My Silver 2003 Turbo MR2 - Sprint & Hillclimb Car

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised you thought the toyo were bad.

I'm tempted by these but they aren't as cheap as it appears they used to be.

Anyway it sounds like you did well today, I'm sure it's a good basis to start from

[Swan_Connery]

I'd use toyo proxies on the road no problem. They just didnt feel great on track. Might be my driving style though!

[jonty]

Good effort, that's very close to the mk2 turbo, they don't hang around!

For the boost taking a long time to arrive I would consider a GReddy profec B or similar boost controller - you can dial in exactly the same boost as it currently makes, but it can stop the waste gate creeping open between zero and full boost, and basically acts as a switch. On my 200sx there really was negligible lag using one of these so long as I was actually in an area of compressor efficiency. We now run a standalone ecu and it's even better, almost na response, and the pipe work is probably longer than on your MR2.

Got a vid btw?

[Swan_Connery]

I'm running a Profec E-01 so I was mucking about with the gain and psi start value. I could either make the boost come in really smooth or it was just come on too quick and hit boost cut. Think it may just be down to the turbo not being spooled up sufficiently as you suggested.

No videos as my camera decided not to play ball but here are a few pics.

[CrazySX]

wheels look good mate! nice to see something different on a 2!

On a seperate note, why have you got a number plate holder dangling of the front :p

[Swan_Connery]

That's the timing splitter. Made from dibond at 2am the previous morning. They line you up on the start line against the strut and once it cuts the beam your time starts. Then over the finish and the time stops once you cut the beam again. Will be putting on a vinyl numberplate I think. Had one on the mx5 and never got pulled so hopefully it will be ok.

[Anonymous]

I guess it has to be removed when on the road. I wouldn't fancy my chances against one of those if it were to hit me!

[jonty]

Interesting that you are using an EBC already... yes it must be that you're just off boost then, or the diaphragm is totally goosed - pull the vac line off and try to suck a vac on it to check.

From the sound of it your gear selector needs a bit of work - search for "ultimate shifter bushes" and consider new cables... it should slot down through the gears very easily, so if you are possibly avoiding dropping a cog because of the difficulty finding it, then that will cost you dearly.

Have you thought about getting a 2zz gearbox? You can either put the gear stacks into the MR2 box, or move the MR2 diff into the 2zz box along with the shifter mechanism, either way you get the same end result. 2zz box has much shorter ratios which will help with the boost... or a bit more left-field you could look at fitting a 5spd, since you're almost never going to need 6th on track and the weight reduction would probably find a bit of time for you..

[CrazySX]

That's the timing splitter. Made from dibond at 2am the previous morning. They line you up on the start line against the strut and once it cuts the beam your time starts. Then over the finish and the time stops once you cut the beam again. Will be putting on a vinyl numberplate I think. Had one on the mx5 and never got pulled so hopefully it will be ok.

How technology has advanced! That's very  s8-) 8-) s8-)

[Swan_Connery]

Small update with some pics from my first event. Although my times weren't as quick as I'd like I did get the 8th fastest overall 60ft time with a 2.24 and a much higher top speed of 75mph compared to the mr2 turbo with 73 and the S2000 with 69mph.

[Jrichards20]

Oh didn't realise the lock ups you were talking about where that bad. I wonder whether the amount of meat on the pads is different to the rest of them? Don't know if that would cause any issues.

[Swan_Connery]

Brand new yellow stuff pads all round. I took out the fuse for the ABS and it was fine after that. Pretty sure either a caliper is sticking or the ABS is screwed.

[Swan_Connery]

Sorry for the delay. Car has been in use as my daily for the past month as the BMW was in for some work. Now it's tucked away in the garage I thought I'd start work again. First things first. Found some carbon fibre vinyl from my old mx5, so I'd thought I'd try wrapping the vents   s:D s:D  

[DanGPR]

Not a bad job there mate!
How do you find the yellowstuff pads on track? Just running them on standard discs?

[Swan_Connery]

Yup, standard discs for now. I'm only doing sprints so max is 2 minutes running, so no fade, but they are a lot stronger than standard.

[Swan_Connery]

Hardtop bought and fitted  s:D s:D

Carbon Bonnet Ordered.  s:D s:D

Looking forward to the New Year!

[Swan_Connery]

So, errr, life and work got in the way a bit and I now have until till the 27th of this month to get the car ready for testing!

However, the good news is that I handed in my notice at work today. Never felt so free in all my life. Tis a tad strange to say the least.

Anyway, got an apexi powerfc with new version hand controller. Can anyone recommend a good tuner for PowerFcs?

Also, this arrived from Sweden  s:D s:D

[Swan_Connery]

Bit of a long post for an update but here goes:

Finally sourced one drivers set of Rogue Seat Mounts, so along with a new Sparco Sprint bucket seat, harnesses and a 300mm Kode Steering wheel the cabin was almost complete.

Took the car to SOS Motorsport in Falkirk to fit and map my Apexi PowerFC. Unfortunately, as soon as boost was being delivered, heavy knock was being detected. This was traced down to the fact that the Mr2 only has 1 air intake temperature sensor telling the ecu the air temperature. However, the position of the intercooler isn't giving it any real airflow and it's suffering alot of heatsoak from the turbo, so the actual air intake temperatures post turbo is ALOT higher than the ecu is thinking, so it just knock back the timing in response. End result, I need to re-position existing intercooler or buy a new one that I can fit somewhere where the airflow is higher, or just bite the bullet and go for a chargecooler setup?

Regardless, my mapping session was only 3 days before my first event at Doune so I really had no time to remedy the situation properly. I did fit a temporary engine bay fan from my old Mk2 turbo, and at the advice of my tuner I turned off the boost controller, put the emange back in, and ran with the stock boost of 5.5psi for the event.

So on to the big day itself! If you've never heard of or seen Doune hillclimb I sugget you do a quick google. In my opinion it's the scariest hill to drive in the UK due to it's sheer width, or lack thereof, enclosed with wooden barriers on one side and a dry stone dyke on the other.

I was in class A8 which is for Road Marque Sports Cars. The majority of the cars in the class were Mx5s who also run a seperate championship alongside the Scottish one, but I also had 2 Mk2 Mr2 tubbys, an S2000 and a Noble M12 to compete with!

Practice 1 was abysmal after I forgot to adjust the coilovers from full soft setup for the road to the hard track setup I had been using previously. Practice 2 was much better and I posted a time much faster than I expected that left me leading the class going into the timed runs. After lunch the timed rans began and so did my problems. I didn't get a smooth getaway from the start line with some light clutch judder then after grabbing second and running it to the redline round the first bend and up and tried to grab third, it wasn't there. I pushed frantically, already conscious of the time and momentum I was loosing. I gave up and went for 4th hoping the torque would pull me up, it did, but by the end my time was some 3 seconds off my practice time and left me 5th in class.

In the pits my mechanic and I tried to bleed the clutch out and tried other various fixes but couldn't find any true adjustment in the clutch pedal or at the box. With the engine off the car goes through the gears no problem, but with the engine on and clutch down it crunches and grinds and won't go into third without a really heavy push, which makes us think the clutch isn't getting thrown out far enough or the syncros in the box are gone. Has the previous owner killed the box with too much power? Or has the pressure plate not been upgraded? As I've only got a receipt for a stage 3 clutch plate in my folder here. Any thoughts guys? Was thinking about changing to a 5 speed box anyway or slightly better ratios for sprint, but should I need to do change the clutch and pressure plate too? The clutch certainly ain't slipping once engaged. Any ideas appreciated.

I soldiered on into day 2 and took it easy for the practices so as to save the clutch/gearbox for the timed runs. Anyway, see below for the video of my second and fastest timed run of the weekend, complete with dodgy clutch/gearbo,.  s:D s:D  and I need to mount the camera higher somehow as it sits a bit too low.

[youtube:34f1bhu2]2ObXH8-j1w8[/youtube:34f1bhu2]

As you can see there is still lots of time to be made up there once I get everything sorted, but I still managed to win the class beating the Honda S2000 into second place by half a second  s:D s:D

[Swan_Connery]

Not sure if clutch or gearbox broken yet but bought a second hand box for £75 today.

[suj]

Great read and car mate  s:) s:)

[Swan_Connery]

Box about to come out and inspect it and clutch/flywheel.

Might as well fit a proper intercooler while I'm at it....  s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:  

[1979scotte]

Looks a beast.
Didnt fancy a charge cooler then.

[s12vea]

That's chunky intercooler!

[Swan_Connery]

Looks a beast.
Didnt fancy a charge cooler then.

Bit too much extra weight and hassle with the pump and piping. Not to mention the price!

[Swan_Connery]

Clutch and flywheel finally came yesterday. So up to the garage today and fitted the Ultralightweight flywheel and Stage 4 6 puck clutch!