Although I loved the MX-5 (Maggy 2), I’d had a bit of a power fixation since the Elise. Browsing the web at the end of 2010 I realised that you could relatively easily supercharge or turbocharge your MX-5. I ended up buying a second hand supercharger for £1500 which would take my 138bhp MX-6 up to about 190bhp. In a car that light (970kg) that would be damn impressive.

I decided to do some interior mods too. I found heated seat inserts and was all set to buy, but then found some second hand heated leather seats from a MK2 MX-5 and went for those instead. I was all set to transform her – but I was getting scared by the scaling cost and complexities of the supercharging process. Then in April 2011 a turbocharged white MX-5 came on the market for £6000 and I snapped her up, trading in my black (2nd) MX-5 in the process.

This was a huge mistake.

“White Lightning” (Maggy the 3rd) was, quite literally, a disaster. The Gremlins got in this car and didn’t leave it, until 2 and a half years later.

£6K may seem like a lot to spend on a 20 year old 1.6l car. But ‘Painter Dave’ (as he was known on the experts forums) had spent about 10k on her and she was a masterpiece. Beautifully repainted in Ford Frozen White, the whole interior had been upgraded with leather and red stitching and suede and chrome and drool inducing aftermarket parts. It SMELT like a new car. Under the bonnet, the turbo charged engine offered up a promise of 220bhp. At that weight to power ratio, that was better than the 252bhp Porsche Boxster S my Uni friend had bought.

She drove like a rocket!

I was sold. But Dave hadn’t quite finished it off and I was impatient… I ended up buying it with a ‘minor smoking’ issue. He assured me the turbo was leaking oil and needed re-conditioning and would cost about £300, so knocked that off the bill.

The smoke was quite significant and stained the back of the car. I took it to a company near work that re-conditioned the turbo for me (unfortunely it was a lot more than the £300 expected). I got the car back, blasted down the motorway – and BOOM.

Melted the engine.

To cut a very (very) long story short, with the car having so many modifications, the aftermarket ECU was tuned to handle a set amount of boost from the turbo and fuel accordingly. As far as we (the garage, Dave, my new found MX-5 guru friend James and others from the forums) could determine, the re-conditioned (i.e. fixed) turbo had essentially put out more boost/power – or something else had changed from the removal, re-conditioning and re-fitting – that had put the car out of balance, and the ECU didn’t know how to handle this – no safe tuning had been built in – and the engine cooked itself.

Who was to blame? Difficult one… too many factors involved. I then had several months of pain as she was rebuilt by the garage. They didn’t admit fault as such (but they should have known/warned me, with it being a modified car) but they cut about £400 off the final bill, but I was still about £800 out of pocket…

I hoped then that my troubles would be over. But no. I experienced problem after problem with the car, and it still smoked badly. It did it the most at traffic lights; I’d stop, and a cloud of stinking smoke would drift by me. Not pleasant. Then I had about a years worth of electric/starting issues… I won’t detail everything else, the list is endless.

My MX-5 master friend James helped me as often as he could, but for weeks/months at a time, the newly renamed “Smokey Disaster” was off the road. During this time I was using the reliable and fun Celica. But spring (2012) was on her way and it was getting sunny… and I was without a working softtop!!!

How was I going to tan my bold bonce?

So… I went out and bought my 4th MX-5, a bright blue (non-standard paint job) 1.6l Roadster for £1400. Again, great fun. And very reliable – I fixed a dodgy zip on the soft top and fixed the electric windows (one of the few things that eventually break on a 20 year old MX-5) but otherwise a cracking, solid car, that had no other issues with in my ownership.

This was around the time I decided to paint the Celica Matt Black.

With orange highlights.

Myself.

Why?

Good question. I didn’t like silver?? I like a challenge? Anyway – read about the 99 dollar paint job for more information if you fancy doing this yourself with a tin of Rustoleum and a roller!

Eventually “Smokey Disaster” pushed my patience too far and I wanted rid. The best option financially was for James to strip her of the turbo and return it to a bog standard car (thank god for James, not sure what I would have done without him – need to buy him more beer!), and sell the parts and car separately. He fitted another engine, as this one had never been great after the rebuild. Once this was done, she drove beautifully, and I consider keeping her – but I was never over keen on the fancy body kit and had decided to get a 5th ‘perfect’ MX-5, so put her up for sale.

By September 2012, I’d had the Celica for 18 months and still really liked her, but I was slightly regretting my paint job (and all the sarcastic comments that came with it; except for small boys/teenagers who loved it) and after making it a tad subtler (painting the orange bits black!) started to look for a replacement. I was looking at Mitsubishi GTO’s and Nissan 300ZX’s as they were a similar ‘shape’ and style; Jap coupe/hatchbacks with rear seats – but with OODLES of power. I test drove a 300ZX and was absolutely stunned by the acceleration; that one was as rusty as hell and had a leaky sunroof, but then I spotted a nice red one… got chatting to the guy and turned out he wanted an MX-5… he turned up, and we did a swap!

White Lightning AKA Smokey Disaster AKA Maggy the 3rd was gone!

I thought I’d got a pretty good deal. I’d been trying to sell the MX-5 for around £3k, due to her paint job/interior etc, but a mate thought I’d be lucky to get £2k. The ZX was for sale at £2700 and we did a straight swap – brill.

It was slightly modified, so it’s twin turbo 3l engine power was up from 300bhp to between 350 and 370bhp! It FLEW. Problem was, it had a few rust issues (I had to replace the pipe from the fuel filler to the tank as it rotted through!) and a intermittent ‘hesitation’ or ‘stumble’ when accelerating, which got worse as the weather got colder…

I managed to eventually get that sorted out, but a major rust issue on a support beam (MOT failure) was discovered – £800’s worth of work. I decided that fun as she was, she was too old/rusty and ‘heavy’ – I felt terrified going round corners – and made my mind up to sell her.

I’d kept the Celica during this time ‘just in case’… and had been looking out for the ‘perfect’ MX-5; basically, a turbo-charged one, but not a modified one (after the last disaster!) – rather the rare BBR Turbo model.

And eventually found her…

Next part of the story: Love of my life