Our local region hosts a championship autox event the weekend after SCCA Solo Nationals and my MX5 is not home yet so I throw the Hotchkis rear sway bar and some tools into the car and head to Qualcomm Stadium. Tires are very old 225/45-17 BFG Rivals on 17x7 Kosei wheels taken from my Mazda. Two tires were already blistered so I put those on the back. 50 psi front, 35 psi rear.
The swaybar bracket holes are slotted bigger than I think they should be and I did not have new bolts or any washers . After my runs I discovered that the bolts were barely loose with one being backed out about 1/4". This may be one reason why the car slightly tightened up during my runs. I re-torqued all the bolts and two days later everything seems fine - no stripped nuts or damaged threads. A future trip to the hardware store will get me some new bolts and large washers. Also gonna keep my eye on the bushings and brackets as I think the left one is looser than it should be - replacements are $20 / pair. I positioned the endlinks on the soft outer setting for today's adventure. Stock swaybar weight is 6.75 lbs.
The stereo subwoofer is unique for the Type-S and is secured in the spare tire with one long bolt. I removed it all to save weight. The subwoofer can be installed without the wheel/tire but is much more solid when assembled as designed. With the factory supplied hardware, the spare tire cannot be properly secured without the subwoofer. The spare is reported to weigh 28.5 lbs. and the subwoofer is reported to weigh 6.5 lbs.
The driving experience was better than I thought. The course had a few long straights and fast kinks with a couple slow sweepers and a small slalom. I was able to stretch the legs of the K20 engine and it pulled hard and smooth all the way to rev limit. The brakes worked fine for what I assume is OE equivalent pads and old brake fluid. ABS is too intrusive and something that I will have to adapt to. With positive front camber and practically zero caster, the handling is what I expected - pushy - and as mentioned above an 'active' rear swaybar probably did not help. The old tires certainly did not help as the fronts blistered, peeled, and corded about half way through our session.
Hood open between autox runs to help cool the engine I notice oily fluid sprayed beneath the power steering reservoir. Might be a leak at the lower non-pressurized hose but I cannot find a problem. Fluid is full and PS works fine. Engine oil is full also; no leaks. After my third run I notice the engine note has changed and minor vibrations can be felt through the gas pedal. I press on with uncertainty fearing the worst and complete my runs and park it in the pits to cool down. Post event bench racing with the hood up we notice the engine side (passenger) motor mount is damaged - the oily mess is from the fluid filled mount and the vibrations are from the busted mount being metal-to-metal. Such a relief to know it was nothing worse.
