Mazda MX5 Club Cars

 

Phil & Cheryl Ashton's Bluey

Hi, may I introduce you to Bluey my latest Mazda MX5.

I picked her up on Friday 21st October 2005; one month after the NC model was released in Australia. She is the standard MX5 finished in Winning Blue and comes with the following features.

  • 2.0 litre 16 valve DOHC S-VT engine

  • 6-speed manual

  • 17” alloy wheels

  • LSD

  • Cloth roof

  • Air conditioning

  • Body coloured power mirrors

  • Power windows

  • Cruise control

  • 6 disc in-dash CD player and digital tuner with six speakers

  • Controls on steering wheel

  • Leather wrapped steering wheel, gear knob and handbrake handle

  • Fog lights

I did not want the Black Leather and Bose package so opted for the standard MX5 and added after market custom Howe leather seats, trimmed to match the cars colour. The stitching to the black leather has been done with blue thread that really sets off the seats. Leather door inserts were also added.

I save the clear side indicators from my last MX5 and fitted them as soon as the car came home from the dealers and got rid of the awful front number plate mount. 

Continuing with the MX5 enthusiast’s tradition of personalising their own car, I had the rear section of the plastic covers to the roll bar vacuum metallized to give it a textured chrome finish. To the interior a padded leather centre armrest has been added for comfort and brushed alloy speaker rings to the doors. 

A run around Wakefield a week after getting the car showed a large amount of body roll, this together with my dislike for the high ground clearance on the new model instigated a trip in November 2005 to Wholesale Suspensions, the agent for King Springs here in Sydney, to have the NC measured for lowering springs. Bluey was to become the first NC in Australia to be lowered. A process that took about a month of trialling different lengths until the desired height was obtained.Currently the car sits 40mm lower than standard with a 30% increase in spring rate. Appearance has improved, body roll has decreased and the ride remains virtually unaffected.

 

In Blueys short life, she has picked up the 2006 National and 2005 State Concours de Elegance award in the Modified/Customised NC Class. On the track Bluey reigns supreme against all other NCs and gives other the street tyred turboed MX5s some hurry up.

 

My love affair with MX5s started well before Bluey. In 2001 I bought a 1993 Limited Edition, one of 100 were produced for Australia. I had the car for two years during this time I put in a new clutch and shocks at about 130,000 kilometres and apart from that it ran faultlessly. I had searched the papers and yards for about 18 months for this model as in my youth I loved the classic ’73 Ferrari 246 Dino in the red and tan livery, thinking if it’s a sports car it has to be red just like the Ferrari.

Standard Inclusions for the1993 Limited Edition were:

  • Classic Red Paintwork

  • Tan Leather Interior

  • Red Hard Top / Tan Soft Top

  • BBS Alloy Wheels

  • Air Conditioning

  • Nadia Steering Wheel and Gear Knob

  • Electric Windows

  • Alloy Scuff Plates

  • CD player

  • Power Aerial

  • Head rest speakers

 The car had the following extras: 

  • Remus Exhaust

  • Keyless Entry / Central locking

  • Movement Sensor Alarm / Immobiliser

  • Brown Davis Alloy Roll bar

  • MX5 Mats

My next MX5 was a 2003 Mazda MX5 Limited Edition Classic, bought new at the end of February 2003. 

 

This car won the 2004 New South Wales MX5 Clubs 'Concours de Elegance' for the Best Limited Edition NB8B/C and the Best Overall NB8B/C. On the track the car won the State 2005 Point Score for standard  NB MX5s. The car also features in the US Miatanet gallery that shows all models and colours of MX5s/Miatas released since 1989. The Classic was one of a hundred imported into Australia and came with the following extras over the standard 1.8 S-VT, 6 speed MX5.

Exclusive Cerrion Silver Metallic Paintwork. This colour was never released to the US market, though it was sold in Japan and through out Europe.

  • Blue leather seats

  • Two tone Black & Blue leather Nardi steering wheel and gear knob

  • Blue cloth soft top and blue soft top cover

  • Blue insets to the door trim

  • Aluminium coloured trim to the centre console, interior door handles and vent rings

  • In dash six stack CD stereo.

  • Special release alloy wheels.