Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Try not being a disagreeable arsehole your entire life. You might make something of yourself.

Admittedly I know nothing of your own background but regardless it's a pejorative slur with negative connotations.

TFL took 8 months to notify me of a fine.

Been listening to simon mayos confessions podcasts? Pulling motorists over and getting the card reader out before the fine book.

Couple of pics from Porsche meet at the Fairmile in Cobham

Would have taken more but I skipped dinner and there was an hour and half wait for food so went elsewhere

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Bonnet clearance?

Where there's a will, there's a way. After all, my race car has a bonnet bulge on its bonnet bulge:

A bonnet bulge on a bonnet bulge of such epic proportions it failed its IVA test first time round on the basis that the tester felt that the bonnet bulge obscured forwards visibility. To be fair, he had a point - left hand corners were sometimes a bit of a 'turn in and hope the apex is still there' affair. Rockingham in particular.

What's under the bulges-bulge, intake trumpets?

Airbox. Initially a modified factory Yamaha one, then a hybrid factory/home-brewed version. v1:

V2:

How high up is the engine, relative to the steering rack (which it looks like it might go in behind, actually)?

The engine is as low as it can go and still have a flat(ish) floor - it's quite a tall engine. It's miles behind the steering rack - the rack is in front of the top rocker arms and dampers. The sump (also home-made from billet, with some help from a friend with a CNC router to do the heavy lifting) just sticks out below the bottom panels.

In irrelevance: If you are looking to read up about suspension and chassis of the go to books are Race car vehicle dynamics, and chasis design principles and analysis. http://www.millikenresearch.com/rcvd.html and http://www.millikenresearch.com/olleyfl.html The second book is harder reading and more of a text book. But still fascinating.

Stupid questions what is going through my mind:
Would have dry sumping the engine helped lower the engine, or doesn't matter as the engine position is controlled by the output shaft on the gearbox.

Would the ducati trick of making the bottom of the fuel tank the top of the airbox help in this situation? This would be using the bonnet bulge.

Would sacrificing a straight inlet noticably alter the power characteristics of the engine? As lancia did on the fulvia v4?

The turn in without a view would make me slower. Also give me the FEAR

I've only seen it a couple of times in the last 6 months or so

The fuel filter change did not fix my car.

But the chrome one is pretty.

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Symptoms:

First time it happened, I noticed losing power at medium to higher revs. Pulled over. Called RAC. Played in park for an hour or so. Came back, fiddled with spark leads, it worked. Don't know if the fiddling had anything to do with it.

Second time: lost power, misfiring, bang pops from exhaust pipe. Pull over, check leads. No help. Remove fuel filter, check fuel pump is OK, shake filter a bit, replace it, engine fine for another couple of miles. Stop at @BRMs. Wag Chins. Pull away, same issue, loss of power, running very lumpy and shit. Limp home.

Today: Go to garage, replace fuel filter. Slightly difficult to start but I put that down to pulling fuel through the lines. Pull onto the road, seems OK. Accelerate away from junction, no power at 2.5k rpm. Lumpy, bumpy engine whenever revving. Take back to my garage, retreat.

Any guesses?

They're pretty, but those ones clog quite easily. A friend had one on his car, got a bad batch of petrol with a fine pink grit in it, and we had to stop to flush the filter about once every 20 miles until we could flush the tank. I recall he disposed of the contaminated petrol down rabbit holes at a campsite at the Le Mans circuit. Maison Blanche, I think.

In my opinion, sounds like a lack of air.

It's fuel, air, or spark. Try unplugging a fuel line to see if fuel is arriving at the carb. If it is air, it could be the filters are really dirty and clogged, or something is stuck behind the filter and under high load or throttle it causes enough of an obstruction to choke.

Baguette in the air filter

Ha! With reference to that, I found some bones and some small shits in the engine bay of the MX5 so whoever said squirrels was probably right.

Bones as in leftovers from a meal rather than decomposed squirrel carcass.

Have you got an unplugged vacuum port somewhere?

What type of carb is it?

What Nurse Holiday said, sounds like lack of fuel to me, but best to check / fuel / air / spark see if you can see any problems.
If it's any help the old Audi Pierburg carbs the float valve used to creep out of the carb housing so it eventually shut off too early leaving the fuel level low in the Carb bowl, that gave exactly your symptoms lack of power under load 2-3000rpm, easy to check pull the top off the carb and check the float height.
We used to tap them back in and peen the edge with a dot punch to keep it in place, may even be blocked jets in the carb

Had a similar thing happen to me from driving down a street at the wrong time of day.

Fine was served by recorded mail on a Saturday... which was a shock.

Thanks all. This is great pointers and ideas. But, I'm going to need some hand holding whilst I investigate. I will pay @BRM in beer and coffee to come and sort me out. Or @RAC

For info, the carbs are HS4 SU, I think.

Still no sign of the fine itself, it’s a bit sword of Damocles at the moment.

Also my first ever (presumed) traffic violation

Have you tested the fuel pump? Now you have the glass filter fitted, try running the engine at 2.5/3k and watch the filter to see if the fuel empties faster than it is replenished.

As an aside, it is best not to use jubilee type clips on fuel hoses. The 'plain' silver clips you have connecting the hose to the hard lines are proper fuel line clips which apply equal pressure around the circumference and don't crimp the line.