MEP, ITBs, hillclimbs and trackdays
Dec 8, 2016 12:33:45 GMT
myothercarsa2cv, sandys, and 1 more like this
Post by baconsarnie on Dec 8, 2016 12:33:45 GMT
Hi all, another migrant from Almondz. I won't go into my list of gripes about the 'other forum' but I imagine it's much the same as a lot of folks here judging by the quality of some of the other build threads!
I won't go into the full story of MEP here, but more of a truncated summary of where MEP is at and where she's come from.
MEP is my second '5, the first was a late rusty UK NA which got me hooked but was a terrible buy on reflection. MEP, an '89 Eunos, was for a long time my daily, then retired, then back for my wedding day. It was at this point she was proabably at her most tidy.
This was kindof a last hurrah for MEP as a road car. I'd become very attached to MEP over the 5 years or so of ownership but couldn't justify keeping her as a "sunny day car" especially as I had/have ambitions of competition on hillclimb and sprint courses and track time.
Over the following year I stripped down the subframes, suspension, engine bay and removed as much weight from the interior as I could within the rules of MSA "Road-going" category. I powdercoated, painted, re bushed and fitted bucket seats. I bought Matt Scarbros Jenvey ITB kit from his old white car and fitted that. I blew the budget and Ohlins DFV shocks and 949 Racing 6ULs went on. The transofrmation to a much more focused car was pretty comprehensive.
It wasn't plain sailing, however, on the way to my first real outing I got punted of the M40 by some half asleep van driver.
Fortunatly I have some great support from my wife and friends, and within a few weeks we were back together and on track. (If looking a bit bruised). Bedford prooved to be a great venue with plenty of run off (luckily as I looped it at 80+mph at one point) for a shake down in a freshly transformed car with new much higher limits!
Some teathing problems in the form of a nuked HG required a bit of a overhaul of the cooling system (which in retrospect had never been 100%).
But we were back in action again within a month for my first taste of hillclimbing in the mx5. Prescott hill was increadibly good fun and MEP was confidence inspiring allowing me to really start to push on by the end of the day. I wish I'd pulled my finger out and got the GoPro on for the last few runs but the pace of the afternoons sessions didn't really allow - the drivers school was great value on this particular occasion and we got many more runs than the programme promised. It was also a good social event with many like minded people from different backgrounds and stages of involvement in the sport. I'd highly reccomend doing a hillclimb school, even if you are not really interested in competing, I'd place a fairly confident bet you'll be hooked!
Couple of pics from the day...
We're currently sat at 114hp at the hubs. Roughly 135whp. Or to put it another way, 42% more power than stock. Thanks go to BLink Motorsport for their support with this project.
It's good, but I think there's potentially a couple of cheap improvements I can make before I have to take the head off for some work and a more extreme cam profile. I'll update with the effectivenss (or not) of these mods as and when I do them before the start of the HSA calender. I'm hoping to do a full calender of qualifying events in 2017. I don't expect silverware but I hope to put up some competition in the <2l road going class!
That brings us to more or less where we're at today. Over the winter there's a bit of a development plan to refine a few aspects of the car and heopfully pic up a couple more ponies too.
I won't go into the full story of MEP here, but more of a truncated summary of where MEP is at and where she's come from.
MEP is my second '5, the first was a late rusty UK NA which got me hooked but was a terrible buy on reflection. MEP, an '89 Eunos, was for a long time my daily, then retired, then back for my wedding day. It was at this point she was proabably at her most tidy.
This was kindof a last hurrah for MEP as a road car. I'd become very attached to MEP over the 5 years or so of ownership but couldn't justify keeping her as a "sunny day car" especially as I had/have ambitions of competition on hillclimb and sprint courses and track time.
Over the following year I stripped down the subframes, suspension, engine bay and removed as much weight from the interior as I could within the rules of MSA "Road-going" category. I powdercoated, painted, re bushed and fitted bucket seats. I bought Matt Scarbros Jenvey ITB kit from his old white car and fitted that. I blew the budget and Ohlins DFV shocks and 949 Racing 6ULs went on. The transofrmation to a much more focused car was pretty comprehensive.
It wasn't plain sailing, however, on the way to my first real outing I got punted of the M40 by some half asleep van driver.
Fortunatly I have some great support from my wife and friends, and within a few weeks we were back together and on track. (If looking a bit bruised). Bedford prooved to be a great venue with plenty of run off (luckily as I looped it at 80+mph at one point) for a shake down in a freshly transformed car with new much higher limits!
Some teathing problems in the form of a nuked HG required a bit of a overhaul of the cooling system (which in retrospect had never been 100%).
But we were back in action again within a month for my first taste of hillclimbing in the mx5. Prescott hill was increadibly good fun and MEP was confidence inspiring allowing me to really start to push on by the end of the day. I wish I'd pulled my finger out and got the GoPro on for the last few runs but the pace of the afternoons sessions didn't really allow - the drivers school was great value on this particular occasion and we got many more runs than the programme promised. It was also a good social event with many like minded people from different backgrounds and stages of involvement in the sport. I'd highly reccomend doing a hillclimb school, even if you are not really interested in competing, I'd place a fairly confident bet you'll be hooked!
Couple of pics from the day...
We're currently sat at 114hp at the hubs. Roughly 135whp. Or to put it another way, 42% more power than stock. Thanks go to BLink Motorsport for their support with this project.
It's good, but I think there's potentially a couple of cheap improvements I can make before I have to take the head off for some work and a more extreme cam profile. I'll update with the effectivenss (or not) of these mods as and when I do them before the start of the HSA calender. I'm hoping to do a full calender of qualifying events in 2017. I don't expect silverware but I hope to put up some competition in the <2l road going class!
That brings us to more or less where we're at today. Over the winter there's a bit of a development plan to refine a few aspects of the car and heopfully pic up a couple more ponies too.
le sigh