My ND RF

[Enjay]

I went outside today and took some pictures.

[IanH]

[OldSpice]

Well, I'm smitten.
In a good way, it reminds me so much of these.
https://www.carthrottle.com/wp-content/ ... 80x401.png

[Enjay]

Thanks

it reminds me so much of these.

I have never seen one of those before. Were they official Mazda cars or is it an after market kit/hardtop?

I have always really liked the look of fastback cars. I had a Mk1 Capri for about 20 years and that probably qualifies.

And who doesn't like the e-type Jag or the Ferrari 250 GTO which are sort of fast-back-ish in profile (e-type Coupe rather than convertible version, of course).

The look of the MX5 RF is fantastic IMO. I know that the front end of the ND is quite a departure from the traditional 1960s Lotus Elan inspired look which has been there, more or less, since the start (and which I love) but I think it looks great and still shows enough lineage to the previous models to be identifiable as a 5. The rear, however, just looks amazing IMO. I know it won't be everyone's taste and many will prefer the more fully open soft top but the fastback conjures up feelings of some of the cars that I've liked for a very long time. [Plus, the raising/lowering action is like something out of a transformers movie.]

The look of the RF reminds me a little of the Opel GT (I've only ever seen a few of them - I don't think they were ever available in the UK, or even in RHD, but I have always really liked them)


perhaps a tiny, tiny little bit of the Datsun 260z


and dare I even suggest a mid 1970s Corvette Stingray?

[OldSpice]

Re my post:
Only 179 factory handbuilt by Mazda craftsmen between 2002/3.
Variations from 1.6 to 1840cc "Sport" with Billies, LSD etc. Autos as well.
Even the doors were modified..they are marginally longer to joggle up properly to hand fettled rear wings.
Very rare ,very pricey if you come across one.
Sadly, a few were stripped for competition given the solid shell properties, and I've seen one scrapped after it got rear end/quarter sided.J
Just too expensive to fix.
You really would not to get rear pranged.
Good night Sooty ££££.

[Enjay]

Interesting. It sounds like quite a lot of effort to put out a small production run. Very nice though. I hope to see one in the flesh some day.

[Scotty Dugg]

Looks great, I'm a huge fan of the RF, not sure why they got so much negative feedback on the looks from the press. Mini F-Type-esque!

[IanH]

It looks very good.... with the lid closed

[Enjay]

A few minor cosmetic mods today...

Starting off small - a screen protector for the entertainment interface. It went on easily enough and I don't think I got any bubbles under it. The thing that looks like a bubble/speck of dust is actually the reflection of the lock on my tool box sitting on the shelf beside the car.


Slightly bigger - the Mazda elasticated net shelf thingummybob for the cubby. You have to drill through the plastic wall of the cubby to fit the brackets for this but it's already marked and only a single layer of plastic so it's easy enough.


Not much bigger - rear mudflaps. These things are tiny. I can't fit front ones because my car has the side skirts but it doesn't have the rear lip so I thought I'd put these on. IMO they enhance the look of the back slightly and should provide a little bit of protection. Apparently, they are quite effective despite their size. To fit them you need to take off the wheel arch liners, cut out some pre-marked notches from the liner (I just used scissors), slide some plastic fittings with captive nuts on to the bumper lip, put the liners back on then put the flaps on. It probably sounds more involved than it is. It didn't take me long at all and I didn't need to take the wheels off or jack the car up. (Doing so might have made things a bit easier but it wasn't particularly difficult at all even with the wheel in place and using a stubby screwdriver and a spanner for the screws/bolts near the wheel).


And finally, Zunsport black half-height mesh grille. I quite like the look of it and I felt that the radiator was quite exposed with the standard grille. It took a little "persuading" to get it to sit right in the space (it was just a little too tight IMO) and you have to put two self tapping screws into the plastic inside the grille space. The instructions actually said something like "screw into the two existing U brackets" but there weren't any that I could see and the holes for the screws lined up perfectly with the plastic behind the grille. Although the screws seemed to be holding things tightly, I wanted belt and braces so I took the splash guards off from the front underside, wriggled my fingers up behind the grille and put one of those self-tapper nut things on to the end of the screws to make them more secure and less likely to pull back through the plastic. Like I said, the grille needed a bit of persuasion to fit and I felt there was a bit too much tension on the screws without something supporting them behind the plastic. It feels nice and solid now.


I did find it quite interesting that all of the Mazda bits fitted absolutely perfectly and the third party bit (the grille) wasn't quite 100% spot on and had slightly misleading instructions versus the perhaps even overly detailed Mazda ones.

[Scotty Dugg]

Very nice indeed, will keep an eye out for it whenever I'm up that way.

[Enjay]

Reflectors:

They are quite expensive for what they are - too expensive really - but I took advantage of an MX5 Parts sale and a present a couple of weeks back so the price wasn't quite as steep as it could have been. My main reason for fitting them was because I have a thing about blanking plates. They just kind of bug me (you should have seen the palaver I went through to fill the fog lamp blanks on a Citroen C1). They don't bother me on other people's cars and, to be fair, the ones on the ND aren't too bad. But there is something that eats away at me when I have a car that has blanking plates . I can hear a little voice inside my head saying "something is meant to go there, something is meant to go there...". So, something has gone there.





Fitting is easy. I did it without removing the wheels, but doing so would give more room.

The wheel arch liners need to be popped off (if I'd realised that I was going to get these reflectors, I'd have held off doing the mud flaps until I had the reflectors too). Once the liners are off, you unclip the blanking plates (a little awkward until you figure which bit to press on the catch, but not bad - easier without a wheel in the way of my head ). There are no screws holding the blanks in place. The reflectors clip in to the spaces left by the blanks but they also have a screw to secure them. With the fronts, I didn't even take the arch liners out completely. I just turned the wheels and popped out 4 of the liner retaining clips. That gave me enough room.

The reflectors themselves can probably be easily adapted to have lights in them. I assume that they have the same bodies as the coloured US spec ones that already come with lights in them. There is a rubber disc stuck over the hole where a light bulb would be inserted. However, MX5 Parts say about the US spec ones "Due to the cars can bus system we have not yet found a way to wire these in to European spec cars" so unless there is a way to wire them in, adapting these white ones to have lights probably wouldn't work.

[IanH]

I have the US spec ones with bulbs fitted. I have seen elsewhere someone who mentioned that they had tapped into the side light circuit to activate them, maybe something I'll look at later, meantime they are protected with duct tape.