Project Slowpoke

[Slowpoke]

Hello all!

Welcome to the thread of what will be hopefully become a deep dive into the building of my MR2 and the surrounding events that myself and the car will inevitably be involved in.

To immediately rock the boat, you actually join me a year into my MR2 ownership...

I bought her when I was 19, and with this MR2 being a year 2000 registered car, she's actually a bit of a cougar to me.
It had 63000 original miles, a hard top, and a spotless interior. Admittedly, the paint work wasn't perfect as the bonnet had faded to matte over time and the arches/mirrors definitely needed a touch up. But besides that, the car was very clean, had been passed through the hands of several enthusiasts during it's life and came with a long list of goodies (including some rare little leather 'boxing gloves' for the naked hardtop mounting cones) so I was eager to pick it up with the confidence that it will make a good base for any future projects. 

Anyway, enough of my affinity with older cars; lets have a look at it!

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Following the purchase of the car, I enjoyed a summer of my first RWD car which was of course enhanced by the drop top and extremely clean interior. Great car to have at that age and I definitely felt like I had made the right choice in choosing an MR2 over an MX5.

This, however, did not remain a clean car for long...

[Slowpoke]

It wasn't long before I learnt about the possible traumatic handling of an MR car.
By neglecting my tyres which were a mix of cheap Michelin specials from 2004 and 2005, I had met my match by putting my foot down through a wet bend.

Being a teenage idiot, I had already messed about in carparks to learn about how the car 'handled' when it went sideways. Nothing, however, could've prepared me for the absolutely hilarious "Ah s***." look on my face when my tail end came straight round and into the curb on the other side of the road.

Thankfully enough it was quiet and late at night so no other members of the public were put at risk of my naivety. That being said, my pride took a huge hit as I slowly exited the car to see obscene amounts of positive camber protruding from the rear left of the car.



Needless to say, I had f***** it and felt very guilty towards all the loving previous owners that I had undoubtedly offended with my horrific driving skills.
For whatever reason, I thought the most appropriate way of dealing with the situation was driving it 12 miles back home and dropping it off at my local garage.
Note to self - never do this again, just call the AA. It was crab walk central and a very unnerving half an hour of my life.



All in all, the car was out of action for a month. I had severely damaged the lower arms and hub. The hub was replaced and the arm was given an extremely questionable cheap fix with it being bent back into place and welded. Truth be told the garage did advise me to change this ASAP for a replacement arm but this did not give me faith in letting other people do mechanical work for you if you can do it own your own driveway.

Additional points: I got my hands on a set of old Enkei RC-S wheels on some Toyo TR1 tyres, some Tein lowering springs, and some KYB shocks which I had all installed by the garage as I saw this as a chance to blow some money on the car. It was back to driveable with a nice aesthetic change - but oh boy was I more cautious in the wet now.




image uploader

[J88TEO]

Great looking 2!

[puma2]

  there is a teenager in all of us
we all make mistakes that is how we learn when it comes to cars its the cost involved 

your up and running now giving the 2 some respect that they need at time

keep up with your 2 and let us no how you get on      

[jvanzyl]

Well done on dealing with it.
I echo the advice of your garage- get a new/used suspension arm from @J-SPEC think it was £40 delivered.

My garage said that if I bent my previous arm back it would likely fail and it would be horrific.

[Slowpoke]

Well done on dealing with it.
I echo the advice of your garage- get a new/used suspension arm from @J-SPEC think it was £40 delivered.

My garage said that if I bent my previous arm back it would likely fail and it would be horrific.

The story isn't over yet!
Don't worry - the crappy fix on the suspension arms was addressed and the car has come a fair way since. Once I get back from work tonight I'll update the thread with the continuation.

[Slowpoke]

So, I was back to enjoying the MR2! Not long after getting it back on the road it was simply just enjoyable to drive around in what was still a relatively clean 2. And this time, with some much needed modifications to make it feel like 'my own'.



Over the next few weeks, I decided to buy a set of 16 inch rota slipstreams to try the staggered look.


Considering the styling of the rims matched the enkeis, I was pretty happy with the look - it felt very much like an homage to the drift scenes of the early 2000's with mismatched wheels.

This, combined with an oil change and a purchase of some Zestino Grudge tyres saw me through to disaster number 2...

[Slowpoke]

Clearly my teenage tendencies were still alive and well. In hindsight, buying any sort of dry performance orientated tyre and using it during winter months is illadvised. Needless to say - it was the decision I would come to regret.

Driving back from work one December evening, I was aware that the roads were icy so I was deliberately driving very modestly. Ironically enough, my mum had reminded me that evening to be extra careful driving back due to the ice. I had confidently responded that I was aware and would be fine.

Alas, I drove over a bridge that was usually covered with a thin layer of dorment water from the stream below it. My lapse of judgment paid for this dearly as this layer of thin water was now ice, and as soon as my rear tyres contacted at 60mph, I sent myself into a huge tank slapper.

I made my best effort to save the spin, catching the first couple of violent turns until the rear tyres caught traction again and shot me off into the curb and airborne into the barrier that thankfully stopped me from taking a 30ft fall.

I was shaken up, very upset and angry with myself but thankfully uninjured.
Having only had the car back for just over a month, I was so furious with myself for again putting my only car in harms way and thinking about another financial recovery I'd have to make - or worse - saying goodbye to the MR2.



After a quick call to dad to help rescue me and a few hours waiting for the AA, the car was loaded onto the back of the AA truck and taken to a storage unit to be delivered back to the garage the next day.

I had examined the damage at the scene of the crash to make a quick guess at what I had broken. If any previous owners of the car are viewing this post, now is the time to look away...

In the crash, I had broken: 3 of the 4 wheels - the enkeis were dented but the rotas on the rear had been completely obliterated. 1 point to 'real' wheel brands.
I had also broken both rear hubs, part of the rear struts that supported the quarter panel, the rear quarter panel, all of the rear suspension arms on both sides, my rear and front nearside lights and my front bumper.
My red paint, along with the significant denting, still lives on that bridge till this day.

My main concern was that when the garage got back to me about the extensiveness of the damage, the frame would be straight and undamaged.












It was officially back to square -1.

[Slowpoke]

Whilst the MR2 was out of action for the foreseeable future, I needed to sort myself out with a vehicle quickly so I could get myself to work.

That vehicle came from the heavens in the form of a Saxo VTR.








Let me make this clear, as much fun as it was owning this car - it was the biggest heap of crap I think I will ever own! 

Rust everywhere, no speakers or radio, no interior, missing washer jets and system, missing bolts on the strut towers, missing wheel nuts, slow punctures in every tyre, a loose battery floating around in the engine bay that died on me on day 1, a VERY squeaky auxiliary belt, dents in every panel and a rather confused idle control valve.

The thing was a mess but it somehow got me from A to B. Absolutely hilarious to drive purely out of shear fear factor. I sorted almost all the issues it had in the first weekend I had it and then proceeded to drive it to an early grave whilst waiting for the MR2 to be repaired.

This did include many burnouts and crashes on country lanes due to my complete lack of sympathy for the car which had seemingly had a hard life already.
Not caring about a car for the first time in my life unironically opened my eyes to what I want out of a car... Banger racing anyone??

[Slowpoke]

After a long 2 months of waiting to have the MR2 back due to it becoming an obvious 'low priority' item to the garage, I finally got her back.

There was definitely work that needed to be done to her. The MR2 got treated to new hubs, Hardrace suspension arms and the remaining set of wheels I had from running the staggered setup.
After getting her back, I stitched up the front bumper with zipties, ordered and replaced the smashed rear light (which took hammering the rear frame and quarter panel back into place - not a pretty job or easy to learn quickly) and was once again just happy to have the MR2 back and working.




Snow!



The car then served me well for the following few months, only changing tyres and oil periodically. It took me down to Snowdon for a weekend away trip with my friends and loved all the curves that Wales could throw her way!



This brings us close to present day, but it has been the last couple months that have been the most developmental in this little MR2's life...

[Slowpoke]

Ok, time to return to this thread.

Due to not having the patience to write out the entire story - I'll give a rundown of how the car currently sits and the future plans...

The car has received a set of Motegi Racing MR146 wheels in 15x8 et35 front and et28 rear (the fitment is pretty bang on).
The car also sits on a set of BC coilovers (RA) 5/7kg/mm split. After I take the car on track I'll consider moving these springs up to 7k front, 11k rear to match the future engine swap plan.
The car now has a Whiteline rear ARB and new droplinks. Front ARB has been left standard mimicking I believe the 2018 version of the Techno Pro Spirit car.
Some new wheels nuts and sprigot rings were sorted to clean up the new wheel and tyre package - tyres of choice were Nankang AR-1's in 205/50/15 front and 225/45/15 rear. Meaty.

On the interior, I went for a Sparco Rev QRT seat, Rogue Motorsports seat mounts (after accidentally ordering some generic seat mounts in error - these are still in my possession if you'd like to buy) a Momo boss kit and Sabelt SW633 wheel in alcantara. The seat was mounted with some Race safety hardware.

I also removed the spare wheel and all plastic trim in the frunk.

Now, for the review of how it was in this state - bloody brilliant. Now I know that going all out on the roads is frowned upon, but living in the sticks I can occasionally give it full chat on the twisties to push the car to the limits and see what the changes have done for it. After dialling in the coilovers to some suitable rebound settings, this kind of setup is pretty much impossible to unsettle in a corner on public roads which was both an ecstatic and scary experience. Literally mind blowing how well balanced this chassis is and how much it will just eat up a corner until I run out of balls.

Since then, the rear tires have become completely void of rubber so I've calmed down as keeping it in a straight line in the wet was a death defying feat in itself. The car is now sat on some more suitable all seasons to keep it going through the winter as I don't really have the budget to buy a sensible daily that I wouldn't hate driving (if I want to keep pouring money into the 2, that is).

Soon to arrive this week is a carbon Sard GT Type S spoiler all the way from Japan which I'm rather excited about. It won't make the car any quicker on the road but for sheer style points I can't wait!

I'm still waiting on the C-one style front bumper which is mildly annoying as I can't install the new headlights until it comes and gets painted but hey ho.

Here are some photos of the car in its (somewhat) prime.

[Slowpoke]

Forgot to mention, but I also did a little mod with the throttle thanks to a thread I found on here. Adding a couple of spacers behind the top bolt of where the pedal bolts to the arm puts a little bit more tension on the cable and removed the slack I had in my throttle. For a 10 minute job (doing this with a fixed seat made it a pain) it was well worth it. Cripsy downshifts have never felt so good baby! Instant 1zz power! 

[Slowpoke]

My brakes are absolutely shot, trust me to upgrade everything else before maintenance.

I've decided, "Why not waste more needless money?", so I'm going ahead and doing a complete refresh.

So, upgrades to be ordered tonight...

EBC Yellow stuff front pads and rotors (just vented, no grooves or drilled holes in this mr2 thank you).
EBC Yellow stuff rear pads and rotors to match.
EBC braided lines
Aluminium Prius XW20 front callipers. A whopping 1.2kg per front wheel of unsrpung mass saved (yummy).
A couple bottles of RBF600 fluid.
Some OE left and right rear callipers.

In total... 860 quid. Ouch.

[Slowpoke]

Right, long term plans.

I really like the idea of going time attack and consistent track day weapon - so here's the sauce that's gonna get me there...

A Zurawski Motorsport BAM swap - netting a safe 250bhp if I want to stick to Javelin Sprint class rules and stay within the 250bhp mark. If I decide otherwise then a full fat 300bhp which sounds ridiculously scary.

This swap typically will cost someone 6-6.5k for a standard drive in drive out service. I'd quite like to have an LSD and baffled oil sump thrown in mine so this will probably be closer to 7.5-8k for the swap. Despite this being much cheaper if I do the swap, I don't really want to tackle it on my driveaway as the 2 is my only car at the moment and there seems to be a lot of small fixes and bits needing chopping off that are required to do to the engine in order for it to work seamlessly. That's fine with me - I'd just rather not do any of that myself! The work that Stav and Thomas have been putting out looks pretty mega in quality over other engine swaps so I'd be happy to leave the car in their hands.

Only issue is cost - I think it's realistically time to get saving for a rather long time if I want this car to be swapped next year.

To accompany the engine swap, I'll be going as far as I can with the track car idea whilst keeping it road legal on my own.

So, fully stripped, bonnet webbing cut out - the works.

A pigeon hit my aerial today on my way into work and its all skiwhiff - refuses to go back down fully after I bent it into place so removing that will be a satisfying job! 

Other than that, permanent hardtop mounts, full polybush refresh, a lightweight battery and potentially relocation, roll cage (I think I can get away with a half cage for time attack events - not the safest but eh weight saving and practicality), harnesses, some sort of short shifter solution. The RZR shifter I've seen looks beautiful so splashing out on that would be lovely, and it should work with the engine swap in future with no compatibility issues there. Mega.

Final things would be sorting a switch board to put in the centre console for a kill switch and all that jazz.

[SuperArt]

Liking the progress, but after seeing countless projects come and go I just wonder if there isn't a purpose built 250hp/tonne track day toy for around the cost of potential engine swapped MR2 with mods and initial purchase price of the car, call it £10k-12k?

These cars are horrible "investments" at best, and that just gets worse when modded.

FYI - I'm currently on 205 R16 front and 225 R16 rear. I don't like the way the front handles, seems over-tyred.
Maybe you'll get on better with smaller R15 wheels, but I'm thinking about going down to 195 front next rubber change.

Looking forward to seeing restoration progress.

[Slowpoke]

Liking the progress, but after seeing countless projects come and go I just wonder if there isn't a purpose built 250hp/tonne track day toy for around the cost of potential engine swapped MR2 with mods and initial purchase price of the car, call it £10k-12k?

These cars are horrible "investments" at best, and that just gets worse when modded.

FYI - I'm currently on 205 R16 front and 225 R16 rear. I don't like the way the front handles, seems over-tyred.
Maybe you'll get on better with smaller R15 wheels, but I'm thinking about going down to 195 front next rubber change.

Looking forward to seeing restoration progress.

Yep, no real financial sense around here I'm afraid. As the only real money taxing hobby of mine, I'm happy to justify it as I'd rather have the experience - whether that be fun or complete pain and tears - of home building a race car than have 15k more in my bank account at the age of 30.

Just one mans life view, don't get me wrong though, this is completely moronic on my end 

[Slowpoke]

Liking the progress, but after seeing countless projects come and go I just wonder if there isn't a purpose built 250hp/tonne track day toy for around the cost of potential engine swapped MR2 with mods and initial purchase price of the car, call it £10k-12k?

These cars are horrible "investments" at best, and that just gets worse when modded.

FYI - I'm currently on 205 R16 front and 225 R16 rear. I don't like the way the front handles, seems over-tyred.
Maybe you'll get on better with smaller R15 wheels, but I'm thinking about going down to 195 front next rubber change.

Looking forward to seeing restoration progress.

Also, to address the tyre feel - It felt a little sluggish with my tyre setup under normal driving, but as soon as I started to press on it felt very reassuring and I had complete confidence in what the car was doing underneath me (albeit in dry conditions only).

I now have 195/50 and 205/50 on the car now, feels lovely and playful but just not as 'racecar' orientated which I guess is sensible for road use. All seasons too so really not a huge amount grip on the road regardless of tyre size.

[SuperArt]

Just thought I'd put a different angle on your overall need, which is to participate in the sprint series.
You can probably tick that box with a better/different platform than to extensively graft serious performance into a MR2.
Honestly wish I could do what you're doing, I'm just not brave enough to even start something as intensive as race prepping a car. Kudos to you.
Oh and I wouldn't pay too much attention to any financial advice given by a guy with two turbo MR2s, they absolutely do not practice what they preach.

[Joesson]

My brakes are absolutely shot, trust me to upgrade everything else before maintenance.

I've decided, "Why not waste more needless money?", so I'm going ahead and doing a complete refresh.

So, upgrades to be ordered tonight...

EBC Yellow stuff front pads and rotors (just vented, no grooves or drilled holes in this mr2 thank you).
EBC Yellow stuff rear pads and rotors to match.
EBC braided lines
Aluminium Prius XW20 front callipers. A whopping 1.2kg per front wheel of unsrpung mass saved (yummy).
A couple bottles of RBF600 fluid.
Some OE left and right rear callipers.

In total... 860 quid. Ouch.

"Ouch" indeed.
Maybe much of that is for the "OE left and right rear callipers.".
After market calipers or professional refurb of yours could ease the pain.

[Slowpoke]

"Ouch" indeed.
Maybe much of that is for the "OE left and right rear callipers.".
After market calipers or professional refurb of yours could ease the pain.

Yep, I've ordered everything else but held off on the 2 rear callipers, £130 a pop seemed a bit over the top to me.
I definitely have issues with the rear left calliper though and in turn my handbrake does nothing (no surprises there). The sound from the back is rather annoying with the clacking. It could just be the slider bolt in which case it's a cheap fix. Gonna ask my mate at the garage what he reckons the best course of action is.

[Slowpoke]

Just thought I'd put a different angle on your overall need, which is to participate in the sprint series.
You can probably tick that box with a better/different platform than to extensively graft serious performance into a MR2.
Honestly wish I could do what you're doing, I'm just not brave enough to even start something as intensive as race prepping a car. Kudos to you.
Oh and I wouldn't pay too much attention to any financial advice given by a guy with two turbo MR2s, they absolutely do not practice what they preach.

You're absolutely right, there are better platforms out there for sure. I quite like the MR2 platform though - it seems capable of fighting well above its weight.

I know this is a drastic comparison but there's a car out there owned by a Mr Pieter Zeelie which is a hill climb car and utterly bonkers. There's not much MR2 of it left but as a platform it's pretty wild to see how far you can take it.

I've figured that I've already made a financial commitment that I won't see a return on so I might as well keep going! The MR2 is charming to me, would be rather fun to beat some big performance cars on a 'budget'.

[Petrus]

Have a look at
https://www.mr2roc.org/index.php?topic=74432.0

[puma2]

  some fun and money spent   
great to see you enjoying your 2  

[Slowpoke]

Have a look at
https://www.mr2roc.org/index.php?topic=74432.0

Seen it for sale, looks like a blast but just not the kind of machine I'm wanting to build!

I want the car to remain road legal for as long as possible until I can buy a trailer and car that can tow. Some might say I should prioritise my spending better but that's no fun at all 

I do quite fancy looking at an auto is200 as a daily though - insurance is relatively reasonable for my age (being 20, insurance is an absolute joke at the moment) and it can be a nice cruiser for a small up front cost.

I think the obvious dream 2 car solution is a streetable track toy MR2 and a Land Cruiser Amazon though - they are pretty baller in full spec 

[Slowpoke]

Just thought I'd put a different angle on your overall need, which is to participate in the sprint series.
You can probably tick that box with a better/different platform than to extensively graft serious performance into a MR2.
Honestly wish I could do what you're doing, I'm just not brave enough to even start something as intensive as race prepping a car. Kudos to you.
Oh and I wouldn't pay too much attention to any financial advice given by a guy with two turbo MR2s, they absolutely do not practice what they preach.

Out of interest, what power are you running in your turbo 2's? Would be nice to get an understanding of what the future power could feel like...