The nearly an Elise Project

Started by Danny Scarbro, February 22, 2022, 14:47

lukeydoo and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

JB21

Awesome work mate. Aintree Saturday 27th April if you fancy it. Bookings opened today. £160 session event.

They're very chilled on noise limits as well.

https://www.liverpoolmotorclub.com/track-day-information/

Danny Scarbro

Quote from: JB21 on March 24, 2024, 17:36Awesome work mate. Aintree Saturday 27th April if you fancy it. Bookings opened today. £160 session event.

They're very chilled on noise limits as well.

https://www.liverpoolmotorclub.com/track-day-information/

Thanks mate but I'd rather do a few more local days to start with then will probably head over to Oulton in the summer so will have to a sort a day with a few of us?

Dan

Danny Scarbro

#77
Little update on the MRX.

Went for the MOT on Thursday and pleased to say passed with no issues, had a good look underneath on the ramps too and was pleased to say very little rust too. Had thought I may need to do some sills or something soon but thankfully not!

Was nice to drive the car again, felt quite sharp and exciting which is good! Have got the annoying k series leak from the rocker cover so ordered a new gasket and will pop that on.

Ordered and fitted some pull handles instead of the stock tubing, gives abit more space and personally think it looks better too!



Next I had been deliberating about a wing I had seen, its the SW motorsports one designed for the TT Cup racing series...I saw it and quite liked it, thought if its been designed for a TT they had a similar body shape/size so should be functional.

I bit the bullet and ordered one, test fitted it with the bumper off to help work out where it would be best.





Then mounted up properly, I'm quite please with it, seems to fit well, blade looks to be at a good height to the roofline and width of the car and is just big enough without looking TOO big and silly.





The keen eyed of you will have also spotted I've put a more normal rear bumper on too, albeit scabby condition I picked it up cheap and wanted to see if without the cut at the bottom it looks better...got to say I prefer it so thanks to 'Superart' for mentioning it.

Have picked up a TRD style rear lip to go on the bottom too so will get that sprayed on fitted.

I had a go at wrapping the wings...is abit fiddly, bit of heat helped alot and a second pair of hands would be really useful. However am not going to call it a day on the wrapping idea, the issue is I'm sure a professional outfit could get a lovely neat finish on the edges and underside of the panel, but me in my garage not so much. I know what I am like and I wouldn't be happy with the finish and the underside of the panels been different colours etc

Have a different plan now which will pop in a few days when I know more!

Dan

Danny Scarbro

Next mini update...

So with the wrapping idea falling on its arse what was the next plan? Well one Thursday night I was scrolling Facebook market place and found what looked like a nice Black MR2 needing a few bits doing to it that was 3 miles down the road. Needless to say at 8am the next day I was looking round it and two days later it was back on my drive!

So the plan is to take all the black panels off (Have always liked the cars in Black), switch them onto mine, then I'll paint the hardtop, door shuts, engine bay etc to match. Then either keep the other shell as a spare or maybe for a future race car.

The new car;







Then starting to switch the panels over, I was really pleased at how clean from rust the car is!







How its sat now, Looking forward to having the rest of the panels on at the weekend, super excited about it as I have always not really liked the silver .






Many thanks

Dan

Danny Scarbro

Got the last of the panels switched over, and also got the fibreglass hardtop, front and rear lips and side skirts back from the painters.

Really pleased with how all the panels look and the paintwork is in nice condition apart from the bonnet which the lacquer has faded. Will be getting this re-painted.

'Balanced' the lips and bits up so I can see what it will look like to get some pictures, will fasten and bond them up this week.

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Have also got a spare bootlid which is been sprayed black so I can just run the car without the wing on the road and then switch at the track...think it looks abit much on the road and dont want to get the wrong attention!



So next I need to paint the door shuts and few bits of silver that are left and the colour switch is complete :)

Also have been working on making the old shell into a nicer car which my Dad is going to use which will ne nice for him.



Just need to find/get some lowering spring and hopefully a maroon soft top to finish it off for him.

Dan

Alex Knight

Car looks great, well done.

Love the wheels especially.

Petrus

Quote from: Danny Scarbro on May  6, 2024, 13:16Just need to find/get some lowering spring


be aware of possible rubbing

Danny Scarbro

Quote from: Alex Knight on May  6, 2024, 21:57Car looks great, well done.

Love the wheels especially.

Thanks Alex, was considering painting the wheels Silver to lift the car slightly but unsure....The famous 2 Black track Mr2's with Silver Enkei's just look so damn great and have been the inspiration to the black switch!

Dan

Danny Scarbro

Quote from: Petrus on May  6, 2024, 22:20be aware of possible rubbing

Thanks for the heads up, I have read that some are worse than others and the Tein's are abit of a no go. Seems the H&R ones are the best option for ride height and comfort? Unless you have any advice Petrus?

Dan

thetyrant

Quote from: Danny Scarbro on May  7, 2024, 16:08Thanks for the heads up, I have read that some are worse than others and the Tein's are abit of a no go. Seems the H&R ones are the best option for ride height and comfort? Unless you have any advice Petrus?

Dan

I ran Tein springs on my car with Koni adjustable s it was brilliant all rounder, not too low and with the improved damper handling and ride were much improved, tried on stock dampers first but felt a bit underdamped.

Ex-2005 roadster  owner, i will be back :D

Alex Knight

Quote from: Danny Scarbro on May  7, 2024, 16:08Thanks for the heads up, I have read that some are worse than others and the Tein's are abit of a no go. Seems the H&R ones are the best option for ride height and comfort? Unless you have any advice Petrus?

Dan

Bronze on black is as good as it gets IMHO.

Petrus

#86
Quote from: Danny Scarbro on May  7, 2024, 16:08Thanks for the heads up, I have read that some are worse than others and the Tein's are abit of a no go. Seems the H&R ones are the best option for ride height and comfort? Unless you have any advice Petrus?

Dan

I´d think twice about lowering and méasure the space the tyres have three times (vs the inner edge of the wheel arches and do not forget the inner splash guard  protrusions ).

On real world roads both the OEM ground clearance and tyre clearance are not overly ample imo.
Secondly lower springs = stiffer springs and weirdly enough the after market lowering springs do not have the same front vs rear spring rate balance as TRD ones.  And this doés affect handling!

Since in the UK it is not much of a challenge to find custom spring manufacturers at reasonable money I´d look at thát.
Go mínimally lower if you must, thus ditto stiffer and dó keep the OEM/TRD front/rear spring rate balance in the picture.

FYI:
https://www.spyderchat.com/threads/spring-rates-table-for-lowering-springs.104465/?post_id=1511633#post-1511633



lukeydoo

Great work! Fantastic to see all of the effort put into this!

Random question - how is the throttle cable linked to the K20a2 throttle cam (the one with the spring that you blip to raise the revs)?

I just removed the TB on my own K20 MR2 and cleaned the IACV and calibrated the TPS, put it back on and realised the end of the cable doesn't fit! If you have a better solution then it'd save me removing it all again to drill a larger hole!

Danny Scarbro

Thanks for the information about the springs and set ups. Dads had a change of heart un-fortunately so wont be having the spare MR2.

In other news Front & rear lips are now fitted properly, side skirts on the to-do list.

There was a leak from the rocker cover gasket so I ordered some replacements and fitted them.

Have painted the windscreen surround, rear hardtop beam and door sills so its looks more normal now. Just the door shuts and interior/engine bay to do now.

Next job was a very very very shameful and short term fix, but one that actually does a job. Annoyingly on the new panels one of the doors has some rust on the bottom, So ill look out for a replacement door but for now I ordered some Black gloss wrap...rust treated the areas, cut some patches and covered them up.

I know bad form from me but as a quick fix it actually doesn't look too bad, and for a track car is ok!

Really really chuffed with how it looks all black, over the moon actually, gone from a car that I liked but just always wished it was slightly different to one I really like!

What's next?

Have a Cadwell evening booked Wed 29th May to give it a little test outing, then Blyton on Sun 9th June.

Few little bits need doing prior to the track day;

-Knock Sensor failure code - Have one ordered so just needs fitting
-New Filter Element for Air filter as old one is toast!
-Ordered some larger diameter and black piping for the induction as it was killing my OCD been blue and far too small. This was a stupid purchase and should have just been left for a few track days as I'm putting the ITBs on then but I just cant help it!
-Shifter mechanism adjustments - Throw is too long currently
-Sump baffle adjustments - Have heard of these sticking so going to just bend the ends slightly so they cant
-Oil change whilst doing the baffles
-Quick Geo as it is all over the place currently

So nothing too strenuous hopefully.

CANT WAIT TO GET ON TRACK WITH IT!  ;D

Dan





Danny Scarbro

Quote from: lukeydoo on May  8, 2024, 09:27Great work! Fantastic to see all of the effort put into this!

Random question - how is the throttle cable linked to the K20a2 throttle cam (the one with the spring that you blip to raise the revs)?

I just removed the TB on my own K20 MR2 and cleaned the IACV and calibrated the TPS, put it back on and realised the end of the cable doesn't fit! If you have a better solution then it'd save me removing it all again to drill a larger hole!

Hi LukeyDoo,

Sorry havent seen this earlier, I can send you some pictures of how mine is mounted if you like? On memory it looks like its all original Honda so think the Honda cable has been used.

I've had it to pieces a few times and never struggled.

Dan

Gaz2405

Really like this build, it's got old school Cliosport.net vibes about it for those that were on it
1zz turbo. Home built and home mapped.

Now 2zz turbo +e153 conversion. Home built and home mapped

Build thread https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=67004.0

Danny Scarbro

Quote from: Gaz2405 on May 18, 2024, 11:25Really like this build, it's got old school Cliosport.net vibes about it for those that were on it

Thanks Gaz! I used to be on the CRX forum many years ago and used to do project threads on there so I'm probably still living that life!


Danny Scarbro

#92
Time for a few little updates, Got on with the to-do list before Cadwell reasonably well.

-New induction set/up and filter element fitted.

-GIZ Motorsport helped with sorting the baffle plates and oil change and fettled with the shifter...its better but still isn't right so need to do some research on this. With the really short gearbox it needs to be perfect as your always using the box!

-Fitted the side skirts and switched the bootlid over to the one with the wing attached.

-Took it for an alignment at the local Bush tyre place....this didn't go so well;

So these were the original numbers;



I wanted to get to 3 degrees camber front 0 toe. 2.5 degrees camber rear and 0.15 toe.

Ended up with this;




As you can see miles away and tbh a waste of time and money.

For some reason they just couldn't get any more than 1-1.5 degree's camber on the back passenger side. I have got adjustable hard race traction arms and camber arms but haven't replaced the Toe arms, so assuming you need to do all of them to get it right.

They ran out of time and had other customers waiting, I didn't have much time myself so I opted to put a Camber bolt on the rear Passenger and adjust it by eye to as close as I could.

So the alignment was far from perfect, going to now purchase the last adjustable toe arm fit it with the camber bolts and take it back to hopefully get it better before Blyton (9th June).

Few pictures at a spot local to me I quite like as well as the new Induction set up.

Dan










Danny Scarbro

*Cadwell Update*

So after a little bit of last minute dashing about was all set for the shakedown, throughout the day the weather had been nice but with on and off showers so was keeping my fingers crossed for a dry one.

I love a wet track day but with it been the first outing in a while I suspected there may be a few bits we need to sort/fettle with and its nicer lying in the sun that in a puddle!

Lucky for me it was nice and dry all night.

So how was the car? Was great fun! Short ratio's is perfect for Cadwell popping into 6th on both straights. Was the first time using Dunlop Direzza's and they felt really grippy albeit were catching on one side slightly with the lack of camber so had to raise it up after the sighting laps.

The alignment was obviously not ideal but the tyres helped hide this. Brakes felt good for most of the evening but just started to tail off towards the end of the sessions so I'm thinking it probably wants some fresh fluid before Blyton.

One area for improvement is the shifter, 3/4/5/6 are good but 1/2 are horrific to get into, naturally was only using 2nd on the hairpin however quite often missing 2nd and ending in 4th and bogging. Just feels so far to the left away from the other gears so need to find a solution to this.

The other area is me! Can tell its been a while and need to get some seat time and confidence back. The wing has definitely helped with the faster sections feeling more assured around Charlies 1/2 and Chris Curve which is good, am sure there is some time to un-lock there now.

Wasn't too busy on the evening but was a few nice things about, had some good little battles with some BMW M3's 440i's etc, interesting to see the different area's of the track that suit the different cars. MR2 coming into its own on the tighter stuff and the BMW's stretching away on the faster stuff. Was impressed with the little MR2's straight line speed in comparison too which is promising.

Few bits to sort before Blyton but on the whole a really successful shakedown and super excited for the rest of the year in the car.

Anyway enough waffle time for some pictures, curtesy of Rob Baxter so there's some good'uns!

Did have the go pro in for one session so will upload that when I get some time too.

Dan










AdamR28

Looking good  8)  glad everything went well!

Quote from: Danny Scarbro on June  2, 2024, 11:10One area for improvement is the shifter, 3/4/5/6 are good but 1/2 are horrific to get into, naturally was only using 2nd on the hairpin however quite often missing 2nd and ending in 4th and bogging. Just feels so far to the left away from the other gears so need to find a solution to this.

I found the same so made a little "stopper" for the 2nd gear gate, so you just ram the shifter all the way over to the stop with no risk of hitting reverse. It was on a sort of over centre catch, and you just flipped it out the way if you needed reverse.

@Maurici has the car now but might be able to get a pic if you need...

Danny Scarbro

Thanks Adam, To be fair with the K20 box Reverse is the other side so no chance of hitting that unless things go really wrong!

Its just not a nice feel or easy to find so wants some attention. Am sure some fettling will sort it. Going to reach out to people with the same set up and see if they have any hinters or tips.

Dan


Gaz2405

Quote from: AdamR28 on June  3, 2024, 22:59Looking good  8)  glad everything went well!

I found the same so made a little "stopper" for the 2nd gear gate, so you just ram the shifter all the way over to the stop with no risk of hitting reverse. It was on a sort of over centre catch, and you just flipped it out the way if you needed reverse.

@Maurici has the car now but might be able to get a pic if you need...

I made a stopper for my lateral movement at the shifter end too. Essentially just a stop.
1zz turbo. Home built and home mapped.

Now 2zz turbo +e153 conversion. Home built and home mapped

Build thread https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=67004.0

Danny Scarbro

Few more trackdays under the belt in the MR2 now, managed to squeeze a Cadwell/Blyton Double header on the 27/28th of July and what a weekend it was.

Car was really fantastic and didn't miss a beat on the whole, only a few changes from the last outing;

-Brake fluid change.
-Re-did alignment.
-Fitted 15x9" Konig's at the back now they had arrived.
-Hardrace adjustable tow arms

Car felt really good and got plenty of attention on both days and both me & Matt said its one of the best cars we've driven on track in terms of sheer enjoyment.

Didnt get many clean laps but optimums at Cadwell were 1;40 and 1;08 at Blyton so its fairly quick too. No doubt some extra seat time and some more work on the alignment and we can see them down abit more.

On the last session at Blyton the car developed a horrible noise from the engine and I thought it was a repeat of the Elise at Cadwell and had done a bottom end....looking under the bonnet I was massively relived to see the Ex manifold had cracked, alot easier fix!

Also noticed the brakes were getting really hot at the front at Blyton, so need to get the ducts from the old bumper transferred over and now have a cracked disc to replace too.

Will get some pictures of the days put up here later.

Just now waiting to get it booked in to have the Cams fitted and ordered a modified 4piston oil pump too give the engine as best chance for longevity up the revs!

Decided to put the ITBs on hold as it sounds great already and I just want to enjoy it without faffing too much, its working well as it is.

Hopefully get these fitted and re-maped in August then book a few more days in Sept/Oct.

Will get the Mx5 out in August too now its back from having a new clutch and some welding for the mot.

On the whole am really pleased with the car now and the BIG decision to sell the Elise and continue the journey with this one.

Seems the Nearly an Elise could actually be better as an all round car to own/drive/enjoy/maintain. ;D

Dan





Danny Scarbro


Danny Scarbro

Had the opportunity of another Track evening at Cadwell last night so booked on and jumped in.

Was again a fantastic evening and the car also felt great, Only things changed from last time was a new set of Pagid blank discs at the front and had the exhaust manifold welded back up.

Only did 3 short sessions as was starting to get some higher oil temps, sitting at around 130 but rising to 140 once which is too much.

However I did manage to get a PB which I'm really really chuffed with, the car has felt quick but considering it still needs the geo dialling in somewhere with the knowledge, the power is quite conservative for a K (234bhp) and there its not the lightest yet (circa 1000kg) there will be the possibility of a really quick time!

Said Lap - 1.38.13

https://youtu.be/U9BESMDpn1U?si=fIGF1DW-Ktz071C3

Will post some more track pics when they are on the website.

A very happy Dan


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