New Track Car!
 

While I want to have fun with the AMG on track, if I do a lot of that it'll become very expensive. So looking beyond that, and having just done a Lemons endurance race 2 months ago I bought something else that should be cheap on track and also competitive in budget endurance racing. I give you...



A Spectra Blue Mica Toyota MR2. Purchased down in SC last month. It's not pretty - visually beat up. But mechanically seems pretty sound and ready to be stripped out and caged. Here's a photo from day I picked it up:

https://www.spyderchat.com/attachmen...699-jpg.83200/

Had it weighed the other day with a full tank of fuel (and spare tire & tool kit) - 2220 lb. I think, even with a cage, the weight can be trimmed down below 2000 lb.

noice.

Drop a 2ZZ in there and you got yourself a budget Lotus Elise :)

First things first:
Oil cooler
Moroso/BOE/s111 oil pan

2000lbs is doable but on the difficult side. Off the top of my head, various item weights:
Battery 30lbs
Seats 35lbs each with sliders
Spare 27lbs
Power steering pump 10lbs
Frunk bin 7lbs
Front hood 30lbs
Rear engine lid 28 with the drip pan I think
Stock muffler 32lbs
Precat delete headers are I think -8lbs
1ZZ is 28lbs less than 2ZZ
C56 is 10lbs less than C60
Plastic stuff behind the seat that will come out for the cage is around 15lbs IIRC, the heaviest are the plastic doors to the bins at 5lbs each.
Wheels are about 16lbs apiece.

I have spare Wilwood race pads if you were going to get the Wilwood Powerlite front caliper kit, if you want them for cheap. If you don't want to go through a 2ZZ swap, I also have a spare intake camshaft if you want to regrind it for a budget mild power upgrade.

I hear you brother (as an ex E55 AMG owner who tracked it... TWICE).

The mister two should be a lot of fun (and certainly more liberating). I do things in my FRS I would shudder to do in the AMG!.

jealous! ive always wanted a 3rd gen mr-2

Need people for a Le Monds team?

^got 3-5 people already interested, but probably at some point :popcorn:

@serialk11r, thanks very useful information! The chassis has 178k miles and the engine was rebuilt at the 90k mile point. Compression seems great across all cylinders and there's nothing coming out exhaust that shouldn't, and no leaks underneath either. I know that at least for some enduro series (like Lemons) I don't think I can get away with those motor mods? Definitely want to though for it's health.

I think it's purdy :wub:

Oh, I'm not familiar with what rules they might have, but yea probably not. You can decat the stock headers yourself (the previous owner may have already done it) though. Oil starvation is really the big problem with Toyota engines from this time, gotta take care of that somehow. I think a purely additive method could be to use the Ishihara Johnson crank scraper with the 2ZZ pan to essentially get a baffle that sits closer to the crankshaft allowing more oil to sit underneath it.

damn you got quite the stable of cars covering the whole gambit. Congrats!!

I was thinking the same thing :bellyroll:

Most rewarding to drive car that I've ever owned.

Thanks that is valuable information.

A summary of the car's condition: From a minor collision (documented on Carfax) the front & rear bumpers were damaged, as well as driver's side front fender. Someone did a horrible respray. Besides the poor paint quality, they didn't even mask off things properly. There was even overspray on the windshield, FFS :bonk:! Roughly half the fender linings/underbody covers on the front end of the car are gone and/or torn and ziptied. Fender linings for the rear wheels are in place, but the 2-3 pieces that go under the engine bay are all gone. From the accident (I'm assuming) the driver's side headlight assembly has 2 broken mounting tabs, that someone at one point had glued together (LOL). Both rear rocker panels had at some point been used as rear jacking points (how stupid are people?!) so both are bent up/damaged and, bonus, easily retain dirt/sand/mud and moisture. No rust there though, and I was able to mostly bend them back by hand and vacuum out all the debris. The engine cover was missing, and while someone probably thought it was just cosmetic it's actually not because it prevents water from sitting on top of the engine and making its way down the spark plug tubes...which I discovered when I removed the plugs to do a compression test. Had a nice rusty mess in tube #2 and about 1 1/2 inches of water in tube #4. Additionally, took a while to remove spark plug #4 because the rubber washer/gripper from a spark plug socket was still on the spark plug in the engine :lol: The convertible top is in pretty good condition and does not leak, however it's slightly damaged and is lacking one tension strap so it's probably worthless when the time comes to ditch the top.

The good: Engine seems strong, there are zero fluid leaks, brakes look and feel great, the unit body has no rust, and the car has brand new tires (were purchased and installed a week before I bought the car). They're 500 TW all seasons, so I have no idea what I'll actually do with them, but...that's something haha. Oh and the AC works. FWIW I think I bought the least expensive mechanically sound MR2 Spyder for sale in the country.

Rented out some track time at NCCAR next month to shake her down, see if there are any glaring issues, and to learn the handling characteristics. :thumbsup:

Just tape over the top few slats of the engine cover, no more water :P

I found stock handling to be pretty friendly. If you jack up the rear spring rates then the snap oversteer can be bad (that's how I crashed :P).