MR2 Only Magazine Issue 12 (Previously published October 2008)

IN CONJUNCTION WITH

No Scoobies, Evo’s, GTO’s or FTO’s... MR2s only...

Issue 12

October 2008

£3.75

MR2ONLYISBACKINPRINT! Following the launch of our first ‘COME BACK’ digital version in May 2020 by popular demand we also launched a printed limited edition.

MR2 Only is The Magazine for all MR2 enthusiasts, whether you’re passionate about the AW11, SW20, or ZZW30, issue 1 has 112 pages featuring some of the finest examples from around the world!

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Our leading cover cars are Nathan Freke’s 900bhp Drag Strip Slayer, currently the World’s Fastest MR2, crossing the famous Santa Pod gantry in a missile speed 8.71s @162mph.

We also feature the late Luke Bliss’s stunning 2GRFE 3.5l. After Luke sadly passed away, his brother and friends completed the build of Luke’s car to his exacting requirements found in his notebook, a car he never had the chance to build as he was so busy with customer’s MR2s. A fantastic story.

John Toh’s Marlboro Retro Racer, Inspired to build a track/race car? the level of attention to detail on this HKS 2.2L Stroker widebody is an inspiration.

TOYONDA - K-Swap Lover? - Armandito Racing III Armando Morales shares the story go his 400hp Honda powered MR2 Dream Project - 2ZZ Turbo. Jason Bonoan’s turbo charged 2ZZ. Simply stunning.

10 years on we return to Russ Turnbull, and feature his amazing Supercharged 3.5L 2GR. Stanced 2 Perfection, Patrick Langenkamp’s wide body needs no introduction the images speak for themselves. Just awesome.

Double Trouble - Kenny and Simon Williams show off their 2 4th gen 3SGTE swapped AW11 Mk1.5’s.

Close Enough Racing - Justin Gaujenieks track monster turbocharged 2ZZ, and his plans for the next Time Attack Series Once in a lifetime MR2 - Georgia and Matt Gresham’s AW11, an MR2 that’s part of the family.

THE GULF... Dave Purdue’s turbo charged 1ZZ with rare Damd kit and distinctive Gulf livery.

An MR2 Story... IMOC and MR2DC Director Scott Barton tells his story of long MR2 ownership, and friendships.

Blast from the past... We catch up with Vix and Phil Cutler and Humphrey, with the trial and tribulations of a Toyota Sprint Series competitor.

History repeating itself.. the story of my very own Revision 3 Turbo, and its 4 year restoration story.

A love for restoring lost causes... Graeme Notley extensive Mk1 Supercharger restoration.

The Zircon Evolution - 12 Years on - Rob Butcher shares his story of the ups and downs of MR2 ownership

PLUS,allofyourfavouriteMR2specialistsandtheparts andservicestheyoffer.

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IMOC Pics – Ben Formesyn, Vix Holt, John Machling, “CM1GT”, “afennell” & “Jaspa” Words – Garrick Abrahamson

Airfield Day ack in April 2008 Scott from IMOC began plans for an annual MR2 trackday. The eventwas agreed on using the old RAF Woodbridge Airfield which is now primarily used as an Apache Helicopter training field. The event was booked through Javelin Trackdays initially exclusively for MR2s and then closer to the time opened up for other interested parties.

There was a big mix of experience amongst the MR2s with members varying from trackday regulars to sprinters to novices. There was also representation of all marques of MR2 from early MK1a’s to the Turbo’d Roadster of Ben. The sun was out and no threat of rain – it promised to be a good day!

The day, as always, started off with the mandatory safety briefing where the rules were laid out.

After the briefing, sighting laps were conducted

before the open pitlane format commenced.

An instructor was also on hand to offer professional tuition to those that felt they needed it.

The sprinters amongst us found the layout very different from the recent Toyota Sprint round held at the same venue. As a start it was run clockwise and took different routes down the runways and through some of the old hangars.

It was nice leveling experience.

The back straight was quite long and enabled a fair amount of speed to get achieved before going into a tightening chicane just before a sharp righthander. This really put to test gonads and braking confidence, not to mention a test of brake fade.

This straight also allowed ample overtaking possibilities for those that were in quicker cars.

Other areas of note was an off-camber dip on a left hand as you headed toward the first bunch of hangars, if you got it wrong there was huge potential for a spin in relative safety. A little way down from here there was a hump, that a few of us tried to get air over, but again once over and planted, hard onto the brakes for the left that approached quickly.

The bottom straight also allowed for good overtaking before flying into a fast chicane that looked a lot tighter than it really was. Speeds through this were pretty impressive. Hard onto the brakes for a left-hander with a large hanger just on the right. I found myself reminding myself a number of times to take it easy through the section as there was potential for a rather nasty off. Thankfully though there was loads of grip.

Another nice chicane was the one over the start/ finish which was made up of a couple of hefty bollards – not the regular cones one tends to find

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out on airfields. Jo managed to hone some circuit widening traits and find minor contact with one of these later in the day making the chicane ever so slightly wider. Unfortunately for her the marshals didn’t see it as much of a challenge anymore and re-built the chicane to its original form.

Unfortunately for the MR2s, Jo’s little incident wasn’t the only one of the day. John had a little off into some “shrubs” in his first session with the instructor next to him. Sadly one of the shrubs turned more into a tree and badly damaged the offside rear quarter.

Fortunately neither John nor the instructor was injured.

In typical MR2 owners comradeship and as the wheels still pointed roughly in the right direction, out

came the lump hammers, tools, gaffer tape and cable ties and we jointly patched the car up so it was driveable. John, in true trackday fashion, got back in the driver’s seat and continued to beat the seven shades of life out of it around the track.

“CM1GT” also had a little spin at the off-camber dip and somehow managed to find the only blue cone in the area!

Everyone showed good pace through the day and I think everyone went away having learned something and had an enjoyable day.

There was a really nice relaxed atmosphere and all club members seemed to get on well offering each other passenger rides and sharing stories of their times on track. Phil and Vix had their parents stop by to grab a few passenger laps and have a picnic in the nice warm weather.

A few of us went to a local pub for an evening dinner, which also turned out to be top quality.

I think everyone there can give thanks and a round of applause to Scott and Ben for organizing the day! Bring on the next one!

Airfields have a reputation to eat tyres, and like all others Woodbridge did its fair share!

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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JAE 2008 THE MR2 VILLAGE

R2 Only Magazine JAE 08 planning was admittedly a little last minute and did not exactly go to plan, as a week before the event one of our key attraction cars for the stand, car 22 Team Stoner’s orange Mk1 race car was substantially damaged whilst racing at Mallory.

After much head scratching and several pleas, Toyota Sprint series competitors Vix and Phil kindly came forward with Humphrey, their Mk1 prepped sprint car, with the added bonus of an offer of help on our stand.

Our stand line up also included Neil Latham’s genuine widebody GT2000 TRD, our very own Mark Thorpe’s slick and modified red Mk2, my own Roadster Turbo, Cyril and Pam’s Roadster, Ally’s Roadster and a token Mk2 turbo kindly offered by friend Helen Clarke.

With all this in place our planning was done and all that was left now was to make the

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230 mile trip to Colchester, easier said than done considering we have to transport a rather oversized gazebo, several boxes of MR2 Only back issues, leaflets, banners and our camping stuff, oh and not to forget our beer. Yet much head scratching, all this stuff was never going to fit into two Roadsters that are notoriously under endowed in the luggage space department.

So we decided to tow the Roadster Turbo with my Audi A4 Quattro, yes this sensible looking family sized motor replaced my ill fated Mk2 Turbo as a more practical daily drive! Having

JAE 2008 - The MR2 Village Photo by Stephen Palmer

never towed before I was quite proud to get the Roadster on the trailer with relative ease.

However figuring out how to use ratchet straps to keep the car secure proved a complete nightmare and some 2 hours later with the light fading and a spaghetti of straps all over the place, urgent back up was called, and to spare my embarrassment my cousin Sarah’s fella Ant stepped in, and secured the car down giving us all piece of mind. Thanks mate, we owe you a

beer!

The JAE weekend began at 4am Friday morning, 3 cars fully laden, we eagerly awaited Neil to meet us in his TRD, arriving bang on time we began our journey in convoy, Audi, 2 Roadsters and Neil’s TRD. Travelling went smoothly other than the occasional bit of fish tailing from the trailer which was a tad unnerving the first time it happened, so 55mph was our maximum

cruising speed, and I was disheartened to watched the mileage on the sat nav decrease by a meagre 1mile per minute.

Some five and a half hours later greeted by glorious sunshine, we arrived at JAE’s new venue, Mersea Island, East Mersea, Colchester and despite the negativity of the new site, I was suitably impressed with the seaside location.

Organiser John (Fuggles) guided us to our plot

Written by Steve Bishop, Photos by Steve Bishop, Lisa Bramwell, Mark Thorpe and Pam Bishop

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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JAE 2008... The Sun... Sea... beer... 80’s costumes and make up... The

At this point I wish to praise all of the MR2 Only team for mucking in and erecting the gazebo, setting up our mag sales area and erecting displays, laying out and positioning the cars on the stand area, and it wasn’t long before the cars began to attract attention and a few familiar faces from the MR2 Village visiting for a chat.

Friday was more of a set-up day passing quite quickly and tea time - ish, I wowed Team MR2 Only with my DIY skills assembling a Wilkinson’s half price £4 wonder barbecue and feeding the masses and we sat back, ate and enjoyed a beer whilst admiring our handiwork on the MR2 Only stand. With everything packed away and cars secured we headed down to the MR2 Village to socialise for the evening and to say that the turn-out and the display area looked incredible was an understatement. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by old friends and we set in for a good night, consciously not going too mad with the cider as Saturday promised to be a busy day. We headed over to sing our hearts out to the Oasis tribute gig, with Mark T’s sidekick Dave who seemed to be having a great time, bottle of Strongbow in hand.

Unfortunately the day’s 4am start took its toll on us and me and Lisa retired to our tent relatively early.

Saturday morning, up bright and early we were thankful of our decision to keep off the sauce the previous night and returned to our MR2 Only Mag stand, where our gazebo had taken a bit of wind battering. More and more Jap cars spilled into the ever swelling club display areas. Breakfast was suitably barbecued and we welcomed Vix, Phil and Humphrey adorned with literature and trophies on the stand for the day, who’s presence attracted much attention with discussions of weight saving and with folk eager to learn more about the Toyota Sprint series for next year’s season.

Needless to say Neil’s TRD, Mark’s modified Mk2 and the Roadster Turbo all attracted attention from passers by and as the day went on the sun shone and the temperature continued to rise, with all of us suffering from a bit of sun burn. Mid afternoon we handed our show and shine entry slip to Neil, the obvious choice of a show and shine contender if ever we had seen one but unfortunately the Toyota/Lexus class just happened to have attracted the largest amount of entrants, and Neil faced a couple of hours waiting around for judging whilst desperately seeking some shade to shelter from the sun.

After several invites to move the MR2 Only stand down to the MR2 Village we finally decided to accept late afternoon to up sticks and move our seven strong show car collection across the main area mid interclub football match which was somewhat of a spectacle.

Once set up in our new designated area we were warmly welcomed and really wished we had set up in the MR2 Village in the first place on the Friday with many owners taking advantage of our back issue deals, discussing future features, ideas for 16

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“All in all despite the negativity surrounding the new venue, I would say it was the best event I have ever attended, the location, the weather and the people really made it an incredible weekend and I would not hesitate to put our names down for next year..”

“

and the team grouped and for some of us it would be the first time, despite Mark Thorpe working with MR2 Only Magazine for some time, and us speaking daily, this was the first time we have met in person.

There was no mistaking the guy as he drew up in his bright red previously featured Mk2. Two surprises, firstly we could actually understand his accent and secondly the guy is a dead ringer for REM lead singer Michael Stipes!

. The MR2s... More Beer, & Err Seafoxes!

much cooler than mine. The last sighting of me was at around 3.30 am when I was warning those who were still awake about “Seafoxes”, you had to be there! And with that I collapsed in my tent face down! Lights out.

Sunday morning we were blessed with yet more sun, which I viewed behind dark glasses suffering the hangover from hell, but after doing the stuff I’d normally put off like packing away my tent, and with a lot of help from Nick (Pure) the Roadster was once again strapped onto the trailer for the return trip. Some owners said their farewells and made the trip across the causeway before high tide, whilst others chilled out in the sun and waited until it was clear to cross later on.

the magazine, whilst we wandered around taking photos, in search of future feature cars. Amongst our favourites was the obvious show and shine selection taking pride and place in front of the MR2 OC marquee, a special white Dutch Mk2 that we had spotted last year, then NV kitted MR2, and Jinxy’s previously featured flawless Mk1.

From the edge of the main arena we shouted on in support for the MR2 Village tug of war team who disappointingly didn’t win. However spirits were still high from the win of “It’s a knockout” competition with thanks to Justin (Smitty). At the awards ceremony on Saturday night, MR2OC was awarded the “best club stand” trophy, and quite deservedly so, by far the best turned out and highly populated area and a credit to the organisers and all who made the trip to the show from near and far.

All in all despite the negativity surrounding the new venue, I would say it was the best event I have ever attended, the location, the weather and the people really made it an incredible weekend and I would not hesitate to put our names down for next year. My only complaint was that it went far too quickly, but the fond memories will last a long long time.

I’d like to thank all of my team for their hard work, Tony and all of the OC/Village guys for the kind invite and warm hospitality, and all of you who came over to chat or discuss future features, please email me or Mark, or pm us, as I never took notes!

Looking forward to JAE 2009 where its been promised MR2 Only Magazine will be accommodated again, and in the meantime see you at Jap Show Finale at Santa Pod. Steve Bishop - Editor - MR2 Only Magazine

Saturday night the beer and wine flowed, barbecues lit, fireworks lit up the sky and the MR2 Village was a mass of folk wearing their 80’s get up, with appearances by Banana Man, Danger Mouse, Penfold and a man sized pink baby grow (80’s baby boom) amongst others. After much alcohol intake I was persuaded to wear 80’s make up, in fact it was said that worryingly enough I didn’t take much persuasion, thanks Lisa and Ally for that. I was only gutted that Mark Thorpe’s make up looked MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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irstly I feel like I have the holiday blues. Never felt so euphoric after a Jap meet before...!!!

Amidst much negative reactions to the location of JAE this year I decided to take a run to Mersea Island in February along with Mike, Lee, Nik and Pete from the OC to see if we should commit to JAE in a big way this year.

Having seen the location we decided that we would go all out again for the club in 2008.

MR2OC Scott Barton from IMOC and I chatted in the weeks leading up to the event about the possibility of the OC plotting up in the “village” this year and eventually we agreed this would be a good idea.

This was the 3rd JAE that I have been on the planning team for but this year was the one that filled me with the most apprehension as many Jap car clubs were not showing much interest and some Jap car clubs were not even bothering to look after their members this year and put on a show for them at ‘the’ Jap car show of the year. So with that in mind I often wondered if we were doing the right thing. I was concerned that with so many negative Jap club owners saying the same thing I worried that maybe I was making a mistake by going

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against the grain with our OC planning team this year.

By Friday at around lunchtime I knew we got it right. MR2 after MR2 rolled through the gate and onto the MR2 village. Soon we were full of Toyota’s finest and it was quickly looking like we had more cars than many other car clubs combined...! This in fact turned out to be the case. The weather was glorious, the smell of BBQ smoke filled the air and I have never seen such a friendly atmosphere at a Jap event before.

Me and Steve from MR2 Only chatted and agreed that it would be cool if MR2 Only brought their stand over to us and so once the magazine arrived, the “village” was complete.

Saturday saw us ultimately win the “It’s a knockout” competition with the formidable Justin (Smitty) and at the awards ceremony later that night; MR2OC was awarded the “best club stand” trophy. A first for us and a reflection on those who helped put this together. They must be named individually as Sarah, JJ, Paul, Lee, Mike, Bob, Mark, Dan, Justin, Jeff and of course all those who attended this year. You all helped make this one really special.

For me, a personal memory will be seeing all our members smiling, laughing and enjoying what was easily the very best JAE so far for the OC. Can’t wait to do it again in 2009.

VC (vanilla.coffee on behalf of mr2oc.co.uk)

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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C 1 K M 2 R M & C O IM

Photos and article by Michael Sheavills

wasn’t sure at first if I was going to be able to attend JAE at Mersea Island this year due to other Mk1 Club commitments, Le Mans, Mk1 Racing at Mallory, the Skye tour and a holiday to Spain, all within 5 weeks.

I had read various threads regarding JAE moving to Mersea and the feeling I was getting was quite negative due to location and the logistics of getting there but I’m really glad that enthusiasm conquered and that the organisers vision shone through in the end. For me and in true Mk1 spirit we decided to make good use of the location and turned it into a mini 4 day holiday.

Myself, my wife Joanne, good Mk1 Club friends Gordon and Alison decided to take in the Norfolk Broads on the way down as we live in Durham and Scotland. We found a nice hotel in Horning right on the river front and spent most of the day in the beer garden watching the boat life go by, fantastic, and

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a very enjoyable afternoon was had due to fantastic weather.

The following day we left early for the 2 hour sprint down to Mersea through the outskirts of Ipswich and Colchester. We got there around 10.30am eagerly finding the MR2 village in anticipation. We had a superb pitch overlooking the sea which was shared between IMOC and the MR2 OC. The atmosphere was warm and friendly as MR2 enthusiasts from both sides gelled together to form 1 monster display, the vibe was electric and very similar to the days

“On reflection I have to say the organisers did a great job in the face of adversity, I think enthusiasm; dedication, hard work and the spirit of JAE itself won the battle in the end”.

when JAE was held at Billing Aquadrome in Northamptonshire when it was on a smaller more personal scale.

That evening we were treated to live music from Oasis tribute band Definitely Might Be who were absolutely brilliant, as an Oasis fan myself I couldn’t believe just how good they were, so much appreciation and thanks to the organisers for their great research in finding the boys which set the tone for a superb night.

Saturday brought superb weather so there were lots of nice and clean, shiny Jap cars, just what the organisers ordered.

Wandering around the site and looking at all the Clubs that attended, I found it much, much smaller than Peterborough but in actual fact I found this much better. There were just too many cars at Peterborough and the place was just too big and spread out, you find yourself just wandering around

E A J T A 1CLUB

and not really stopping to look as there were just too many people there. I found Mersea had a much better atmosphere due to its compactness and location by the sea. It was great to see the usual banter between Clubs via the football tournament, pulling the little Jap car and the legendary JAE tug of war competition.

That evening we had an 80’s fancy dress theme around the camp site and most members of the Mk1 Club dominated the karaoke in the canteen with classic songs from the same era. Seeing Jinxy in his George Michael attire up on the stage is an image I will never forget! Later that night we were treated to a superb firework display, so again well done to the people who were responsible for that as it was a stunning sight seeing the roofs of all the MR2s glowing different colours from the reflections of the fireworks in the shiny metal.

Sunday morning came and so did a weather report forecasting a huge storm by lunchtime, unfortunately by then most people had either left the site or were in the process of packing up to leave leaving not much of a show at all.

I was a little disappointed that people didn’t hang around longer till about 5pm but I’m well aware that people had long distances to travel back that day so it wasn’t a problem personally for me. We left around half three and headed back the 302 miles to home in Durham.

On reflection I have to say the organisers did a great job in the face of adversity, I think enthusiasm; dedication, hard work and the spirit of JAE itself won the battle in the end.

I’m hoping next year people will have a more positive attitude towards this new venue which I understand will be held here in 2009 and 2010. Highlights of JAE for me was location by the sea, fantastic, hot weather, the IMOC/MR2 OC MR2 Village, Oasis tribute

band, meeting Pam, Cyril and Steve from MR2 Only Magazine and the superb 80’s party atmosphere with hog roast on the Saturday night.

I’d like to end by thanking everyone involved in making JAE happen, the organisers and Mersea staff who worked over the weekend, but more importantly the people who made the effort in attending with their Clubs and cars. I’ll definitely be attending JAE next year and would strongly recommend you come too, warning though; attending JAE at Mersea can seriously enhance your life!

Photos and article by Michael Sheavills

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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MR2OC

Hemel Hempstead Meet

By Mrsmrt .

(Samantha Hart)

t was a murky Tuesday afternoon and work was done for the day. I stood back to admire my handy work. Long, smooth lines; deep and gleaming alloy filled arches set into a body of crimson red paint that shined like polished ice in the September sun. My pride and joy, my rev-1 3s-ge; the car that ignited my passion for the MR2.

Since becoming the proud owner of the car, I had nicknamed her Mert and joined the MR2 Owners Club on the internet. Here I found a wealth of knowledge and hordes of MR2 enthusiasts more willing to help than any other people I had encountered in my history of car ownership.

Today would be my first MR2OC meet in Hemel Hempstead organised by Doeboy (internet name).

The Hemel Hempstead meet has been up and running for over a year and has slowly grown into a fantastic South East meet that attracts over 20 of the finest MR2s from as far away as Essex, St. Albans and London. Feeling slightly nervous, I set off in my car to my first destination. I had planned to drive to Hemel Hempstead via Milton Keynes to join up with Doeboy and Craig to convoy to our final destination, the Red Lion Pub, Water End, Hemel Hempstead.

Arriving at Doeboy’s house, I was pleasantly 24

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surprised to find such a welcoming and friendly bloke, even if he was a 6 foot skin head with the build of a wrestler! I was given the guided tour of his immaculate Rev-3 Astral Black Tubby and I was suitably impressed. Noticing my obvious apprehension at meeting such a large group of expert MR2 enthusiasts and their mighty examples of Toyota perfection, Doeboy set me at ease.

The people on the MR2OC are in a league of their own, a great bunch of characters. The best thing about the Hemel Hempstead meet is by far the people, a truly great set of guys and gals who have such a laugh and are really friendly.

- Hemel Hempstead Meet Feeling a little more at ease we met up with Craig in his stealthy 3.0 litre V6. Doeboy, then me and Craig bringing up the rear, we headed off to Hemel Hempstead. The drive was fantastic with long sweeping corners, mainly B roads. Much overtaking and musical cars later we arrived at the Red Lion Pub and I was immediately struck by its seclusion. There was a large MR2OC banner to welcome and guide us to the exclusive MR2 only car park and nearly 20 fantastic MR2s lined up in rows. You name it, it was there! Dave’s Japanese racer inspired tubby, Mark’s whistling, jap-spec clad n/a in goodwood green, Gltd._Simons g-limited, Michelle’s Mk3, my standard rev-1 and everything in between..

The thing that struck me first was the camaraderie between the members of the owners club. Craig had encountered a problem with his Rogue Motorsport headlights on the way over and immediately Oddshoes (internet name) was on the case. In less than 5 minutes the problem was fixed and drinks in hand the customary car inspection had begun. Frunks and engine lids up, out came the micro-fibres for one last buffing.

As I wandered along the line of immaculately polished and painted engines and the cars they were in, I could see the effort and love these guys have for their cars in the quality of the detailing and top of the range components used.

- Doeboy Doeboy’s Rev3 GT T-Bar Turbo Tech Specs

The most impressive example, in my opinion, belonged to Doeboy. The sleek Rev-3 body was hiding a monster under the hood... Boasting a rev-3 3s-gte, CT0 b turbo running 1.2 bar of boost, ST205 Celica GT4 charge cooler, HKS EVS boost controller, HKS super dragger exhaust, aussie

Engine/Transmission:

Stock rev3 3s-gte engine and internals Stock rev3 injectors (550cc) Stock ct20b turbo running 1.2 bar boost Stock gearbox Stock clutch HKS EVC boost controller HKS Superdrager exhaust HKS SSQV blow off valve Aussie de-cat downpipe St205 celica GT4 chargecooler Radtec pre-rad Davis craig water pump Denso ik24 spark plugs 8.5mm Magnecor leads Copper contact dizzy cap Apexi air filter Apexi power FC ecu and commander Rogue motorsport pro fan kit TRD short shift kit Greddy turbo timer

Suspension/chassis

Front and rear strut braces Koni adjustable dampers Eibach 25mm drop springs TRD topmonts S-bits adjustable droplinks S-bits ball joints S-bits EZ cam camber bolts Whiteline adjustable anti-roll bars Tein pillow ball tension rods

Brakes:

Front: Four pot calipers Hi-spec 330mm crossed drilled discs EBC Redstuff pads Rear: Stock calipers EBC discs drilled to match fronts EBC redstuff pads

Wheels/tyres

ATP flash wheels 17”x8” all round Toyo proxes T1r 215/40 r17 front, T1r 235/40 r17 rear

Bodywork/exterior:

de-cat downpipe, Apex-i airfilter, Apex-i FC ECU and commander, just to name a few of the mods made to this stunning example of a Mk2 tubby.

Whilst casting my eye over the smoothed and relocated round fuel filler cap, HID headlights with Raybrig lenses and rear quad light conversion, Doeboy tells me about his MR2 Journey. “I was attracted to the shape and lines of the car; I feel that they have aged better than most cars.

I considered buying a lot of other cars (mainly Japanese) but I thought the MR2 stood out. It ticked all the right boxes for me, stunning to look at, fast, practical for a two seater and the t-bar option was a plus point too.”

After I bought the car I really just spent some time getting used to a rear wheel drive mid-engine car.

I showed it the respect it deserved and took my time getting used to it. When it came to squeezing more ponies out of it I did my research and got my ideas together first. I tend to do a lot of research into what I am planning so that when it is done I know what to expect. So far there have been no regrets or mistakes. I would like to make a few more tweeks to the suspension and then the engine will get squeezed for more ponies. The future mods list is ten times longer than the current spec list, but I will leave that there!”

Mainly stock Rev3 body in 202 astral black smoothed wing mirrors anthracite Toyota Supra badges on nose cone and behind the front wheels mk rear mr2 badge Rev5 front air diffusers Rear exhaust grill removed rear quadlight conversion US Spec rear corners HID headlights in Raybrig lenses Clear front indicators with LED bulbs Sleepy eye kit Pentagon supaglass tinted windows and T-bars

I.C.E

Pioneer 5700dvd headunit with CD-R5 remote Infinity reference 5010cs speakers and tweeters Infinity reference 3012cf speakers Parrot 3200ls bluetooth reciever Defi link controller Defi boost guage Defi oil temp guage Defi oil pressure guage Road angel 2

Interior

mainly stock rev3 turbo interior Stock rev5 steering wheel A man in dandism mats A man in dandism full seat covers JDM flare

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MR2OC At this point we are interrupted by a flourish of German thrash metal from the next car (Oddshoes Jap racer look alike) and roars of hysterical laughter from markandlyn, tonylefrog (internet names) and other members of the OC. Talk seems to have turned to the recent ‘BEST CLUB STAND’ win at JAE and the events of the weekend. The general consensus is that this year’s JAE was “the best ever event” that the MR2OC have attended and the MR2OC members enjoyed making the MR2 village by joining forces with the IMOC (international MR2 owners club) and MR2 Only magazine. “This effectively made JAE an MR2 show with a few other stunning cars thrown in” says one particularly proud member. It seems that the 80’s themed night went down a storm with memories of Oddshoes ‘Penfold’ costume inspiring yet more raucous laughter as we sat down to eat.

Later, after excellent food and yet more talk of upcoming mods and planning of future MR2OC events, we all went outside again and I was surprised to find many of the guys brandishing some seriously technical looking cameras with very big lenses. It seems that not only do these guys and girls love to drive, discuss and modify their cars; they also take

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photographs of their pride and joys at every available opportunity. Showcasing their cars, it seems, is a pretty serious hobby and an integral part of this meet.

Whilst we had been enjoying our meals, the heavens had opened. Though this caused mixed feelings (“my car only gets wet when it gets washed” – Doeboy) and some light hearted jibes towards Toyotas vainest owner (see above quote), some beautiful photos were the result of the unwelcome downpours.

The discussion of photography continued and markandlyn (internet names) filled me in on the art of ‘sniping’. This is a light hearted pass time for some members at meets. Made

popular by site administrator vanilla.coffee, it involves taking unexpected snap shots of people in amusing circumstances and giving the shots anecdotal captions.

Later in the evening I sat in my car and looked through the windscreen out into the car park.

Some of the most beautiful MR2s I have ever had the pleasure to see began to reverse out of the car park and snake in convoy down the unlit road. I watched this convoy of HID headlights turn into a chain of red rear lights and leave. It was time to begin the journey home, following a few of the others that were headed my way. Sitting in the warm comfort of my full leather seat listening to the overhaulin’ theme tune on my stereo I thought how friendly and approachable everyone from the MR2OC had been. I felt privileged to have seen and driven in some of the finest examples of MR2s in the world and felt a bit sad that I would have to wait another month to do it all again.

It’s at this moment I begin to realise… ….I have caught the MR2OC bug. Roll on Oddshoes Milton Keynes meet (details available at www.mr2oc.co.uk) Until next month,

Goodridge Hose Upgrade

spanner or brake pipe spanner to undo the nut and secure the hose with a 17mm spanner.

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Rob Hawkins shows how to change the standard rubber brake hoses on the Mk1 MR2 for a full set of uprated braided steel replacements from Goodridge.

You can have the beefiest set of brakes in the world on your MR2, but their ability to stop your car is only as good as the pressure of the brake fluid that’s feeding them. One of the weak points in a braking system is the standard rubber flexi-hoses. These can expand under braking, resulting in loss of braking pressure. The answer is to uprate the hoses to braided steel.

Goodridge manufacture a vast range of braided steel brake hoses for a variety of cars, which includes the MR2. We’re covering the fitting of braided steel brake hoses for the Mk1 MR2. Being the oldest of the breed, there are often a few headaches to resolve. For instance, the brake pipe nuts that connect the brake pipe to the flexi-hose are usually corroded and seized.

If several hours soaked in penetrating fluid and a meaty pair of mole grips doesn’t get the 10mm pipe nut undone, you may have to resort to renewing the pipe.

When we fitted the Goodridge braided hoses shown here, we had to undo most of our brake pipe nuts with mole grips and found one of the front fittings started to leak after we’d fitted the new Goodridge hose. After inspecting the flared end of the offending brake pipe, we concluded that it needed renewing to ensure a leak free connection could be achieved. The brake pipe had probably never been changed, so it had done well after 20 years. We also found that the brake pipe nuts don’t wind in as far on the Goodridge hose connections as the standard fittings.

Set aside at least half a day to change all the brake flexi-hoses for Goodridge braided steel. When you’ve finished, you will need to bleed the brakes, starting with the nearside rear, followed by the offside rear, nearside front and finally offside front. Don’t forget to top up the brake fluid and keep this fluid away from paintwork – it eats paint for breakfast.

Useful Contacts Goodridge - 01392 369090 www.goodridge.net

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After undoing the brake pipe connection for the flexi-hose, remove the securing clip that retains the flexi-hose to the bracket on the bodywork. Prise it out with a screwdriver, then remove it with a pair of long nosed pliers. Remove the same clip from the suspension strut.

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Before you start to attack the current hoses, make sure the replacements are the correct length. This is easy to check. Just position the new hose alongside the existing one and make sure it has the same fixings and it’s the same length.

Undo the 14mm banjo bolt that secures the brake flexi-hose to the brake calliper. Brake fluid will start to leak from here when you start to undo it. Place a bowl underneath to catch the brake fluid.

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2

Spray penetrating fluid over all of the fittings that need to be undone. These include the connection where the hose if fitted to the brake pipe, the 14mm banjo bolt on the calliper and the fixing where the brake hose feeds through the suspension strut.

After undoing the 14mm banjo bolt, remove the bolt, then pull the flexi-hose through the bracket in the suspension strut and remove it from the car. Drop the old flexi-hose into a bowl.

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3

After allowing the penetrating fluid to soak in, try to undo the flexi-hose where it’s connected to the brake pipe. Use a 10mm

Feed the new Goodridge flex-hose through the bracket in the side of the suspension

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strut, making sure the correct ring-shaped fitting is fed through to the brake calliper.

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MR2 MK1 Club National Events 2008

Refit the old banjo bolt with new copper washers (supplied in Goodridge brake hose kit) onto both sides of the ring shaped fitting on the end of the Goodridge hose. Refit the banjo bolt into the calliper.

9 October 26th Autumn Restoration Show, Stoneleigh website: http://www.classiccarshows.org. uk/restor.html

Connect the top end of the Goodridge hose to the brake pipe nut that was undone in step 3.

Grip the end of the brake hose with a 17mm spanner to stop it spinning.

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Refit the two securing clips that were removed in step 4. These are fitted to where the Goodridge hose is fixed to the brake pipe and where the brake hose travels through the bracket on the side of the suspension strut.

Useful Contacts Goodridge - 01392 369090 www.goodridge.net

November 14th-16th NEC Classic Car Show website: http://www.necclassicmotorshow. com/ Mk1 Club Regular Local Meets North-West Meets: At The Wiggin Tree, Lancashire, second Sunday of every month (meet at around 12:30pm). Click here for a link to the location on Google Maps.

East-Midlands Meets: Last Sunday of each month, 11am, 11:30 run out followed by a pub meal somewhere different each time, The Charnwood Arms, Beveridge Lane (just off A50), Bardon Hill, Nr Coalville, Leicestershire. Fred and Doris Sanderson Tel: 01509 610003 Email: flitzer@ntlworld. com MR2 Racing (formerly Challenge) Dates 2008 This is the original MR2 racing which is now restricted to Mk1’s only 8th June Rockingham x1 25th August Mallory Park x2 7th September Cadwell x2 19th October Snetterton x2 9th November Brands Hatch x2 MR2 Championship Dates 2008 This is the new series, run by the 750MC, for Mk1s and MK2s.

22nd June Brands Hatch x2 5th July Cadwell x2 20th July Donington x1 23rd August Silverstone x1 6th September Oulton Park x1 28th September Snetterton x2

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Toyota Sprint Series 2008 25th October - Teesside (Dark) Representing the Club If you want the Mk1 Club at an event, or you wish to run a Mk1 event, then please contact me first at the earliest opportunity As the quarterly club magazine can only keep you up to date with events planned well in advance, you are encouraged to check the club website events calendar and the IMOC events page postings for up to date event information and last minute changes.

Our close affiliation with IMOC will see that, along with our club policy of inviting any Mk1 to attend our events, some events will see the invitation extended to other MR2 marks where appropriate. However club ‘show’ stands will still remain true to type and exclusive to Mk1, where they will still remain the stars of the show.

The main types of events the club aims to attend include: Classic and Sports car shows Jap car shows Regional ‘Runs’ Track days Regional Mk1 monthly meets Other car meets eg. classic, sports, Jap Annual drag strip days Annual rolling road days Le Mans annual pilgrimage MR2 Challenge motorsport If there are any other events you think would be good for the club to attend, then do not hesitate to contact me with the details.

Contact: Jo Walker, National Events Coordinator http://www.mr2mk1club.com/commemb. html

ABRUPT Quick, sudden and without warning

motorbike riding on the weekends with her boys, horse riding, going to the movies, hanging out with friends …but most of all just cruising in her Spyder

of help from Infinity Auto Protection which Helena swears is the best ever, which brings the colour back to life and you can see from the photos that this is one pampered MR2!

A two seater had always been out of the question whilst Helena brought up her kids, but once they had grown up and bought their own cars, it was her time, finally she could fulfil her dreams, and along came the new love of her life in the form of a 2000 black Spyder, and Helena openly admits, “It has been more fun than I could ohave ever imagined”.

The car was purchased around a year ago and it was understandably love at first sight.

Helena asked “where do I sign?” even though she didn’t drive the car on the test drive.

Having bought the car the first task was to transfer her name and buy some plates ABRUPT was born.

Why Abrupt? “Well one, the way my marriage ended, after 20yrs and two, I thought it could also describe the car... Quick, Sudden and without Warning!

Helena then set about making her mark and personalising her car starting with a dual exhaust Catback system with stainless steel tips which give the car a nice note.

Helena’s hobbies include going to the gym,

Next came a little bit of TLC, with quite a bit

elena, the owner of this Stunning MR2 Spyder that adorns these pages lives in The Southern Highlands, Sydney Australia.

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Now onto the wheels, Helena had to get some new rims/wheels which was hard, as all she knew was that she wanted 18”s and her callipers painted red after the rims were fitted and the car had to be lowered again, because it was too high.

And so King springs were fitted which gave her the lowest ride possible.

To further complement the black sleek look the windows were tinted, clear indicators fitted and along with 03 side vents and the back grille painted black. The car was debadged all but a Midship badge on front and Devs keyhole covers fitted.

Now onto audio. Helena was lucky enough to have the system already in the car when as a modification.. CD, DVD, TV and NAV but more was needed and upgrading began with a bigger subwoofer in a custom box.

The doors were insulated and in went some Focals. In Helena’s words “OMG the quality is insane the tweeters hurt your ears after a while.

I’m sure you have gathered by now that I like my music loud, well I like quality sound” For the future the middle sub is being removed and Focal grille fitted in front where the hole is and ungrading my sub, not only is it cheaper, that is all the bass it needs.

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MY STYLE BAR. There is a bit of a funny story to this mod.

OMG instructions seemed very easy so I went out and bought all the drill bits and checked everything.

I drilled my holes very carefully, perfectly cut putting everything back together OMG the side door panels were not fitting into the holes so I tried everything, and all of a sudden I thought SHIT, lol. I had drilled the holes in the wrong place.

I bought the bar from the States; therefore our driver’s side is on the opposite side.

YES I didn’t read the warning label for the international people lol.

I had to go out and order new door side panels which cost me 350 Dollars from Toyota.

Oh well mistakes do happen. It wasn’t funny at the time but I do laugh about it now when I tell people my story.

Other modifications include a subtle Mid Ship cover in the engine bay, a GReddy Intelligent Informeter and eyelids give her a new look a bit more aggressive and behind those menacing eyes the headlight bulbs were changed for blue ones.

Helena is quite rightly happy with the way her car is looking and added “more like proud”. In the future she’d like a black hard top and her ultimate dream would have to be custom interior, so watch this space.

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Helena is grateful to Spyderchat.com a club forum, an invaluable source of Spyder knowledge where she has learnt so much and has purchased some awesome stuff.

MR2 Only is also grateful to Spyderchat. com as, after all, that’s where we spotted this head turning Spyder and to Helena for sharing her passion for this incredible car with us.

Words by Steve Bishop and Helena Thanks go to Grant Bewert www.555GraviT. net for the photos

Modifications: Venom Bar TRD Spoilers & Body Kit 03+ Side Vents Midship Runabout Valve Cover Dual Exchaust/ Catback/ With SS Tips 18” Wheels/RimsJDM Midship Runabout front Badge Tinted Windows Aluminum Door Sills Clear side Indicators Lowered with King Springs Painted Calipers Red Private License Plates Alarm/Keyless Entry Dev’s Keyhole Covers Audio- Alpine LCD-with CD, DVD, NAV & TV. 1 Tube Sub 4x4 1/2” Splits x 2 Alpine Amps Add eyelids

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Diary of a Toyota Sprint Series entrant

O

wning between them four Mk1 MR2s, it’s fair to say that Vykki and Phil are self confessed Mk1 Nuts... this is the 2nd installment of their diary of preparation for their Toyota Sprint series Mk1 MR2, read their latest event report later in the magazine

5th July

And then there were three.

Phil has been stripping Mister Two (the blue one!) all week end and ended up with a shell, which he then proceeded to fill with lots of unwanted metal, old brake discs, standard suspension, odd springs etc.

Weighed it in for £65, which is better then a kick in the teeth I guess.

The man at the scrapyard said it would be flat within the hour .

RIP Mister Two, you gave us some good times, may your metal be put to good use.

15th July

We have a trackday booked at Snetterton tomorrow so today has been spent doing little checks on the car and preparation for the trackday.

A lot of people ask what preparation is necessary for a trackday so here are the things we have checked today: The Weather. As we have a choice of tyres, it is important we know what the weather is going to be like in order that we can take the right ones.

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Fortunately tomorrow is set to be warm and dry so we will be going on our R888s, the normal track tyre. If the track was far away, we’d be driving on road tyres, but as Snetterton is only down the road, we have changed the tyres today.

Whilst the wheels were off, we checked the brakes to make sure there was plenty of pad left. There is!

I then checked the coolant, which would have needed refilling if it was low. There was plenty though.

The oil was a little on the low side, so we chucked some more oil in, and checked a few minutes later – now there’s plenty!

I also added a purchase from the weekend, a sticker of Snetterton circuit, hopefully we can collect more circuit stickers as I gain more track experience.

Phil then fitted the harnesses to the passenger side, (usually we don’t sprint with a passenger seat in, but we will use it for trackdays). Today he has also utilised some trim from the old cars in order to clean up any sharp edges in the interior usually covered by carpet. He then looked into some leaks we have discovered when it rains, however it is difficult to work out where the rain gets in when it’s not raining!

Written by Vykki Hoult

16th July

A fairly early start got us to the circuit just after 8. We got ‘our’ garage, number 25 and set up camp for the day. Signed on, noise tested and briefed and ready to go by 9.

I decided to do the sighting laps to get a feel for the circuit again, not that it’s really necessary, there are 4 corners, 2 straights and 2 chicanes but it also got me used to Humphrey again too.

It was a great warm and sunny day with no sign of rain, so we were looking forward to some good laps. Once the sighting laps were done, Phil got ready to drive, however just as we were about to set off, the track was red flagged and everyone came in. We didn’t think it would be very long so we joined the queue ready to go out when the track was re opened. It was quite a quiet track day with only about 30 cars altogether, and most of them were fairly experienced, so it was very pleasant being out on the track as you could get some good clear laps and people were being courteous.

Phil put some stonking laps in and managed not to spin once. He was really throwing Humphrey around, making the tyres squeal and putting the back out, and I was so concerned I would *never* be able to go that fast!

So it was my turn once Humphrey had cooled down a little. My first few laps were rather sedate, but I felt more relaxed as there weren’t as many cars to move out of

the way from. Phil started to give me some instruction on braking points, when to lift and not to lift, and what sort of gears I should be doing corners in, which helped so much, my confidence was building loads. Too much in fact, as I took Seer corner a little too tight and fast and ended up spinning! Not quite a 360 but it was fun. Humphrey had stalled during the spin and there was a bit of a hairy moment trying to start him back up, but I was off the racing line so it wasn’t that stressful. After the spin we went back to the pits to check him over and have a rest.

A few more runs each and my confidence was building, as was Phil’s. I was even overtaking people and learning not to drop back so much behind a car that was slow on corners but fast on straights, so they’d let me go past.

Just before lunch, there was another red flag so we decided to grab an early sandwich and then have a break. In true vix style, I then fell asleep in the pit lane. Not for long though as we were soon ready to go again.

A fairly uneventful afternoon ensued, I was getting better at most of the track except from the first chicane, the Esses. Even when Phil was driving I was feeling he was taking it too fast, although we emerged from it unscathed.

I just didn’t have the balls to hurtle down the Revett straight at 100 and then take two sharp corners. Phil was telling me when to lift and brake and change gear but I just couldn’t take it all in. I managed to get the entry in the corner right, once, then flapped and had a mad swervy tank slappery moment through the rest of the chicane, although for some bizarre reason managed to keep completely on the black stuff!

So soon it was nearly time to pack up, mainly due to the fact we were about to run out of fuel!!

We’d had a great day, and Phil commented that if I drive like I had today at the Sprints, I’d be much more competitive. Here’s hoping!

21st July

Snetterton on the Sunday. Phil came and woke me up about 11:30 and we got ready to go home. There is a small doorstep on Phil’s mum’s front door, which I managed to miss in my tired state, and fell flat on the ground. I felt like I had put my right foot down a hole, and upon inspection saw my foot was facing the wrong way to my leg! Cue a drunken Phil having to lift me back into the house and call an ambulance!!!

So, to cut a long story short, I’m in the ambulance breathing lots of lovely gas and air and getting very giggly.

When I get to the hospital, they have to sedate me to put my leg back into the right shape and then X ray to find I have broken both my ankle and my leg, and I need surgery in order to put pins and a plate in there! Phil left me at about 5am Sunday morning and I was scheduled for surgery at about 8.

pictures on the day as cameras are banned at the site we are at (Lotus test track), so I asked Phil to prep her fully so I could have some pics today. Hopefully there will be a pro there who will be taking some on track pics.

I’m not a morning person, especially after lots of painkillers and no sleep so I really can’t remember much about going into surgery. I remember a conversation with the doctor about his son driving MGs in the MG challenge, which probably relaxed me a little, but nothing much else. When I came out of surgery I was even worse. I couldn’t see properly and didn’t know where I was, couldn’t remember anything and thought I’d been in a car crash! The hospital managed to call Phil who arrived as soon as he could, which was nice.

So, with plans to fix Sakura next weekend, we set off to Phil’s parents as his family was over.

I was designated driver, so spent the night on J2O and water! I went back to his mums for a little sleep whilst he got drunk with his family.

The plan was for me to drive back home with him when he was ready as we were going to

First of all, Phil got creative with the numbers.

Because we are numbers 56 and 57 in the Sprint Series, we have 2 each of numbers 5,6 and 7.

Typically, Phil’s allocated number of this sprint is 8!!! So, black electrical tape and white vinyl on our number 6, gives us a rather convincing 8.

Phil then went to the back of Sakura to mark out the towing eyes. This is when he found that the person who fitted the bodykit (previous owner) had decided the towing eyes were unnecessary and cut them off :/ So now Sakura has a lovely

I spent the Sunday in hospital, and was told I could go home on the Monday once the doctors had seen me. This happened at about 5pm so I was lolling around in bed most of Monday feeling sorry for myself.

I have the cast on until next Monday, when I have to go back for an x ray to see if everything is ok, and then a new cast. (Its new bumper borrowed off Humph. Well it blends in quite nicely, at least red and white are good colours!

What a disastrous weekend.

Got in Sakura on Saturday morning to find the clutch pedal went right to the floor and can’t engage any gears. Got a leak somewhere, although we had been feeling that the clutch was failing and Phil had planned to fix this next weekend in preparation for a sprint we were going to do at the Lotus test track. We are unable to do this sprint in Humphrey due to MSA regulations, basically you need a cage if your car is stripped out, or you need a proper dash, and carpets etc!

dedicated track car needs a cage, however a road car can compete. The difference being how much interior remains in the car! I can’t take any

Whilst Phil had both bumpers off, he decided to weigh them to see the difference, as he had removed some metal from Humphrey’s as a weight saving exercise. The difference was 5kg, which is fairly good.

orange and matches a shoe I have so it’s ok) No one’s really given me an idea of when I’ll be able to drive again but it looks like I’m out of the championship this year. So roll on next year!!

1st August

So today Phil has been doing a bit of preparation on Sakura for the sprint on Sunday. I think I mentioned before that we can’t do this sprint in Humphrey as this is an MSA regulated sprint and therefore a

The Toyota Sprint Series does not require the use of a timing strut, however this MSA sprint does.

The strut needs to be the first thing on the car that will break the timing beams. Phil made it a few years ago when he did his first ever sprint in his red MR2, it is basically thin aluminium with matt black paint. It’s then fitted to the nose of the car with gaffa tape. Hardcore!

So that’s basically one road car prepped for sprinting. I’m a bit nervous about her going on track and also very very annoyed and frustrated that I can’t drive her.

3rd July

We had an early start this morning as the gates opened at 6:30, however fortunately the track is only 8 minutes from our house!

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Phil had packed the car with all his usual tools that we take to sprints, so we were ready to go. It’s a lot more awkward with a leg in a cast as you really have to plan ahead with things that will need to be accessible etc.

We arrived at Lotus just after 6:30 and there were a few other cars there.

Phil unpacked the car and then unpacked me, and went to sign on, be scrutineered etc. The notes he was given said there would be 2 ‘untimed’ (times were given but would not count towards your time of the day) runs and then 2 timed runs, shocking amount of track time really as we usually get about 8 timed runs in the Sprint Series. However there were

just over 100 cars at this event so it would have taken about a week to get 8 timed runs!

The cars that were there ranged from fairly standard road cars like ours, next to us was a Citroen AX, couple of S2000’s, 205, some Evos, LOTS of Lotuses as there was a Lotus championship, also a TVR championship so lots of TVRs, single seaters such as Van Diemens and Reynards, Caterhams, Westfields and other variants, and Dave Massey’s Bond Bug (with a Fireblade engine!) which looked like a lot of fun!

Phil went off to the drivers briefing in a massive rain shower, and I retired to the car to keep dry! The briefing was broadcast over the tannoy so at least I got a chance to listen, and it was amazing how ‘brief’ it actually was. I’ve been to too many events with novices now and had things literally spelt out, so it was refreshing to be at a professional event where the basics are assumed to be known by all. A little worrying also though as the guy next to us in his Porsche had never done any motorsport before!

The cars were to go out in number order, so as we were number 8, we got out pretty early. For the first run the track was still a little damp, but Phil managed just over 93 seconds, he was aiming for 90. The car he had chosen to be competitive with, an MX5, turned out to be driven by a woman, so was well off the pace at 121. I reckon even I could have beat that.

So once Phil had got back to the paddock after his run, we had a huge wait to go out again. Phil had the luxury of being able to walk round the paddock so I had to just watch the queue of cars waiting to go out, and the occasional roof go past on the track. At one point I heard a rather long squeal of tyres, and then the ambulance went on track to recover a Caterfield type car who had lost it and hit the tyre wall. Fortunately everyone was fine, just probably annoyed at a very short day!

Phil went out for his second run and hit a cone! He got just over 90 seconds on this run but got a 5 second penalty for hitting the cone.

Fortunately my car was unharmed!!!

After another long wait, Phil went out for his third run and got just over 91. ANOTHER long wait, and he lined up for the final run. About 12 cars were ready to go when there was an announcement that there was too much gravel on the track and the final run was cancelled as it would take too long to clear up! Everyone was annoyed at this, our places at this sprint had been funded by the Motor Club but everyone else had paid to run, and they only got one time out of it!

So a pretty non-eventful day for us, no prizes but we didn’t expect any in a non-track prepped car!

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£500 Ebay Restoration Project

Phoenix f Ashes

his is my first MR2, a Mk1 registered in 1985 which I acquired through eBay in September 2007 from a chap in Stockton on Tees for £500. I was in the area on a delivery so managed to have a look before I purchased and it looked in pretty good condition after a quick examination. Having no tax or MOT I had to arrange a trailer to fetch it back, which I did the following Saturday.

On arriving back home it was time for a test drive around the block to see how she handled, wasn’t too bad, but a bit of knocking so into the garage she went. I removed all the wheels, brakes and suspension where I found the knocking was down to the springs being crushed, due to having 17” alloys on and no alteration to the set up.

Next job was to make a list of the parts I would require, discs, brake pads, suspension all round, spring and struts. Under the car I found the suspension mounting brackets to be rotten so I bought two new brackets from the Toyota dealer and realised that this was going to 52

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be an expensive project.

I removed the seats next and sent them away to be valeted. Back to the suspension, some of the suspension was bought from Stripped Parts of Rotherham, all stripped down and painted. The day came to take the engine and gearbox out, not too bad, cleaned the engine bay out ready for spraying. Next were the arches and bottom panels which I had never done before and there were a few mistakes on the way where I had to buy the panels twice. All panels on, I painted all inner arches red, engine bay painted and gearbox done.

ct

from the

Photos and article by Andrew Davis

On to the exhaust manifold which, when I removed it, I found it had a crack in it, inlet manifold off, new gaskets filled and exhaust manifold bought from Stripped Parts for £25. The water pump steel pipe was leaking and so back to Toyota, another £60. Time to put the engine and gearbox back in, all wiring re-fitted, lo and behold she started first time, injectors leaking, new seals fitted, sorted.

Now to start on the front end. I removed the wings, valance and radiator, which was sent away to be cleaned and tested, more bad news, the radiator was no good and required a new one, another £100 spent. A bit of rust on seam of bulk head which I cleaned down and primed, filled and rubbed down. The front end was fully painted ready for the rebuild. New valance and two new wings were bought from Toyota, inside painted and fitted. Radiator back on, second hand fan guards fitted, suspension on, all painted up and starting to look like an MR2 again.

Seats back in, second hand doors were fitted with working window motors. New pads and discs all around and rear wheel bearings fitted all with new dust covers. Anti-freezed up, bleed the system, water leaking under the front of the car. The main heater pipes were rotten and I had to remove the fuel tank so I could take off both water pipes. I phoned Toyota who quoted nearly £300, so back to Stripped Parts, all no good, so I cut away the bad part of pipe and replaced it with heater hose from the local parts shop, Dronfield Motor Spares. Filled back up, bleed everything OK. Now came the time for the MOT, booked in, fingers crossed, passed first time.

Time now to visit the body shop for a quote on a full spray job, came within budget. SORTED.

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Written by Cameron Martyn

T

he BCMR2 Owners group has been around since the late 90’s and became even more popular in 2002 when the bcmr2.com website and forums were launched giving the members a better way to organize drives and events.

The BC200X events are the largest MR2 gatherings in Western Canada and have been held yearly since 2003.

This years event was held on August 15-17 and brought out 47 MR2s and well over 120 MR2 enthusiasts from British Columbia and Alberta Canada, Washington and Oregon USA, and even Mexico. The 3 day event takes place in the lower mainland of the Fraser valley which gives a beautiful backdrop for photo

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opportunities and makes for fantastic scenery on the drives.

This year’s event started out with registration taking place in Langley at the event hotel while other members were at the track preparing for the drag races. A convoy of MR2s drove to Mission BC to the local ¼ mile drag strip where our MR2s battled it out on the track.

Kris from KO Racing proved his products work as he put down an 11.548 @ 123.64mph time winning the trophy for fastest Mk2 MR2.

Martin showed how quick his Mk1.5 was with a time of 13.18 to win himself the fastest Mk1 MR2. A number of MR2s battled head to head, while others worked on fine tuning and their reaction time until late in the night. At that point it was becoming difficult to make out the cars and it was time for our midnight drive to start.

The BC200X Friday night drives are something only those who have participated in can fully appreciate. The back roads of Abbotsford,

The Largest MR2 gathering in Western Canada

Yarrow and Chilliwack provide some incredibly twisty roads making this drive a memorable one especially with the great weather we had.

Saturday morning came early as everyone gathered at the hotel to prepare for the Saturday drive to Manning Park with a poker run along the way. Chris won the poker hand with a straight, winning himself a prize from our sponsors! Everyone relaxed and stretched their legs at Lightning Lake while enjoying the sun before we headed out for dinner.

The BCMR2 Owners group are regulars at the Wildcat Grill in Agassiz where they serve up a huge 3 patty burger complete with all the fixings on a monstrous bun that only a few people can manage to finish. After dinner the group headed to one of the few remaining

drive in movie theatres in BC to catch a few late night movies.

Sunday is the Show and Shine and BBQ lunch which always brings out the largest crowd.

The Aldergrove Lake location is perfect with a semi private area surrounded in trees with plenty of shade. This year we almost out did the parking lot with a few MR2s having to squeeze in at the ends. Because there were not any Mk3 MR2s sold in Canada and until very recently they couldn’t even be easily insured there was only 1 Mk3 MR2 at the event. People are actively importing the cars to BC now and next year’s event should have more in attendance.

This year brought an equal mix of Mk1 and Mk2 MR2s; past events have always had

the Mk1s outnumber the Mk2s. The quality of cars was exceptional this year. The show and shine had a little bit of everything with a number of well maintained or restored stock MR2s as well as some wildly modified MR2s with body work and extensive engine work for a few 300+hp MR2s.

A BBQ lunch wrapped up the event before handing out the trophies and plaques for the show and shine as well as the door prizes that were generously donated by all of the BCMR2 sponsors! As always, the owners made this event possible and next years event should be bigger and better still.

Everyone is welcome, check out www.bcmr2. com for more details.

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MR2

RACING Pit Chat...

With Jurno -

Maurice Stoner

RACE REPORT

Photos by -

MALLORY PARK 25th August 2008

Woolfie Plum

he Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MR2 MkI Series rolled on to this short but demanding circuit after what must have seemed like an eternity having waited over six weeks since their last outing at Rockingham.

The break gave the drivers the opportunity to dismount and groom their respective machinery in anticipation of a great days racing ….. we weren’t disappointed!

The weather the night before was threatening to spoil the party but it turned out to be just a bluff and the sun, whilst not tropical, came out and offered a dry track which was to produce some special times from some drivers. Qualifying at Mallory is all about getting Gerrards corner right and somehow choosing the right lines out of the notorious hairpin which provided its usual mayhem in Race 1 ….. more later.

Rob Jefferies, Ross Stoner and Adam Lockwood put in some stunning times and with all three drivers breaking the 58 second barrier which saw Rob Jefferies taking pole position for the first time in his racing career followed by Ross Stoner only 1/100th of a second behind him to claim second spot on the front row. The next two rows were taken up with Adam Lockwood, Dave Thomas, Liam O’Toole and Gareth Newton, sporting his gleaming Platinum Batteries sponsored black machine.

All drivers made the grid after a gruelling qualifying which saw Ross Stoner retire to the pits with a broken gearbox but after an hour and half of frantic work and with the help of his race roadies and helping hands from the boys from Montana Motorsport, managed to replace the gearbox in time for the first race. Another casualty of qualifying was Sarah Wherry, who by her own admission, lost a little concentration and having misjudged the corner at the end of the back straight collected the barrier damaging the driver’s door and smashing the side window; the flying glass left minor cuts to her hands ….. maybe Sarah will wear race gloves in future!

With all cars lined up for Race 1 after the green flag lap it was time to put pedal to the metal, with the five second board out and the red lights beckoning the start, engine revs rose and all drivers looked down the straight to the first corner at Gerrards. The lights went out and the race was on!

Rob Jefferies pulled a car length lead over Ross Stoner with Adam Lockwood tucked right up his exhaust pipe! The position of the leading three cars were to remain the same until lap 3 when Adam Lockwood seeing the battle between Rob Jefferies and Ross Stoner unfolding took the opportunity 56

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to slide past Ross on the entry to Gerrards putting him into second place and planning his strategy to take the lead. Two laps later, Ross Stoner slipped passed Rob Jefferies and set about chasing down his team mate in the 51 car. However, Ross’s luck was to diminish dramatically when Rob Jefferies, eager to reclaim second place, made a monumental mistake at the hairpin T-boning Ross into the barrier.

A position he was not to recover from because even though he managed to regain control and rejoin the circuit, his bonnet flew up covering the windscreen, visibility nil! This incident possibly spoilt what could have been a 1-2 for the orange Lanboss sponsored cars. Adam Lockwood, in the meantime made good his escape and won the race by a clear 8 seconds.

Alex Gassman, who previously at Mallory had started to show form was hampered by a constant misfire and finished way down the field whilst Jason Jesse, Dave Thomas and Gareth Newton found new form to bring up the remaining pack with Sarah Wherry and the Pullan boys closely followed by Nick Winter in his familiar red 28 car. Jeff McCall, Daniel Woolfe (son of Steve Woolfe) and John Tyers (campaigning Bradley Phillpot’s 2007 runner up car), in their maiden race, produced very acceptable race pace and came away with a huge sense of achievement and probably realising that their road to the front runners was going to be a bigger task than they had anticipated but nonetheless happy.

Steve Noble, driving Dave Thomas’s spare car, finished middle pack. Nick Read in

his red No.9 car, on his third outing since joining the series, sustained some rear end damage during the racing but nonetheless found that his track experience was growing which showed in his improving racecraft and talking to him discovered some tracking anomalies which if had been discovered pre-race would have seen him further up the finishing positions.

Krish Kumarasinghe and his buddy Anwar Gaungoo competing for the first time, although lapped in both Races 1 and 2 commented on the fact that it was the best fun he had ever had and Krish sporting slight front end damage from a previous race showed good race pace after only his third meeting.

Race 2 saw Rob Jefferies on pole with Adam Lockwood now moved up because of Ross’s demise in Race 1. The start was clean with Rob taking the initiative into the first corner closely followed by Adam who took the lead within two laps with Gareth Newton dropping Rob down a further place and sticking to Adam like glue keeping him very honest until a huge mistake on the exit to Gerrards with the next two laps allowing Adam to repeat his performance in Race 1 and stretching his lead to a breathtaking 10 seconds! The chasing pack saw the new found form of Jason Jesse moving into 3rd spot, a position he was to hold until the chequered flag. The smile on his face said it all!

The day was relatively incident free with the weather providing a dry track and some very close racing. The newbies proving that you don’t have to win to have a great days racing and each and every one of them looking forward to their next race day. The Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MR2 MkI Series moves on to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire generally regarded as the ultimate drivers circuit …..we will be there

…..Jurno

RACE REPORT

CADWELL PARK

7th September 2008 he MkI drivers from the Red Dragon Race & Track Club MR2 MkI Series gathered for this round at what is possibly the ultimate drivers circuit with its fast Park Straight and the demanding tight corners and of course the famous Mountain; the scene of some of Barry Sheen’s early victories. Predominantly a bike circuit sporting a narrow track which demands the drivers’ total concentration.

The weather on the Saturday was nothing short of appalling but Sunday produced a beautiful day and with a drying circuit promised some fast and close racing, because of a small grid MX5 racers were invited to join the MR2 drivers with the proviso that they started 10 seconds ahead of the MR2s. A decision reversed by the Clerk of the Course at the last minute which was to prove a monumental mistake! Starting MX5s and MR2s together was like putting horse racing and dog racing on the same track ….. stupid.

The nature of the circuit is hilly and the paddock proved to be more akin to an off road course than a place to situate the competitors with some standing water remaining on the Hall bends. It looked like qualifying was going to be a mind game but luckily the first cars to attack the circuit prior to the MR2 qualifying cleared this away to just a modicum of damp patches.

Qualifying saw the MR2s take to the circuit along with the MX5s effectively spoiling some of the clear runs needed to get a quick time for grid position. Nevertheless, some of the MR2 racers out qualified some of the slower Mazdas with Ross Stoner grabbing pole position for the MR2s, Adam Lockwood taking 2nd spot, Sam MayerLoughnan in 3rd and Jason Jesse, with his new found form, pulling up the 4th position. Mallory pole man Rob Jefferies could do no better than 6th behind Sarah Wherry which was a good effort on Sarah’s part considering she suffered a tyre blow out sending her into the tyre wall taking out Rob Jefferies in the process and delaying the start of the

days racing due to the fact that the tyre wall had to be rebuilt. Just goes to prove that Sarah and Rob’s earlier laps were quick enough.

Although Ross was the pole sitter for the MR2 racers, the decision of the Clerk of the Course meant that his right to clear air was negated by the fact that Mazdas occupied the first 12 positions on the grid! So with a mixed grid, all the cars lined up for their green flag lap with exception of Alex Gassman, who sustained an engine failure in qualifying – unlucky as he had a replacement engine fitted following his misfire at Mallory. With the grid lined up for the race, engine revs increasing and all drivers watching the red lights, red lights out and the race started at a frenetic pace with the Mazdas pulling away with Ross taking two of the MX5s into the first corner and keeping pace down into Park Straight where one of the MX5 drivers took to the grass and came back on to the circuit collecting Ross in the process and pushing him into the tyre wall at about 80mph ….. the result is the end of Ross’s race ….. and the end of his car. A shame after his great qualifying performance to grab pole.

With the Mazdas pulling away from the main bunch of MR2s it was left to Adam Lockwood and Sam Mayer-Loughnan to take up the baton, Adams car was slowing due to an alternator fault which saw Sam take the lead in the MR2s. A lead he was to maintain until the chequered flag. The chasing pack saw Jason Jesse, Gareth Newton, Rob Jefferies, Sarah Wherry and Aaron Pullan fighting for finishing positions closely followed by Nick Read, Paul Barker and Nick Winter. A good race by Sarah considering her early coming together with Rob Jefferies resulting in yet another door and driver’s side rear quarter being demolished. Rob Jefferies suffering some body damage as well. Jason Jesse reported an overheating engine which ultimately resulted in failure in Race 2 – a pity as Jason’s form has improved since the early part of the season. Paul Barker, one of the MR2 stalwarts, complained of a slipping clutch.

Race 2 saw a slightly diminished MR2 grid after the absence of Ross Stoner, Alex Gassman and Paul Barker. So it was Adam Lockwood and Sam Mayer-Loughnan who made great starts to head the MR2 pack up behind the MX5s closely followed by Gareth Newton, Rob Jefferies, Sarah Wherry, Jason Jesse, Aaron Pullan and Nick Read with John Tyers and Nick Winter chasing this bunch. Happily the race went off without incident to the MR2s which is more than can be said for the MX5s with more than a good few sustaining body damage. The race win went to Sam Mayer-Loughnan making it two in a row!

Not totally unexpected as Sam was the 2006 MR2 Challenge (as was) Winner. However, it was Adam Lockwood who held the lead up until two laps from home and only lost by the length of one car having replaced his alternator from the damaged 22 car of Ross Stoner ….. that’s what being team mates are all about!

The MR2 racing was close and honest which is more than can be said for the MX5s who seemed to race with the intention of putting as many of their fellow competitors out as possible. A Stewards Inquiry after the first race incident between MX5 driver 72 and Ross Stoner, MR2 car 22 found the MX5 driver guilty of nothing more than driving without due care and decided not to impose any penalties, a strange decision after watching three different sets of on board video footage from following cars ….. but I guess that’s the politics of racing!

The feeling in the MR2 paddock was that a mixed grid of two different types of cars should not occur again with petitions from both the MR2 contingent and the MX5 contingent supporting this decision. In fact these petitions were presented to the Clerk of the Course prior to racing on the grounds of safety but he promptly dismissed the overtures from both Steve Vince (MR2 organiser RDR&TC) and the representative from the MX5 camp.

The MR2 racers took home some very battered cars and Jason Jesse taking home what was later diagnosed as a head gasket failure and Alex Gassman’s car having suffered with a terminal big end. All in all a good day weather wise but disappointing overall feeling, still on to the next round at Snetterton. Hopefully, with rebuilt cars, a fresh attitude and God willing good weather …..

…..Jurno MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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Driver profile -

Lee Barton

ee Barton, whilst it could be said that he is not the youngest driver in the Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MkI Series, he is certainly one of the most experienced drivers, with his racing history spanning some 46 years.

This coupled with an extremely likeable character makes him potentially a force to be reckoned with.

Lee’s racing career started at the tender age of 16 campaigning on two wheels running a Ducatti 250 Desmo in the Far East Championships, whilst serving as a mere lad in Singapore with the Royal Navy. Returning to the UK, Lee continued with bikes but difficulty getting sponsorship meant that his need for speed turned to cars, testing many open and closed wheel types. At this point and during October 1972, he was hit by a drunk driver which killed his wife and left him paralysed for 7 months.

Whereupon he went to the USA seeking the special skills of Hugh Williams who was responsible for stitching up Johnny Rutherford after his horrific crash in the Indy 500. Hugh got him back on his feet and within 6 months he was racing again in Formula 3, Sport Cars and Can-Am. In 1976-77 he went to the Nationals following his success in production sports in the Indianapolis Region SCCA. Lee returned to the UK in 1978 and purchased Mark Hales’ Turner which he ran in Modsports 1500cc class winning the class in the BRSCC Modified Sports Car Series in 1978-9 setting new lap records in a number of races only being pipped by Steve Soper running a ridiculously fast X19. In 1981 Lee went supercharged which proved to be a wrong move in his racing career as he came up against “cheque book racing”.

At this point Lee had become the Chief Executive of AGRATI-GARELLI, who manufactured small motorcycles and bicycle parts where he got to work with the late Dave Bradley of the 750 Motorclub. During his time with this company he was proud to be the sponsor of the new sports car series which was the forerunner of the KIT CAR SERIES which still runs to this day.

Not having big successes in the supercharged classes, he migrated into Tin Tops with the AROC Class F which at this time was probably the closest and most competitive racing in the country with up to a hundred cars registered.

Lee was the only privateer but still brought the car home in the top ten and finished the season in 4th place.

Disaster was to befall Lee again in 2002, after being hit in another similar road accident which subsequently meant his left knee was replaced.

With over a year of surgery and hospitalisation, Lee moved to France in order to improve his knee with yet more surgery. This time he decided to stay and became involved with LEGENDS setting up the French and Belgian Championship leaders’ cars in which he frequently tested setting lap times equal to the front runners, which rekindled his desire to go racing again in 2009 and a chance meeting with Stuart Skinner and Sarah Wherry at Silverstone whet his appetite for the MR2 MkI Series.

Lee set about purchasing his MR2 MkI and duly found a near pristine car in Ferrari red, which after many weeks work is nearing completion and will see it sitting on the grid at Brands Hatch on November 8th 2008. Lee kindly invited myself over to France to help with the race build and after quite a few long hours, the car is looking extremely purposeful and should acquit itself well.

I think, with the standard of build that Lee

Jurno’s Newbies -

demands and his obvious talent for motor racing, he should provide some exciting and close competition. The young bloods in the series will do well to watch this guy as there is no excuse for experience and as Lee says “I may not be the fastest out there initially but I will be trying and trying hard!”

In short, this guy brings experience and determination into the MkI Series and his congenial manner around the paddock will be welcomed. His experience, whilst limited in the MR2, his overall knowledge of motorsport will be invaluable. We look forward to his first race and to the 2009 season in which we are sure he will feature prominently ….. JURNO

Jon Winter

Jon Winter is a 35 year old assistant editor working for two major magazines in the model car racing field, namely RC Car Racer and The TAMIYA Model Magazine International, having found a way of making a living involving one of his two hobbies.

Jon who hails from Milton Keynes, embarked on his full size racing career, thrashing round the race circuits in a 1969 Mini Cooper competing in the Top Hat Series with his cousin, Vaughn. Jon has travelled the world racing radio controlled cars in such places as Japan, France, Switzerland and Germany taking national titles along the way, as well as the prestigious TAMIYA Eurocup European Championship in 2003.

These mini racers are just as technical as the real thing, made from carbon fibre and titanium alloys with fully adjustable facets including suspension, gearing and tyres, making them every bit as

complex as a full on race car.

His temptation into the MR2 Red Dragon Race & Track Clubs MkI Series came about from a chance meeting with Sarah Wherry at the Silverstone Classic this year and seeing that the budgets were affordable and surprisingly close to top level radio controlled racing, he promptly bought a MR2 MkI car within two weeks and commenced its strip down and race build.

Jon, with assistance from Harry Blotter, a work colleague, is busying himself stripping the car to a bare shell in order to transform it into his chosen race wagon with the aim of being on the grid of the first round of the 2009 MkI Series race season.

We look forward to seeing Jon out there and mixing it with the best. We will keep an eye on this lad from Milton Keynes …JURNO

MR2 Only Magazine

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Driver profile - Daniel Woolfe Daniel Woolfe has been a familiar face around the paddocks of the UK for some years now being the son of Steve Woolfe, a regular competitor in the MR2 Racing world. Young Daniel always had his eye on the main chance and achieved his ambition to drive at Mallory on August Bank Holiday Monday using his father’s now familiar 78 car.

Daniel’s passion for motor racing stems from vivid images of his father spinning his white Capri at Lodge Corner, Oulton Park in the early 1990s and as Daniel says “Nothings changed” quoting Copse Corner August Power Nights where Steve recently competed. As a 13 year old Daniel was fortunate enough to assist his racing hero Andy Rouse at Oulton whilst forming the cars on to the grid at the assembly area.

His urge to go racing had to wait a further eight years and even then his role was more at a support level to his father. Sometimes only grabbing 2 hours sleep at a night out at university and whilst there contacted Steve Vince, the then MR2 Challenge Co-ordinator for information on the Challenge and used it to complete his university project on the Internationalisation of a Business

for which he received a good mark providing a case for taking MR2 racing to Bahrain!

Daniel’s debut in the Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MkI Racing Series at Mallory Park saw him putting some very respectable lap times nearly equalling those of his father, Steve Woolfe. His race pace as a novice and in his maiden race was worthy of note and as Daniel says “There are no superlatives to describe the feeling”. Having got himself up into 11th spot at one point and even though he promptly span off into the gravel trap at the Esses it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for Race 2 in which he was determined to finish in one piece saying “I was never more relieved to see that chequered flag”.

Daniel feels that the MR2 MkI Series is a fantastic way to get into motorsport quoting the friendly and approachable paddock together with the fair and close racing of his fellow competitors. Daniel would like to give a massive thank you to his dad for lending him the car.

We will keep an eye on this young man …..Jurno

Jurno’s Newbies Steve Woolfe teve Woolfe, at the tender age of 53, is a familiar sight in the paddocks with his congenial manner and willingness to stop and chat, has been involved in the MR2 Racing Series almost since its inception joining the ranks of the great unwashed in 2005.

Steve’s interest in motor racing was nurtured at a very tender age visiting the likes of Oulton Park and Aintree in the 50’s and 60’s with his father and as soon as he was out of his nomex nappies ventured back to Oulton around his 17th birthday having just passed his driving test and can remember one of the first sights was seeing Roy Yates thundering towards Lodge in his purple Ford Zodiac special saloon, the young Woolfe was awestruck and vowed that someday he would go racing. As a progression to that fateful day Steve enlisted in the ranks of the race marshals and has remained within this brotherhood ever since and has risen to the mighty heights of examining observer or post chief.

In 1986, Steve managed to persuade his employer to purchase a race prepared prod saloon Ford Capri 2.8i enabling him to embark on a season’s racing in the North West GT Challenge and Munro Championship where he finished a credible 2nd. However, it gave him the opportunity to race against his boyhood heroes, Nick Whiting and the legendary Gerry Marshall. He continued campaigning this car into 1987 but funds were always an issue and because he didn’t have a trailer he used the car on the road, that is until the Nantwich Constabulary considered the car to be “not quite legal” and experienced a night to remember sitting in the cells whilst they investigated the car’s provenance!

1998 saw Steve retiring from competitive racing following an outing in an ex Gerry 60

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Marshall Group A Dolly Sprint in which he investigated the barriers at Druids, Brands Hatch in such a way that finances and other household commitments meant that continuation was no longer an option.

We now fast forward to late 2004 and approaching the grand old age of 50 and with his mid life crisis well and truly due, plus a marshalling stint at Mallory, plus a round of the MR2 Challenge jolted Steve’s urge to get back on the black stuff. So after approaching Steve Vince hired an MR2 from Cheshire Racing, Steve was back and with a successful 2005 under his belt and despite a fire at Snetterton in his first ever race the drug had well and truly taken hold once again. His long suffering wife, Annette, was assured by Steve that it would be for one season only and promised after that he would get back to being a boring accountant ….. he lied!

In 2006, Steve purchased his own car and so embarked on season 2. In fact he is now into season 4 competing in both the Red Dragon Race & Track Club MkI Series and selected races within the 750MC MR2

Championship still using his tried and trusted no 78 car.

Steve would like to acknowledge that the last four seasons have been unbelievable, reliving his youth and believing totally that he is immortal.

None of this would have come to fruition without help from Steve Vince, Cheshire Racing, Patrick at Rogue, Kev Poole at KPM and latterly Roger Pullan at Montana Motorsport. 2008 has been a great year not without its scrapes but always with its fun factor.

Steve’s plans for 2009 look like being more in a support role for his son, Daniel, who recently has taken up the baton campaigning Steve’s car at Mallory on August Bank Holiday Monday this year. Steve is determined to put in the odd appearance if he can wrestle the car away from his son during the 2009 season sporting his orange overalls leaving the red ones to Daniel.

Anyone who knows Steve Woolfe will tell you he will offer you friendly advice and support, he is typical of the current driver line up in MR2 racing. May he continue to grace the paddocks for his friendly face and amiable nature will always be welcome.

Jurno

Driver profile -

TONI GLADDING oni Gladding is something of a rarity in motorsport …..

She’s a girl! Not a sexist remark but a statement of fact. Toni reached her 30’s and has realised one of her ambitions, to go motor racing and has become a familiar sight around the paddocks competing in the 750MC MR2 Championship.

Toni is married and lives with husband, Simon and has avoided the onslaught of children concentrating instead on her career as both a lecturer in Environmental Engineering at the Open University and her own consultancy company.

In between working all hours, Toni finds time to indulge in her passion, racing her beloved silver MR2 MkI carrying the number 57, which by her own admission has been a year of constant learning starting as she did in 2008 campaigning her car in 750MC MR2 Championship alongside a veritable grid of time served racers in their MR2 MkII’s.

As 2008 is Toni’s first year of motor racing, only having ventured into the world of track days previously, she has made the transition into what is predominantly a male orientated sport with ease. She is quoted as saying “The chaps around me are all lovely and they are only too willing to jump in and help out”. When she found herself in trouble, quoting a time when Mark Jessop, last year’s MkII winner in the MR2 Challenge Series, quickly re-welded her exhaust after it fell off in testing and the time when Patrick Mortell at Rogue Motorsport re-bolted her alternator back on after the bolts sheared.

As time constraints are at a premium, Toni has given up trying to look after her own car and handed this grave responsibility to Rogue Motorsport, who also transport the car to the track and back and support her on race days. Toni recently hired a MkII to compete in a Powernight’s event saying “It was good fun but I prefer my MkI”.

So it is with her tried and trusted MkI that she intends to complete the 2008 season and on to 2009, opting to improve on her racing skills with the aid of race tuition. This, coupled with an obvious determination, should see improvements in her qualifying and race finishing positions. A result she is determined to achieve.

Toni is lucky enough to race with the aid of sponsors namely CFC Disposal who deal with waste electrical and electronic equipment for recycling and support from her own company REMS (Roffco Environmental Monitoring Services) who do air sampling of waste sights (dust and airborne bugs). Without their help Toni would find herself in the same position as many other club racers who personally fund their passion.

Toni aspires to nothing more than racing her MR2 MkI, having owned about 20 previous MR2 MkI road cars, is currently having a MkI converted to a twin charger. She also owns a MkII which is a genuine TRD2000GT pushing out around 420bhp at the hubs. Her personal MkIII has just been sold to make way for a much needed 4 seater car. Truly a MR2 nut!

Toni does not intend to progress into the higher echelons of other formulas but would not turn down an offer from Ron Dennis!

The amount of female drivers in motorsport is sadly very low, so we wish Toni all the very best and look forward to her improving skills gracing the racing circuits around the country …..Jurno

Sponsors of Rob Jeffries

DONINGTON 20th July 2008 Donington Park played host to the 750MC MR2 Championship and provided us with some glorious weather which covered this Midlands circuit with a blanket of sunshine that was to stay with us all day. The dry and demanding circuit was to provide us with some close and exciting racing.

The rubber laid down by the previous races on the race card meant that the track was grippy and very driveable; a fact that played into the hands of the usual suspects namely Mark Jessop, Alric Kitson and Phil Wilson, who ultimately took the first three qualifying spots.

Alric Kitson, fastly becoming a force to be reckoned with, hosted a lap time of 1:26.95 and an average speed of 81.04mph, which was nearly 1mph and nearly 1 second faster than the second place sitter of Mark Jessop. Phil Wilson, rapidly increasing his race craft, took up the number 3 slot alongside time served campaigner Alan Henderson. Dominic Jackson, a relative new boy to the Championship, lined up alongside Patrick Mortell in the no.1 car to occupy the third row.

Mk1 drivers Arthur Gilmore, Hugh Gilmore, Nick Reed, Jonathan Grimes, David Block, Toni Gladding and David Rowe brought up the rear of the grid, only split by Rob Alman, previously a MkI driver in the as-was MR2 Challenge 2007 but now in a Mk2 and Marcus Mahy, who after his earlier promise in previous meetings was suffering with the odd gremlin. Having spoken to some of the drivers it seemed that warped front brake discs were becoming something of an epidemic with Patrick Mortell putting his mechanics to work trying to alleviate the problems. Steve Lumley, generally regarded as a hard charger, could do no better than 11th slot posting a time of nearly 2 seconds off the

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pole sitter and only managing to finish a couple of positions up from his starting grid slot. John Wilson, having moved from the MR2 Challenge in 2007, was struggling with what he thought might be a slipping clutch and posted a time of some 3 secs slower than pole man Alric Kitson and to add further injury his transponder was misreading.

All qualifiers lined up on the grid for the start of their race with the exception of Peter Lewis, in the 51 car with an unspecified problem.

Donington Park sports a fairly long stretch into the first corner, the 5 second board was out, the red lights came on and the roar of increased engine revs reached a mighty pitch, red lights went out and saw Alric Kitson, Mark Jessop, Phil Wilson and Alan Henderson trying to out drag each other into the first bend with Alric Kitson claiming the position only to lose it to Mark Jessop a lap or so later with an audacious move

by Mark in the Craners. Close battles followed between Anthony Day, Patrick Mortell, Adam Lichfield and Steve Lumley finding a little more form than he did in qualifying.

Alastair Topley, in the 41 car who had claimed 8th spot in qualifying, was rapidly making his way through the field chasing down the front runners of Mark Jessop and Alric Kitson taking Alan Henderson , Phil Wilson, Anthony Day and Patrick Mortell in his wake. Meanwhile Zac Chapman, Matthew Marsh, Lee Bullock (see Driver Profile), Roland Woolley recovered from his Cadwell encounter, and Dallas Jackson were fighting their own private battles out on the

circuit with more than a few cars finding Redgate a bit of a handful: nonetheless having the race of their lives.

Mark Jessop now firmly established as the leader, was trying to make good his escape but Alric Kitson kept him honest with the hard charging Alastair Topley doing his best to close the gap. Ultimately, the winner’s laurels went to Mark Jessop with Alric Kitson and Alastair Topley taking the 2nd and 3rd podium finishes.

Phil Wilson, although finishing 5th behind Alan Henderson in 4th, discovered that his gearbox mountings had come loose and an amazed Phil Wilson Snr who after an inspection was left wondering how it had stayed together!

John Wilson’s no. 7 car finished a hapless day as a none finisher and to add insult to injury was called to the Parc Ferme to have his car checked to establish that it was not using a limited slip differential! Sometimes I wonder what the scrutineers are thinking. I could have understood it if John had finished in a podium position.

All in all a great days racing with only a few scrapes and minor mechanical malfunctions and the day was rounded off with tales of what might have been with the usual hospitality offered by Patrick Mortell’s Motorsport. The MR2 Championship rolls on to Silverstone on 23rd August 2008 - we shall be there …..Jurno

SILVERSTONE 23rd August 2008

The 750MC MR2 Championship arrived at this historic circuit, host to the British Grand Prix (for at least the time being) to changeable weather patterns and not the glorious sunshine we had at Donington Park but nonetheless promising to provide an exciting day’s racing. As with Donington Park, the previous races on the card had taken the green from the surface of the national circuit and left it very raceable.

Twenty three MR2 Mk2s and eight MR2 Mk1s gathered in the paddock, some arriving the previous night, some fully prepared, others making last minute preparations for the race which would see the fortunes of Steve Lumley turn around after his disappointing outing at Donington and the dark horse of Alistair Topley reappearing in the top five.

John Wilson, after his luckless Donington meeting, re-emerged with a revamped car and fresh hope, and Arthur Gilmore hoping to extend his lead in the championship and improve on his fastest lap status amongst the Mk1 contenders. Jeff Holden was hoping to find more grip from his orange no. 26 car because at Donington all grip had left the building!

Qualifying is always an early start at Silverstone but all thirty one drivers lined up to do battle for that all important qualifying slot. Alric Kitson is becoming a qualifying specialist taking pole yet again with a blistering time of 1:11.76 an average speed of 82.22mph closely followed by Partick Mortell finding new form to put his no.1 car in 2nd place with a time of 1:11.80 with a speed of 82.18mph – pretty close stuff!

Steve Lumley who appeared to have lost a little form at Donington more than made up for it posting a time of 1:11.93 with an average speed of 82.03mph to take the 3rd slot. Alongside him was Adam Lichfield with an absolutely identical

time and speed ….. what’s the chances of this happening?

Mark Jessop the winner at Donington could do no better than put his 73 car on 5th alongside Eliot Dunmore, a new name to the series, who albeit matched Mark’s time ….. we’ll have to watch this guy! Alistair Topley improved on his Donington qualifying position by taking up the 7th spot alongside Zac Chapman. The usual crowd of Mk1s filling up the rear of the grid but with Hugh Gilmore just pipping Arthur Gilmore and Jonathan Grimes for grid position. Nick Reed, David Block, Toni Gladding (see Driver Profile), Ben Rowe and David Rowe occupied the remaining two rows.

With all drivers paraded onto the starting grid looking down the main straight to the first corner waiting in anticipation for the red lights to go out ….. engine revs rise ….. red lights go out and the usual charge into the sweeping right hander saw the grid file through without incident with various drivers gaining race position in the process. The

grid sounded like a bunch of angry bees racing their way round the national circuit, exiting Woodcote Corner and onto the main straight with Steve Lumley, Adam Lichfield, Mark Jessop, Alastair Topley and Anthony Day all vying for position. With Patrick Mortell firmly in the mix, looking like he could create an upset, meanwhile Phil Wilson, David Henderson and Eliot Dunmore, who showed good form in qualifying, were rubbing shoulders in their own private race with the now much improved John Wilson, Zac Chapman and Rob Horsfield doing the same. John obviously pleased having found and cured his problems from Donington. Alric Kitson, front runner at Donington was having a less than perfect race dropping back from his pole position at a steady rate of knots having experienced unexpected problems! Hugh Gilmore, in his Mk1, continued to race for position with Jonathan Grimes and Arthur Gilmore finally dropping the now slowing Alric Kitson down a further spot. Toni Gladding, Ben Rowe, David Rowe and Nick Reed fought together in their own private race. Craig Robertson, having qualified his no.19 car in 19th position, was now bringing up the rear of the pack.

The positions at the chequered flag saw Steve Lumley taking the win followed by Adam Lichfield and Mark Jessop ….. not a position we usually see this guy in! Alastair Topley brought home his car in 4th position followed by Anthony Day and Patrick Mortell. John Wilson, after his disastrous Donington, managed a credible 10th bringing the car to the chequered flag in one piece. Arthur Gilmore achieved fastest lap in the Mk1 category with Steve Lumley taking this honour for the Mk2s.

Jeff Holden, hoping that his handling problems had gone away, discovered that they hadn’t and was classified as a non finisher …..a few more hours in the workshop I think Jeff!

The 750MC Championship moves to the famous Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire on the 6th September 2008 . We will report in the next issue …..Jurno

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750 Motor Club Toyota MR2 Championship

ou’re smitten with Toyota MR2s, that much is obvious: you’re reading this magazine. But if you want to drive one fast, and you’re eager for the buzz of competition, then there’s no better time to think about starting racing now, and there’s no better place to do it than in the 750 Motor Club Toyota MR2 Championship.

GO MR2 CHAMPIONSHIP RACING!

Less than a year after its inception, the Championship is booming – with capacity grids of cars at many rounds. Run by the 750 Motor Club – renowned market leaders in low-cost motorsport – the Championship currently caters for both Mk1 and Mk2 MR2s, and is giving the Club’s |Competition Secretary, Robin Knight, cause for great satisfaction.

“It has been most successful - numbers have exceeded expectations and have held strong throughout the year,” he said. “The competitors are keen and fit in well with the club ethos – it is good, clean racing and a level playing field.”

Knight and his colleagues are not ones to rest on their laurels, however, and the hope is that the Championship can continue to grow in status next season. “For next year, a lot depends on the economy. As a club we are trying to focus racing into fewer weekends to avoid travelling costs incurred doing single races rather than doubleheaders. We are also looking at the possibility of separate grids for each class (Mk1 and Mk2), and we are happy to support that as long as the numbers are there.”

Another proposal on the table is to run a heat-andfinal format, to ensure everyone gets at least one race when entries exceed the maximum number allowed to start a race, as series leading light and

ARDS course/National ‘B’ licence – circa £400 Helmet and racewear – circa £1,000 750 Motor Club membership - £50 Championship registration - £75 Entry fees (total for 14-round season) – £1,910 in 2008, with little change anticipated Testing – as much as you like, but say £1,000 – most important in year one Car (capital cost, ready to go) – from about £2,000 (Mk1) or £3,500 (2008 championship winning Mk2) Running costs (own car) – circa £600 per season, excluding damage Travel and accommodation – circa £800, assuming you B&B – less if you take your tent Hire of car – circa £650 for a single race or £950 for a double-header

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Rogue Motorsport boss Patrick Mortell explained.

“We tried each format at the two Cadwell meetings which were both oversubscribed – I think we had somewhere in the region of 37 cars – and both worked very well. A lot of people left the first meeting where, having had heats and finals, they had all the track time they could possibly manage in a single day - most of the field ended up doing four races!”

The quality of the racing in the Championship in 2008 has been impressive, too. As with any one-make category, the racing is consistently very close and tremendously entertaining for drivers and spectators alike. As this year’s crop have become more used to racing against each other, so the intensity of the action has increased – but all the while, the amount of accident damage has been relatively small, and the cars tremendously reliable.

So, how do you get involved and what is this all going to cost? There’s no short answer, so let’s consider a couple of case studies.

www.750mc.co.uk – 750 Motor Club – Championship organisers 01379 741641 – Robin Knight, 750 Motor Club Competition Secretary www.mr2championship.com – Championship website 01676 530222 – Rogue Motorsport – Parts supplier and more

DO YOUR OWN THING Arthur Gilmour is walking proof that you don’t need to make a vast financial outlay to be successful in motor racing – he is the 2008 MR2 Mk1 class champion and (relatively speaking) he hasn’t spent very much in reaching for that glory.

The 52-year-old farmer and project manager from Norfolk doesn’t even have a great deal of race experience behind him – he started competing back in 1999 in the Caterham Scholarship. “We did two races, three hillclimbs and three sprints, but the buzz was in the races we did at Oulton Park and Snetterton,” he said.

“I couldn’t afford to carry on in the Caterham, so I sold that and bought a half share in a Lotus Cortina with Bob Howes, who I had raced with in the Scholarship, to do some endurance racing in the Top Hat series. Unfortunately that was a bit of a disaster and the car never finished a race.

“We looked for something more affordable, and Bob and I looked at the MR2 series as being a good entry level competition. This is my first full season, having done about half of the races in 2007.”

By any motorsport standards, the initial outlay was modest – Arthur paid around £500 for the car, and then spent another £1,500 or so on the suspension, brakes and safety equipment. The permitted modifications are extremely limited to avoid excessive cost, and indeed Arthur’s car is used on the road.

“It’s nice to have my son, Hugh, racing with me,” he explained. “He is a chartered surveyor in London, so for him it is a case of arrive and drive and good old dad does the work! We’re on quite a tight budget – we have to drive one car to each race and trailer the other. Both cars are road legal so we can always drive one home.”

To save on cost, the Gilmour family started to camp overnight at the circuits at weekend meetings, which allows them to soak up the excellent atmosphere. “Myself, my son and all of the competitors have found the camaraderie here second to none,” said Gilmour. “Even within the pits itself is great - there is always somebody with the right tool to help.”

In the case of the Gilmours, the effort of running the cars is very much centred around friends and family. “We have a good friend called Chris Brown

who has a body shop in the local town who gives us a lot of support. At the moment he’s rebuilding my car after I had a nasty crash at Oulton Park,” he explained.

Over and above the initial capital expenditure, race entry fees and travel and accommodation costs, there’s minimal maintenance spend – unless you are unlucky enough to pick up significant accident damage, which is rare – with just the occasional new set of brake pads and the like called for.

One area that Arthur advises against skimping on is testing. “It is definitely worth testing on the circuit for at least half a day, especially if it is new to you – in the 15 minute qualifying session there just isn’t enough time to build up your confidence,” he warns. He reckons you should budget around £1,000 for this cost during the first season.

he other option – ideal if you’re not mechanically-minded, perhaps, or short on time – is to hire a car and get a team to prepare it for you and run it throughout each event. That is what local government officer Teresa Buckley chose to do when she made her first steps into MR2 racing.

“I had done a couple of corporate days and decided that I wanted to race something affordable this year, and I wanted to hire a car,” explained the 32-year-old. “Through research, I found I could have hired a Fiesta XR2, which I didn’t really fancy, or an MR2. It was a car that I had always liked the look of but never actually driven. I was told that it was a good low budget Championship to get into, and because I am self-financing I wanted something in the low thousands, not the hundreds of thousands!”

The Devonian has always been interested in motorsport, and entered the Formula Woman competition a few years ago – and was surprised to make it into the final 100. Her first steps into competitive action, though, came earlier this season with Mortell’s Team Rogue Racing outfit, which runs a number of Mk2s in the Championship – though many more are run

privately.

“I would recommend them to anyone that wants to have a go. The support they give, and the dedicated mechanics that look after you and your car, is just what you need. What prevented me from going racing before was that I didn’t have a mechanical background to be able to look after my car. They look after a lot of cars and are at all of the events, and have all of the parts,” Teresa explained.

Of course, whichever route you choose there are certain hoops to go through – and costs to incur – before you can launch your 750 Motor Club Championship. First, you will need to acquire your MSA race licence by passing an ARDS course, versions of which are available at most circuits – Teresa took hers at Silverstone. Then you’ll need a helmet and some fetching race overalls and

Buckley is currently evaluating her options for 2009, and competed in a recent Powernights event to help her decide. “It was a test to see how I got on with a view to racing in the Championship next year, although I am not sure I can afford to do a full season – I might just race at the circuits I have already driven. I am enquiring whether it is best to hire a car or buy my own car and get Rogue to look after it for me next season, which are the two options. I’m looking into the costs of doing that, and entering the races as and when I can afford it.”

you will need to become a member of the Club.

Then, of course, there is the car itself – whether you buy one and convert it yourself (or convert one you already own!), acquire a race-ready version, or go down the hire route.

for money, racing on the major tracks. We’ve been to all of them – Brands, Silverstone, Donington and so on,” he said. “I have nothing but praise for the way the Championship has been run.”

Arthur, though, thinks all of the effort is well worth it. “I don’t think you could get more value

Ian Sowman

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Article written by Johnny_g.

elcome to this issues update from the folk over at TWOBRUTAL. We’ve been quiet over the last couple of issues, for various reasons - personal commitments; people not having time to compile articles; projects not quite being ready for the grand unveiling, etc.

So, I can hear you wondering what’s changed in our crazy mixed up little world? Well, there’s a lot that’s come up. Let’s take a small peek at a couple of them, starting with our Norwegian cousins.

Arnolds’s Mk1 V8. Yes, that’s correct, VeeEight! It’s a space-framed Mk1b with a Lexus 1UZ-FE in there bolted to an MR2 Turbo transmission. It’s an amazing car, built by an amazing fabricator. The sounds from his many video clips are tremendous, but I’m sure they do not do the car enough justice - and I, for one, would love to see this car in person. Arne (AEK) has also fabricated his own custom body kit for the Mk1 which is a totally unique kit and is only for his car - so boys and girls, if you’re in Norway and see a mean looking Mk1 with a great sound track, don’t indulge in Traffic Light grand prix, you simply will not have a chance!

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If you think that’s good, then perhaps we can interest you with a 3VZ-FE turbo? I know Whoozy has his already, so this is not the first, but how does a charge cooled GT35R, custom intake manifold, running Ford EDIS

ignition along with a MegaSquirt home build ECU sound? It’s on the road now and being driven in the early stages, boost is only 0.2bar at the moment but the power is already shining through. By the time you read this, there should be some real progress on this fantastic effort.

All credit must go to both of these guys for producing two epic cars. They are pushing some boundaries that the Mk1, Mk2, 3VZ-FE and 1UZ-FE need to have pushed.

Also on TWOBRUTAL we have continuing build threads from all of Woodsport’s customers – including some that are coming in from Europe. Yes. Woodsport has gone international folks!

But what is happening closer to home? Well, seeing as I wrote this article, I thought I’d do a bit of a write up on mine. Those of you who frequent TWOBRUTAL and IMOC to a certain extent will know that I’ve had a fair few problems with my car - totally due to Neos Designs, the details of which can be expanded on another time. But thanks to Paul Woods of Woodsport I never lost heart in the project and it has now been resurrected in true Phoenix from the Flames fashion - and Paul and I have become firm friends through this - and the support of the guys at TWOBRUTAL will never be forgotten, cheers guys.

put in the wrecked shell that was recovered from Neos Designs. Some detailing work went on to the bare block, such as painted Cam Covers and then the installation started.

Forced induction was required, so after much deliberation and the studying of compressor maps, a GT4094R was purchased with a TiAL 60mm waste gate.

The build is almost complete now, save for some wiring.

At this point, Paul moved on to the bodywork

- after being bitterly disappointed by Neos Designs, and with my TRD kit that was paid for and never arrived, it was decided that we’d go for something unique on the body work. Woodsport wide arches with a Border front end, Tom’s Side Skirts and a TRD Rear Spoiler. After all, there needs to be something to house the 18x10 +25 offset wheels! All the chaps at TWOBRUTAL have been very supportive and shown what a great community our “little” club is. We have the greatest builds in the MR2 world at this particular time, no other club is pushing the boundaries that we are, so please come on over – all the information you require to put a different engine in your Mk1, Mk2 or Mk3 is here with us. We look forward to seeing you and the ideas you have!

Anyways, let’s start with the engine build.

As some know, I had the first supercharged MR2 3VZ-FE in the UK - and the second supercharged Mk2 in the country, behind Phil Tuck’s feature car, but I fancied something a bit different seeing as there were now 4. What did I decide on? The 5VZFE which is the big brother of the VZ family.

This is the 3.4litre version of the 3VZ-FE 3.0 litre V6, with some updates. This engine is originally found in the Toyota Landcruiser Colorado. Being an off-road/truck engine, it was built for low-down power with the only disappointment being the 5krpm rev limit.

Power was 190bhp @ 4800rpm and 220lb/ft at 3600rpm, so in N/A form it would be quite a nice and lively B road car. But I wanted more. Forced induction.

After speaking with Johnny Riglietti of Sea2Sky Tuning in Canada, we decided that my route was going to be unlike anything that’s been seen before in an MR2. The engine was sourced in Canada and stripped down to its bare components. Lightened, forged and balanced. Bespoke cams and aggressive headwork meant that this engine was now capable of running over 7500rpm.

Now we’re talking. It was crated, shipped and delivered direct to Woodsport where it was MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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2008 IMOC-UK 24 Heures Du Mans event

Photos and article by Michael Sheavills

Q

uestion? What does the summer mean to me, lazy evenings sitting in the garden with a cool beer, burning sausages and burgers on the BBQ, em, no, staying up late into the early hours of the morning watching live streaming from the Big Brother house, em, definitely no, well what?

Le Mans!

For me June really does mean one thing and that’s our annual bash down to France to watch the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race, in all honesty this really is as good as it gets. There’s something special about the spirit of Le Mans and this trip that makes me want to go back year after year.

Here’s an account of our 2008 IMOC-UK 24 Heures Du Mans event.

Sunday 8th June 2008

The party really did get started when Shane and Susan Watt arrived at my house in Durham from the Outer Hebrides, also known as Scotland, later joined by another couple from Scotland, Alison and Gordon Moffett and the two kids, Jake and Amber, then soon after Saj and Gemma Ali Khan and Alam who only live a few miles away. We spent most of the afternoon chilling in the garden with a few beers and talking about the trip ahead of us. Later that evening it was time to apply the official Le Mans stickers to our cars that Shane had pre organised for us, early night as we had a big day ahead of us.

Monday 9th June 2008

We were all up bright and early, had a good breakfast and began to dissect the maps to make sure everyone knew the route down to our first stop and official meeting place for the start of the tour, the White Rabbit Hotel in Maidstone. Ok everything packed, checked 5 times and once more for luck and we were off. We left Durham approximately 9.00am and headed towards our first meeting point, Birchanger Services on the M11 in Cambridgeshire. We made good progress and arrived in good time to meet up with Jinxy, Deb, Dan and Mark from ROC and Pete and Reema. Dan brought his Nissan 350Z and Mark came in his VX220

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turbo, nice! During the quick pit stop the rest of the people decided to sticker up their cars with Shane’s stickers, we really did look the part as we all departed in convoy from the services and headed to Maidstone.

After a short 2 hour sprint around the M25 and M20 we arrived at the White Rabbit Innkeepers Lodge and checked into our digs. We use this particular hotel as it’s extremely convenient, just 5 minutes from the M20 and only 45 minutes down to Dover from here, plus they do cracking food and offer nice beers. The sun was blazing which made a good excuse to sit in the beer garden all afternoon before Jinxy officially opened the trip with a huge party popper, and what a bang it was, I’m not sure the cleaners would have been too happy with the mess of hundreds of pieces of paper, sorry!. We

night as we all had to be away from the hotel at 5.00 am to make the trip to Dover.

Tuesday 10th June 2008

No time for breakfast as it’s too early, everything checked, everyone here, we are off. We hooked up with Carl and Bev Windsor in their M400 Noble on the way down to Dover and arrived at the dock to meet Ki Williams and his dad.

We sailed with SpeedFerries from Dover to Boulogne on the sea cat which only takes 50 minutes and costs on average about £50 for a return crossing, great value and can be booked online and after a smooth crossing we arrived in Boulogne. Once in France we regrouped on the dock before starting the 4 hour trip down to the Chateau du Chanteloup which is just outside Le Mans itself in amazing countryside. It was amazing to see 8 cars all driving in convoy through France, the roads were almost car free, very strange to see when you’re used to busy UK roads like the M1 and M25. We arrived at the Chateau Du Chanteloup in the early afternoon, checked in and began to establish our MR2 camping village in our usual spot that we like to have every year. The Chateau is absolutely stunning; it has really good facilities, a bar, restaurant, fishing lake and a swimming pool and makes a perfect location and place to stay during our MR2 holiday to Le Mans. Once the pitch was established we headed of to the supermarket to get those all important supplies, beer. That evening was spent around camp relaxing and getting to know each other over a few beers and some great French cuisine, oh we do like the fine things in life.

Wednesday 11th June 2008

spent all that evening chatting and generally having a laugh and enjoying ourselves. Various people arrived throughout the evening who didn’t convoy down with us due to work commitments and location, we even had guest appearances from local Mk1 Club members Alan and Linda Cayzer and Pete and Alex Kyte came along to say hello and have a beer with us, I understand Pete and Alex are coming with us next year, brilliant. We had a reasonably early

This day is traditionally spent getting to know the area and finding your way around Le Mans whilst it’s reasonably quiet. After a quick photo session at the Chateau I organised a trip down to the circuit where we drove various parts of the famous track including the Mulsanne Straight, Arnage and Indianapolis, absolutely stunning and a good chance to get some heat into the engine. Actually you have to be really sensible here as it is still a public highway and you will find the odd Gendarmerie about with a speed camera. However this doesn’t distract from many of us really putting our MR2s through its paces, there must be something we can’t resist when we see apex and armco! After blasting around the track and taking more pictures, some people took advantage of the discounted entry to the Le Mans museum whilst others went off and did their own thing. Thanks must go to Carl for giving people a ride up and down the track in his awesome Nobel M400, absolutely mind blowing performance, Jinxy had a strange looking wet patch in MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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his trousers after his ride. Later that evening we all met up again and went back to the circuit for the 2nd qualifying session which runs from 7.00pm - 9.00pm and then 10.00pm - 12.00pm, this is great as you get to see the cars at night before the racing. The qualifying sessions also give you a good chance to get into the circuit and see where the best advantage points are to watch the race from.

Thursday 12th June 2008

This day is kept free for people to do anything, they want, some went off and explored the fantastic Loire Valley, visited historic Chateau’s, explored around Le Mans town itself with its great restaurants and bars and some relaxed around the chateau, did a spot of sunbathing, fishing and swimming and generally chilled out and relaxed. We are on holiday after all. Later that afternoon we were joined this year by the French MR2 Drivers Club who decided they wanted to camp with us and spend a little time getting to know our UK Clubs. Jean Christophe AKA Jhiss is the President of the French DC arrived in his spectacular MR2 Mk2 Spyder along with 7 MR2 French Club members and their cars which consisted of Mk2s only; there was a slight language barrier as they were French and we were hardly sober but we managed to get through it. It was really great meeting them all and chatting about their cars and their MR2 world.

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‘’ MAD ‘’ Friday 13th June 2008

Traditionally know as ‘’ MAD FRIDAY ‘’ and rightly so. This is one of the highlights of the trip and the reason some people come to Le Mans. Basically all the car clubs and a lot of people who have come for the racing descend down at the circuit around lunchtime for fun and madness, all car related. We witnessed car burnouts over soapy water, drag starts and some amazing road cars including a Jaguar VX220, Ferrari F40, De Tomaso, and loads of other Ferraris, Lambo’s, Porsches and some nice vintage stuff. We even saw that some Brits had come over on a DENNIS fire engine, where did they get that from, mad! Following all the crazy happenings at the track we headed for a tour of the pit lane to get up close and personal with the cars, teams and drivers.

After a superb day at the track we headed back to the Chateau to get ready for a car show that the owner of the campsite Dominique puts on for all his guests, traditionally on the Friday evening. We really did let our hair down on this night and had a brilliant time.

Scenes of Skye Tour 2008

W

hen was the last time you drove 600 miles just to go for a drive?

September 2007 saw one of my highlights of that year - a trip with the IMOC and the MR2 Mk1 Club up to Scotland on the Scenes of Scotland trip. It gave me my first views of the Scottish highlands and my first forays onto Scottish roads. We weren’t back long from that trip before most of us were putting our names down for a similar trip in 2008, Scenes Of Skye. Back then, it seemed so far off - one whole year until we’d get to see one another again, and drive on fantastic roads immersed in amazing scenery.

But that one year quickly zipped by.

Written by Max Starr Photos by Michael Sheavills were looking a bit greyer than when they’d started. Full-time show-offs that we are, a few of us headed over to the local jet wash to scrape off the worst of the hundreds of miles of grime and get the cars looking their best! This was followed by our first repair job of the trip when Jinxy’s frunk refused to open - I reckon this was just an excuse for him to hang on to the beer he’d packed in there!

The Scenes of Skye trip itself was kicked off on the Thursday night with all of us convening at Shane and Susan’s (our hosts and organiser of the trip) place for a dinner they’d prepared giving us a chance to sample some Scottish cuisine - in this case Stovies. In spite of having set off early that morning, and not having much chance for a lie-in the following morning, the banter between us went on late into the night...

The following morning the trip started proper at the meeting point for 10 MR2s of all three Mks in Huntly. From here we began the trip to Skye - though it wasn’t long before our next repair job. One of the Mk2s had developed a sticky front

Pleasantly, the initial 600 mile journey was broken up by a stop-over night in Durham at Michael & Joanne Sheavill’s home.

This was kicked off by our first meet-up with other club members over dinner in The Church Mouse pub - the monthly meeting point of the North East Mk1 club members.

Although slightly reminiscent of last years roads on the Highland trip, the roads on our way from Durham to our starting point in Huntly were great fun in themselves with a good mix of different road types and conditions, with the weather varying between sunny and damp.

Already we had passed through changing scenery, driving alongside the coast after crossing the border, with ferns and heather becoming more prominent as we left the motorways behind. Arriving in Huntly, the cars

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Scenes of Skye Tour 2008 brake. Suddenly the packing of all our tools made sense, as a few of us carried out a roadside repair job! Before long, though, we were back on the road headed for Inverness where more MR2s joined the group. From here we made our way to Portree on Skye, stopping at Invermoriston for lunch (sitting outdoors under some wonderful sunshine that escorted us to Skye for the day) and the castle of Eilean Donan for photos.

On Friday alone, we took in some breathtaking vistas along the roads we drove on. The roads alongside Loch Ness and Loch Cluanie offer brilliant views across the lakes, whilst Skye Bridge is a beautiful piece of civil engineering that joins Skye Island with the mainland. Once on Skye, we passed the Old Man of Stoer on our way to Portree where we settled into our respective B&Bs or the camp-site. Dinner was held in Marmalade. No, not some kinky Scottish tradition, but a great restaurant on the island that was willing to accommodate almost 30 exuberant MR2 drivers and their appetites.

Saturday morning saw us grouping in the long stay car park at Portree in damp conditions - it seemed the morning didn’t hold as much promise for good weather such as that seen the day before. Nevertheless we were assured we were in for a treat with the days driving taking us on a tour of Skye. Well, we weren’t disappointed! The views were spectacular, and the roads were great fun - even though we were not pushing that hard. The lunch stop was

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just around the corner from Dunvegan Castle, with time being allowed to go and gaze at the castle from the hills opposite. Unfortunately there was mist obscuring the view, but this is just another reason to go back some time!

Thankfully it wasn’t misty enough during the day to miss the sight of 16 MR2s (of all kinds, including a V6 Mk2) in a line going up and down the hills of Skye - an awesome sight and I’ll bet that Shane must’ve felt some pride in his organisation, looking at it through his mirror!

The evening festivities started off with dinner at Portree Hotel - having heard conflicting reports we weren’t sure what to expect. However, Shane’s haddock was the size of a whale and the sticky chocolate cake was apparently the best Susan has ever had! After we’d made plenty of noise there, Shane took us to the pub around the corner - The Royal - where a band were play-

“This trip is the epitome of what the MR2 and its club of enthusiasts is all about; the sheer joy of driving a great car on great roads, and sharing this with a great group of friends.”

ing traditional folk music, showing off their talent with a couple of accordions. It wasn’t long until one of the locals became the honourable addition to the trip - inevitable after Mrs Ingram befriended Jinxy in Huntly last year. However, this year our honourable guest took turns dancing with a couple of us and learning a bit from Carl about how all of our group are related. At the end of the evening, she even kept us company until the taxi arrived to take us back to our B&Bs. The plan for the following, final, day was to take in Applecross pass on our way back to Inverness from Skye. However, things didn’t turn out quite as planned. I’d gone for a passenger ride in Mark Watt’s Mk2 to get a feel for the car - and take a few photos of the Mk1s - until the point where we’d refuel in Broadford. Unfortunately we had one of those things you always hope never to happen - we left the road in spectacular fashion. It was quite serious, with both of us being carted off to hospital and Mark getting to spend the night in Broadford surrounded by lovely nurses. Thankfully (and amazingly) we both got away with almost no injuries, but it was the only downer on what was otherwise an amazing trip. Although we didn’t take in Applecross Pass on the Sunday, most of us still made our way to the planned stop-over point in Inverness where we gathered for a last dinner together

at the Snow Goose. Although the events of the day were on our minds, we were still able to be as boisterous as ever until, for the second year running, we were kicked out after closing time!

Monday morning we got together briefly for one last goodbye for the trip before all heading our own separate ways. Some of us were going to continue our holidays for a while longer, most of us were heading back home to continue normal life again, all of us seemed to be making plans for next year having really enjoyed the trip. For us down South, we covered 1700 odd miles - but every mile was worth it! Many thanks to Shane for organising such a wonderful trip once again! This trip is the epitome of what the MR2 and its club of enthusiasts is all about; the sheer joy of driving a great car on great roads, and sharing this with a great group of friends.

On a personal note: I wish to thank everyone for everything that was done by all on Sunday morning. We were very fortunate to have such a group of people around us on the day.

Written by Max Starr - Photos by Michael Sheavills

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“Of course its going to rain, there’s a sprint!!” n preparation for the next sprint, Phil had put the official door stickers on as we wouldn’t need to be changing the numbers over this time. He also put on our new ‘MR2 Only Magazine’ sticker.

We had been checking the weather all week to see what tyres we needed as it was going to be slightly more logistically difficult this time due to us only being able to take one car. The weather predictions for Sunday changed daily, from rain all day, to no rain, to showers. Finally, Phil

Woodbridge Sprint, Round 4, 17th Aug 2008

decided to put the Hydragrips (wet tyres) on for driving to the event, and taking a set of R888s to put on if it was dry when we got there.

Well that was the decision made, now to find out how to get all this into one car: Passenger Passenger seat Driver 4 wheels Random box of sprint stuff Toolbox Jack Axle stands Fuel can Helmet Race suit Coats Chairs Pillows (for my leg) Walking frame.

He did it though, although I couldn’t catch a picture. We had a spare wheel in the frunk, which is where the spare usually goes! The other three spare wheels were loaded onto the engine cover and tied on! Everything else went in its normal

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Report written and contributed by Toyota Sprint Series Participant Vykki Hoult, photos taken by Andrew Cliffe

place, either the frunk or the boot, and then the walking frame was hung out of the boot, the bootlid being tied on as it wouldn’t shut!

Although Woodbridge is only 60 miles away, the roads round here are rubbish so it took us just over 1.5 hours to get there. The weather looked quite fine on the journey, and one of the first things Phil did was put the dry tyres on, amongst amazed comments at how much stuff we had got in our car.

I assumed what is now my normal motorsport position! Which is sat on one camping chair with my leg on two pillows on another camping chair.

Phil went off for the drivers briefing and it started to rain. I managed to make myself waterproof, however the rain just got heavier and heavier, and I needed to sit under two brollies in the end.

The drivers all dashed back to their cars after the briefing and prepared to do the sighting lap.

The circuit was much longer that usual, about 2.5 miles compared to 1 mile, but there was only one sighting lap and one practice run, so the drivers really needed a good memory. When Phil came back from the sighting lap, he said that he had no idea where the track went, it had

been too wet to see anything and he’d just had to follow the car in front. The conditions looked terrible, airfields don’t have the best surfaces anyway and there was so much mud due to the massive downpour we were having.

Just before Phil went out on his first practice lap, the weather cleared up and I took this opportunity to hop slowly to the Toyota hospitality unit, where it was dry! The track was still wet, and there were lots of spinning cars and lock ups! Phil took the practice run carefully soas to try and learn the track!

We looked like we were going to have a fairly competitive day with two other Mk1 entrants, Jo and Garrick. Their Mk1 was now running on the same tyres as ours, and all three drivers are of similar abilities. The track was still wet on the first timed run, and Phil just got the edge with a time of 208.07, compared to Garrick’s 208.42 and Jo’s 209.59. A lot of the drivers were talking of a tree at the apex of one of the corners, and Phil had hit this tree on his run! This poor tree got a lot of abuse throughout the day.

The second run was still wet as we had a small downpour and Phil lost out to both Jo and Garrick

on this one, Jo pulling a great 202.51, which was faster than a lot of the other more powerful cars.

Phil and Garrick were both in the 203, which was still a very competitive time. By the time run 3 was off, the track had started to dry, however Phil hit the famous tree again and his time was 208.80, he had been concerned about the car as he couldn’t keep the back end, so took this lap steady. Again, Jo was top with a 201.49, Garricks spin costing him a lot of time.

Lunchtime was upon us, and the sun was now blazing, looking like the track would be very dry for the afternoon session.

Everyone’s times improved over the last three runs, as long as they didn’t spin! It was getting very competitive between Jo, Garrick and Phil, and they were all coming back from their runs desperate to see the times, or annoyed because they had pushed too far and lost time. Phil was getting frustrated as he couldn’t remember the entire track, and knew there was potential for getting lots more speed out there. He was pleased with his last run though and hopeful for a trophy.

We packed up and then headed to the Toyota unit for the presentation. Garrick bagged runner up with a best time of 192.92, and Phil was

very competitive times and we hope to see him at more events in the future. “This was my first attempt at the tss (or any track time) and absolutely loved it!”

Mike Rawlings came third in class C in the V6 Mk2. He has provided the following round up of his day:

a lot better for me although a spin at about 75 - 80mph put paid to what should have been an awesome run 5 for me.

The course was littered with bushes, sometimes in the middle of the track! and it was definitely not a track where consistent grip could be found.

The course was about three times longer than it would normally be and this proved to be a bit of a nightmare for me. Hard enough seeing where

For more info, event dates and reports visit www.toyota-sprint-series.com announced to be class winner with his last time 191.59 being the best of the day. Jo got fastest female, so at least they all went home with something. We were all surprised at the final result, and Garrick’s words sum it up the best: “What??? How???? Where did Phil find 5.5 seconds from??? Perhaps I shouldn’t have kept encouraging Phil to pull one out the bag? But, I can’t remember the last time I had sooooo much fun in a car! It was a really good day well organised and run by all parties. Would I do it again for the same result? Hell yeah.”

Scott Lawson in his Mk1 MR2 improved on his times during the day by over 20 seconds, which is a fab improvement. Other Mk2 entrants also appeared to be having good times, Simon Marsh being runner up in his class with a 182.22, the winner of that class being British Rally Champion Jonny Milner with 174.43. It’s not a bad thing to be second to a rally champ!

Robert Oliver was new to sprinting and improved on his times during the day. He had

I’ve got a hell of a headache which is bizarre as I didn’t drink any alcohol the previous night.

Although I do recall an inflatable sprint race vs Si Marshy getting a little violent towards the end..

Hmmm.

We pack up everything and leave the campsite.

About half way to the track it goes from ‘slightly cloudy’ to ‘I hope you built an Ark last night’.

HUGE downpour.

I shall summarise the next 3 hours.

Getting wet unloading car at sprint track Getting wet signing on Getting wet at the safety brief Wet and doing a sighting lap - windows misting up as I’ve removed all the dash & fans (although there is a vented tube aimed at my side of the window) Wet and doing practice run - windows misty again First run - misty ish . I span.

Second run - first run I can see everything! yay!

(Span again though). and so on...

The afternoon saw the sun come out and the track dried out very nicely. Runs 4 5 and 6 were

you are going through a semi misty windscreen at the start, but when you add in a course which is so long you can’t remember it all (some people couldn’t even remember it the day after) it makes it a bit of guesswork.

However, having said that... it was an awesome course. If anything it highlighted my need to drive smoother and more consistently through corners, rather than the aggressive stance I currently use.

Another excellent sprint, although my write up may sound like it was wet & dirty. It was in fact another huge success.”

We are all pleased with how our Mk1s are running, and being a very competitive car in the series. Jo Walker said “Just goes to show our little old Mk1s can punch above their weight really, especially with our 3 times so close together after 2 1/2 miles”.

Phil is looking good for a championship win now, and is currently ‘winning’ the other two classes above us. I wont be driving at Teesside either, might have to get some pom poms to wave instead!

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