Summer 2019 | TOTAL MX-5 |^595[ READER’S RIDE ]
She just laughed and asked me what on
earth I’d done! But she has come to really
enjoy it and we’ve gone on some fair
weather jaunts out to the Lake District
and elsewhere: we could have shown up
in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari and made
less of an impact. People laugh and
smile and take pictures; there’s just
something really special about the way
this car looks and everyone loves it.’
Tim allows us a little drive around the
block and we instantly get the appeal of
this madcap conversion. It’s a weird mix
of the familiar and the amusingly out of
kilter. Yep, there’s a mk2 MX-5 body, but
it’s a long way up to get into the driver’s
seat. Once you’re up there then the
cockpit is much as you’d expect, bar the
addition of a CB radio set which is
another nod to the monster truck scene.
Fire up the 1.8-litre VVTi engine and you
find it a bit throatier than standard
thanks to a Pipercross sports air filter
and the rortier exhaust system, while
performance is as you’d expect.
But your perspective from the driver’s
seat soon plays gentle havoc with your
senses. You’re looking straight into the
windows of vans and over the top of
hedges: pedestrians are looking up at
you! In the upper part of your peripheral
vision you keep glimpsing that big light
bar with its Hella spots, while your ears
are lightly assailed by a hum from the
chunky tread blocks of those trailblazer
tyres; you quickly learn that the increase
in road noise is worth it for the ability to
sneer at even the biggest potholes.
It’s a very different sort of MX-5
experience but the essence of Mazda’s
evergreen roadster remains – it’s just
plain fun. It makes you dream of heading
off to a beach or a desert and just
playing around in the sunshine.
Despite that huge appeal, in the time
since we visited Tim he’s sold the car. ‘It
generated a massive 15,000 views and
600 watchers on eBay, which was quite a
shock. The interest was insane,’ says Tim.
‘It sold to a guy near Windsor, so it now
spends its life cruising around Central
London in the sunshine, causing absolutemayhem according to the new owner.
‘He took his son out in it the other day,
and left it street parked near the Natural
History Museum in west London, and he
returned to a small crowd of fascinated
admirers and tourists...
‘A car that was built for the mountain
passes and beaches of Cumbria, has
ended up in the one place where it will
likely be even more at home: generating
far more interest than expensive exotica
on the streets of London.
‘Why did I sell it? Well, much like
assembling those Tamiya radio
controlled cars, the fun was in the build
for me, and whilst the Mazda was an
absolute riot to drive and own, I can’t sit
still for too long without a project.
‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I have just
spotted a Porsche Boxster that
desperately looks like it needs the off-
road treatment...’Clockwise from top left: The
mk2’s cabin has been left
largely untouched, except for
the addition of a CB radio to
carry on the monster truck
theme; Tim fabricated his own
light mount for the overhead
Hellas; also fabricated was the
front nudge bar, which doubles
as a mount for the quartet of
Hella driving lamps – night
vision isn’t a problem in this
car; 100mm was cut out of all
the arches which were then
seam-welded for a decent
finish. The steel wheels are
fabricated from Renault van
items while those chunky tyres
are just mad!