Turning an Mazda MX-5 Into an Off-Road Beast | Speed Freaks

This time, Seth gets to grips with traction as Pendline moves ever closer. — I love it. — And the Speed Freaks has set their own off-road challenge. — This is the secret weapon for this machine. — So far, Ze has researched power, handling, and technology and their impact on performance. But none of what he's learned will mean anything if he can't get any grip on the beach. This week we're going to explore traction. You can have all the power in the world, but if you can't put the power to the ground, you just sit there and spin the wheels. Reaching speeds of 200 mph is difficult for nearly all cars. 200 on sand is a very different story. — Finding the tires for the beach is very difficult. So, I'm going to need really good research to find the right tires for the beach that can withstand the forces of the speed that we're doing. — Ze is taking his record attempt car out of its comfort zone and onto the beach. Before he does, he needs to learn more about traction, which is why he's setting the Speed Freaks their new challenge. — I actually think the team are going to be quite happy when I bring this to them because they'll know more than anyone that this is a car you can do a lot of fun stuff with. and the crew could do with a bit of fun. — I don't have any idea what Kai is going to bring us this week. — It's bound to be something rusty. with a tiny little engine. And — no, they've all been so random. — He didn't really give us a clue this week either. — This little red car. I know when I show them they're going to have all the ideas in the world of what they're going to do to this, but it's not going to be my ideas. — What we got this week? There's always some twist to it. — It's not bad. — That's not bad. I got you, Red. — This is more our cup of tea. — This is a 1999 Mazda MX5. — Yeah, baby. — This is a very, very popular car because it tends to deliver and handle really, really well. And I know what you're thinking right now. I know where you want to go with this. — That's where we're going, isn't it? Oh, — it's Zap, isn't it? There's always a surprise. So, — yeah, — this could be a great drift car. It track car. We've actually got a good base project here. This has potential. — If they think this is going to be easy, they've got another thing coming cuz I'm going to set up a challenge. Probably the most difficult challenge out of the lot. — Here's the car. — Yeah. — Cool. — I think the problem with this car is it's too low. No, the wheels are too small. The suspension is not high enough. We're going to go big wheels. Imagine monster truck. And we're going to make this thing perform off-road as well as it looks onroad. — So, it being a roadster, we can call it the off-roadster. — Oh, yeah. — That's a big job. I don't know what to say about this. It's not what this car's supposed to do. — This is not going to be some flashy toy with big wheels on. This is going to have to perform. We're going to take it to a professional off-road track. And this has actually got to deliver. — Well, if I get my way, this thing will do a jump. — That's what I want to hear. So, I think, you know, we could be on to something pretty cool here. — Yeah. The Mazda MX5 is the bestselling sports car of all time. New, its 1. 8 L petrol engine produced 140 brake horsepower with a naught to 60 of 8. 4 seconds and a top speed of 129 mph. This affordable roadster's great chassis and handling has made it a big favorite on road and track, but definitely not a car you'd play top trumps with for its off-road ability. And that's why Zeph's chosen it for this week's challenge. This is an extreme off-road facility. More akin to off-road vehicles of the two-wheel variety. It's anyone's guess how the MX5 will do. — SE has brought us to Worershare to a motocross truck. — Wow, look at this. We brought the MX5 to this phenomenal off-road track to see what it can do. Should be interesting. It's got road tires. It's got a low center of gravity, low ground clearance. Yeah, it's going to be a mess. — Look at this amazing off-road track. What do you think? — I'm amazed you got this far, to be

honest. — I think it's going to fail abysmally. — So, you think that I've got no hope to get up the hill, don't you? — Yep. Got no hope. — I think you're definitely going to get further than these guys predict you're going to get. — Yeah. It's not that we don't have faith in you. the car. — Yeah. — It might get up the first hill. If it does, it could probably do about quarter of the track. But I think it's going to stop on the first hurdle to be honest. — I think you've got hope if you use a lot of that from here. Full throttle down the hill in the bank. Get it done. — So you think the floor it style, right? And cross your fingers is the style to use. That is the only style to use in this situation. Yeah, — if he doesn't attack it really fast, he's literally not going to get further than 20 m. — Timing. You might be there a long time, Simon. Got my stopwatch. — I haven't even got my stopwatch out. — Clever. Why? Okay, so let's give this MX5 a go. — Go on then. — Good luck. — It's wet. It's muddy. It's boggy. It's sticky. It's It's not the ideal conditions for a little red roadster. We're going to end up towing him out, I reckon. — Ze, are you ready? — I'm ready. I think I'm ready. — Three, two, one, go. HE'S going to make it further. Oh, deep. — How [screaming] what? — This is fantastic. Who would think Stars 5 with normal wheels could ever do this? Oh my god. Where's the jump? — Yeah. Go on. Go on. Incredible. — That was wicked. — It's not even trashed. — You're mad, man. — That was awesome. — Should have seen that air. — You owe me drinks tonight. — Blown away by the little beast. — This thing went round that track like a rocket. — You know what your best time was? — Minute and a half. Maybe — 57 seconds. — Broke a minute. — That's ridiculous. — Amazing. And did I get air off the You can see where you left the ground. It's amazing. Can't believe it. — And around the back, all we could see was this little white helmet bobbing into sight as he took us. It was amazing. — I mean, listen, have you secretly put four-wheel drive on the car? — No. Nothing you've done to it. — No. Just 6 psi less in the tires. That's it. — You took a little bit of pressure on the tires and you gave me obviously a safety harness and that was it. — Because we thought you were going to die. — We literally thought you were either going to roll over, crash, or something. So, we put a roll bar in and a harness. That's it. — Okay, guys. A 57 second run in this MX5. We've really set the benchmark high. — The challenge is now more difficult than ever. — Yeah. — You're going to go and make this into an MX5 offroster beast. — Yes. — Got smashed. — You think you can beat 57 seconds? — Easily. — Yeah. Easily. I mean, 10 seconds off the time. What do you reckon? — Yeah. I reckon I reckon — I reckon we're going to go big and we can make this little MX5 offroster do 10 seconds off your previous time. — 47 seconds. — It's on. — Bring it. — All right, guys. — Let's do it. — Let's go for it. With the pressure on, it's back to the garage to get their thinking caps on. Right. We've got this MX5 tiny little sports car and we've got to jack it up and make it into an awesome off-roader. — So, she's going to be called the off-roadster. — Exactly. — Like this style. — The biggest thing. Yeah, we need to put bigger tires on it. Some decent off-road swamper style things. Yeah. — No. — 31 in. — Oo, — that's large. — Big boys. A big thing on this is a suspension. We need to make it travel a lot more, have a lot more ground. We need to extend the arms to extend the track width. — We need a full suspension kit. I think we need to look at the gear ratio in the rear. — Okay. — Where we can shorten that to compensate for the much larger tires. — As well as that, we should go with stronger drive shafts cuz obviously the torque's going to be a lot more if we're changing the gear in. — And can we make it look a little bit off-roady? So, have some court archers put on it. — Make it look like a rage buggy or something like that.

— Yeah, that'd be amazing. — And if we're going down that route, maybe a light bar. — Yes, a light bar. All good off-roaders have light bars. — Blindingly opposition. — Yeah. And one note I am going to add to that is a smaller steering wheel cuz that standard steering wheel is pants basically. Right, I think we got the basic list of what we need to do there. I think we best get cracking and get this show on the road. — Got it. — So, the plan to make this Mazda a little off-road monster is cut new arches to fit big new deep tread tires for grip and traction, increase clearance with a lifting suspension kit, weld the diff for better traction, and strengthen the drive shaft to take the extra torque. Coming up, has Zeph tracked down the perfect treads for Pendai? — So lovely tires, buy old ones. — And he gets down and dirty in the ultimate off-roader. — I mean, it's just amazing. Pendine's 7mi stretch of beach may have the distance for land speed records, but in terms of traction, it's an off-road nightmare. Which is why Ze has set the Speed Freaks their new challenge, converting a two-seater sports car into an off-road monster. — And the first rule of off-roading is lift. So, the Speed Freaks have sourced a suspension lift kit for the Mazda. — It's very exciting. — It is. I love stuff like this. This is like back to school when I was building airfix kits, model tanks. I got a kit that turns these things into a mega mini monster truck. Basically, how nice these are. The suspension looks amazing. the actual shocks themselves. Really long travel. — The new suspension will give the Mazda 15 in of ground clearance and a whopping 14 in of travel. — Bolting everything up and putting the hubs on and everything like that. Looking how wide she's going to be. It's going to be awesome. — All of this should allow the car to tackle off-road obstacles with ease. — We've got all these new arms. They're extended and they're heavy duty as well for off-road use. The new suspension will be mounted to the car's subframe. — They don't come with any bushes, but in the kit, you get a full set of polyurethane bushes, which are amazing. Um, so we're just fitting these at the moment. — Bushes, though small, are critical to the function of the suspension. — They act as the interface between the arm and the mount, preventing metal on metal friction. — Similar, — what? — Why have we only got three 2694s? One bush missing compromises the entire system. — That's down TO YOU, T. — WHOA. NO, IT'S NOT. — Just got to the last few bushes and something wasn't adding up. Um, some of the bushes didn't look right and the inserts that go into the bushes didn't look right either. There was an even number of everything. Something's in the wrong hole. — It can't be. He got himself into such a pickle and tested my patience a little bit. — If there is one missing, it's going to be a bit of a mess. Well, it's not. You just cut it down a bit. — It's the same size hole. You just cut it down. Depends which one it is. — 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. — Just has his little moments. Bless him. — I'm just trying to concentrate. I'm not being a dick or anything. I'm just concentrating. — Okay. — That took up a lot of time which we don't have. Um, so yeah, stressed. With the Pendine record attempt fast approaching, the pressure is on to get the Porsche ready. No one knows this better than I, who's been tasked with turning the Turbo S into a history-making record breaker. A lot of work's already been done. Larger engine and turbochargers. Fuel system converted to E85. Cooling and braking systems upgraded. One of the main customized components are the new turbochargers. — So, we're now running a twin setup Garrett GTX series. We make a modification to the internals of the turbo slightly as well, which gives it the extra oomph that we want. Um, this is not a generic turbo that you can buy off the bench. Basically, this is one of the most important things on the engine for us. Uh the standard turbochargers, uh they sort of max out around 650 horsepower. With these bad boys, we can run anything up to sort of 1500 horsepower. So, these are rated a lot higher. — With all the power increasing add-ons

needs to see if the engine still fits. — The engine's ready to go back in now. It's exciting times for us. We're getting close to the finish line. We got to push the engine in with the gearbox as one unit. Fitting an engine is like threading a needle. Uh, we have to get it in the exact location. Just sort of just jiggle it into place and get it in the hole. We're clear at the bottom there. — Yep. Your box is in your bar. — Okay. This new intake manifold that we got is so much bigger compared to the original one, and it's taking up a lot of space. — It's very tight up here. It's like so tight. Oh my god. Wow. So, now the engine is exactly where it needs to be. We're going to go ahead and tighten all the mounts and hope it stays up. — Yep. Yeah. Well, it's all good. All tight. See that? — Well done, guys. It's in the hole. Now, — while I carries on with the Porsche, Ze is off on another research mission to learn about the perils of driving on sand. So, he's come here to Longmore, 1,700 hectares of sand and former tank training facility. Super exciting. I'm here at Hampshire's finest sand pit, a fullblown R& D experimentation session. — If Ze wants to hit high speeds on the beach at Pendine, he needs the lowown on sand. And one vehicle that can't get enough of the stuff is the Bowler Bulldog. The latest offering from the eccentric British manufacturer of some of the world's most extreme 4x4s. The Bulldog is a purpose-built rally raid vehicle designed to compete in extreme off-road rallies and most famously the sandunes of Dhaka. And to help Ze get an idea of what these cars can do, master on sand and bowler's test and development driver, Alex Cole. — So, Alex, talk to me about this amazing chassis. — First of all, this chassis is a cross sector platform. It's not the standard box chassis that you have on other vehicles. It's designed with all these holes cut out like an aviation wing section. It's half the weight of a normal chassis, but twice the strength. The shock absorbers, it has internal hydraulic bump stop. So, a harsh landing, you will never bottom out. — So, what you're saying is if we go over a really big jump, we're not going to go bang and feel it in your back with like a floating feeling. — That's right. — So, Alex, I see you've got a nice pair of Goodidge tires on here. Why have you chosen those? — These are very good all round tire, very tough and they're very good at running at high pressures and also low pressures. Uh which is very good for the sand. — So, one of the challenge, Alex, I've got to get to over 200 mph on the sand. I can't use these all terrain tires cuz they don't go to the speeds that we need. If it's pure slick racing tire, they've got no tread. What's your ideas, Alex? — You could have wet slicks with some cuts in them. You'll need some sort of pattern because you'll need stability. Uh you'll need to keep the vehicle in a straight line when you're going along and you also need the grip. Uh a smooth tire is going to be or a slick very difficult possibly to handle. — So hard sidewalls, a tire that can go very fast, 200 mph plus with some tread cut into it to cope with the standing water and the sand and the shells and all these challenges we're going to face. — This is it. Yeah, it's I mean tires can be they are pretty crucial cuz they also act as quite a lot of suspension depending on your tire pressures you're going to be set to that can have a huge impact on what suspension you have because they can deform on an impact up to 50 60 you know 80% of its depth will come right down there. It will squash virtually 80% of its width. So and that's a huge amount of suspension travel. — So you're recommending for those sort of speeds higher pressure is probably better than a soft tire pressure. High pressure is good providing your suspension is set up to the high pressures because they act as partial suspension. So, you know, you're going to have to alter things to make them balance out properly. And I think that's something that uh only you're going to give the feedback to say — there's very few people in the world that have got experience at such high speeds on sand. So, you happy to give some help near the time? — I'm happy to come and watch. Yes. And give you a bit of guidance. — Thank you, Alex. — The car's amazing. It's orange. It's mad. The whole thing is space frame. I'm going to drive it in this incredible crazy place. 1,750 hectares of sand be a playground to give this car absolute hell. But first, Alex shows him how it's done. Brilliant. Very nice and smooth.

It's massively impressive the way you're able to throw this around in such control and it feels like you're just going down the road to the shops. It's absolutely brilliant. Normally you start to feel sick in a car like this, but this is just feels brilliant. I really is. I love it. I mean, just amazing. The faster he went, you felt safe. He felt stable. I didn't want to stop. The key thing to learn is we're both doing the same thing. We're both driving on sand, a surface that's not forgiving. So, there's a lot of lessons to learn from Alex about when to put the power down, when to take it off, when to load the suspension, take off suspension. Alex is showing me everything this car is capable of doing. Now, it's my turn to experience what this car can do. — The beach at Pendine might be smoother than this off-road playground, but at the speed Ze will be traveling, the smallest lump will feel like serious bumps, and pools of water pose a further hazard. When you're racing at Penine, you have standing water, especially in the morning, early on in the race, and you'll be hitting that water maybe 150, 160 miles an hour. You got to experience and feel what it's actually like without losing control. Your feeling when you hit the water is, gee, this doesn't feel right. By the time that third or fourth time is feeling completely natural, you just floor it. You blast your way through it and you go, "Right, that's the finishing goal. That's where we go. The key thing about the Bowler Bulldog is built for its purpose. Is built to do a perfect job. That's a car you can buy tomorrow and complete and finish the Paris stacker in. What it shows we've got to build that Porsche to the best quality to allow it to do those kind of races on the salt water with the sand, all the stuff that Porsche doesn't like to allow us to get that record and achieve success. — Back at the Speed Freaks garage, the team are trying to turn an MX5 into an off-roadster. — There was an even number of everything. Something's in the wrong hole. — It can't be. — So far, Tess and Simon have grappled with prepping the arms and making sure the bushes are correct. It's — the same size hole. You just — It depends which one it is. Just as they're about to mount the arms, and not a moment too soon, Martin arrives with the party piece. — OH, LOOK. THEY'RE HERE. — OH, DAMN. — This is the secret weapon for this machine. — Noblies. — Yeah. — The tires we've got are 31 in tall. Effectively, the original wheels and tires were like 16 in. We want size to help with the bumps in the ground, but also we want those knobbles and the structure of the tire to cut through and dig away at the mud and give us much traction. The additional lift from the kit will make room for the new massive off-road tires. — Oh, this is going to be a nightmare. — No, it's not Be positive. — They've had to modify the bushes, so there's concern over whether the arms will fit. Stop being so negative. — I guess there's only one way to find out, — Simon. Martin, — something wrong with these bushes. They don't fit. — Oh well. [clears throat] — Just don't fit, mate. Are you sure you fitted them right? — I don't know. — Oh well. — One thing that has to be said is these projects are tight. We have a very short time scale, limited resources, and it's pretty fullon. You know, there's always going to be a bit of tension. And the main thing is we make up after. So Tess takes on the task of cutting the bushes to size. And after a little trial and error, the team managed to fit the arms. Next step is for the shocks to be attached. — Longer springs and arms will give the Mazda plenty of room for the new tires, higher ground clearance, and impact resistance. — There she goes. — The new suspension means wheel hubs are lower and the steering rack is further away. — Because the steering rack's moved forward and down quite a considerable amount, we need to put an extension in. Basically, — the other steering modification is a smaller steering wheel.

— Z was actually moaning that his knees were stuck on the steering wheel when he was driving around. So, a smaller diameter steering wheel. — After a bit of a rocky start, it's turned into a productive day. — Over halfway there, I reckon the next step is the cutting out of Arches, which uh I'm going to leave up to your capable hands because I'm getting drunk. My good friend's getting married and I'm off to his stag do. It's something I couldn't get out of. Uh so yeah, I'm off basically. M lucky for some. Martin's off for the weekend, so it's down to Tessa and Simon to keep the off-roadster challenge on track. Coming up, Simon needs to make space for the enormous off-road tires. — It's a lot of curtain. That's a hell of — And I trades one problem for a much, much bigger one. Engine back up. Reaching high speed on sand requires much more power than on tarmac. But even with extra power, if you can't get traction, you won't be going anywhere, which is why it's so important the record attempt car has the correct tires. Last time, Ze had found tires that he thought might be suitable for the beach. — I don't know if they're going to fit. They're big. I don't think these are going to clear the arches, but the standard profile is 30. This is a 40 profile tire. — It's not going to clear. — Yeah, I don't think this is going to happen. — These tires don't work. — It's very close to the radiators. Who makes a tire that goes up to 200 mph in the rain? Where do you find that? — Well, it looks like we've done quite a job. — Fresh off his research mission, Zev hopes it's second time lucky. — And here you are. — Yeah, these are — This is much better. — You like these? Yeah, these are a lot thinner profile. This is going to this will clear. Yeah, no problem. What are these? — Grab the front. — Are these standard sizes? — Now, these are Pirelli of a new tread pattern. They've just launched. — Okay. — And I was really impressed because you've got three really deep water channels. — Yeah, these are deeper than these anyway. — Yeah. And a side one. They actually seem to be deeper than those. — Which is really, really good. And they're the correct size. They're OEM size. They're going to fit with no problem. Most importantly, they're not going to muck up the four drive system because we can't have slightly larger rears or fronts. They've got to be the same circumference. — Yeah, it's got to be proportional. — So, these are only a 1. 7% circumference difference. — That's fine. Which is where — they're going to work. So, a massively big difference. I can't believe that size difference. — So, lovely tires. — Bye-bye old ones. — The speed freaks are making progress as well. So far, they've fit the new suspension and adapted the steering for better handling in the dirt. — Oh, LOOK. THEY'RE HERE. — OH, DAMN. — AMAZING. — Martin may have lifted their spirits with impressive off-road tires, but he's left them with the more difficult task of fitting them to the tiny two-seater. — Oh, it's cold. — But they decide to start with the more straightforward task of fitting the light bar. — To make the MX5 look a bit more off-roady, uh, we've put a light bar in. Let's have a look. — Damn it. — Maybe Simon can shine a little light on the problem. — The wrong way around it. — Bugger. Here he is. Thinking he could come and help. I'm fine. I know what I'm doing. Okay, I'll just resolder it. not realizing that the interior light doesn't have the right amount of amps going through the small piece of wire. So, we had to get uh a switch which had a relay and everything like that on it. So, it's the moment of truth to see whether she works or not. Yay. Amazing. It's pretty blind in that light. It's really good though. — Light bar sorted. It's time to tackle the wheel arches. — So, we got to take all the bumpers off cuz today got to fit these arch extensions, but as well as that, we've got to cut right up into here so that so the actual wing can take the new wheels. That's a lot of cutting. It's a hell of a lot of cutting. If you've got a car at home and you're mechanically minded and don't mind some fabrication, like this is a great thing that you could do at home in the garage, like especially if you've got like a car that's failed it, you can then give it a new lease of life and do something else with it. Take it out of its comfort zone and do some

off-roading. — The existing arches were designed to accommodate much smaller 16-in tires. The new tires are almost double the size. It's proving to be a bigger job than Simon anticipated. Can — both go home now. Unfortunately, got to tackle the rear arches. They're a bit more involved than the front. — It becomes clear once the outer body is removed that the rear arches need even more work — cuz the metal's so thin anyway cuz the rest it's not too bad. But it's just um where all these different panels meet. Bit of a pair. — Simon's had to cut into the main body of the car, creating a large hole. — So, it's over to test to seal the arches. — Simon's made me do some fiberglassing because this section here is where the battery sits. And obviously it's [snorts] open to all heirs and whatnot. — It's a bit a fiddly job because everything's a tad rusty, but I'm happy and I think Simon's happy, too. — Martin will be back in the morning, but so far Tess and Simon have managed to hold the fort. — What do you reckon he's going to think? — He better like it. We've worked really hard with this one. — Yeah, but I think we've done well with what we were given. Exactly. — It looks amazing. Yeah, I love it. — With the engine in, IBY and his team are about to embark on a landmark moment. — Excited. Now, we're about to start the engine for the first time. Uh we've got everything put together. Now, can you just uh keep an eye on the uh coolant temperature and the oil pressure, please? — We just got to watch out for leaks. We got to make sure there's no fuel leaks or any coolant leaks. Right. Let's uh grab the PIS. So, right now we're going to plug in and uh go through the clutch adaptation uh procedure. Can we get the ignition on, please, sir? Put it to diagnostic mode. We have to carry this out because we fitted the upgraded clutch pack inside now in the gearbox. We need to teach the car that it's got a new clutch basically. So it's very important that we go through this procedure otherwise we won't be able to drive the car we got a problem doesn't uh complete the procedure it's not calibrating the clutch oh my god engine back up unfortunately — [snorts and sighs] — So, we've got a bit of an issue. Um, the uh clutch packs don't want to seem to calibrate. Um, so yeah, we're not too sure what's going on right now. Everything seems to be uh in order, but we just can't complete the procedure on the computer. Things are tense in the garage. And to make matters worse, IBY's got a visitor. All — right, let's go. — I mate, you all right? — How you doing? Keeping well? — Yep. — So, the baby is all happening. — Yeah, it's happening, but it's happening backwards now. — We've got to take the engine out, unfortunately. — Right. — We've got an issue with the um with the clutch back. We can't get it to calibrate. Um, unfortunately, it's not a situation that we'd like to be in, but it is what it is. So, the clutch is not working in the PDK gearbox. I thought it was joking. Problem time. We've got Pendine just around the corner. I've told the team there's no way we're going to be going to Pendine without testing this car at really high speeds on tarmac first. — Go. — Yeah. Ei. — Yeah, it's clear. Go. go. — You do not want to go on the sand and do 200 mph or maybe beyond if you haven't tested the car at those speeds on tarmac first and make sure that everything is working. Wheels, tires, discs, gearbox, clutch, everything. — 31 ready on the lad and gentle. — Right now, I'm just going to be honest and say I don't really know what the problem is or I don't know how to fix it. But it doesn't mean to say that I'm not going to fix it. Yes, I'm But yeah, I'm just going to I have to fix it. I don't have a choice. You know, — if the clutch problems can't be sorted, the record attempt could be in jeopardy. — Coming up, Martin returns to run the

rule over Tess and Simon's handiwork. — I'm apprehensive to see how they've got on really. — And the team head back to the off-road facility to put the off-roadster to the test. That was amazing. — Ze has put a lot of work into his record attempt car, but if he can't get any grip on the beach, he won't be going anywhere, let alone 200 mph. So, in a bid to understand traction, he set the Speed Freaks the challenge of converting an MX5 into an off-road vehicle. — All right, guys. Let's do it. — They've worked hard to raise the suspension. — There she goes. and find a way to fit 31-in off-road wheels where the old 16-in wheels used to be. For 48 hours, Tess and Simon have been holding the fort. Thankfully, Martin's back, and they're keen to see what he thinks. I'm apprehensive to see how they've got on really. Morning. — Tada. — Oh, wow. — She looks awesome. It looks like a proper beach buggy. — Yes, she does. — It's everything I expected them really. I should go away more often, I reckon. You guys do it. — She's ready to go mud plugging. — Really firm, isn't it? — Yeah. Surprising. That was the reaction I expected to be honest. — High five. — Connection. — Thank you. The team's back together, but it's not time to celebrate just yet. There's one job left for Martin. — The big jobs are out the way. — Yeah, — apart from the diff. — Diff's probably. Yeah. Well, that's kind of my — expertise. — My job, I suppose. Yeah. Welded diffs are my bread and butter. I've been doing it for years. Uh, so yeah, this is what I'm all about. — Should we just uh man it out now? my legs and my arms. — I think I'm not as young as I used to be. I need another holiday. — The MX5 has an open differential. There we go. This allows the wheels to turn at different speeds around corners, sending more power to the wheel with better grip. Now, in an off-roading condition, that's going to be quite bad because if one wheel loses traction like this one, the other one will just take over and then you effectively only have one wheel drive. So, with this one, we're going to lock it. We want as much traction from this thing as possible. So, in this case, we're just going to weld up all these planetary gears inside here, join them together, so drive can only then go through the uh ring gear and drive both wheels at the same time. — Martin also needs to change the gear ratio in the diff to pair with the bigger wheels. — We're actually putting in a shorter final drive into the car to actually compensate for the loss of torque and um the actual gear ratio change that the tires would give. Backlash is set up. All I got to do now is uh bolt it all together, put the back plate on, get it in the car. — There's one last essential mechanical upgrade, an extended drive shaft. — This is so much bigger than that. The size of it, massive. Because of the suspension is so much wider, so much bigger, they need the longer shaft to actually reach from the hub to the diff to make the wheels turn. She's ready for the motocross track. It's test time and the speed freaks are back at the motocross track to find out what this modified Master can do. I think Ze's going to absolutely love this. This car is totally transformed. It looks like nothing out there. — It's off-road. It's purposeful. Exactly what Ze wanted us to do with it. — It looks wicked and it's going to perform amazingly. — I'm hoping they've resolved all the issues we had before. Greater ground clearance, bigger tires, better tread, everything we need to help it perform properly round this track. Here she is. — That is just fantastic looking. I think you've absolutely nailed it when it comes to aggression and stance. This is definitely the coolest MX5 I've ever seen. — Oh, I'm glad. — Forget off-roading. I want to pose in this down the high street.

The last time the MX5 was here, it was in standard road trim with standard road tires. and we got an amazing 57 seconds around the course. Today, it been raining for 3 days. It's a lot more muddy. Do you think these tires with much deeper tread is going to work better on this surface? — Yeah, hopefully. I mean, we've got ground clearance now for the jump. We've got the traction for the tires, and that should hopefully give you all the momentum through the course. The suspension will do all the work and make you faster. — Right, let's get this car off road. I never seen anything like this before. What they've done is truly awesome. I can't wait to get it out there and see what it can do. This tough course has steep gradients, tight turns, jumps, and lots of mud. Will the Mazda be able to knock 10 seconds off its original time of 57 seconds? Three, TWO, ONE, — GO. — YES, that was much better. You got to beat that speed. Please, please. Come on. It's really, oh my god. Crazy, crazy condition. The worst ever. I can't see much now. There's mud all over the windcreen. This has got to be the most awesome crazy fun MX5 that I've ever had the pleasure of driving. — Come on. Be there. — 45. — Come on. — Fine. — AMAZING. — LOOK how smooth it landed. — That is amazing. — Come on. Let's get a good time. [screaming] — Oh my god. — Well done. — Did I do well? — 50 seconds. — I'm really pleased. We may have not got the full 10 seconds off the time. But our aim with this challenge was to make that little MX5 faster around this course, and we've definitely done that. — [cheering] — on you. — That was awesome. — 50 seconds. — I was really worried. The track was so wet, so muddy. I didn't think I'd get any traction at all to get round there. — Yeah. I mean, we didn't reach the 10 seconds we wanted to, but — we're going to take that as a win because as it the conditions were so much worse today than the last time we were here. — Yeah, — you definitely sent it. It showed it worked. Great success. I reckon — what we learned today was that we're the mercy of the weather. Fortunately, the deep tread of these tires allowed me to find the traction to get the speed that we need and drop 7 seconds off. Traction is key. You can have all the power in the world. If you can't apply the power to the ground, you're just going to sit there and spin the wheels. The same issues and worries are at Pendine. If we don't choose the right tires, we're not going to be able to have full momentum acceleration to hit those big top speeds. The last thing I want to do is have race tires that just sit there and spin and cause me to slide sideways, which could be very dangerous. I got to thank you team for producing the coolest, best looking FX5 I've ever seen and probably the world's ever seen. — And I tell you what, Ze, you can clean that as — long as I can keep the car. Next time, Ze gets one last driving lesson before pending. — You get points for that in certain competitions. — And problems with the land speed car leave the record attempt hanging in the balance. — As old reving up, it was sort of farting and popping. Uh uh