BRAKING THE MR2
I’ve been the Proud Owner of this Silver MR2 since September 2009.
Picking up from the previous owner in ACT
Micky (left) came along for the ride
Fortunately it’s never really given me much trouble as a track car. The only costs being consumables, tyres, fuel, entry fees and the odd oil change.
Sadly however at the WRX Christmas bash, I pushed this poor little fella too much.
This was my first time ever driving at Sandown and I spent most of the day experimenting with different breaking combos and just learning the line. When it came to the last outing for the day I was starting to feel confident and with less cars on the track I had loads of room to open it up.
Something you should be aware of: All MR2’s have serious cooling issues! cramming a tightly wound, high revving engine in the back of the car comes at the expense of keeping it cool. When you have a supercharged model its worse again. But when you overdrive the supercharger.. it really starts to cook as your cramming almost an additional 8PSI directly into the engine.
Typically this MR2 of mine hasn’t had to endure long lasting heat exposure, as all motorkahna events usually are less then one minuet. But over several laps of Sandown.. well.. you know the rest.
My dad had a great analogy for what I was doing to this poor MR2. Picture the car as your grandpa.. and your sitting on his shoulders whipping him to run faster.. It is after all an old car that spends most of its life stationary, but when it’s being used it’s under huge stress. Something had to give way.
In this video, of the lap where I kill my engine you’ll note Micky (my passenger) comments how I haven’t yet killed the car.. JINX!! – Also you’ll notice that we completed 1 full lap with the temp gauge maxed out. (I’ll have to come up with a better alert!)
So what now? I’m glad you ask! I’ll be rebuilding and improving this little guy and posting my steps as I go.
