When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Ciao everybody, I am italian and I live in Padova, near Venice.
I have a red 1991 MX5 from new. Yes, it was my father's graduation present (!) and I kept and loved since!
I made it a BBR Turbo in 1994 and I use it when on holiday in the hilly south italian mountains.
It has 240K kilometers on the clock, goes like a rocket and looks amazing!
I am also a mechanical engineer with strong vehicle and engine experience (Aprilia, Ferrari, Lotus, Norton, Fantic) and happy to contribute!
BBR is a British tuner who developed in 1992 a turbo kit to upgrtade the performance of the MX5.
The kit was developed with the technical support of Mazda UK and it was also made available at the UK Mazda dealers, allowing to buy a MX5 BBR Turbo that would retain the 2 years manufacturer warranty.
I bought and fit the kit myself in 1994 and I run 170.000 kmwith it with no issue whatsoever.
the kit uses standard pistons,conrod and Comp Ratio, so performance is limited to 150hp and reliability is not affected. Mazda even kept its original warranty!
Hi Vittorio, and welcome! Nice car! Well done on your long term ownership too.
That might have been the model for the Australian 'SP' variant, a Garrett on an NB8B, developed by Mazda's motorsport arm here (they did an SP RX7 prior), otherwise standard except for rechipped ECU (not even an LSD!). 100 sold through dealers.
Funny you should say that, I have driven there! Sadly, it was a Golf diesel wagon, not the MX5, though I did briefly get a ton out of it on the autobahn which was ... interesting. Also interesting were the mountain passes coming down from Germany to Verona, and a Golf-coloured smear of paint on a section of the armco up there .
Ciao from Italy!
2
.
