No more bouncing soon

Ordered the JIC Magic FLT TAR coilover set.

More information of the coilover can be found here. I actually had a few options in mind. Along with the JICs, I was looking at the KW Variant 3, Tein Monoflex as well as the HKS Hipermax III. Went for the JIC in the end because it was the cheapest. I don't think I'll track, so I guess the added performance I'll get with a high-end coilover would be kinda wasted on me. The KW came a close second though, I've heard fantastic reviews from a lot of people on these, but I got 2 quotes from different sources, and the price difference was about 500 bucks. I don't know, but I get a bit uncomfortable when prices fluctuate like this. No idea why though.

In any case, its going to be the new year soon, and I suppose its going to get sluggish in Japan as well. It'll probably take them a while to ship. I reckon I'll probably only be fitting the suspension in the later part of January.

I'm also getting the garage to check on this air intake kit from Beatrush.

More pictures can be found on the laile website here. Looks like a decent piece of gear. I like the Apex'i intake, but I have my doubts on how much more performance this kit has over the stock setup, seeing that its a boxed-in cone and there doesnt seem to be any heatshield or anything funneling air in through the front nose. I would actually prefer Autoexe's carbon ram air intake system. It looks really nice and it really does seem to do what its supposed to. Only problem is I can't bring myself to fork out more than 1.5k SGD for something like this. Thats almost 2.5 times the Beatrush's system!

And to top it off, I think Autoexe doesnt even use their own filters. From pictures I've seen, they seem to be using stuff from K&N. Quite a premium to pay for an OEM-look kit. Problem is, there aren't much MX5 users on these two pieces of equipment out of Japan, so its almost impossible to see/hear/feel/compare the real thing in action.

Soundup

Sent my car in for an audio tuneup the day before. The car spend about an hour with the tuner on the RTA setup. Here you see the mic in the driver's seat and the tuner looking attentively at the spectrum analyser.

After the tuning session, he mentioned that the MX5, like any other coupes, isn't really an ideal vehicular environment to do any serious sound quality setup in. I am a bit disappointed by this, but the sound did improve after the tuning session, although I will have some modifications on the door panels to rectify some of the troughs we see in the spectrum band on the RTA. I'll probably arrange another session with him come Feb next year, as both our schedules are kinda packed till then. Hopefully, I'll get closer to the sound I'm looking for.

Had a slight change to the steering wheel mod I had done previously. Now its virtually indistinguishable from a stock MX5 wheel.

Well, not exactly something to shout about, but I figured it does look unique, and its a mod that incurs minimal cost. And the best part is, I wasn't even the one who thought of it.

Lights

Its been a while since my last posting. Didn't managed to take any pictures of the HIDs since my phone decided to die on me and thats about the only digital camera I've got.
Anyway, here are some shots. I have replaced the small lights at the side with white LEDs as well, so it'll contrast nicely with the HIDs.

Here you see the side LEDs by themselves.


Frontal view.

Here's a pic with the HIDs.

Also had the silver parts of the steering wheel stickered up, as I would rather prefer the steering wheel not to have contrasting colours.

Close up of the sticker.

It looks a lot better in the flesh, Handphone camera doesnt really do the carbon stickers justice. Now I'm racking my brains as to what else I can stick next. LOL.