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Nike55

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  • Car type
    Mazda MX5 Eunos 1.8
  • Full name
    Nigel Kerr

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    West Herts
  • Interests
    Many and varied.....hic.

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  1. Very many thanks for your reply - I'm using the original fuel system and ECU so your comment re the immobiliser is most welcome. Will need to do more digging to see what others have done re fuse boxes and relays and which wires need to go / stay/ extend or shorten when refitting. I'll scan to A3 and encapsulate a copy of the wiring diagrams and wiring key which should give me a chance.
  2. I've tried a search but came up empty. Can someone kindly point me to a thread advising exactly what parts to keep from the MX5? I'm about t o get handy with the angle grinder and wondered if the alarm / immobiliser and ignition system wiring needs to come out intact to be fitted to the Zero?
  3. Hi brumster, The handling of the Zero should be pretty good. Would be difficult to see how they could get it to handle badly unless a there was a bad error in the chassis build. The guys who set-up their cars should be very good by now at fine tuning the suspension and steering....
  4. Thanks taz. I'm keen to do a bit of metal bashing and apart from the chassis and associated suspension items (to help get to a rolling chassis stage reasonably quickly) I'm quite happy sourcing/building everything as I go. torn-zero. Thanks for your comment. GBS are moving toward a more professional approach and the impression I had was that I could make stage payments on the chassis kit and the body kit etc but they did not suggest buying single parts as it were, I understand the concept and their reasoning. For a hassle free (?) build it would make sense to buy a GBS kit esp as they can help through the IVA stage, which sounds like a 'no brainer' but I I'd like to do a bit more myself. I'm sure that GBS will eventually produce a worthy MX5 kit (together with a detailed instruction manual) to rival the best in the market, and as more kits are sold I imagine they will start an exchange driveshaft / propshaft conversion which will bring these costs down, although I'd expect the kit price overall to increase..
  5. Hi k.f.p. Thanks for the offer of a look, I'm located near Watford, otherwise I'd pop over. I've been looking over a friends completed Caterham and getting some general ideas of the kind of quality I want to achieve, but it surprised me that for £25k it was a bit rough in places, (not my friend's fault he simply 'built' his kit by bolting on the wheels Sadly we are not well blessed with steel stockholders, friendly engineering firms, accessible breakers yards (Latvian mafia have taken over) or college welding courses around here so its going to be a long haul. (We used to have a strong aviation industry in the area - De Havilland at Hatfield and Handley Page at Radlett with both companies sharing Leavesden, but they've long gone together with their support companies. Same is true of certain kit car manufacturers; Fairthorpe, Cheetah and Lotus (at Cheshunt). Now thinking of using Talon Motor Fabrication chassis and parts as I can buy as and when I can afford it, which GBS can't allow.
  6. Nike55

    Roll Cage

    As a biker I would say that you are in as good a place as I am in respect of an accident. if you built/bought a lightly built performance car as an alternative to a fast bike the only area of 'safety' that four wheels is likely to give you is the capacity not to fall over at traffic lights when you put your foot down on mud/oil/diesel/ice/grit etc. In most road conditions (as per mud, ice, oil, diesel, loose grit, wet manhole covers, wet white lines, autumnal leaves, large road kill etc) you will have the same capability to slide off the road as I have on my bike, the biggest difference is that you will be carrying rather a lot more mass into the scenery and strapped into this whirling piece of metalwork you may physically suffer rather more badly. Simply drive according to the conditions - sure you can go bonkers on a race track but if you don't have a roll bar or other safety equipment you just have to drive within your limits, there will be run off areas to cope with any slides if you get too daring, but its quite possible to flip or have another other freak accident (wheel bearing failure etc etc) that can ruin your day, which a 'pukka' roll bar might ameliorate.. I think I am saying if you haven't got a serious roll bar, side protection, be aware and be careful.. Happy motoring!
  7. Nike55

    Speedo Cable Saga

    Is at all possible for you to give a more detailed reason why using S.R. was problematical? Might help others if using them and may help S.R. to better serve their customers in future.
  8. Sailing?? The helmsmen should have Private Pilots Licences and the craft should be FAA registered. Yanks on usual form as only have been able to win a race after replacing their strategist with Sir Ben, but sneakily cheating (cancelling for time overrun, dodgy penalty calls in US favour) when the Kiwi's get too close to the winning the last race and cup. I suppose the Yanks fear the adverse publicity of a Kiwi whitewash caused by a boat and crew that were paid for by the Kiwi taxpayer.... Way to go Kiwi's!!
  9. Lots of useful stuff above but I'm still looking at various manufactured frames to help ease the build, there are more out there than I realised and I'm not entirely certain which one to choose yet. Might wait until next season and make a decision after the current crop of MX5 kit offerings have settled down a bit. After visiting his web site I picked up a copy of Keith Tanner's 'How to Build a Cheap Sports Car'. If anyone is considering building an MX5 based Locost and doesn't have much (or any) previous experience this is quite a good read, not quite like the Haynes Locost books but contains valuable info all the same.
  10. OK - must have missed the post where one of the members on here was organising a job lot of MX5 shortened driveshafts from a UK engineering company (bloke in a shed) for a reasonable amount...Surely there's someone in the UK who can do it for less? (or are we going to leave it to a guy in the 'States..?) (No wonder it costs £10k to put one of these together.........)
  11. Thanks guys, that's very interesting in terms of differences between the two kits and what can / can't be used and what needs changing or modifying. Interesting that the Sr2 the gear lever needs to be modified but for the Zero is doesn't and the donor handbrake is not used on the Zero but it is on the Sr2. I'm not too worried about the additional costings for altering drive shafts, prop shafts etc - this is not unexpected and I believe both companies advise the fact in their literature. I can't blame them if they charge a bit more than the local engineering company, the profit margins must be quite tight on the kits. I will be searching for details of what needs altering and by how much (drawings anywhere of engine mounts etc for Zero?) and wonder if there is anyone that is recommended (or suggested) by members of the forum who can do such work and has done it before. I know in the States and on this forum that a member might produce, or arrange to have someone produce, a short run of special one off parts at discount, perhaps by a guy working in a shed (or on the nightshift with a CNC machine with a bit of spare capacity). More research needed....
  12. Thanks 'Shaft' and 'luke2152' (that's deep), The key is knowing what is going to fit straight from the Mazda (into say the GBS Mazda chassis) and what needs to be altered / modified or 'bought in'. I appreciate lights, harnesses, glassware etc will need to be IVA compliant and bought in due to the need for 'e' marking, but the key things to find out are (e.g.) if the orig radiator will fit or does it need to be (professionally) altered to suit, or is an 'exchange' unit offered: is a steering rack from an Escort Mk 11 still needed or has the chassis been modified (can it be modified?) to take the Mazda unit.. Have to rely on the kit car manufacturer and research is key..so more digging into blogs is needed and attention paid to new products! (Must be 'Kit Car Builders' 'App' out there somewhere..!)
  13. Ok....been on here five minutes and seemed to have started a range war. Sorry about that. Horses for courses, One man's meat another man's poison, (& other clichés etc). I'm going to see how cheaply an IVA quantifiable car can be built. Its not going to be as plush as some others, but I'm not building a pure track-day tea tray either, Certainly a 'one donor' chassis is the key, where the majority of parts can be recycled, especially when the parts are coming off a car designed as a two seat sports car, rather than a family saloon. This is going to be fun.
  14. Many thanks to all for your kind advice. With regards to the different versions, I was probably amiss as regarding this forum as purely a Ron Champion / Locost / Robin Hood inspired Sierra based site. It just seemed logical to have Sierra running gear based vehicles in one section and Mazda running gear based vehicles in another, but as has been pointed out there isn't any difference between the two chassis so all that is needed is a simple list of the parts (and suppliers) or drawings needed to convert the Mazda parts to fit a Sierra rolling chassis, (engine mounts etc). I've only just been made aware of the Roadrunner SR2 and it looks rather nice, dedicated MX5 chassis too. Probably outside my budget though. Looks great Terry.
  15. Thanks 'DanE': Nice to feel welcome. Is there a thread detailing with the specific Mazda variations of the Zero Sierra build, which I may have missed - or is it all too early? Or perhaps I have joined the wrong site? Thanks theduck: I have sent a message to Zach and await comments. In the interim I am obviously in contact with Richard at GBS and will be discussing the build with him.
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