MR2 Performance

[Anonymous]

Just got my 03 mr2 a couple of weeks ago, and i love it,

but the perofrmance isnt what i expected at all, this is a car with nearly 140bhp and very light with it, but its not as quick in a straight line as my old 106 gti, the handling is a bit better although i am still getting used to that so its only as good as my abilities LOL  s:D s:D  

I have done about 1500 miles since i got it and thought it may loosen up a bit, but its on the sluggish side,

how does everyone else compare their mr2 to their previous car?

[Anonymous]

You need to take the car to 5000 revs and keep them up.  You will find its a different beast altogether then!.

[Anonymous]

Mine is a little beast! Its sooooo much better than my escort 1.8si - handling is superb... and if you think its only a bit better, then either your old car was stunning or ... well.... god knows what!

Craig is right though, if you get the revs up it really rockets along... from 4000+ it starts to liven up 6000 and the engine goes mental!   s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

My engine still feels a little tight some days, but generally i dont thrash it, but it goes like sh*t off a shovel when i want it to! (mainly speeding round corners is where you should notice it)

[Anonymous]

So the vvti is a little like v-tec then??

think i will wait a little while before revving it to high,

i suppose when i got the pug i thought it was slow until i had learned how to drive it,

what speed i am i looking at changing in each gear to keep above 5k??

by the way i would like to add i am not a boy racer, just sometimes enjoy a fun drive on a quiet road, i leave racing to the muppets

[Anonymous]

3rd gear = i went up to 80 in the demo car i had and it would have gone further too!   s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:    s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:    s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

[Anonymous]

I knew nothing about the 2's engine, but yes, on the forum I was told 5k was the magic number.

I don't make a habbit of it, but this weekend with my visit to Lincoln it was constantly around there.  Like Kris said corners and roundabouts you will really see it.

Went for a blat with friends with a Honda VVTI and a Golf GTI, they can keep up on straights, but roundabouts and corners you leave them standing.  I also had a nice friendly race with a Subaru Imprezza Turbo recently, and left him standing due to very windey road!

[Anonymous]

The engine comes 'on-cam' at about 4K rpm and boots you in the chest from about 5K up to 6,5 or so.

Oh and trust me the '2 is quicker in a straight line than a 106 GTi (a great car though IMHO) as well as in the twisty stuff.  But I agrees it's a completely different beast.  When you get used to it you'll most likely find you make better progress in the '2 than the Pug.

--H--

[Anonymous]

at the moment i would have to disagree, not one of my passengers has mentioned the "back in the seat" feeling  they got in the pug, i am not convinced? maybe i am expecting to much? has anyone else on here owned both???

[mph]

If you have a look at my Unichip graph (the torque part), you'll see that if you stick at above 4000 you should be ok.

At the end of the day, the MR2 Roadster isn't quick in a straight line, and there's plenty that'll get past you in a drag. However 'round the twisties, you'll need an Elise, Caterham/Westie, or similar car to keep up with you.    s8) s8)

[Anonymous]

a little off topic but, the celica 190
its still a 1.8 and i assume the same block just with different internals and mapping to the 140 version, is it possible to straight swap the internals from the 190 bhp to the 140 bhp engine?

[Anonymous]

at the moment i would have to disagree, not one of my passengers has mentioned the "back in the seat" feeling  they got in the pug, i am not convinced? maybe i am expecting to much? has anyone else on here owned both???

i dont get this... you do know you push the pedal on the right to go faster, right?   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:  

  s:D s:D

[Anonymous]

LOL!!

its just that the mr2 doesnt put the same smile on my face as the pug did,

i took it for a blast last night and it feels its lacking something

i mean it does take off high up the rev range but, not very much,

[Anonymous]

They did give you a '2 and not a Yaris didnt they....?   s:? :? s:?  

 s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  

Seriously, give it a chance... i was not over impressed until i pushed it... if your looking for straight line speed, its not really the car for that (althought its no slouch), but when you take a roundabout at 80 (*cough, i mean 40 officer...   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  ) and it just grips and grips then you know you have made the right choice!    s:D s:D  

I would never go back now....

[mph]

No offense, but the simplist answer is that you don't know how to drive it yet. It's ability is not the straight line, but the corner...

Being in the North East, I'd strongly recommend that you book yourself into an airfield day at Elvington ( m http://www.bookatrack.com/ m ) and learn what your car is really capable of in absolute safety

Even better, trek down to North Weald and take a day's performance driving tuition ( m http://www.carlimits.com/ m ). Hopefully the club will start organising group days down there in the future.

[Anonymous]

a little off topic but, the celica 190
its still a 1.8 and i assume the same block just with different internals and mapping to the 140 version, is it possible to straight swap the internals from the 190 bhp to the 140 bhp engine?

Unforunately not; the "Celica 190" engine (the 2ZZ-FE) is a totally different engine in almost every respect to ours (despite having a similar model number, 1ZZ-FE).

Many also ask if it's possible to transplant the 190 engine; opinion suggests that it's not only hard to physically do, but in any event, not desirable due to the very different characteristics not suiting the Roadster.

Note that in the Japan GT Championship race series they tend to fit the 3S-GTE (the mk2 MR2 Turbo engine) into the back of the Roadster, so that would seem to be the way to go (if you must  s:) s:)  )

[Hope4Sun]

When i first got my 2 back in ealry 2000, after driving my (modded) MX5, it did not feel quite the same, after a few months of tweaking and replacing parts (witcha  are lot easier to get now   s:? :? s:?  ), it still seemed to lack that something off the lights so to speak.

Then took it for a real long drive one sunny Sunday along the coast, some real twisty roads, then my face just lit up, after that i spent more and more time taking twisty A roads and just leaving most other cars for dust.

After my trip up into the moutains last year in Atlanta with Exboyracer, i realised the car needed nothing extra from the factory other than a little bracing (of which most now comes on 03's), and it stuck like glue all the way to the top, and as he raced for years, he knew what he was doing!!!

Anyone can drive fast in a straight line, life starts when the straights stop, just my £0.02 though  s:) s:)

Andy

[markiii]

you won't be wnting that nice flat six engine then  :-) :-) :-)

[Tem]

Many also ask if it's possible to transplant the 190 engine; opinion suggests that it's not only hard to physically do, but in any event, not desirable due to the very different characteristics not suiting the Roadster.

I'm 100% sure it can be done. As 2 guys from Spyderchat will prove soon. I'd want to do it myself, but luckily I don't have the extra cash  s:) s:)

Obviously it's harder to do than swapping in another engine with same block (if one would exist for Spyder)...

[Anonymous]

yeah it's possible but expensive (as are all engine transplants) size wize its not to much of a % inlargment bit bigg enoght to cause hose's to be modified and so forth   s:? :? s:?  

If i had a 190 i would give it to a compnay who know what there doing and they would be able to sort it out, There's been stranger engine transplants before   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

[Tem]

There's been stranger engine transplants before   s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Yeah...like the 3.8l supercharged V6 to Mk1 MR2, that has smaller engine bay than Mk3  s:) s:)  I still can't believe that actually fits in there...

[Anonymous]

i had heard of that 1 but i didnt believe the guys, i dont supose you have ny write up's on it, would be intrested how they managed it

a mk1 has a much smaller engine bay than the mk3 and it had less intakes as they suffered from over heating so wonder how they done that ??  s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[Tem]

The original was done by Carl Crawford, but there are at least 2 others these days. Here's one by Carl:
 m http://www.djedwhite.com/photo/photo.ph ... ry&dir=mr2 m

Here's one with Toyotas 3l supercharged V6:
 m http://www.atlantamr2s.com/owners%20rid ... ck/MR2.htm m

Edit: If the first link gives an error, try to refresh..

[Anonymous]

cheers for the info when i have time i will read them properly

thank you   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[juansolo]

its just that the mr2 doesnt put the same smile on my face as the pug did

Then you are not driving it properly.

[Anonymous]

Ignoring speed for a second.....I know what i'd rather be seen in  s:!: :!: s:!: