I Secretly Tuned My Mother’s MX-5 And Now She Wants A Turbo Conversion
Potty-mouthed poet Philip Larkin once said something very rude about how you inherit hang-ups from your parents. But in my case I’ve nothing but gratitude for the influence of my mum’s impulsive car-buying habits. It’s certainly seen some interesting and eclectic machinery pass through her hands and given me licence to pursue my own vehicular adventures without the usual parental tutting. After all, the mum who once took her Fiat Tipo in for a service and came back with a brand new Cinquecento Sporting can hardly scold you for blowing inherited money on an Eunos Roadster. Despite specific instructions not to.
The Cinquecento remains a high point in her car-buying history though, my brothers and I owing a huge debt of gratitude to the salesman who convinced her she’d be better off with that than a new clutch in her Tipo. Many of us start our driving careers in our mums’ cars, the freedom of gaining a licence set against the indignity of bimbling about in a base-spec Corsa or similarly uninspiring shopping trolley. But my mum had a hot hatch. If she wonders why one of her sons turned car geekery into a career and another just blew a chunk of cash on an Evo IV, she only has herself to blame.
After an Alfa Romeo 145 Cloverleaf that mysteriously came and went without me ever seeing it (I still don’t know what happened there), a bright yellow Punto Sporting, an NB MX-5 and a succession of smartly-specced modern Minis, she more recently celebrated retirement and becoming a grandmother in suitable style. Yes, faced with a new range of responsibilities including helping out with shuttling babies and toddlers she did the only sensible thing. And bought an ND MX-5 the day the car launched here in the UK.
She’d had her order in for a while without telling any of us. And on the day of delivery I was actually in Japan, driving the new MX-5 in its first motorsport outing in the annual Mazda Roadster media race at Tsukuba. I was chuffed to be the first Westerner to race the ND MX-5. And then the picture appeared on my phone of my mum taking delivery of the same on the other side of the world. Suffice to say this went down very well with my Mazda hosts.
She even got the right spec, that being the revvier, lighter 1.5-litre version in signature Soul Red metallic and on the dinky 16-inch wheels. The fact this car weighs barely a passenger more than my own 25-year-old Eunos and has comparable power-to-weight is nothing short of remarkable and one of the many reasons I admire Mazda’s dedication to keeping it real. Saying that, there’s no harm in a bit more power, so when UK Mazda tuner BBR announced its Super 160 upgrade for the 1.5, my step dad and I hatched a plan.
With a few hundred quid and a simple plug-in remap the BBR StarChip upgrade takes the 129bhp of your 1.5 up to the same 158bhp as the 2.0-litre while – obviously – maintaining the lighter, revvier nature of the smaller engine. Win-win. My stepdad met me at BBR’s Brackley base, the update was installed and my mum had – unwittingly – entered the world of aftermarket tuning.
“My car feels perkier than ever!” she beamed in the weeks following, the rasp of her Mazda pulling away from outside my house sounding just that bit more purposeful and committed. Finally my stepdad and I confessed to what we’d done and the BBR sticker we’d been supplied was fitted.
She pretended she was cross. And then within five minutes was asking “do they do louder exhausts?” And now there’s a 210bhp turbocharged BBR conversion for the 1.5 too. Turbo granny? Now she’s got a taste for it I wouldn’t rule anything out.
Comments
Haha this reminds me of 2004 when my mom bought a brand new FX35, sounded unreal back in the day. She would pick me and my brother from school and do a couple WOTs and tell me how shes just “listening to the sound of the exhaust”. Little me thought it would be fitting to take her car “for a wash” and in the process learn to drift a 4x4. Ahh good days..
I wish i had cool family members like that! Sounds like it was an awesome tine!
My parents own a 1.6TDi Skoda Fabia Estate (2011 version) and it was one of the diesel gate cars.
After a saga with the re-tune VW did (which included the EGR system committing seppuku 3 DAYS after it was done.. then £700 on VW’s costs to replace it) the car came back with absolutely no power.
As in it didn’t even want to pickup in 3rd beyond 60mph with your foot on the floor.
Convinced them to take it to Shark Performance.. and one remap later.. from 75bhp… to 138bhp.. they were rather happier with the car, to the point I’ve been in the car with my own mother almost smoking the front tyres accelerating out of a junction!
My family got rid of all the “future classics” before I was born and just before they started appreciating! Classic mini, classic fiat 500, triumph spitfire and e30 bmw were a few they got rid of too early!!
Always that way isnt it haha.
So many current classics that my father owned and sold over the years, too many to list!
2 205 GTI’s, an E36 328i, 3 door Sierra, couple of Capri’s, multiple Mini’s, Mk1 Cortina, 2 or 3 Escort Van’s, numerous Escort’s in various trim levels, 2 Nissan 100NX’s, a Porsche 924, a long wheelbase Jag XJ6, Ford Orion, 2 Ford P100’s, a Vauxhall Calibra, 2 Fiat 126’s, W202 C Class AMG, Primera SRI. The list goes on. He liked his duplicates haha
Wow
How to make your mom tolerate your car-guy money wasting
That’s amazing…then there’s me, no one in my family’s a petrolhead.
Cries in corner and thinks about finding a new family
Its great to have such a family, my mom loved driving with my 120d with 163hp, instead of her old golf tdi with 100hp. A week after i tuned it to 210hp and my sister took the golf, she drove the “new” 120d, she came back… From the bank… And gave me the exact amount of money i bought the 120d one year earlier and said i have to look for a new car, she keeps mine x)
what a family… my mom have once spin the back tires of our toyota avanza ( which you can see in my profile’s garage) when she launch the car at the trffic light, my granma which is a doctor at the age of 75 still drives on herself to the hospital in speed, if the roads were empty and traffic light still blinking yellow, she could crazily go up to 80 km/h