Brian's First ND Projects

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Chuck H
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by Chuck H »

Well, it looks like the "official" announcement has been made, and the 2.0L motor in the ND appears to be pretty seriously under-tuned. Seems like a header that flows better than the Mazda3 SkyActiv 4-2-1 catted pretzel might be a higher priority than originally thought! I'm really hoping Mazda was sandbagging a bit by releasing the 2013 Mazda3 power specs as the 2.0L ND specs, and that the released engine is going to be tuned up a bit more.
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Brian
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by Brian »

Surprised here too....I was optimistic about 170 range. Header design will be interesting to see. The header on the Mazda3 is not bad for a catted design...they get decent primary length compared to NC design. My hope now is that it looks much like NC so we know there is 20hp there to get.
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morrisg
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by morrisg »

Here are a lot of high res photos of the new ND. http://www.netcarshow.com/mazda/2016-mx-5/
I liked the tech photos of the body in white and engines near the end (photos 170 to 185). If you look closely at the two engines intake side you can see the b6 photo is the 1.5L and the b7 photo is the 2.0L with wider spacing on the intake manifold. The b9 photo is the money shot of the exhaust manifold and close coupled cat. Unfortunately, it looks as if Mazda again pinched the entry to the cat restricting flow. Well, Brian, looks like a nice power opportunity for one of your headers! Also looking forward to the first set of Ohlins, given the body roll I'm seeing in the Tail of the Dragon pics of the FCA white prototype. I think Mazda left a lot of opportunities on the table for upgrades. We'll see how the FCA engineers do with their version.
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by skeeler »

Good find, Morris.
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by Brian »

Yep, good find. But what I see is many times better than NC's factory crap header. Notice the primaries are much longer, perhaps 3 times longer than stock NC primaries, and cat is pushed down to lower flange. Thus, this factory ND header with polished stainless primaries looks more like our NC RoadsterSport catted header than it does the NC stock header (if we had done a tri-Y design for catted header on NC it would look much like this). One critical improvement over the NC stock header is that it appears to me that they change to oval shape tube after the first Y and into the merge, rather than pinch round tubes in half like NC header does. Thus my first blush analysis from this picture is not near as much free horsepower waiting there as the NC gave us with header swap.

I had hoped to see something more like the NC's garbage factory header so we could guess that 20 free horsepower was there for the taking, but from what I see here I cut that guess in half to about 10 horsepower ..hopefully we can find more on the dyno. Another unfortunate discovery here is the way it is all packaged so close to the motor, look at the #4 bend in particular, that makes me concerned about how much space we have to work with bigger primaries given that ND's motor is so far back it is almost in the dash.
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DavidP953
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by DavidP953 »

Love the look of the exterior, but can't take the power downgrade. It will be interesting if the engine bay can take a better engine, but of course that option isn't affordable for most people. The downgrade to four lug wheels is problematic as well. It speaks to reduction of weight by using a weaker drive train married to a less powerful engine. I am glad I have my 2013 Club. It may end up that the NC2 is the sweet spot in MX-5s. That would be a shame. Now, about a Lotus Elise type vented replacement hood for the NC ... :D
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Re: Brian's First ND Projects

Post by Brian »

There is NO power downgrade, that is the biggest ND myth....

The slight difference in top end peak power is MORE than offset with MUCH GREATER TORQUE area under the curve with the ND. Total area under the curve is the best understanding of total power. It is torque that you feel pushing you back in the seat and because there is MUCH more area under the torque curve with the ND motor, it will feel faster off the line....it will feel faster when you punch throttle from middle of the rpms, and it will be faster 0-60, 0-100, etc. In particular, watch for the 40 to 60 time comparisons, the extra mid range torque will make the ND easily win passing power contests with the NC (the NC will need to downshift to compete, the ND won't need the downshift).
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