Total MX-5 – July 2019

Summer 2019 | TOTAL MX-5 |^43

recapture the lightweight, pure driving
thrills of the original MX-5, I was
seriously impressed and excited to see
how his passion translated into the
finished product.’
Tommy didn’t have long to wait. No
sooner was the model released in the US,
than Tommy had booked a test drive at
his local Mazda dealership. ‘As soon as I
actually drove it my mind was made up: I
had to have one!’ Tommy laughs.
‘Unfortunately, at the time the new cars
were a little out of my price range, so I
had an agonising wait for the model to
hit the used market.’
This sense of eager anticipation was
only heightened further when Tommy
got a sneak peek of Kei Miura’s
rendering of the mk4 with his freshly
designed Pandem wide-arch body kit. ‘I
had previously worked with Miura-san
on some video projects, so when we met
at the 2016 Tokyo Auto Salon, he showed
me his initial renders for the new kit,’
remembers Tommy. ‘I told him how much
I loved the car and that the kit really
suited the shape, serving to emphasise
the factory lines while adding a ton of
extra aggression into the mix.’
It wasn’t too long before Tommy found

Left: There aren’t too many

changes you can make to a mk4

cabin, but most of them are here

Above: It’s tight in the mk4’s

engine bay but the Turbosource

turbo conversion is a neat fit

Below: Cusco front strut brace is

a beefy bit of hardware and very

nicely finished