Had a great day yesterday driving the Atlantic highway with a friend in his NA6 mx-5. (the road between Taunton & Ilfracombe/beyond) taking it fairly steady as I was following. The 2zz was working beautifully (for once!) and I got a real good comparison vs. The mx5 in driveability. My friend was zipping up and down through the gears as we were going along the various ups & downs but I didn't need to drop out of 6th at all (apart from obviously the hairpins, and Porlock hill!) anyone that says the 2zz has no torque clearly hasn't driven it in comparison to anything else. Obviously an NA6 mx5 is no fast car, but they've always been said to be fairly grunty. The difference is so immediately obvious, and the driveability between 1.5k rpm and 3k rpm is just so damn good for such a highly strung motor.
I done 150 odd miles to 1/3 of a tank, not bad at all considering.
Can't say I'll be too worried about keeping this car for the foreseeable future. The heaters are bloody brilliant too, had the roof off even when it was too cold for the fellas in the mx5, and I was still too hot to have the heating right up!
How far did you come down? As far as Bude?
I keep thinking that about the torque, I roll out of 30s in 6th all the time, it's perfectly drivable!
The only thing I've noticed is mine hits the limiter just about 8k, maybe a gnats below... But it's a 2001 Celica I sourced everything from, so I would expect it to be 8300rpm, if not 8400rpm.. Which means that when in the lower gears it's difficult to keep in lift which is a pain as I have a t-junction onto the A1 dual carriageway on my way back from my workshop...
Mine hits the limiter a fair while after the rev counter stops moving, but I detest hitting the limiter, it's poor car control in my mind. I've only hit it twice. I hate watching drift videos where they ride the limiter for the same reason, it just annoys me.
I stopped at Ilfracombe Msp! Was a pretty lovely day!
JOnty> That is annoying... I do wonder though how accurate the Rev counter is past the end of it's sweep? It's hard but not impossible to join 1st to 4th in lift in my Corolla, revving to 8,200 I think.
Doodle> Glad you're getting some smiles out of the car!
The rev counter in the mr2 has a hard stop at 8k rpm