"Two Timer"

Story & photos by Ashley Westerman
From: Fast Fours & Rotaries, December 1994 (Australian Magazine).

Frustrated with the inferior fun from his MX-5, Paul set about fine tuning an em-ar-too.

Picture the scene - Sydney's Bondi beach, on a 30(C Sunday. The salt air carries wafts of pizza and kebabs and the bitumen is hot enough to soften thong-rubber. Waves are up, tops are down and the girls look... well, pretty much like girls do when you enter a designated babe-zone.

Sounds like cruisin' paradise doesn't it? With a tricked-up MX-5 wearing the last word in Millen Motorsport's street-fashion body attire, spilling out some big sounds from a kickin' system; jeez, you just wouldn't want to be driving anything else, would you?

Umm, yeah you would. At least if you were our mate Paul you would. See, Paul's romance with his MX-5 wasn't destined to live forever. The security problem of owning a soft top was an on-going hassle, while the hard-top was a pain in the Rs to put on and pull off single-handed. The 1.6-litre mill didn't exactly pack towering reserves of bottom-end and mid-range stomp, and the ultra-compact packaging was often just a little too compact for comfort.

On the other hand, what else was there that could offer the sarne sort of sweet rear-wheel drive handling balance and power-dressing good looks?

Enter Mister Two. Still a purpose-built two-seater but with a little more room to stretch out, as well as two-litre grunt and that famed mid-engined handling. Oh, and the glass targa roof panels still offered that sleaze-in-the-breeze sensation, without the MX-5's ragtop vulnerability.

First things into the bin stock 14-inch scooter wheels and devon-slicer tyres. Real rims and rubber came in the form of 16-inch Auscar shadows, wrapped with a set of Goodyear Eagles - 205/50 at the front, and 245/40 'round the rear.

Instant improvement to both the visuals and the dynamics - with the wheel arches properly filled, the car's stance toughened up like a pair of flexed pecs, while the grip went from good to shit hot. A bunch of minor upgrades followed like tinted glass and a solid tweaking of the sound system with a Kenwood CD changer tucked behind the passenger's seat and a Pioneer subwoofer supplementing the factory speakers.

Things were swinging sweetly for a while, but it didn't take Paul long to start exploiting the extra grip which the chassis now offered, and soon he was looking to sharpen its act even further. The ride hadn't suffered appreciably with the move to lower profile rubber, so our boy figured there was enough compliance in the suspension to pinch and inch-and-a-half out of the ride height without turning the thing into a billycart.

Now he was really cooking. That inch-and-a-half made a world of difference (hey, just think what an extra inch and a half could do for you...) lowering the centre of gravity, cutting what was already minimal roll and sharpening the steering to the point where it was like having a damn scalpel connected to that chunky leather bound wheel. The tradeoff is that the ride is now a bit jiggly and restless at low speed, but on the plus side, it quickly evens out as speed increases. Adding a little more toe-in to the rear suspension also went long way to making the thing a more forgiving and progressive proposition at the outer limits, taming that sudden lift-off oversteer tendency that affected the first of the new generation MR2s.

Next stop in the quest to hang together the MR2 was Maztech at Granville. The Maztech boys may be a little on the one-eyed side when it comes to Mazdas, but they don't hold too many prejudices towards anything packing a bit of rort 'n sport. They happily wrapped a Zender styling package around the lower extremities and slipped that wicked F40-style rear wing onto the original spoiler mounting sections. And does this thing look the business or what? Check out the quality of the finish and the exacting fit of fibreglass to body panel. Eyeball the neat apertures for the exhaust outlets and the subtle kick of the trailing edge of the rear apron. When you get a facefull of a body styling package as street-slick as this thing, it almost makes up for having to put up with all those seriously crook ones getting around.

Okay, so by now the grip and good looks had been looked after. Next stop was a little more grunt. The stock two-litre 16 valve mill packs a pretty perky top-end, so the most logical approach is to fatten up the midrange a little, to sharpen up the throttle response and cut down on the amount of cog swapping needed when trundling around town.

And the simplest and most cost effective route to this? Via the exhaust and engine management system. Re-chipping the black box instantly bumps up the torque in the all-important 2500-4500 rpm zone, while a bigger 21/2 inch exhaust system with hi-flow cat and freer-breathing Remas muffler and K&N filter crispens up the whole package and lifts the acoustic appeal no end. Ever heard that droning top-end boom of an MR2 from inside the cabin when it's being worked hard? Not the world's most endearing engine note, we'll give you the tip. This revised system puts a quick fix on that, giving the twin-cam a more fitting snarl as it climbs onto the cam and a sweet soprano shriek when you've got it by the balls.

We reckon Paul's put together a pretty fluid little package with demon handling, punchy performance and drop-dead good looks. These days, MX-5s don't even get a second glance.