Hi Folks,

Finally snapped a couple of pics of the new car at the weekend up at Fosse park.

Had the car for two whole weeks now and I LOVE it. Its quiet, plenty of power and sticks to the road like baby poo to a blanket. Clearly its very different to the old BJ, but in a good way.









Mods are going to be light..

Done so far:
Tints on back three
Debadged the rear
Scanguage and ipod connector etc
HKS Panel filter and 'airbox mod'
LED bulbs where appropriate
MS CF Weighted knob
New leather nice gaiter
Black lug nuts
Painted hubs and calipers
replaced hideous orange US market sidemarkers with smoked ones (still to hook to sidelights)
Streetunit res cap
Tinted UK Side indicators

To come:
Forge recirc valve
Probably some new rims - tempted with some more rotas but need to sell the BJ ones - not until summer anyway
Braided lines and 3G discs and decent pads - when oems dead or badly worn anyway (all tyres and front brakes brand new at the moment)
Toyos
Bonnet risers
MS Oilcap
Black flying wings badges

Maybe one day:
Downpipe
custom zorst - stainless cat back
Remap

The car has done just on 28k now and has a couple of chips and scrapes but nothing some TLC cant resolve. The interior is leather and very good condition. Its has a multispeaker BOSE system with a woofer and cruise control etc. About the only thing I can thing of missing is a set of heated front seats...

Not sure how much people know about this model? Its sold in the US as a Mazdaspeed 6. Its a AWD 2.3l Turbo. I think the published figures are 260bhp at the wheels - front wheel drive until rwd required so its not quite so bad on petrol. I really struggled to think of what to replace my BJ with and came across this model on an old topgear on Dave.
I did testdrive a 3MPS (fwd only) but found it very squirmy and 'unstable' feeling. I didnt neccessarily want a bigger car - but sincerely no complaints!

Main aim with this one is to keep it subtle - so no noisey induction or zorsts. No-one seems to know what the car is and other than the different bulged bonnet its pretty sublte in terms of bodykit I think. The bulge hides an internal scoop for the topmount intercooler.

I'm still very much in 'scared of the car' mode at the moment!

Hope you approve?

Clarky

Very nice chap

Nice subtle mods also Lorne

Grey again ! Looks nice fella. Keep the pictures coming

Yuk...the worst nastiest car on the road in the worst colour possible








only kidding man, I am soooo jealous, that's just the one kbob and I would / will have

very very nice mate, looking forward to getting a ride in it next month

Cheers guys!

Darren - i'm trying to be subtle in my old age mate!

Errnee - its this grey thing... its an additction!

Mark - i'm seriously tempted to book both in - 6 and the MX in for a day with you soonest... will drop you a PM

Clarky

Very nice car there, maybe lower it at the front too?
Good list of mods though, enjoy!

Cheers - really dont want to lower it - the rides just loverly.

can a remap bring it to 300 easily?

there is only two things i'd change about the 6 mps, 260 (or is it 256 or whatever) is an odd number and annoys me because its not rounded to a nice number..... like 300

and the standard alloys are the worst alloys i've ever seen, its like something someone has made with b&q aluminiium strips and a welder

they are quite big and bulky compared to a standard 6, really brute sledgehammer mean but in a 'only if you know what it is' kind of way

i like!

i remember watching the topgear episode with it and is it the mondeo st220 and vectra vxr and they were getting some silly angles on the bends, clarkson loved it if i mind right! looked fun!

LUV IT!

Only car better than a mazda 6 in my opinion. I like my galant but its nowhere near as nice to drive as a m6!

Remap to 290bhp

FMIC and zorst takes it to 320bhp

ahh....... so clarky's getting an fmic and exhaust then and after him saying he wouldn't

I went out for shit-your-pants drive in it last week. Bloody rapid car, and goes round anything... can't wait to see what you do with it Clarky!

Yep 300 is very easy with a 500quid remap - BUT ITS NOT HAPPENING

I wasnt keen on the rims from the before buying it pics, but theyre not quite as ugly in the flesh. Lets get past the nasty weather first then have a think. The fact that it has brand new tyres the week before I bought it slows me down a little too.

Clarky

don't lie! it is happening! soon!

Welllll - lets see shall we!

Looks amazing in the flesh. . .

Nice one Clarky


Mark

I wish I spent a bit more time taking a look over your new motor Clarky as well as Alans RX8 both beautiful cars.

Only thing I have against it is the alloys, I don't think the multispoke alloys work with it too well.

I actually keep an eye out for the bonnet bulge now, I was behind / infront of one on the way home last week and thought I was going to get a show, turned out to be a middle aged woman and I overtook her, very disappointing

The alloys are a little odd - kinda 90's cosworth looking somehow. The first MPS i looked at had them done in black and they were sort of ok..

The annoying thing is that the alloys are in great condition so no real excuse to do anything to them and the tyres are brand new. So plan probably is to make do for the moment until I can afford some summer rims then probably get the standards done gunmetal for the nasty weather.

Looking at Rotas again and in deep discussion with Rarerims as the size means a limited range fits. A lot of people put RX8 rims on them, but im not keen on the look. Alans gonna sell his RX late this year so Ill nab his winter wheels/snow tyres as they'll be perfect and make the MPS unstoppable in all but very deep snow.

Since you saw it it's had the front lip done with the garage door trim - looks great in my humble - again subtle but effective. Also wired in the bumper sidemarkers to be sidelights. Kate has bought me a private plate for my birthday so waiting on the paperwork coming back to get that on.

Forge recirc valve when I get paid and I'm in a group buy for some braided lines and short shift adaptor plate. need to fit my nautilus airhorn too. Luckily I'm not modding it. Oh - and got the scanguage to show boost and MS oilcap arrived.

Clarky

Yeah seen a few rx8 rims on the mps and it actually suits it been than the standard ones! Makes it look harder even tho you'd hardly think it was possible!

I spose I could just go try Alans ... get it over and done with...

We'll see - not gonna rush - loads of time until JAE!

Horn on today - usual self harming with sharp bits of undertrim... Also smoked rear bumper reflectors.

Clarky

a gunmetal grey / black would help with them, I normally have nothing bad to say about Rotas but it's hard to image them on the 6 to be fair, it's more a grown up car if I'm making any sense

Yep know exactly what you mean ... found this pic the other day:



So guess what I'm thinking. With a little inspiration from Ernnee (without him even knowing) I have found a cheap set of rims that need attention. So ill spend some evenings sorting them out and I'm thinking gunmetal grey.

I've seen just black and it looked suprisingly naff on the Titanium grey - so dont want to do that. I ended up with the Sport getting mazdaspeed stickers to break up the 'blackness' on the standard rims. I didnt do a bad job of the ones that Matty now has either... so a bit more confident about doing these ones.

And it'll keep me out of trouble with the Mrs for not busting the bank!

Clarky

ME!?! Garage door lip by any chance

Hah - thats twice then!

Garage door lip already done mate! Was done within a week of getting the car.... Cheap and nice when finished. Even my mate Alan who told me it'd look poo had to admit it suits the car.

Nope - this is another inspriration!

Clarky

that pic looks like a right bruiser! but the wheels don't go in my opinion! and they actually look wee in those huge arches! which if they are rx8 ones which they look like is 18s!

front end is spot on! although no sure if you really need the eyebrows, they don't really add or take away anything from the car, they are just "there"

Standard rims are 18s mate so the rixer rims are a direct swap. I wouldnt touch the eyebrows either.

I'm liking the rims, but as said gunmetal grey...

So rims are here and in deep discussions with a powder coating place thats local to me. I also found a place in Burton that specialises in wheels and can do a bead blast-powder coat and transfer the tyres all in a single visit... tempted.

I've no issue with the rattle cans, just wonder if powder coating would make more sense for cleaning and longevity etc...

Also in deep discussion on the mps owners club about short ram intakes and turbo inlet pipes...

Clarky

Powder coating is best, as it will get everywhere, and leave no egdes, especially around the rim, where you could get issues in the future when it comes to the need for new rubber - not many places have a touchless tyre machine

Yeah thats kinda the conclusion I was coming too - the place does fancy finishes too like black chrome etc... might just go for anthracite though.

I've had track wheels powder'd before and they are uber easy to clean... think mind is made up.