You should be quite proud of what you've built there with the Mongrel. It's certainly the model of what you can do if you persevere in the face of insurmountable troubles.

Nice exposition on the difference good tyres make! I remember in my 'yoof' in the '90's being stopped by a copper while I had some, erm, 'marginal' tyres on my car, he gave me an excellent piece of advice I've never forgotten - he told me: "All your brakes do is stop the wheels; it's the tyres that stop the car". And he never even fined me or gave me points either! It worked - I've always had good tyres ever since and I wish all coppers were like that guy!

No matter what, that car is so cool. So happy it's trouble free. That car that left you in the straight away must have been extremely surprised when you came up behind him in the chicane area. He may have affected your track time a second or so as well. Thanks again Matt, for bringing us along.

I was watching the video thinking i wouldnt be able to push a car of that era so hard without a full on roll cage.... Then i noticed it has a proper cage. Thats an amazing install you can barely tell its even there. Some great fabrication and thought have gone into that. Catching that civic with ease in the corners

It still sounds glorious. Too bad you can't participate in a match race, but who else has Mushy Peas.

Great video and insight into your setting it up. Car looks fantastic 👍

interesting tire comparison Matt. Damn that is a nice car just as it is.

Top content again Matt 😎❤️❤️❤️❤️

have not been here for a while you did an incredible job on your car love it stay safe

This is fantastic mate 👌 lovely car 🙏

That mongrel sounds lovely ripen round that circuit. 👍👍👍.

Great update share on the improvements.

Awesome sound , awesome driving, awesome car. Well done Matt. 👍

Caldwell Park, I think you will like it there. I've raced there in the Healey Series and it suits the smaller cars. Good luck.

It certainly appears to fly round the track Matt, looks fantastic!

Magic job Matt been following the whole build on this, love what you have achieved mate, pretty cool if you ask me, and yes it looks like a mongrel meaning tuff, looking forward to seeing more cheers KC Tasmania Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺🤝🇬🇧🇬🇧😎🙂👍

With a consistent car you can hone your skills to suit the machine, and a reliable car makes you a more pleasant person to the rest of the world. You can do this for yourself or the cheerleaders, best of luck Matt.

Awesome 👍🏻 you will get it sorted with the gearing 😀🤙🏼👍🏻👍🏽

Matt you’ve nailed it I love this little car reliable fun and your channel always brings a smile every episode ,if it’s fabs or car builds it’s great good luck at Cadwell watch the leap very light at the top but great fun been round in 3.5 works rep Rover long time ago interesting 👍👨🏻‍🏭

3.5 seconds a lap quicker! That's a fantastic improvement, and just from the tyres. I'm sure you can find a way of tweaking a bit more out of the engine too. 😊👍

That Focus in the beginning of the video really put The Mongrel's size into perspective!

Keeping the Mongrel N/A warms my heart. Now you just need to tune it to the max. Making power N/A is an art form, a learning journey that I fully recommend on taking. There is still a lot of power to be freed from that engine, although the 4.3 final drive ratio also helps.. If there is enough power band on the top end to actually push the car further than the current top speed.

Informative video 👍 can't wait for the cadwell park video my local track 😃 the mini green hell 😂 you should do well round there have fun 💪👊

That's a good improvement Matt, out of experience of owning a Mk2.5 Mx-5 I always felt the 6th gear a bit 'lacking' and grippier tyres would have a greater rolling resistance ?....Just keep it nailed in 5th!....lol.... Fair play for wanting to keep it N/A too, one thing that did show was with the Mx-5 underpinnings you made up time in the corners!

Good improvement for just a tyre change, sounds great at full chat.

Definitely something to be said about having a vehicle that you can just track all day long. The different diff ratio might make you faster, but the downside is more gear changes. Same happens on the little bikes I've been playing with, change to 1 tooth smaller in the front and pick up some acceleration to pull out of the corners better. Never hit rev limit in top gear on the little tracks I've been on, so not an issue.

I wish someone was with me when I watched this, I said 3 seconds when the guy gave the go ahead onto the track. Very satisfying to see her run, I still can't get over how sweet she sounds, there is a clip with a newer car in front, kind of a high pitch whine, then the Mongrel a nice deep throaty hum and another car behind again a high pitch sewing machine for me it is a night / day difference in which sound I prefer. I cast my vote to keep it Natural. Well Done and Thank You for sharing with us.

Great vid 🙏🏻🙏🏻🔥 next time try R888r vs AR1 , great comparison

The sound must stay 🍻

Go on my son good going fella 👍 👏

Three seconds and more confidence in the feel,good result. As said now approaching the cost too improvement juggling as if the car can now use the power it has then getting more gets expensive and then the car may need further mods to handle the increase.

Well done Matt. The tires def a step in the right direction. A turbo or charger is too much heat plus there's a lot of pride, my opinion, of having it all engine. So yeah, 5 speed it is. Love the car, love the channel.

love the car, and its a mazda...nothing can go wrong

You are spot on Matt. The Mongrel will make you a better driver forcing you to find every ideal line and nail braking points. If you do add power later you will know the car like the back of your hand. Enjoy the reliability 😁

You took the words out of my mouth. A 5 speed box, to me, sounds like the way to go. Should be light, too. I noticed that when you came out of a certain r/hander, you had more grip and it wasn't drifting off, so you don't lose time over correcting the drift.

Yeah, tinker with ratios first and then do mods to the cyl head as needed . Raising the compression 1 point and some porting with bigger inlet valves will be interesting

Great car and always great vids. A bit wollowy through church and with a bit of chassis tinkering you might have another second or two. Try it a bit stiffer in the back and play with disconnecting the front roll bar.👍

Cadwell is an awesome circuit, enjoy!

I used to rave about Toyo tyres, always used to be vert predictable. Fitted T1-R to my st150 and swapped them out half way through there life, I’d almost go as far as saying there no better than cheap ditch finders.

Have you considered putting an RX8 diff in there? 4.4:1 and it's and LSD.

Fun!

Premium noise indeed. Please help me out. Did Matt build the Mongrel on a 1.6 Miata or a 1.8 one? I own both a 85kW Miata and a 96kW and I'd love to help out. On the Diff matter. Yes, the six Speed is useless compared to the five speed though it can manage a bit more power. If the mogrel is a 1.8 car, there is no 4.3 Differential. That's because the 4.3 was for the 85kW 1.6 Generation NA with a 6" ring gear even as VLSD those are avoided as those units are already struggling with handling the power. When the NA generation of Miata got its facelift and the 1.8L became available, Mazda switched to the 7" 4.1 Diff (and even a 3.6 one). Shorter ratios are possible though with Kia parts swapping out ring and pinion of a 7" differential achieving a 4.6 ratio. There are guides out there, way better than my comment. I am very happy with my 96kW Miata with a 5 speed and the 4.1 Differential.

TURBO!!! You know you want to!

I agree with you it needs to stay NA that noise 🤤🤤🤤.

3 seconds is decent enough ! noice

Flying !! 😘

Crown wheel and pinion out of any Mazda pick ups or vans fit in the diff? Might worth your while to ask a Mazda breaker.

I really like the R888r. I didn't notice any difference between the R888r and Nankang AR1 even though the AR ate about 4kg heavier. AR1 are about 10mm wider so that may help. AR1 are also nearly half the price.

Doesn't the 2 liter engine from the later models fit? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it based on the Ford duratec and so easy tunable.

It’s great to follow your channel, but looks like at high speed at the start of mid corner you could go a couple of clicks stiff on rear suspension, or more negative camber on the rear which will stabilise at higher speed on turn in to your apex. Good luck fella cheers.👍

Were the previous laps on the T1Rs with the bad alignment or did you track it again after getting that sorted?

I don't really care about the tires I just love seeing the Mongrel doing what's its designed to do, being hammered around the track.

You could maybe adapt a Honda K20 to bolt up to the MX-5 box?

When you have so little power the rolling resistance of stickier tires makes a difference and if its wider and heavier it gets worse.

Excellent result. If you want to keep it NA have you thought about the 2.5 Duratec (mazsa L) swap?

Looks fun as hell, just need a little more power

Could you add a bit more ignition advance at top revs to improve the power under heavy load in 6th?

How about a 2.3 Mazda engine for more torque?

2.5 duratec ?

What improvement would you see if you replaced the rims for ones that Toyo recommend for the tyres?

Have you tried your different length inlet runners yet?

Very interesting obviously you've got the handling sorted I'd go 5 speed first...

👍👍👍

Is it possible to replace 6th with a shorter gear? Perhaps 5th as well? Keep you a lil more in the powerband in the high end? I've heard the 6 speed is a much stronger box than the 5 if that's true you may want to try and keep it. Also, couldn't you go aftermarket for the ring and pinion?

Nobody ever expected a 100e to get down the tarmac in that fashion mate. Those three seconds looked fast as F*** on camera bro! And if you were following your previous self it looks like you would be quite late to the finish line on the previous tyres?LOL. The one thing I was inspired to mention; is that rollcage up to spec for those speeds? Ha ha ha. (May you never find out either way by testing it! ) That's it, Cheers.

You should have tried the nangkang AR-1 after R888R..

That's a big step forward in lap time.

One thing I noticed from the in car camera was that you weren't having to correct the car except for one time!!! PS ,lm with everyone else, love that car,and enjoyed the build. How 'tired ' is the motor, seeing as it was second hand???

SHE IS SUCH A SWEET LITTLE LOOKER !!!

Car looks great 👍I don't know if you guys had the fe 2l engines or if they were common enough, it's a great engine for this. Maybe a bit heavier. Still able to use the same gearbox etc.

She Looks the tits flying round the track Matt, sooo fantastic!! Doing lots of little things to scavenge more power can be lots of fun and lots of 1-2 hp tricks make a huge difference overall. Having it thrashed and reliable is hugely rewarding ;D. Well done!

Use the Ford motor from the chevette 👍

Those Honda Type R's aren't exactly slow in the corners but you were raking him in. Nice driving!! When you're board of the 1.8 how about the Jag v6 conversion. Should increase the power to 250bhp on bodies. It'd make more content and would be a great upgrade with a screaming V6!!!

How about you diy skim the cylinder head , raise the compression and switch to e85 for decreased chance of detonation . See how that goes without spending much money .

Thruxton and combe are flat out fast circuits, cadwell will produce some giant killing chances 🤣 i have a turbo and naturally aspirated pair of track cars too and the N/A has finished every track day for the last 15 years, the turbo hasn’t finished one of the three it started. Turbo one is saab powered btw 🙄

what day you gonna cadwell i might fly through for day

The car does look great on track the colour and stance is excellent. You could always to the route of rocketeer MX5 and fit a jag/Ford V6

When will you be doing more workshop jobs,fabrication videos.

Hear me out .... Nitrous . Wet shot on a button just for when you start to bog at WOT up the hill. Nice n easy with dorts!

Cadwell the best track in the UK for 200 ish bhp........its down to the driver

Mmmmmm mushy peas!

Brakes : A bit further exploring required. Best bang for buck. ...and for the love of Zeus, get your rev matching sorted on your downshifts, please ✌️😁

On that long straight you need a shot of nitrous. Give you an extra 20kmh

I'm pretty sure all gearboxes are 1:1 in top no matter how many gears they have so changing to a five speed won't fix the final drive ratio and will make it harder to keep the engine in the power band because you won't have such a close ratio between each gear.

Urch any paying customers for the Gym yet?

Easiest fix, is shorter tires!

Sounds a gearing related issue more so than power. Keep it NA!

What about a 4.44 LSD from an rx8 ? Should be plenty available from all the rotters and Cars with shagged wankels. Would take a little bit of fab work to mount it in the subframe but driveshaft and axles appear to bolt up. Shouldn't be an issue for a man of your calibre.

K24 swap? So many US Miata guys are doing it lately.

Turbo should solve it too

NA with a big ol tank of laughing gas is still NA right? Do ittttt

Toyo have given you tyres but they've also screwed up the equation. Too tall.Go back to a smaller size and get the most out of the gearbox.You'll have faster down the line speed and that's where the lap time improvements come from. But I get it, you want to have fun. The car is overshod. A narrower tyre will give you heaps of fun and much more warning.

Where is me rev counter you promised?...... 😢 LAG

A turbo would cure your lack of power.

get a exhaust whistle must be 500hp in those alone lol

As an American, I don’t understand the concept of a right hand turn in racing. Awesome build btw!

So mongrel. Yet so purebred.