Engine builds hardly get any better than this...
Friday, 21 December 2012
Monday, 1 October 2012
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Sunday, 19 August 2012
HKS out, RB in...
Although i really love the way the HKS Super Header made the car sound and drive it unfortunaly had two problems - one being made for RHD cars it had to be dented to clear the steering column and second it was not really street legal in germany.
To solve those problems, i recently swapped it for a Racing Beat 4in1 header - although i really prefer the 4-2-1 design. Anyways, it was time to compromise. Luckily, Petr from Garage5 was selling his RB, and ever more luckily he was headed for germany anyways, so he dropped it off whilst he was here. Cheers for that!
So, there it was, in all its shinyness, and made with a extremly rare attention to details that needs to be appreciated!
So, time to get cracking, for the next two hours, the inner flanges - although pretty good to start with - were smoothed out with a power tool and then smoothed down by hand...
The headers neck to neck:
Since the cat had to be modified before to make it fit with the HKS, now we had to re-weld it to its original spec - oh well, sometimes you make it hard for yourself ^^
To solve those problems, i recently swapped it for a Racing Beat 4in1 header - although i really prefer the 4-2-1 design. Anyways, it was time to compromise. Luckily, Petr from Garage5 was selling his RB, and ever more luckily he was headed for germany anyways, so he dropped it off whilst he was here. Cheers for that!
So, there it was, in all its shinyness, and made with a extremly rare attention to details that needs to be appreciated!
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| Presumably the best 4in1 header for the Roadster |
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| Yup, it's an RB |
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| Perfect welding |
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| Some more... |
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| Incredible finish |
So, time to get cracking, for the next two hours, the inner flanges - although pretty good to start with - were smoothed out with a power tool and then smoothed down by hand...
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| Sand, sand, sand, until it hurts... |
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| There we go... |
The headers neck to neck:
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| Bye bye HKS, you will be missed... |
Since the cat had to be modified before to make it fit with the HKS, now we had to re-weld it to its original spec - oh well, sometimes you make it hard for yourself ^^
After installation i was really amazed how little clearence to the front subframe is with the RB header (about 2-3mm) - however, it seems to be working out rather well so far. Unfortunately the engine note is now really drony at low rpms, so this will have to be addressed in the future. For now, I'm just enjoying this really well made piece...
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Detail work...
Since I got the Roadster back i've added a few more retro touches to enhance the old school feel of the car, like my Nardi Classico 330, a Garage Vary head light lid, Garage5 vent rings, a car Make Corn's Shifter ring, Eunos Roadster floor mats and self made Eunos center caps for the Wats and attended this years Mazda-Community.de annual meeting like this:
Yesterday i finally got round to adding the fabulous revlimiter Revolver gauges to my gauge cluster, inspiring some detail photography:
It's amazing how little details like these can totally transform the overall feel and driving experience. I'm very satisfied with the car right now, however, a lot more work just waits around the corner...
Yesterday i finally got round to adding the fabulous revlimiter Revolver gauges to my gauge cluster, inspiring some detail photography:
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| Assembled gauge cluster with revlimiter gauge faces and KG Works panel |
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| Night design. |
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| Perfect match. |
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| G5 vent rings, replacing the OEM plastic pieces - no stick-on going on here... |
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| For me, this is now getting very close to a perfect cockpit. |
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| The rev counter really is the center of attention now. |
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| Corn's shifter ring. |
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| Watanabe B types now finished off with Eunos center caps and Watanabe wheel nuts |
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| Ronabout mirrors and again the gorgeous vent rings. |
It's amazing how little details like these can totally transform the overall feel and driving experience. I'm very satisfied with the car right now, however, a lot more work just waits around the corner...
Karai Love
A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to try out one of SPSs demo cars, a limited edition NC Karai. It's really a nice car, maybe there will be one on our drive in the future :)
The Roadster is back!
Alright, here's the first proper Roadster related update in a long time.
In May this year the technical inspection for the NA was due - since i knew about certain rust issues at the rear sills i decided to hand the car over to Jan at SPS Motorsport for minor surgery. Little did i know about the horrors to come...
The starting point wasnt soo bad at first glance, however, it became obvious that someone else already had a go at a very crappy repair attempt:
Not too bad, huh? Digging deeper....
So, what actually happened - somebody cut out the rusted sills, including the inner structural supports and just welded a slice of sheet metal on top and coated everything with black paint, resulting in rust creeping deeper into the sills as well as the rear arches...so off they came, everything was cut out and replaced with fresh metal, painted, sealed, conserved and finally the car went to the paint shop to get some shiney new BRG on top :):
The car got finished just in time for this years Starmaxx Rallye which unfortunately ended like this for us :
Turns out that the CAS went out - which really was a shame since we were doing very well so far...
Second hand Koyo rad with Samco NB hose and freshly powder coated mountings and VA bolts.
Racing Beat end links and Stop Tech brake pads on new OEM discs.
Also finally mounted the powder coated P5 frame rails, and one can just see a bit of the HKS Super Header :)
Like this, the Roadster is now finally back on the streets and going strong again...
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