The Christmas Crawl

Not much activity or happenings with the car of late. Had a lot on my mind on what to do, but do not have the resources to pursue them. All the same, the car is currently doing alright for me, so I guess this will stay that way for a long time.

Anyway, met up with some miata folks over the weekend for an early Christmas dinner, so here are some pics of the event.

 Here's where we all gathered, at the Lotus showroom on the western part of the island.

 Not a lot of us, but a decent turnout nevertheless.

Good distribution of all 3 generations. An Elise snuck in somehow...

 One of the members graciously offered us a showroom tour. It was the first time for me to see the Evora in the flesh. Its an awe-inspiring car. Price point puts it right in contention with the Cayman S. Also tried getting in and out of the Exige. I looked like a fat pig while doing it though.

 One of the members' NA. Cool door mod. Probably the only pink one out there.

 One of only 3 NCs present for the first Round. Hanafi's car is relatively stock, but I'm sure that'll change in time .

 The yellow NC belongs to Vincent. Probably the only yellow pre-facelifted one in town.

Here's a closer look. Really bling rims. I wished I had taken better pictures.

All 3 generations side by side.

James' NC. Pretty much decked out in all things Autoexe. 

Here's a look inside.

 Some of the members went on to other rides, but still took time to turn up.

 Start of the short convoy to our dinner destination.

 Kinda hard to take a picture while driving.

 Our dinner destination

 Food wasn't too bad, so was service. Too bad about the selection, of which we did not have much say.

 Planning for round 2.

 A few of us went too fast and got separated from the main convoy, so we had to stop for a bit. Here is me attempting to do a tilt-shift effect on this picture. Not sure if it came out right, but looks ok to me.

 Back shot of my car

 Cruise down Orchard Road taking in the Christmas sights, although we were going at around 10km/h most of the time. For some reason, the traffic was horrendous, even though it was way after 10pm.

Happy father and son combo.

It was a good outing. Had some fun and talking to people who share the same interest was enjoyable. There was mention about a track outing sometime next month, so I might just go for that. We'll see.

Washed!

Weather's been really unpredictable of late, so I did not see the need to wash the car. However, it has got to a point where I just could not bear the thought of a dirty car parked for all to see. So, off I go to clean it up! Here's some pictures that I just saw myself in the mood to take.

First some hi-fi pics. These are all I'm using for the sound as of now. I did mentioned in a previous post that I'm getting a subwoofer in the mix as well. That will be on the left side of the setup. Hopefully, it won't be take up too much space.

Cute huh?

All shiny and cleaned up!

I'm rather liking how it is now, and I don't expect too much aesthetic changes anytime soon. And here's some interior shots. Not much has changed here as well.

Trusty voodoo knob still nice to hold.

Blitz R-VIT still looks interesting.

Sub

Had a minor problem the other day after I returned from my overseas trip. I had forgotten to close the boot securely and this cathode tube that I had rigged to turn on with the boot light totally drained the battery. I was out for close to 2 weeks but I got a feeling it didn't take that long for the battery to die. In any case, changed to a maintenance free one now and all's good. Bit of a hassle though, being unable to drive the car after I've been deprived of it for 2 weeks.

In any case, first mod of the year! I've gotten myself a new subwoofer. Previously, I was apprehensive about putting a sub in the car because it would simply take up way too much space. Well, its still going to take up space, but hopefully, with this new shallow sub I've gotten from SB Acoustics, hopefully, it would not be as much as I thought.

Here are some pictures of the sub that came in via Fedex. Quick processing from Madisound, order shipped the next working day after my payment, and I got the package within 3 days.

The sub came in a big box so I was quite surprised at the weight. Its lighter than I thought.

I might just possibly be the first person on my tiny island to use this subwoofer in a car.

I gotten the 4 ohm version as I'm not sure if I can find an amplifier with enough juice to power the 8ohm one up, and yet fit with the limited space I have.

Here's a side profile of the subwoofer. It is relatively low-profile. Judging from the specs and from online feedback, it'll need probably about 0.2 to 0.3 cu. ft of volume to sound nice. 

The required volume was a big 0_0 to me as typically, normal subwoofers require anything from 1 cu.ft to 1.5 cu.ft to sound good and thats mostly the volumes I had for my previous rides. So essentially, I only need less than half the space for this sub. I'm going to get the installer to make a fibreglass enclosure thats about 0.4 cu.ft, just to be on the safe side.

As for power, it is tough, since my plan is for the amplifer to go under the navigator seat. Currently, only the Alpine PDX 1.600 and the Rockford Fosgate T400.2 are whats readily available to me, and fits that requirement. I'm not particular about amps since its going to be in mono anyway, so I'll just go for the one thats cheaper. The install will probably happen next month, as thats the only time I can spare some downtime for the car.

新年おめでとうございます!

Happy new year! It has been a long while since the last update. I guess I can blame it on the lack of time and money. Since the last post, my coilovers have been in use for close to half a year now, and except for one time when I had to bring it back to the dealer's because of some squeaking noise, it has been problem-free so far. Since this is the start of the year, I figured some new year resolutions regarding the MX5 are in order, more specifically, what do I expect in this coming year.

Since my objective is street-oriented rather than track, there are quite a lot of mods that I am not considering, as they're probably overkill, stuff like roll-cages, full underbody bracing, brake ducting, straight through exhausts and so on. I've got the ride height and stiffness down pat, so the next natural progression would be front and rear sways, and that will probably be it for the suspension/bracing department. I'll probably get the used ones off the RX8s or this one from mx5parts. Its going for slightly less than US$280 for both front and rear, which I figured is quite a good deal. I'm not going for a front strut bar since I don't have the mounting bracket for it and getting both of them is not exactly cost-efficient in my opinion.

Next up will probably be brakes. To be honest, this is a "want" mod more than a "need" mod. I think I need the sways to make this a better car, but I want the brakes more for the looks than the performance, since the stock brakes are already plenty decent. I've not narrowed down any brands yet, but I do know I will probably go for a mid-sized 4pot(brembo?), or if the finances permit, a decent sized 6 piston kit(project μ?) for the front. I don't think I will change the rear.

And that wraps up the entire modlist for the whole of 2010(I hope!). Just two items. I am not ruling anything out but I figured thats about all I need; any more modifications will probably detract from what I intended the car to be. But then again, you never know....=)

 In the meantime, here are some overdue pictures. I have just gotten a new digital camera(Panasonic LX3), so I'm still adjusting to it. Pictures aren't exactly top-rate but I'll be posting better pics now and then.

Here's one thats showing the blacktop I had done way back in May last year. Still holding up!

Here's how the stance looks like. Its not exactly slammed but I guess this is good enough for me. We have numerous humps and slopes in this tiny country to make lowering anymore impractical.

Here's a profile shot.

Here's how much frontlip clearance I have off the ground.

Here are some pictures of the car at night, those LEDs done close to one year ago are still looking the stuff!

one from further away

I like this shot below although you can't really see much of the car.

In any case, I had relocated the Blitz Powermeter up from to the vent nearer the steering wheel. I think this is closer to eye level and easier to see when I'm on the road.

And now for two "arty-farty" shots. Was trying to create a bokeh effect with the words. Turns out wasn't too well done, since you can't exactly make out the first letter(its "Prodrive" by the way).

One year on and still shiny as ever.