Breathing

Fixed up the air intake yesterday. Took me more than an hour. Well, the actual install actually took at most 30 minutes, even for a layman like me. The reason why I went overtime was because I couldn't figure out how the heck did everyone fit the filter so nicely. Look at mine.

The filter element is a little to the left than it should be. Its not lined up with the intake hole in the bumper at all. Its kinda hard to twist the flexitube onto the mouth of the filter element. I took everything out twice, but no go. End result still looks the same. And I was sure I wasn't missing out any important steps. And the weird thing is, if you look at the spacing of the tubing leading towards the intake, it sure seems like it was meant to be in that direction. There doesn't seem to be enough wiggle space to "shift" the intake to the right.

The fitting of the silicon tubing to the MAF sensor adaptor doesn't look fantastic too. If you look closely, there is a slight gap, even though I've fastened everything tightly. But then again, it could be me doing a shoddy job. ~shrugs~

I refitted the intake again after taking these pictures, so now the filter element is a little bit closer to the intake, though not by much.

Initial impressions on driving; throttle response did seem a little bit better, though it could be a placebo effect for all I know. I've only driven about 100km or so on the new intake so I'll see how it goes once the ECU gets used to the intake. As for the sound level, I was surprised by how quiet the intake is, I was expecting something similar to the suction sound from the Apex'i cone, since the K&N element basically looks like a smaller version of the Apex'i. There isn't much induction noise from the intake, in fact, you've got to concentrate to hear the sound the intake is making, which is a good thing in my book.

More carbon

Had the eyelids fixed up yesterday. I thought I'll just go with the carbon look first and in the event I feel body-coloured is the way to go, I'll just take them off and spray them. Here's a look at the eyelids before fitment.

Looks kind of thick but that was the effect I was hoping for.

Here are some pictures of the eyelids fitted on the headlamps. Didn't occur to me to take any night shots with the HIDs on. Maybe I'll do that in a later post.

Top view.

Frontal view.

Full frontal view

Nice top-down shot. I like this shot.

These are a continuation of my interior sticker mod. I was tinkering with the idea of converting the glossy piano black trim to the same look. But on second thought, I figured it would be too "carbon overkill"

starts from the left....

all the way to the right...

Apollo

The Apollo intake is in. It took about a week, which is amazing fast, considering the billet grille I ordered previously took about 2 weeks to show up. Looks like I'll be getting stuff from mx5parts again. Anyway here are some pictures of the kit.

Quite a big box. On hindsight, it looks like a belated Christmas present to myself. The packaging was so well done that it was a pain to unwrap.

tada!

Comes with everything you see here. The colour copy of K&N's fitment instructions is rather helpful. Doesn't seem too hard to fix, I had a look through the steps and its rather straight-forward. I think a normal person would probably take about 30-45minutes to install this, a hour if you're anal about where everything holds up within the engine bay.

Here's a close-up of the filter element. Has a glossy black finish. Not too sure how long this will hold up in the engine bay but for now, it does look nice.

I also ordered some eyelids. These were more or less purchased on a whim. I'm not even sure if I'll fit them up but we'll see.

The PITA to unwrap box.

Front of the box. You can see a big I.L Motorsports right there. I can never understand why I.L's products are cheaper everywhere EXCEPT on I.L motorsport's website.

I must admit the packaging does looks rather professional. It almost seems as though they sell tons of these everyday. And yep, everything is in German.

A template is included as well, which is nice, but I don't think people actually use that. The instructions also recommends removal of the bumper for fitment, which is probably overkill as well. Mx5parts still included a translated copy of these instructions though, which is a nice touch, I suppose. I'm not sure if I should paint them in galaxy-grey, or if the 3M carbon sticker thing I had for the steering wheel would be a better idea. I'm leaning towards the latter though. Of course, that is if I do decide to fit them.

Breathe

First entry of the new year!

It has been a turbulent year for most, with the financial markets in the state they're in, and banks crashing all over the place. Its a good year to buy a car, but unfortunately, also a bad year to sell one. Almost like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Same goes for almost every other thing out there. Its literally a buyer's market these days, especially in the pre-owned market. If you're been holding it in, now's the time to splurge.

Anyway, ordered the K&N Apollo intake the last week from www.mx5parts.co.uk. Was looking at a few options, but narrowed it down to the beatrush kit posted earlier as well as the Blitz open pod. In terms of looks though, i guess the beatrush kit still looks the best.

The Blitz solution seen here doesnt seem so elegant. I don't like the idea of the filter element exposed in the engine bay. On top of the heat from the engine, the element gets dirty faster. I checked with one of the local dealers for Blitz and he wasn't sure if Blitz had a box-in version for the NC.

That was when i found the K&N Apollo kit. This seems like what I need. Coincidentally, it so happens to cost less than either of the two. And to top it off, installation seems straightforward. I can even do it myself. K&N provides some very detailed step by step instructions on their website.
Anyway, here are some pictures of the Apollo kit.

Pictures are from mx5parts.co.uk. Seems neat and unobstructive enough. I've read comments about the airflow being inadequate due to the kit's "tube within a tube" setup but I'll reserve judgement until I've fixed it up and taken the car out for a spin.