plohl's NA6 Roadster

[plohl]

So...

I thought I would start a build thread to try and keep my motivation up with this car.

The story:

As some of the other Queensland guys might know, I used to own an 86 st162 Celica. I have wanted an 86 for quite a while and was planning keeping the Celica for a while until I had enough money to get an 86. However, as a Christmas present my dad was driving to my grandparents and the Celica decided it had had enough and through a rod out of cylinder one.... Could of had something to do with my driving, but we'll never know haha.

So I started looking at cars after Christmas. On my wanted list, I had (of course) 86, Integra type R DC2 and mx5. Unfortunately, Integra type r's were outside my budget ($6500 on the road). I looked at 1 or 2 86's, hoping to get something with a 4age already, but they were both pretty rubbish and the takumi tax didn’t make the good one affordable. Looking at the details, mx5's were the only 86 alternative I could find on the market, don’t get me wrong, I went and looked at a few s13's which were all fucked and a couple of nice r32's but what I really wanted was something light, 4 cylinder and not going attract stupid amounts of attention. The Integra didn’t really fit this description, but they seriously haul ass and I have only ever had fwd. haha. So I would have looked at 10+ mx5's, ranging from stock, turbo, supercharged. There were some that were reasonably priced, some that weren't. I think the advantage the 5 had over the 86, is that they have the same chassis from 89-97(or 98?), so it is super easy and cheap (ish) to get parts for them! Eventually I found this eunos roadster that had been imported into Melbourne 2007 (I think) and had one owner who had left it with her parents to sell on her behalf. It was pretty stock and fairly clean.


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So I picked it up for a good price in February. Details were:

1989 Eunos Roadster
Engine: B6 1.6L dohc
wheels: stock BBS 14x6 +45(haha)
Vicious LSD
Stock nardi wheel
only aftermarket part was the Cusco front strut brace

The plan has always been to run the car in weekend sprints. I was hoping to get it on the track much earlier but yeah, haven't got that far yet.

First impressions of the car - it handled really well for a stock car, I couldn't fit hardly anything in it! Figured out if I take the passenger’s seat out though, I can get my MTB in there or a set of wheels!

Mods so far:
New wheels - 949 Racing 6UL's - 15x8 +36 5.5kg each
Racing beat rear brace - closes the rear sub frame up.
Apex'i spiral collector headers - $100 = score
Koni yellow sports shocks and random springs - FREE!!!!
Removed soft top, rear carpet, deadening etc.
1994+ front brakes, A1RM pads (235mm disc to 255mm)

That’s pretty much it. Still goes alright but I have noticed the lack of power compared to the Celica, 4age powered cars and others through the bends. I still wouldn’t say I have gotten into a rhythm driving this thing yet. The transition from fwd to rwd has been a bit challenging, with braking being the biggest difference.



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[Joshie_Mcslide]

Whack a 13bt in there.....should sort out that lack of power issue!!

Nice clean car though man,good luck with the build.....Nice to see something different in here with a little class!

[plohl]

Cheers man.

Its getting a new engine, but not a 13b haha.

Some more pictures!

New wheels. Needed to remove the passeger's seat to fit my old celica wheels with the tyres and the new wheels in the boxes haha

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Sparco seat installed. Was pretty easy, bolted to the existing rails with some slight modifications.

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Apex'i headers before it went in the car vs the stock headers

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Installed!

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Future Plans for the car....
Getting a car this weekend that was written off at mount cotton. Comes with a 1.8L engine with big cams, haltec ecu and Torsen diff (torque biasing) with 4.3 ratio plus a bunch of other stuff that'll be flogged off. Engine has 130 rwhp which is more then enough for the moment haha.
6 point weld in cage to be done in december - that's the plan anyway.
Suspension upgrade - too many choices, but will most likely be some for of coil over

I am endeavouring to keep this car as legal as possible, so the cage has to be done asap to beat the new laws that are supposed to be coming in. I am planning on rigging something up for the HVAC system as the cage will require me to remove the standard blower box.

So yeah, should be keeping this fairly up to date with what is happening.

[70XIN]

I like this car look forward to the updates and such. Be careful with that NA6 diff! BOOM lol

[plohl]

Thanks Seamus!

Yeah, the new diff is from an NB8B or C - but yeah, the one at the moment would probably be destroyed instantly with the new engine haha

[plohl]

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[marvis]

NA8?! Cams too? Going off the sticker on the door...

Going to steal the diff etc also? They are stronger.

[Pidgey]

This is cool!
I WILL own an MX5 one day.

[plohl]

Yeah its an NA8. The engine, loom, ecu, torsen diff, sway bars and maybe rear suspension will be going into my car. The cams are tighe "fast road" cams, so the most lift you can go before having to mod the internals supposedly. Off the top of my head I think its about 10mm. I took the rocker cover off it last week and the cams looked brand new! Just the cams and a tune added a total of 28 HP at the wheels and had a good increase in power over the whole range.

Picking it up tonight and stripping it at a mates work so it's going to be a busy weekend.

[plohl]

Cheers!

Yeah, even if it's just a few months get one and trash it around! heaps of fun haha