Is it time to replace your race suit? Let’s get you track-ready. Top Steering Wheel and Boss Kit Recommendations for the Mazda MX5 Mk1 and Mk2
The MX-5 is the car people keep meaning to sell and never do. Sixteen years of them came out of Hiroshima before the shape changed properly, and the two generations covered here, the Mk1 and the Mk2, are near enough the same car from the driver seat: small, light, quick to turn, and with a wheel that sits further away than the rest of the cabin would lead you to expect.
The good news is that this is the easiest car on the site to do. There is one boss kit, it covers both generations, and after that every decision is yours.
Everything below is kit we stock. The boss kit is the one listed for a 1989 to 2005 MX-5, which is both generations on this page, and prices sit on the live product cards so they stay right. The interior shot above is an illustration rather than a photograph of a customer car, and the product photography is our own.
The bit that makes all of this easy: 6x70mm PCD
Worth getting out of the way first, because it is the part people worry about needlessly. MOMO, OMP, Sparco and Sabelt all drill their wheels and their boss kits to the same six bolt pattern, 6x70mm PCD, and our own listings say so. The OMP Trecento is described as fitting all standard MOMO, OMP and Sparco type boss kits. The Sabelt and Sparco listings say the same thing in their own words.
So the hub and the wheel are separate purchases and neither locks the other in. A MOMO boss will take a Sparco wheel. An OMP boss will take a Sabelt one. A quick release goes between the two and works with either, and the B-G universal is drilled for both 6x70mm and 6x74mm so it covers the odd one out.
Three decisions, and none of them constrain the others:
- The boss kit, which is chosen by the car
- The wheel, which is chosen by you
- The quick release, which is optional and chosen by how you use the car
On an MX-5 of this age the first one takes about ten seconds, which is the next section.
Which boss kit fits an MX5 Mk1 or Mk2
One, and it covers both generations.
The MOMO MK5702 is the hub for both. Our listing gives its range as 1989 to 2005, which takes in every Mk1 and every Mk2 including the facelift.
One part covering sixteen years and two generations is rare, and it is the reason these two cars share a page rather than having one each. Whatever else changed between an early pop-up-headlight car and a late Mk2.5, the column did not.
One qualifier worth knowing. MOMO list the MK5702 as a non-airbag hub, and published year ranges for it vary by source, from 1997 to 2005 depending who you ask. Our listing gives 1989 to 2005. If your Mk2 has a driver airbag, send us the registration and we will confirm it before you order.
The Mk3 is where that stops. From 2005 the car takes a B-G hub instead, and there is a separate guide for it.
It is drilled 6x70mm, so every wheel further down this page bolts straight to it.
The five wheels I would put in an MX5 Mk1 or Mk2
1. MOMO Heritage California
The one that belongs in this car. Black leather on polished chrome spokes, a vintage three spoke shape, and at 360mm the biggest here, which suits an early car with no assistance more than you would think. MOMO give the rim thickness as 33mm and the grip section as 24 by 28mm, so it is a slim old-fashioned rim rather than a fat modern one. It is comfortably the dearest of the five and it is the one I would have.
2. Sparco 215
The odd one out and worth a look for it. Two spokes rather than three, which almost nobody makes any more, with a yellow marker at the top so you always know where straight is. 350mm, and you can have it flat or with a full 90mm dish, so it is really two wheels in one listing. The dished version in a Mk1 puts the rim right where your hands already are.
3. Sabelt SW-635
The plain sensible choice. 350mm, flat, suede on an anatomical grip, aluminium spokes. Nothing about it is trying to be a period piece, which is the point: if your car is a usable Mk2 rather than a cherished Mk1, this is the one that will not look precious when it gets rained on.
4. OMP Trecento Leather
The entry point of the five and the smallest at 300mm. Leather rather than suede on this version, flat faced, with an anatomical grip. Three hundred millimetres in a car this light makes the steering very quick indeed, and heavier at parking speed. In a stripped Mk1 that is the trade you want. In a daily it is a lot.
5. OMP Corsica 330
The compromise between the last two, and the one most people end up happy with. 330mm, suede, and a deep dish that brings the rim towards you, which matters in these cars because the standard wheel sits further away than the seat suggests. If you only sit in one of these before deciding, sit behind this.
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From £149.50 Excl. VAT Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Quick release, and whether you actually need one
A quick release sits between the boss kit and the wheel and lets you lift the wheel off the column. In an MX-5 of this age there is one reason that stands up.
It is getting in and out. The sill is wide, the seat is low and the cabin is narrow, so you drop into these cars rather than step into them. Lifting the wheel off makes that a lot easier, and considerably more so if there is a bucket seat, a harness bar or a roll bar in the car. Security is the other reason people give, and it is a weaker argument than it used to be.
If the car is standard inside and you get in and out without thinking, you do not need one.
Weld-on units are cheaper, but the column has to be machined, so that is a job for someone who has done it before. Bolt-on units cost more and go straight on. The B-G universal is drilled for both common patterns, so it will move to another car later.
Fitting it
An evening, in this order:
- Battery disconnected first, so the horn behaves when it all goes back together
- Standard wheel off, then the boss kit onto the column splines
- Mark the column and the wheel before the centre nut comes off, so the new one goes back on straight
- The horn wiring runs through the boss kit, so there is nothing to cut
- Torque the centre nut properly and check the wheel is centred with the road wheels straight before you drive it
If you would rather we did it, we fit these in-store.
What I would actually buy
For a cherished Mk1: the MOMO hub and the Heritage California. It is the most money on this page and the only one that looks like it left the factory that way.
For a Mk2 that gets used: the same hub and the Sabelt SW-635. Suede, flat, 350mm, and it will not sulk about being left with the roof down.
For a track car: the OMP Trecento Leather at 300mm and a B-G quick release, and accept that parking becomes a job.
Final thoughts: one hub, then it is all taste
This is the simplest car on the site to do. One hub covers 1989 to 2005, so unless yours is a Mk3 there is nothing to work out, and every wheel here shares the same 6x70mm pattern so nothing you choose rules anything else out.
Which leaves it entirely down to taste, and the only real advice I would give is about size. These cars are light and the rack is quick already, so dropping to 300mm makes them very sharp and quite hard work at low speed. Somewhere around 330 to 350mm is where most people are happiest, and 360mm if you want it to look original.
Working out those combinations is my job here, so if you are between two of them, email us and tell me whether the car is a Mk1 or a Mk2 and what you use it for, and I will tell you which to buy. I am Cameron, by the way.