2.0 litre turbo petrol with 200bhp on tap.
Surely this was a sensible choice?
Hatchback: check
Fuel economy: estimated 36-40mpg; better than the Alfa Romeo Brera I’d had
Backseats: small, but suitable for children
Reliability: basically a VW Golf, so excellent
Looks: Almost as beautiful as the Brera
Fun: More fun to drive than the Brera
‘Siri’, my VW Scirocco – a sensible choice?
I’d only got rid of the Alfa Romeo Brera due to the disappointing and almost dangerous turbo lag, and it’s poor fuel consumption. The Scirocco (AKA ‘Siri‘) was a very similar beast, yet with similar if not better fuel economy, a nippy responsive petrol engine, and an apparently better ride.
It was September 2013 and I had only one working car!
Maggy the 5th, my perfect car, a BBR turbo MX-5, was awaiting an engine re-fit which wouldn’t happen until the next year.
‘Adriana‘, the BMW 3 series convertible, was a car I had regretted buying within the first two weeks of ownership, and had been
plagued with reliability issues.
Why did I keep making these mistakes?
I sat down and had a serious think.
I should buy a sensible, newish, diesel BMW or Audi.
I should.
I should.
I didn’t.
I bought a Fast & Furious featured car, a 1994 Mazda RX-7 turbo.
Fast & Furious – my Mazda RX-7
Why oh why oh why?!?
Because my wonderful logic had deemed it was the perfect car.
Maggy – the 5th of my MX-5s – was my perfect car; in terms of looks, the way it drove and the smile that was instantly plastered onto your face every time you drove her, and the performance – but she only had two seats. And a tiny boot.
I had a daughter and a girlfriend – I needed back seats. I also missed the convenience of having a hatchback.
The RX-7 met the criteria.
It had back seats.
It had a hatchback.
It looked like Maggy (pop up headlights, yay!!).
It handled like Maggy, yet had more power.
It was Maggy’s big sister!
What could possibly go wrong?
Don’t answer that. I’m still trying to sell the f**ker as I write this.
How could I have been so wrong? I’d made a spreadsheet and everything. It had even had a pretty colour scheme!!
Ok, subconsciously I knew I was making a mistake. But perhaps I needed to make that mistake… one more time. Lily from How I Met Your Mother puts it perfectly:
“OK, yes it’s a mistake. I know it’s a mistake, but there are certain things in life where you know it’s a mistake but you don’t really know it’s a mistake because the only way to really know it’s a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and say ‘yep, that was a mistake.’ So really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake, because then you’d go your whole life not knowing if something is a mistake or not.”
The biggest concern with buying this ageing supercar was the reliability of the unique Wankel Rotary engine, and expense if
something went wrong with it.
The second was rust. I didn’t want a repeat story of the Nissan 300ZX (see My car history part 5: The Power Years), a similar vehicle to the RX-7 (I also considered the Mitsubishi GTO and the Toyota Supra – both too heavy and expensive).
So if I bought an RX-7 with a recent rebuild and a warranty, and with sound bodywork, preferably freshly imported from Japan (where they don’t rust), then I wouldn’t have a problem.
Except they were bloody expensive. I had to compromise.
I found and purchased ‘Becks‘ (Becky, the RX), a rust free, 2004 imported model, with a recent engine rebuild. No warranty, but the guy who was selling it had rebuilt it himself in his own time; yet he worked for a Mazda & Ford specialist. He had an excellent reputation on the expert forums and promised to help with any problems I should experience.
He’d live to regret that.
I still hadn’t shaken off the Gremlins.
The engine started to die.
Andy, the builder, was mortified. He’d rebuild many RX-7s and never had a problem before. What had I done to it?!?!?
He offered to help but was a long way away in Guildford. I tried an RX-7 specialist closer to home and after running a compression test, presented me with a bill for £4000 to rebuild it.
*!&^
I drove to Guildford and left the car with Andy.
Ho hum.
Meanwhile, to fuel my car buying urges, I helped my new girlfriend to find and buy a suitable car to replace her beloved Toyota Rav4. She didn’t want to get rid of it, but for reasons beyond our control, it had to go.
It had been a 2004 American model with a 2.4 litre engine and for a 4×4/SUV it was surprisingly nippy. The UK 2.0 litre version felt rather underpowered. She tried a Honda CRV and was thoroughly disappointed. Time was ticking, and we spotted what look like the
perfect upgrade – a 2001 Lexus RX300.
The girlfriend’s Lexus RX300
This was a significantly more powerful 3.0 litre vehicle, and a step up in terms of luxury. Heated leather seats, SatNav, sunroof; all the luxurious Lexus works. We had initially been put of an RX300 due to the thirsty fuel consumption, but this was a rare LPG conversion. The RAV4 had also been an LPG conversion and had performed excellently.
Sadly the Lexus didn’t live up to expectations. Don’t get me wrong – it was a damn good car. But we’d fooled ourselves with MPG
expectations, and the laid back luxurious style of the car couldn’t match the sporty eagerness of the little RAV4.
However, it would reasonably meet our requirements for the next 8 months and proved to be an excellent work horse…
During the electrical problems I was having with my ‘perfect’ and ‘reliable’ MX-5 BBR turbo, AKA Maggy the 5th, I had had the
Alfa Romeo Brera a good few months (purchased Christmas 2012), and I enjoyed driving her, and it wasn’t giving me any of the
reliability issues my mates kept jibbing me about regarding Alfa’s previous reputation.
Nonetheless, she was disappointing me in a couple of areas.
First of all was the power delivery. When the turbo kicked in, you got a lovely surge of power and a thump in the back that felt like more than the 210bhp on tap. The problem was the delay to that delivery of power – a serious turbo lag issue. Looking back at some of the previous cars I’d owned and driven – the turbo charged 220bhp (in theory – it was producing less than 200bhp in reality) MX-5 and the Imprezza I’d driven on a track day – I had loved the turbo lag. However, that had been a half to one second delay, enough to build anticipation before the lightning struck.
In the Brera, it took more like 2 seconds – particularly if you’d not dropped down a gear – and this made it frustrating and potentially dangerous. Several times I’d go to overtake and not have the power until too late. Once I recall pulling out across a busy junction which I’d been queuing at for ages and almost causing a crash because she’d delayed too long in spooling up the turbo to shift that big heavy diesel lump out of the way!
My Dad’s Ford Mondeo TDCi
Sadly my Dad had passed away a few months before. I was in the process of trying to sell his low mileage (37,000 miles I believe?) 2002 Ford Mondeo 2.0TCDi. It had 130bhp compared to the 2008 Brera’s 210bhp yet responded in a much more satisfying
way.
Secondly, there was the fuel efficiency.
I’d bought a diesel to try and cut my extortionate fuel costs driving from the East Midlands to North Wales and back regularly
for work.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have bought a 210bhp 2.4 litre turbo and gone for a sensible 2 litre BMW diesel as my colleague Dave would constantly tell me. Perhaps he was right. But the official ‘combined’ MPG figure for the car was around 40mpg which was significantly better than anything else I’d owned – the 300ZX getting only 17mpg and the MX-5 BBR turbo achieving somewhere between 27 and 32mpg depending on how I drove her – and I always drove her hard – it would be rude not to!
In real life though, I couldn’t get better than 34mpg, and that was driving like an old man with cataracts. Realistically I was getting 31mpg – not the sort of fuel consumption I was hoping for.
However, she remained problem free.
Unfortunately the Gremlins returned.
But not to the Alfa.
They’d jumped off Maggy the 3rd (AKA Smokey Disaster), riddled the Nissan 300ZX for a bit and rusted her away, then hopped back
onto Maggy the 5th.
My electrical issues had gone, but now she was starting to overheat.
In Dec ’12 she overheated on the way to my cousin’s wedding. Fortunately I’d managed to cool her down and get my brother who was passing to lend me some water and then my Dad came by and I followed at a snails pace and made it on time. The problem then
appeared to be a fault with the radiator cap, and once replaced (saved by eBay yet again!), didn’t overheat any more.
Until it got warmer in the summer of 2013.
She overheated a few times. A few remedies were tried, but to no avail, and eventually, the engine went pop.
The original Mazda MX-5 engine is an incredibly solid lump, and will easily do 200,000 miles without issue. Some say it’s over engineered, making it perfect for turbo charging – although of course over doing it will cause the engine life to shorten. This one was turbocharged, but mildly, and with a Mazda approved BBR kit – so it should have lasted longer than it’s current 110,000 miles.
Yet it hadn’t. Although I’d bought a rust free and in theory well looked after car, it seemed it’s garaging had been the only TLC
it had received – the engine hadn’t been so well looked after; we found various botch jobs and evidence of tampering or previous
repair of the head gasket.
Fortunately, my good friend – nay, lifesaver car guru – James was on hand (yet again, bless him) and took her away to rebuild the top end.
But summer 2013 was here!! And I didn’t have a working softtop!
I was missing the feel of the wind in my hair (facial hair, I should say).
And the Brera’s sluggish turbo lag and subpar MPG performance were bugging me. If she’d been a bit on the slow side but got 40
plus mpg, I might not have been so bothered. But what was the point of having a slow diesel if it’s not economical?
I’d also got into my first potentially serious relationship since my divorce and although it was early days, realised that it was likely in the future that I would need a car at weekends to go places with my daughter, future long-term girlfriend and any kids that she may have.
So the solution was clearly a convertible with rear seats!
The only thing that was clear was that I’d not learnt my lesson.
In July 2013, I bought my second 3 litre BMW convertible (335).
My second BMW 3 series; a 335Ci
I argued with myself that this was a sensible decision. It was a metal hard top convertible so would be quiet on the commute. And
although it had a large and powerful engine (think it produced about 320bhp!) it was a 2008 BMW; the brand being known to achieve the some of the best MPG figures for the power ratio at the time; besides, I was earning good money, and even though I still had to drive to North Wales, it was only once a week now.
The engine had two turbochargers so pulled very nicely, rather than the flat performance of the 2001 BMW 3 series convertible I’d
had back in 2007/2008.
Of course, after a very short time (2 weeks??) I’d decided I didn’t like it.
It was too heavy.
It wasn’t economical (well duh!).
I didn’t like ‘the image’ – it was a little too flash and people wouldn’t let me in at junctions again – flashbacks to Porsche ownership!
The hardtop took waaaay too long to operate. The thing I love about the MX-5 is that you can pop the hood off in about 1 second
and raise it in 2; even if you’re moving – so great at traffic lights when the sun pops out or the breeze/rain steps up. In the beamer it took about 10 seconds, and although in theory it was operable when moving, it was restricted when you went above 10mph – so I dare not operate at traffic lights. I did a couple of times and resulted in queuing traffic honking at me which was rather embarrassing.
You also look like a prat sat there with your finger on the button waiting for your fancy metal roof to fold up/down on your flashy shiny BMW – you can almost feel the stares.
With a £1500 MX-5 you just don’t get that.
The MX-5 BBR turbo and the Beamer
Then of course I ended up single again, and with the MX-5 AKA Maggy the 5th back and running (plus a few more cosmetic tweaks, such as black alloys and new rear lights) was using that when I could.
I decided to try and get rid of the beamer ASAP – would the dealers take it back?
Only at a RIDICULOUS cut in price.
So I considered selling privately… it was still summer… the world economics were improving… I’d got it for what I considered a reasonable price so perhaps I could sell it quickly and not loose out too badly…
I’d bought it because I knew that the BBR turbo was perfect for me in terms of power, reliability and insurance cost. But they were few and far between (only 800 made, between 1992 and 1994), and only available in white, red or black.
I found red a tad boring (although these days, with black alloys, I like them) and they tended to fade badly; I went to see a white one but the early white cars were more of an off-white cream that just looked dirty and old compared to the frozen white paint job of Maggy the 3rd (when she wasn’t stained with smoke, that is!). So a black one it was then – I could always wrap her or respray her later anyway.
I did look at one red one, with a respray in mind, but with the BBR cars being UK rather than Japanese models, they’d had 20 odd years to rust in the UK weather (Jap cars don’t seem to rust), and this one was absolutely riddled with it.
After much searching I’d found the black one, and it had been garaged daily for 14 years of it’s life. Hence there wasn’t a patch of rust on her.
Tan leather interior of Maggy the 5th – my 5th MX-5
I didn’t like the interior – browny tan coloured panels, carpet and leather seats. True, Maggy the 1st, my British Racing Green Roadster/MX-5 had had the same interior, but it suited the BRG colour scheme better and had a more traditional classic sports car look – think Triumph Spitfire and MG-F.
I decided to replace the interior.
Bad move.
The MX-5’s tan interior being removed
This was a huge job. First, I sourced a black interior from a scrapped car, from ‘Junk Yard Dog’ off the MX5Nutz forum. Then one sunny weekend, I ripped the entire interior out. Not an easy job, especially getting the wheel off and taking the whole dashboard out.
I managed it, but made a few mistakes.
The MX-5’s carpet and dashboard removed
I’d taken a few pictures of the wiring looms I’d disconnected, to make sure I didn’t have any problems plugging things back in. But I got lazy towards the end and didn’t bother to take some essential snaps, assuming it was pretty obvious what plugged in where.
It wasn’t.
I’d also had to cut one cable, assuming it was easy to fix when I put it back together.
It wasn’t.
And then there’s the cable I snapped accidentally during the removal but didn’t notice until later.
Much later.
Eventually I got her all back together. Almost predictably, the car didn’t start.
Most of the new black interior fitted to my MX-5
Much pfaffing around over the next few days ensued. After much cursing and my Dad asking why I hadn’t taken enough photos of what went where, and him quoting the ever famous “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” saying, I managed to get her running!!
Yay!
Re-upholstered leather seats for the MX-5
Meanwhile I’d got hold of a pair of old cloth seats and had them recovered in black leather and suede with red stitching and the Roadster logo much like the seats I’d had in Maggy the 3rd. I sold the tan leather seats on eBay.
Annie enjoying my old seats
However, all was not well.
A week or so later, all electrical power was lost half way down the road. I pulled up and tried to start her. No joy. Panic. Try again – she started!
Odd.
A few more days pass, I park the car up one night, try and start her the next day – no joy. She just wouldn’t start!!
I had to call out roadside recovery.
It seemed that although turning the key fired the starter motor, there was no spark generated at the spark plugs – or an incredibly weak one. Occasionally, she would start.
So what was the problem? Well, that was the question on my lips for the next 6 months. After speaking to friends, colleagues, family, my 5 year old daughter, the local cat, anyone who could possibly have any ideas, reading hundreds of articles and forum posts, speaking to my MX-5 Guru friend James, replacing many, many electrically related components (good old eBay again) and spending a small fortune at garages: we found it.
A bad connection on the battery.
Was that all?!?!
Hard to say. When I’d first had problems starting her up after switching the interior I’d tightend the battery well – recalling a similar problem I’d had with Smokey Disaster AKA Maggy the 3rd. But back then it had been a problem with the old immobilser that hadn’t been fully removed and me breaking a connection – possibly.
I didn’t care: Finally, Maggy the 5th was back on the road and running well!!!
In September 2012 I purchased my fifth (and possibly final!) MX-5!
Maggy the 5th – the ‘perfect’ MX-5, a BBR Turbo
‘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
4 cars: A little excessive
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.
‘Alfie’ – my 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.
The luxurious Alfa interior
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!
The revised driveway line-up
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?
featured car, a 1994 Mazda RX-7 turbo.
puts it perfectly:
