New NAM user here. I've been referencing NAM for years, but finally decided to sign up. I've had the same 2005 R50 since new, and we've had many adventures together. The car has ~140K miles, most of them in Canada, most of them on the highway. I will post a list of modifications and car stories as I build this thread. The car is 100% mechanically sound and better than new: it runs smooth and rattle free, the engine is "dry" and there are no leaks anywhere, and the interior smells like rich leather. Horsepower is 130 at the wheels, which feels plenty fast (especially considering the car is significantly lighter than stock), and is about the same as a R53 made from the factory. I would like the power bump from a ported/polished head, but I don't want to install one on an engine with this many miles. About all that's left that I could do with this car is a built engine (i.e., bored and stroked), which I will do within the next few years, and custom paint (right now it's wrapped). For now, here are a few photos.

 

Work I’ve done in the last few years

All parts are OEM unless specified. This is not a complete list, just some of the work I’ve done recently, and some of the highlights. I didn’t always do all the work myself, but I do now (thanks for the DIY videos, ModMini!). (When I started restoring the car during Covid, I uncovered A LOT of sloppy work from mechanics I’d trusted — broken or missing clips, missing hardware, etc.)

As follows, in no particular order:

· New driver-side front axle.

· New starter motor.

· Borla cat-back exhaust.

· DDM CAI.

· Craven strut tower defenders.

· Madness rear sway bar and adjustable links (hollow 25mm bar; used to have a Tarett splined bar that looked really cool, but it was heavy, would bind, was very noisy... and was way too much bar for the car!).

· Hotchkis rear lower control arms (-1.5 degrees camber).

· 30mm lowering springs (on Koni FSD dampers).

· Upgraded Powerflex polyurethane bushings at all contact points (the purple and yellow ones, not black).

· Upgraded fuel injectors (Bosch 275cc, or thereabouts. I can't remember the exact size off the top of my head, but this is the only fuel injector upgrade I am aware of for the R50. Requires a tune). Part 62236/0280155865.

· Upgraded spark plugs (Brisk Silver).

· New fuel pump.

· New fuel filter.

· Upgraded throttle body (R53 plus 1” spacer). Not sure if the spacer does what it's advertised to do, but it doesn't hurt. The R53 throttle body needed to be modified to fit.

· New MAF sensor.

· New timing chain tensioner.

· Odyssey PC680 battery and Rennline holder (modified to fit). Much, much lighter than the OEM battery. So far it's just fine for street use. I drive the car 3-4 times a week, but I work from home and it's not a "daily driver."

· Rennline pedals plus footrest.

· M7 catch can.

· Vorschlag camber plates (-2 degrees camber).

· PRW fluid harmonic balancer (standard drive). Makes the car feel much smoother.

· GROM Bluetooth audio and phone integration. Works with the steering wheel controls and has handsfree dialing.

· FOCAL ICU 130 front speakers w/built-in tweeters. Had OEM Harmon Kardon tweeters in for a while, but the treble was too piercing. Removed the stock tweeters altogether as they were hurting the sound quality of the new speakers.

· New HVAC control panel (a bulb was burnt out).

· Rear seat delete and custom up-to-the-front-seats padded cargo area bed for my dog (in UK camouflage Cordura). (I have the kit to make the whole cargo area flat, but my dog actually likes it better back there without it so she can sink into the recesses for the back seats and not slide around. Also makes it more secure back there for grocery bags and other cargo.

· Front R52 strut tower and Ultra Racing interior seatbelt-anchor mounted chassis braces.

· New front bumper lower lip.

· New radiator fan. Low-speed fan had stopped working years ago and I didn't even realize it.

· New passenger-side steering knuckle.

· New front windshield.

· New A-pillar covers.

· Upgraded leather upholstery.

· R56 aluminum trailing arms.

· 5mm wheel spacers all around.

· New top motor mount.

· New rear wiper arm.

· New oil pan gasket.

· Upgraded LED exterior lighting (parking and running lights, signal and brake lights). Took a while to get the resistors set up properly.

· Miltek 4-2-1 header, titanium bolts and high-flow catalytic converter.

· New exhaust rear heat shield.

· Heat-wrapped exhaust and headers.

· New sideview mirrors (Dorman).

· New master brake cylinder.

· Hella Sharptone horns. LOUD!

· Chillout 180 CFM blower fan (to force fresh, cool air into DDM CAI box at lower speeds and on very hot days, and it might even create a bit of boost). Came up with this idea myself.

· Upgraded leather shifter and e-brake boots.

· MOMO Targa leather-and-wood shift ****.

· Rennline skid plate.

· OZ Alleggerita wheels and Continental Extreme tires (205/45/R17). The Continentals are quieter and more comfortable than Michelin PSSs but grip just as well.

· New wheel hubs all around.

· Rennline magnetic charging phone mount.

· New headliner.

· New power steering hoses.

· New crank position sensor o-ring.

· Restored front subframe (ground off all the rust and repainted with POR-15).

· Wrapped the car in Vivvid Combat Green with a gloss black roof (car was originally all Pure Silver). Opportunity to fix any body rust (there were only a couple spots under the doors, even though the car spent the first half of its life in Canada) and clean/replace/restore all exterior components and trim.

· Wilwood big brakes front AND rear (black calipers).

· Crower cam (NS1).

· MSD coilpack, WMW wires, Brisk silver plugs (15s).

· ECU tune (the car makes a "beastly" 130 WHP and 125 ft/lbs torque, but it feels like it accelerates just as fast as my wife's F30 BMW).

· Enlarged the front bumper "fog light" openings and routed holes in the fender liners to allow airflow to the brakes. (RAUH-Welt BEGRIFF gave me the idea to just cut right into body panels if there's a functional and/or aesthetic advantage).

· Added rear fog light to the rear bumper (had it wired as a brake light for a few years, but it damaged my BCM), and cut out the lower sections (on either side of the fog light) and installed black plastic mesh. The gold foil I applied over the muffler heat shield is visible through the mesh and is a humorous nod to hyper cars that sometimes have visible gold foil over their elaborate exhaust systems.

· R53 rear spoiler with a Leap Alpha spoiler (rear end would get a bit loose on sweepers above 90mph).

· R53 rocker panel covers.

· Replaced the passenger door with a used one (after jack slipped and crunched the rocker panel cover and bottom of the original door). Opportunity to clean and lube all window and door internals, and add heat/sound insulation.

· Newest version of the Sprint Booster (Gen. 3?); it's the one with 9 settings. It does improve throttle response significantly more than the previous version (I think I had Gen.1), which just had three modes: Green, Red and Off. Makes a HUGE difference over stock. If I could only do one mod, it'd probably be this because, although it doesn't make the car faster, it makes it feel much sportier.

· New door brakes.

· New hydraulic pistons for the hood and hatch.

· Lloyd LUXE floor mats in black. These are probably the deepest, most luxurious floor mats shy of Rolls Royce floor mats. My wife often takes her shoes off because they feel so good on the feet.

· Fire extinguisher behind passenger seat.

· Brand new OEM Xenon headlights.

· Vis Racing Cooper S-style carbon fiber hood (buyer beware!)

· 250 amp alternator.

 

A few but not many 1st Gen original owners here. Welcome and great job keeping your R50 in nice shape. Aha on the unique Combat Green wrap, which threw me off as a non-OEM color. BTW, greetings from Rim Country!

 

When I bought my R50 in 2005, I had the choice between the R50 in Pure Silver with every option (sunroof, heated seats, etc.) or a R53 in Black Eye Purple with no options (perfect enthusiast car, but I personally prefer silver over purple). Knowing what I know now, I would have gone with the R53, but I liked the options on the R50, and it served me well for how I used it (basically as a GT car). Oh well, I am now sentimentally attached to my R50, and it's plenty fast enough and "corners" like heck. (An old girlfriend of mine had a R56 S, and it didn't really feel any faster than my car; a R50 really moves if you know how to drive, and drive it like it's stolen!)

 

Prepping the stone-chipped hood for wrapping. You can see where I installed the Hella horns and mounted the resistors for the LED lights. The car's done so much highway driving, a lot of it in the winter, and the front end was all pitted up with small stone chips. Decided to try wrapping, but I'd prefer to get a good paint job at some point.


Cleaned up and refurbished subframe. Used POR-15 on the outside, and a sealer kit I got from Eastwood for the interior of the tubes. Removed and reinstalled everything. New power steering hoses and banjo bolts. New bushings. Everything nice and clean and 100%.


R56 trailing arms with Powerflex bushings, Koni FSD dampers, Godspeed 30mm lowering springs, Madness 25mm hollow sway bar, adjustable end links, Hotchkis adjustable lower control arms. (Contrary to what some people say, the FSD dampers work fine with lowering springs, but I wouldn't go any lower than 30mm.) The car is perfectly neutral in corners, with the rear end breaking free before any understeer. I’m going to pull and restore the rear subframe one of these days.

 

Lots of "up close and personal" time working on your car. Well done!

Mine had circa 2006 Eibach lowering springs (in combo with Koni yellows) when I bought it 1.5 yrs ago, which were too low for the dips and potholes in my town's streets. Those in combo with -1 DOT track tires resulted in lots of low speed hits, so I replaced those with 1st Gen JCW Sport Springs (stock on GP) claimed with only 10mm drop and also +1 tires which essentially restored OEM ride height. Much better for my strictly streets and hwys use!

 

This is how the car looked in ~2007 when it was still relatively new.

 

More early photos from the backroads around Trenton, Ontario. The car was about a year old here. It disturbs me that I used to think that chrome license plate holder looked good and that I didn't do anything about the sagging rear wiper arm.


More early photos from the backroads around Trenton, Ontario. The car was about a year old here.

 

Driving through a winter storm in northern Ontario, Canada. It was about -25F here. Never had any trouble with Bridgestone Blizzaks in 195/55/R16; was never stuck once.

 

EDIT: The OCC hose routing has been changed since I posted this photo. As some others have noted, the instructions were a bit confusing and I had the breather side included. Now, there's one hose running from the PCV valve into the can, and the other hose runs into the throttle/intake line (the one with the orange cap in this photo, which is what the PCV valve was originally connected to). The breather hose once again plugs into the intake elbow, as it did from the factory.

 

The "shop." Bikes and clean floors are other passions of mine. Feel very lucky to have this garage space; for the first ~10 years of the car's ownership it had outdoor parking.

 

Here's the car in British Columbia, Canada, in 2017.


Here's the car outside Phoenix, Arizona, in 2018.


The first time I wrapped the car in 2020 (during the pandemic), I did it in grey. I love this color, but it was my first time wrapping, and there were lots of small mistakes. I bought the green rug in the foreground in Kandahar, Afghanistan.


Experimenting with some looks. Ultimately decided against the yellow headlights and mesh grille (which was a cheap knockoff and a waste of money).

 

New wheels and tires in May of 2022. These OZ Alleggeritas are very light (~14 lbs in 17x7). Went with Michelin Pilot Super Sports in 205/45/R17 (Tire Rack was clearing them out). I used to have the Pilot Sport AS/3+ tires, which I liked, but the PSSs have exponentially better grip, road feel and comfort.

 

I loved my old R50 - my mod list was short - Megan Racing cat-back exhaust and Euro2 coilovers, Panasport 16x7, StopTech slotted rotors, HPS pads, aFe intake, Cooper S Sport+ rear sway bar and VibraTechnics upper and lower (competition) motor mounts.

I highly suggest getting the VibraTechnics upper motor mount. The factory one will fail.... again and again and again. I replaced mine 4 times with the 4th time being the VibraTechnics. I am 99.9999999% certain that it will never fail. I got mine by buying though the .co.uk web address...... Life hack - it was about $80 cheaper (5 years ago) even after paying $35 in 3-day shipping.
From the .com site it's listed at $322.35.
From the .co.uk site it's listed at £156.82 which converts to $193.97 at todays conversation rate. You will save about the same now. It seems that they will still ship direct. With the £45.00 shipping fee, you are still saving $87.70 over buying from their .com site. I do not recall paying any import fee - may have been rolled into the shipping.
https://www.vibra-technics.co.uk/min...53_12_03_07_06

However, I would not recommend the competition mount. Get the Street mount. The amount of NVH that was sent directly into the chassis will not be for everyone. It smoothed out A LOT at about 1500rpm though.

But that induction sound..... was the best. I have yet to find an intake that will give my ND2 a similar sound - all the ND intakes make no actual gains in hp and some seem to actually seem to be detrimental to the power and none give it that sound. The mic is under the bonnet between the battery box and the ECU. It's connected to a Nikon D750 w/Sigma 10-20mm DX lens mounted on a no longer available CruiseCam headrest camera mount. (Yes I know the 750 is full frame and there is a 1.5x crop on the DX lens but my wife wouldn't allow me to use her Samyang 14mm f2.8 super wide in the car on a track day..... again. she was a little upset.... still a sore spot... don't want to talk about it.....)
The sound though!

Keep the R50 alive!

 

Wow, that sound is sick! Mine isn't that loud, but (according to my wife) it's still too loud. The Borla exhaust and DDM intake with Miltek header has a throaty sound, but it's a bit more subdued. I don't track the car, but there are plenty of awesome driving roads not far from where I live, and the car gets a thorough workout on those.

I hear you on the motor mount. What I did was get the Powerflex support bushing when I replaced the failed OEM unit with a new OEM unit (which had already been replaced a couple of times before). I looked into some of the higher-performance options, but there were too many complaints about NVH. So, I've got Powerflex for both the upper and lower mounts and there is a slight increase in NVH, and a slightly improved shift and acceleration feel (I also upgraded to the newest version of the Sprint Booster at the same time, so it's hard to tell). I love my wife and I'd like her to drive in the car with me sometimes, so I can't make things too crazy, and changing out the OEM mount when it fails (again) is an easy job. 😄

 

Nice to see some of your handiwork! I also love to see who all has hung on to their gen1 cars!

Love those wheels - considering a set for my car as well. What size are the center bores? Do you need a plastic hub spacer? Are yours black? I know that they have like 11 colors in this wheel, but I don't think I am happy with any of them. If I end up ordering a set, I think I would paint them some sort of metallic graphite color. My car is going to end up IB with black stripes, top, and grilles, but I think the wheels in black would be too much for my car - too much dark and not enough contrast.

Love the look with that green though. What color are you thinking for the custom paint? Going to do it yourself?

 

Thanks!

I do need a plastic spacer with these, but I don't consider that a big deal. They are gloss black (there is also a matte black, which is a little bit lighter, but matte black can be hard to care for). If I had a red car, or a different interior color, I would have gone with gold wheels (which I think would look killer with my green), but they only seem to be available in 16".

Yes, I think the green pops a lot more than the Pure Silver, or the "Telesto Grigio" grey I used when I wrapped it the first time. Not sure about what color I'll go for if I paint it. I do like the option of being able to change the color of your car whenever you want with wrap, but, unless it's applied by an expert installer, there will be little mistakes that will drive you crazy (although probably no one else will notice). My interior is the two-tone grey, and that doesn't look right with some body colors.

Your plans for your car sound great. I will follow your progress with interest!

 

Higher resolution of the car as it currently looks, in Vivvid Combat Green. You can see the mud flaps (Rally Armor) and the customized rear bumper cover. The Borla exhaust tip is the perfect diameter and looks like it was made for the car.

 

Crunch!


Replacing the door was easier than I thought it would be. Found a great deal online from a vendor in Texas.


Always good to get inside to clean, lubricate and make sure everything's working properly. Replacing the window mechanism and lock actuator was easy. Installed sound and heat deadening on the door, and 1/4" acoustic foam on the backside of the door card. Windows go up and down quickly and quietly, and both sides go up and down at exactly the same rate.


How the car looked before I added the heat vents on the hood. I prefer how it looks without the vents, but they definitely help keep the engine cool and running efficiently in the Arizona heat.


Better shot of the rear bumper. You can see the mesh cutouts, aluminum trailing arms, adjustable control arms and my camber setting (-1.5).

 

I recovered the seats in 2021. I think the kit was from Leatherseats.com. Got the premium “Italian” leather, with the seating surfaces perforated. Took the opportunity to replace the heated seat elements, and add a bit more bolstering. The seats are super comfortable, much more so than those in my wife's F30, and the interior smells like leather.

 

You can see the OEM harmonic balancer in the upper left of this photo. The OEM manifold also lives up on that wall.

 

I put textured Vivvid vinyl on the top of the bumper to help my dog with ingress and egress, and to prevent scratches. The "4" is from a local coffee shop (Fourtillfour) that caters to driving enthusiasts. Painted the floor in red epoxy, what a pain in the rear!

 

Short clip taken during a drive to the grocery store to give you an idea of the exhaust note. Will take more in coming days from a better angle and on better roads in order to demonstrate the car's capabilities. Just my iPhone and a $15 suction mount I found on Amazon.

 

Looks like I'm viewer #666 today reading your thread.
Always loved that color on your R50 btw.

 

Merging in the R50. That sound! Nothing "whiny" about it. 😄