Gundam Suited MX5

Ladies and gentlemen; before your very eyes, the Minty.Fresh Gundam Aero MX5 NB2; in its final form (for now)

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This particular MX5 wears a body kit that took years of thought, development and ultimately two people (many more assisted) to create. So how did this car get here in the first place?? We need to go back to 2004 ........

The likely reason you are here in the first place is my own link to Minty.fresh, if not I can bring you unto speed.

Back in 2004 myself and Mint met through the Honda community and hit it off. We used to hang about together and slowly got a crew together, taking inspiration from the crews in the USA We decided to give ourselves a cool name.

The Minty Fresh Crew was born. We did our fair share of car shows but we soon realised static shows weren't really where it is at and we moved on to drifting and track driving with our cars but the Minty Fresh label stuck. We moved on from Hondas, Mint got an S15 and myself the Evo.

We created a blog to show off what we were upto and over time we started producing stickers, which evolved into tees and then fed up with trying to find decent products to advance the cars we started producing our own suspension parts. Pete (The Russian) joined the crew and with his links to well priced engineering companies, Minty Fresh delved into the world of custom knuckles.

As Pete and Mint continued to expand our capabilities, they had always dreamed of creating bodykits, it began with the MFSXE10 Roof wing. The guys hand crafted the spoiler over months and ended with the perfect fit customers still enjoy today. This continued into other wings and the whole thing snowballed into what Minty.Fresh is today.

In the current age of semi low cost technology Pete acquired a 3D scanner and this rapidly advanced the guys ability to create designs. Everyone thinks if you have a scanner then you can create whatever you want but it isn't true, its takes years, literally!

Mint and Pete (in between their day jobs) worked for the next two years to create the MFNA801 kit for the NA MX5 and as you imagine this lead onto the MFNB Kit you see today. The new Aero division of Minty Fresh took on the moniker of Gundam Aero with inspiration taken from the Gundam Manga and models Mint collects.

Now you're up to speed (extremely briefly..... sorry) lets have a look at this final form of Mints MX.

It wears the full Gundam kit along with the optional Gundam roof wing to complement the kit. Boot wing still in development.

The car runs on HSD coilovers on max droop with Destroy Or Die knuckles and Mintyfresh rack spacers. Mint has also deleted the powersteering to help with the feel whilst drifting. Destroy Or Die brake lines and a fully poly bushed and powder coated arms round out the under carriage.

For this shoot Mint ran Ultralight wheels (Petes) in 15" diameter but usually runs Watanabe R-Type, 15x8 et-10 up front and 15x8.5 et-5 in the rear with the perfect MX5 tyre size of 195/50/15 all round (The same Wats featured on Mr D's Pink NA and Mint's previous Green NA). The ultralights give the car a wicked stance that as well as being cool on the streets, look awesome on the track!

Under the bonnet this NB is not the basic 1.6 model. Mint's Gundam Roadster is the SVT, 6 Speed model. Which means from factory, this model came with a VVT engine, additional BHP, bigger brakes, better manifold and a Fuji spedcial LSD. Mint has added an ARC intake chamber and classic ARC airbox (Previously for the NA model). EGR delete and aircon ditched. On the exhaust is taken care of with a mix of custom decat and standard boxes for stealth Touge action.

Interior wise, Mint runs Bride seats as he does in all his cars. A TR Lane rollbar keeps the car stiff as well as provide the necessary protection incase of a roll over (if you know you know). Mint ditched the original NB2 black dash in favour of the more rare, half black half tan NB1 dash and trim, a strange decision for most probably, but it really suits the exterior. Finished off with a classic Nardi deep dish wheel and Shirtstuckedin shifter and those iconic purple and green Old skool Blitz BLM gauges, Which match nicely with the Minty.Fresh Jailbait V2 floor mats.

Talking of which is a wrap in yellow. Mint designed his own livery for the car which yours truly cut and supplied for Grant to apply (will feature his turbo MX in 2021!)

It rounds out the style of the car nicely and keeps in with the road legal drift car style Mint was going with.

The kit holds up well to all the abuse and this can be backed up by all our customers who have decided they are bored of all the usual kits.

The car has worked well recently with a trip up to the highland Matsuri at Golspie and some late night sessions in Mexico. Some damage was sustained in the front end but the car has just under gone some reinforcing to make sure it could survive future drift smashes.

I personally had next to no involvement in the kit design and building so it blows my mind what the guys have done with it and in my opinion it brings the MX5 into the 2020's the kit gives the car new lines that not many people have taken advantage of.

So what's next? With Pete working so hard offshore and Mint fulfilling orders from our awesome customers there hasn't been much time to start on new kits but there are plans to continue work on the Gundam SXE10 kit that may appear in 2021 and there are plans for a new line in 2022 but will have to remain secret for the time being.

For now you can purchase items from the Noonefresher Store

You can also follow Mintyfresh, Mint and Pete on Instagram

Galley below for more images