hello everybody Welcome to number 27 I'm Jack now I have driven a number of modified MX 5S amongst them was a supercharged Mark 1 and a mark 2 with the Jag V6 engine I love both of those now this is a Mark III also known as the NC it is the least loved of all the mx-5s this one though is tuned by bbr and it is probably the most faithful representation of a tuned MX5 that retains the original Spirit out of all of them could it actually be the best one [Applause] right so first thing is turn off the traction control which even there just taking off a bit smartly I could see it cutting in and out um now I said earlier that this is the least loved of the mx-5s and the reason for that is that is considered to be a bit bloated and a little bit heavy now let's put that into context the original MX5 the Mark 1 supposed to weigh anything between 950 and 1,000 kilos depending on where you look I think it's closer to a th000 but anyway the Mark I or NB was a little bit heavier still already than that I don't know if it was sort of 30 kilos heavier this one is over 100 kilos because with the fabric roof it has it weighs 1,140 or with the retractable hard toop like this one it's another 40 kilos so 180 you know you're starting to put quite a bit more weight on the thing though is it's not all bad news because unlike the other two cars this feels quite well resolved inside it doesn't feel like a cheap car it feels like a you know it feels like a much more grow up version than either of those it feels like something you don't have to apologize for the interior there's a you know some of the Plastics feel a little bit cheap but it feels very well put together it feels very solid and it looks it looks much nicer it looks like a real car let's say and another great thing is that this was the first version that introduced multi-link rear suspension so there were some definite improvements I think the problem is I've driven one of these before it was quite a while ago it was wasn't a bad car by any means it was a really good car but it just felt a little bit too soft and a little bit too friendly and like it had lost some of the magic that the original cars had the mark 2 is essentially a Mark 1 which is just a little bit uglier but it drives almost as well I think there isn't really that much in it it still has that magic of that light weight and flattering the driver when it came to this the weight went up quite a lot it became too civilized I think and it lost some of that MX5 Sparkle some of the magic there's also the looks the mark one was an incredibly pretty car still is I think one of the all-time best the one that came after really they had to get rid of the pop-up headlights but again it looked I don't think the the mark 2s they're not particularly good looking cars this came out and I think on the whole I like the way they look but I know there's some people who hate them that again it it has that sort of wider look which ties in with this feeling that they're just heavier they're they're bloated they've lost the magic of the MX5 well this one with the bbr kit let me just uh sort out turning around at this Junction and then I'll tell you more about the bbr kit what it involves and how much it costs let's just spin it around here okay so the bbr kit as standard these are 160 horsepower or thereabouts weighing 1,150 kilos that's not going to make for a super quick car now speed was never what the Mazda was about but it always most of them had enough power to make it controllable to make it part of the Driving Experience so that in the bz you were adjusting with the throttle and I think on a standard one of these with the softer suspension as well that's not the case the bbr kit the base kit is to do with the engine the bbr the super 200 as it's called I think there's also a super 180 but the 200 which I think is the one worth going for and is in this car brings it up to just over 200 horsepower and that is different cams different intake different exhaust manifold and different exhaust system it just sharpens up the whole engine makes it sound better and gives it much more of an edgy feeling as we're going to see the cost is about £2,800 I think all in and fitted now which I think is fairly good value there is also an option for a turbocharger setup but that really does change the character of the way the MX5 feels I'm not against it the supercharged car that I drove and the V6 engined one they were brilliant in their own ways but I think this is more faithful to the original recipe the question is is it good enough does it turn this into something that is more grown up easier to live with day by day but still has that beautiful feeling of the original cars going to find out in a minute just one more thing to say about this this also has coilovers me RS so the chassis is a little bit better tied down as well let's try and overtake this chap so that we can do some proper driving I think there should be some room here [Music] [Music] I would have struggled to do that in the original car but this the engine just feels like it has much more purpose it's already putting a smile on my face [Music] wow even from that little short bit of road I can tell you that this has really transformed the way that this car feels now the reason why this is a bbr and it has the Meister shocks and some sort of trackpads is that Spencer who brought it down wanted something to use on track and it's an interesting car to be used as a track car because we were talking about it earlier and for most track days now insurance is a bit of a waste of money cuz the excess is so high you end up not claiming so you want something that you can go on track with without ensuring that isn't too expensive to run but still retains some of that fun definite improvement over the normal car a massive Improvement I would say so brakes are strong thanks to those pads the discs aren't any bigger the steering front end isn't quite as I think doesn't communicate quite as much as on the earlier cars and even though this is so much better tied down you can feel the extra weight when you're driving it hard you can just feel the mass transfer going around the corner much more than you would in an early car it's not as effortless and as is tradition let's just take it through the gears look it is so much more complete as a sports car than a standard one would be I think it actually does turn it into sports car and I'm not sure if I would call a standard NC a real sports car it's just it's just so soft and it's a little bit underpowered with this have to be honest I think it could do with a little bit more on top but this conversion really does maintain that essential character that an MX5 should have you're still working it it's not you know it's not effortless power it's it's a car that you really have to you have to take up to the top of the gears to get the best performance it feels a little bit more muscular across the Rev range and I think that torque with this conversion has also been lowered by 1,000 revs so it is even torquier than the standard car but I think because there's more power up top and it pulls with more urgency that extra torque is kind of lost in comparison when you're driving it thankfully the gear change is good but again it is one area where it doesn't quite measure up to the early cars there's an immediacy and a connection that isn't there this is brilliant by most standards but it's not quite as good as from the early cars there is another option if you're looking at modifying your NC and that is the turbo kit that bbrr produced now because it's done by PPR I am sure that it will be really very well produced and engineered I think the problem with that is well the problem it's not a problem necessarily but that's going to be a very different experience to the traditional MX5 experience with the way that a turbo delivers power and torque it's just going to make for a different car the other downside is although you get quite a bit more power which I think would be welcome you get up to 260 horsepower with that I think no sorry the stage one turbo is 260 horsepower the stage two goes close to 300 but even for a stage one you're looking at spending about 4 ,500 so that's more than double of this conversion which sticks a bit more Faithfully to the original ethos of the MX5 although a very good car for many people I can see the criticism for the NC where it comes from I think it's just too rounded it was made to appeal too much to a wider set of people rather it strayed a little bit from the original recipe of what made the MX5 so good the question is does this bbr kit bring it back to where it was and the answer is no now I'm not saying that in a negative manner I'm not saying that this is a bad kit or that I don't like it I think it makes it feel like it should it makes it feel like a sports car again but does it make it feel like a Mark 1 MX5 it doesn't it doesn't quite have still that it doesn't have that son that sense of fun that those early cars had it's not quite as approachable the limits are still much higher it is great but it's just great in a different [Applause] way I think it's a car that in some ways just takes a little bit longer to appreciate even with these mods the earlier cars it's just quicker to get in sync with them I think that this just has a bit more depth and requires a little bit more work to get the best to get the best from I have to have a bit of a disclaimer here and obviously when Spencer was looking for this car he also said he'd rather have had the soft top because you know it's about 40 kilos that you're saving and that is it's fairly high up in the in the car there I think that that does also make a little bit of a difference but the thing is when you're looking for a car like this and you want the bbr tuned one if a car comes up you have to get it I would be interested to try one which doesn't have that and see if it gives it a little bit more of that live feeling that I'm craving that I think is still missing on this despite the shocks and everything else and now shocks currently are set up so they're set up for you know at their softer setting to be good on the road stiffened up I'm sure it would get some more tightness and that extra feeling of weight cuz you'd you'd feel the weight transfer less but I think as it is it is just about right for a British B- road so I'm not sure that just stiffening up would be the right thing for everyday use thank you so much to Spencer for bringing this down if you want to see a couple of other possibilities of modifying mx-5s have a look at this um some two very different approaches there but both have their charms thank you so much and see you for the next video
