Colin the 2zz MR2 roadster

[Dudi]

So last October me and a mate decided to buy a track ready car that we could also drive to and back.

After considering our options we decided on the MR-2. He has owned a few MX5's and I've owned M3's, 911's but neither of us have owned a mid engined car.

We travelled down to Chepstow from our location in Mid Wales to pick up the 2ZZ roadster, it was owned by a retired motor engineer who had fully rebuilt and blueprinted the engine with brand new extensive list of genuine Toyota parts.

I have to be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with the power as my fun car is a 700bhp R35 GTR and at the time the daily was an RS6 Avant with about 750bhp but I was pleasantly surprised with the handling/balance.

My girlfriend names all our cars and she thought the MR2 looked like a Colin and that was that.

The spec as bought is as follows -

Pre facelift MR2 Roadster
2zz-ge engine, 6 speed gearbox with LSD
Stock shocks with Tein springs
Ebay manifold and Janspeed backbox
Half cage at the rear
Underside cross brace
Ultraracing front lower brace
Rear braided hoses
DImpled discs with yellow stuff pads
Winter tyres on facelift 15/16 wheels
Whiteline ARB's front and rear
Factory hardtop


Over the winter the RS6 was sold, I bought an L494 Range Rover Autobiography diesel for the lady and my Z4M roadster came out to be my daily and the GTR went into hibernation so I started collecting bits in readiness for the spring trackday season.

The bits purchase to date are -

Eliseparts baffled sump
BC coilovers
Hardrace rear arms
AD08R tyres
Rogue seat mounts
OMP champ seats and 6 point harnesses
Front braided hoses
Mishimoto front radiator
Ultraracing front strut brace
Gearshift bushings and solid mounts
Momo race steering wheel and boss
Competition clutch ceramic-metal paddle clutch
Competition clutch lightented flywheel
Brand new spare gearbox from Toyota - C60 (in hindsight apparently C64 is better.)

I have some garage space so we have decided to do whatever we can buy ourselves, it's kind of therapeutic. I haven't done my own work on cars since my late teens so it's fairly new and challenging.

Will upload photos soon.

[Bernie]

Welcome along sounds a great buy you might want to consider stage 2 camshaft maybe Apexi ECU or piggyback and a remap

[jvanzyl]

Welcome!

Sounds like it's going to be a great track day car  :-) :-) :-)

Out of interest - are you going with a hardtop on? I'm assuming since you've got a roll cage that this is what the intention is?

[MilesH]

Sounds like you've bought George's old car? Great car that is and definitely a lot of love has been put into it.

Enjoy the build and maybe see you on track sometime  s:) s:)

[Dudi]

Hi,

Yeah it is George's old motor. We felt almost sorry taking it from him as it was obviously a labour of love. Apart from the slight gearbox issues it seems sound.

Hope to be on track soon!

[Dudi]

Welcome!

Sounds like it's going to be a great track day car  :-) :-) :-)

Out of interest - are you going with a hardtop on? I'm assuming since you've got a roll cage that this is what the intention is?

Yeah we have a hardtop on with the stock mounting kit. We had it off a couple of times on sunny days which was fun. Janspeed backbox makes a nice noise, especially with the top down.

[MilesH]

Hi,

Yeah it is George's old motor. We felt almost sorry taking it from him as it was obviously a labour of love. Apart from the slight gearbox issues it seems sound.

Hope to be on track soon!

Gearbox issue?

[Dudi]

Hi,

Yeah it is George's old motor. We felt almost sorry taking it from him as it was obviously a labour of love. Apart from the slight gearbox issues it seems sound.

Hope to be on track soon!

Gearbox issue?

 l viewtopic.php?f=11&t=61770 l

Fifth gear and reverse. It was there when we bought it but didn't really think much of it. The reverse issue has slowly been deteriorating.

[jonty]

I'm hoping you get another daily driver so my 2zz mr2 can become more track oriented, when everything is in good shape the handling is brilliant as you say Dudi.

Once you've had it on track a while if you get bored of the low power there are options available to give a boost - I've got a rotrex sat on a shelf waiting to go in, which depending on spec can bump power into the mid 300s, which when pushing sub 1000kg should feel less underwhelming!