The Blue Peril is a late-early MK1 Eunos Roadster. It’s a 1993 build car – one of the last available in Mariner Blue; all of the 1989-1993 cars came with a 115BHP 1.6 engine. It also happens to be my colour of choice. It’s perfect in the low light of autumn or just out of direct sunlight. Having a fresh coat to tidy it up certainly helps, as does applying a ludicrous amount of wax.
What’s special about this one is I’m the first UK owner. It was imported in March 2016 which means that the underside is completely rust free and the control arms all look near brand new. It’s amazing what salt does to these little cars. That being said, the fastidious nature of the Japanese will have something to do with it too.
It had to be like this because I don’t intend to ever part with this machine—If I can help it.
But that’s not the only reason it had to be a good one—there isn’t much point in bolting on beautiful parts onto a rusty pile. I know it works for Roadkill, but that’s TV stuff—this is real life. That’s not to say I’m a 5-snob, but I like my arches and sills solid and the spot welds intact. I’ve been bitten before by rust and it’s not an experience I want to relive.
Now that’s out of the way, you’ll have guessed by the blog that we have a keen interest in hot-rodding. There is perhaps something comical about a bunch of millennials ‘hot-rodding’ a hairdresser’s car with sub 2 Litres of displacement. I suppose that’s just the time we live in— it doesn’t mean it isn’t any less fun or rewarding.
The beauty of living in a tech heavy time is we get to approach challenges differently. From learning how to design parts in 3D space and printing them out, to building and tuning your own ECU. Our ability, our potential, is only limited by our imagination.
At the moment the Peril’s specification is;
- 1993 1.6 NA6CE
- MS Labs MS3 Basic
- IAT Sensor
- MAP Sensor
- Wideband Sensor
- BMW Style VTPS
- AFM Delete – K&N
- 52MM Aluminium Radiator (Ebay)
- Silenced De-Cat
- Racing Beat Race Mid Pipe
- Racing Beat Power Pulse Muffler
- Miester R Zeta-S Coilovers
- SkidNation Frame Rails
- Type 1 4.3 Torsen with Competition Bushings
- 5 Speed Gearbox
It’s running standard Mk2 15″ Wheels shod in Bridgestone RE002 in 195 50 15.
I’m playing with the alignment at the moment but as of right now the settings are:
Front Toe Out 0.06
Front Castor: Maximum (5.8)
Front Camber: -0.6
Rear Camber: -2.0
Rear Toe In: 0.20
I’ll go into detail on the reasoning for the setup in a later post. A at the moment the only thing I’m considering doing is bringing front camber up to -1.25, as it has a tendency to push rather than oversteer unless you’re applying some power.
The rear toe makes it very stable at cruise. The biggest thing here is the castor, which ensures that the dynamic camber i.e. camber gain in corners is high. The car really does hold a line very well around a corner or a roundabout for example—it’s a very neutral setup at the moment.
So, you might ask why am I running standalone management i.e. the MS3 – for an NA car?
As previously mentioned, this is not my first 5. My first – another 1.6 also in Mariner Blue now appropriately named Blueberry Crumble—was going receive a 1.8VVT engine. Which I had obtained for a bargain price whilst the car was off the road for winter. That was until it met an unfortunately sordid and crumbly end.
You need standalone management to do a swap like that if you’re not planning on swapping the whole engine harness, ECU, ignition barrel, immobiliser and keys. It’s not a simple swap because it requires extensive wiring modifications to the 1.6 harness.
I’ll get on to that in more detail another day. You might ask why go to all the trouble of doing an engine swap? Granted, it would take the car from 115bhp to around 160bhp with the supporting mods. The VVT engine was always destined for some form of boost, likely supercharged.
And that’s still the plan. At the moment I’m enjoying the performance benefits of NA mega squirt and if anything it’s a fun learning experience. Most days I’m tinkering with the laptop on the passenger seat.
In the next “Show us your bay” we’ll get Leigh on with Gail the Snail showing you all about a TD04 Turbo install on a 2.5 VVT.
If you have any questions about how to convert your 1.6 MX5, Eunos or Miata to running Megasquirt or even how to swap a 1.8 VVT into an NA6CE chassis, please get in touch via the contact us page, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
