MR2 Only Magazine issue 10 (Previously published June 2008)

Issue 10 June 2008 £3.75 No Scoobies, Evo’s, GTO’s or FTO’s... MR2’s only...

IN CONJUNCTION WITH

Canadian Dan Lowe’s show winning AW11 and SW20

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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.

CONTENTS:

ISSUE 10 - Back on the road again!

As I sit at my desk putting the finishing touches to issue 10 of MR2 Only Mag, it’s a red hot sunny day and the temptation to go out and play is very, very hard to resist, why? At long last some 10 months in the waiting, my Rev 3 Turbo is finally back on the road and is in need of running in.

Yes, only last weekend Nick Bourne, the guy who re-built my Turbo engine kindly gave up his weekend to help put the engine back in, well admittedly Nick did most of it, and the only task I was entrusted with I broke! Initial thoughts after the first 200 miles is that it’s awesome, revs freely, albeit only up to 3K rpm during the initial running in, but its good to have it back and with it has come my enthusiasm for all things MR2 once more!

As and when funds permit with my car there is more to come, possibly a different turbo, injectors, ECU etc.

Our inclusion of the MR2DC Log Book as an extra 8 pages in MR2 Only Magazine was positively received and despite the concerns of one or two sceptics you will see that MR2 Only still remains very much MR2 club focussed, with substantial event reports and coverage of other owners clubs, so if you have organised or feel inspired by attending an event, please feel free to get in touch with us.

So what’s in store for you in this issue? Firstly we feature two of the cleanest MR2s you will ever find, both whiter than the Daz Automatic doorstep challenge, an AW11 and SW20 both owned

by Dan Lowe from Canada and both show winning examples, and the minute we received the proofs from Dan’s photoshoot we instantly thought cover!

Of course it goes without saying that we have the 2nd instalment of the ongoing TRD2000GT replica project which really is shaping up to be something special, the owner of which I bumped into at Jap Fest proudly showing off his feature in MR2 Only Mag and filling us in on the latest.

We also have Adam Adesso’s awesome viper striped SW20 Turbo, a look that grows on me the more I look at it, and Adam certainly has a story with a twist to tell.

For those of you who fancy a challenge, or have a tight budget and have the engine from hell in your MR2, you will be pleased

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to find Wibbleboy’s excellent 30 step guide to swapping your N/A engine. One little bit of advice of my own to throw in is to invest in a breaker bar, removing my own engine we wasted hours trying to free off hub nuts, subframe bolts and the like until we made the investment!

As you can see in this issue, me and the team have been busy out on the road, going on club runs, and circulating around the shows in search of cars to feature this year and its pretty obvious what some of you guys have been busy doing over the winter months. One of my favourite trip reports in this issue has to be the Roadster Owners Club Corfu trip, which I had my name down to go on but sadly could not make it, the photos are amazing and I know the guys had a really great time.

As always our intrepid reporter from the Pit Lane covers both MR2 racing series, some of which we made it along to ourselves and believe me it’s a really great day out, I once again urge you to go along, spectate and support these guys and if you do miss out, some of the racing is covered on Motors TV. We recently went to see the opening race of the Nippon Challenge, open to all modified Jap cars, boasting a 41 car grid which was an eagerly awaited race. The MR2 brand was represented well, with numerous Mk1s, Mk2s, Karen in her newly prepped Mk1 Supercharger, and Chris Huntley of GTS Chris fame in his newly built Mk2 Turbo that held its own returning a 4th position in both races at Silverstone hot on the heels of a few tricked up Rex’s and a Subaru.

We are looking forward to JAE at its new venue down south this year where we will be having our own stand again, all being well with our own staff cars and some featured cars to look at. Please do come over and have a chat, always great to meet our readers!

Well, now my own cars back on the road, it’s back in the garage to change the engine on our Mk1 track car project which has a nasty habit of overheating whilst out on track, which kind of defeats the object of its purpose. No rest for the wicked.

Dan Lowe’s stunning white duo

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MR2 ROC Corfu Road trip

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TRD Replica build - Part Two

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Wibbleboys 3SGE - 3SGE swap guide

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All that is left to say folks is I hope you enjoy the read, and drive carefully!

Steve Bishop - MR2 Only Magazine Editor Adams awesome Mk2 Turbo

CONTACTS:

THANKS GO TO...

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All who have helped and supported us, distributors, club contributors and all who have subscribed and advertised.

FOR ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES AND BOOKINGS mr2only.advertising@ntlworld.com Tel: 01782 544854

MR2 Only Magazine is an independent publication, and has no bias to any one company or organisation. Although every care is taken in compiling MR2 Only, we cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or any technical advice given, and any views expressed are that of the contributor, unless written solely

by MR2 Only.

FEATURES, ADMIN, PHOTO ORDERS OR GENERAL QUERIES steveb@mr2only.com or andyb@mr2only.com FEATURE CARS: steveb@mr2only.com nick@mr2only.com or Mark Thorpe: email: admin@seventh-heaven.net READERS RIDES: Richard Lee: email: mr2only@mr2westmidlands.com PRODUCTION, LAYOUT ARTISTS & PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Bishop, Rich Lee and Mark Thorpe GENERAL POSTAL ADDRESS: MR2 Only Magazine Ltd, 40 Malstone Avenue, Baddeley Green, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST2 7NN Contact telephone no. 01782 544854 Directors: Stephen Bishop, Pamela Bishop, Andrew Bishop

Cover photography MR2 Championship - by Gary Tombs Adam Breese Rev 3 - by Rich Lee

Printed by:- Buxton Press Ltd, Palace Rd, Buxton Derbyshire, SK17 6AE, UK www.buxtonpress.co.uk

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MR2ROC Corfu Road Trip

Run to the Sun 2008!

Tuesday 29th April – Saturday 10th May

14 MR2s, 22 People , 8 Countries, 4 Ferries, 1 Road Trip!

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ate last year MR2ROC (Roadster Owners Club) was approached by one of its members Nathan (Agni) to see whether we would like to go and show off our Roadsters to him down in Corfu, and hey what the hell, it’s a stunning place so the project to organise and get what turned out to be 9 UK based cars to the island and 4 Greek cars from Athens started.

People attending the trip were Nigel and Carol, Les and Anne, Jason and Adele, Tim and Hannah, Ed and Ads, Chris, Mike, Steve, Eva, Tommy, Sakis and Dina, Antonis and Dimitra and Stu and Ele. The stand-out vehicles from the 14 in total (9 from UK, 4 from Greece and Nathan from Corfu) who met in Corfu were undoubtedly

Nigel’s red V6 conversion, with Trial/TRC bodykit; Stu’s Chargecooled C2 turbo; and Jason’s TTE SP240 Stage 2 turbo kit. Also on board were Chris’s black SMT, Les’s quad-tipped NA, Steve’s blue dual-tipped NA, Tim’s sable Toyota UK bodykitted NA and the NAs of Ed and Mike and of course Nathan’s TTE and Tein encrusted 2 in Corfu.

The MR2 Club of Greece had travelled some 600km from Athens to join us bringing 4 cars with them, Eva and Tommy bought their NA Roadsters whilst Sakis brought an awesome GT30 powered 2 with a 4zz custom engine in it and finally Antonis bought an ST205 powered Mk2 with him which sounded simply awesome.

This trip was offered to all members thanks to the kind generosity of Nathan who arranged our accommodation through his company Agni Travel. (www.agni.gr) >>

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And so we departed………….

Day 1 – Dover – Strasbourg The group – who were based from Hull to Kent gathered at Dover port for a 12 noon ferry to Dunkirk to start the first leg of our trip to our overnight stop in Strasbourg.

Initial teething troubles of travelling in convoy were evident as the group immediately split with some losing their way in the short sprint to the hypermarket, but as we entered the early evening the group was reformed, refuelled (with fuel and Jelly Babies!) and motoring “quietly” along the French autoroutes.

Persistent rain and surface spray from the roads was largely our enemy as our route took us through Northern France. Also thwarting our progress was the capacity of the tank fitted to that V6 conversion (running at 24mpg on a 48l tank), although I’m sure this was only marginally less than that of the bladder capacity of some group members!

Our opportunity to lose the multi-fuelling Nigel came as we ducked and dived through the Lille rush hour traffic, with his satellite navigation equipment sending him on a city centre tour while the remainder of the group cruised on the ring road and onward south through Belgium and Luxembourg.

In Luxembourg, the road surfaces were much improved so we made good progress, only delayed by the intriguing drive through means of obtaining and paying for fuel: the group converging on the overwhelmed single pay attendant.

At the end of a long, tiring first day, we arrived at our overnight stop and

immediately retired to bed in readiness for the early start for the longer second leg.

Which would be hopefully less rain ridden.

Day 2 – Strasbourg – Venice Despite the early 6am start, it was tops down all the way with glorious weather and fabulous driving roads. The German autobahns were fully exploited while travelling through The Black Forest, past Bodensee (Lake Constance) although it appears that the run was too much for one of Chris’s exhaust hangers and it decided to melt! After stopping for more petrol, sweets and a toll vignette in Austria we carried on to Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass into Italy which led us to Venice.

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night before and so we rescheduled to leave from Nathans at 11am in Nissaki. Once we’d managed to get everyone together we headed off towards Spartilas for the climb up Mount Pantokrator(917M) taking in mile after mile of tight twisty roads as we ascended to the peak of the mountain.

All along the trip until we got to the higher levels we were surrounded by hillside olive groves. This section of the trip included the roads that were used in the James Bond movie “For your eyes only” where Roger Moore gets chased down the mount in a yellow 2CV. At the top of the mountain lies a monastery where we stopped off and had a drink at the café, from which you can see all the way to Italy, Albania, Paxos, Lefkas and Kefalonia. From the top of the mountain we descended to the coastal road which went through Acharavi towards Peroulades, also

“with half a tonne of olive oil on the road thanks to the 3 million olive trees on the island and it’s as slippery as hell, so we just entered grin mode and blatted the hell out of the corners completely sideways with the V6 and Turbos lighting up in the first 3 gears.”

sounded absolutely awesome when the guys floored it, resonating to the sound of 2 turbos, 1 v6 and many and varied exhausts on the NA cars.

Finally after many weary hours of travelling we finally arrived around 6pm for a 7pm Ferry from Venice to Corfu on Anek Lines where we all gathered in the bar for a get together and well needed refreshments.

Day 3: 24 hours later and we docked at mainland Greece to pick up an additional 3 MR2s from the MR2 Club of Greece. Eva, Tommy, Antoni and Dimitra Finally we arrived on dry land in Corfu around 11pm where we were warmly welcomed by Nathan. A convoy of 13 cars

set off to find our various villas in the dead of the night.

Day 4: We arranged to get together at 1pm for an arrival lunch at the amazing Taverna Agni where we had some drinks and sampled delicious local Greek cuisine. This was followed by a blat to Kassiopi for a look around and ice-creams whilst sat around the beautiful harbour.

Day 5: On day 5 Nathan had decided that it would be nice to go for a tour around the northern end of the island, so at 10am we all tried to meet up at Kassiopi. By 10:15am some people woke up with their hangovers the MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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known as sunset beach were spectacular views of the sandstone cliffs could be seen and another 1000 pictures where taken.

From there we stopped at Arillas for lunch and a paddle on the deserted beach and a chance for the cars to cool off in the 28 degree temps! From here on there was a great opportunity to practice our drifting skills as the roads out in Corfu have vastly reduced grip levels compared to those in the UK and are more akin to a sheet of glass, with half a tonne of olive oil on the road thanks to the 3 million olive trees on the island and it’s as slippery as hell, so we just entered grin mode and blatted the hell out of the corners completely sideways with the V6 and Turbos lighting up in the first 3 gears. From here we completed the tour of the island by stopping at the stunning views of Paleokastritsa before dropping down to take a group photo and then heading back across the Troumbetas Pass to our villa’s for more food, beer and wine! All in all we covered some 110miles and a hell of a lot of fuel.

Day 6: The cars had a day off today and the speed boats came out to play! George and Alex very kindly gave us a great deal on their boats and we enjoyed another day of hot sunshine as we zoomed around the bays from Agni to Kassiopi where we skipped across the top of the waves to our lunch at a waterfront taverna before travelling quite some way down the coast on a group cruise whilst getting up to all kinds of mischief in them and getting in trouble with George.

This was followed by a well needed break and dip in the sea at one of Nathan’s villas called The Olive Press which was used to say goodbye to Tim and Hannah before they travelled home the next day.

The evening was spent, as were many others, at various local Tavernas wining and

dining in Greek style and relaxing with our new Greek friends who were also unfortunately leaving the next day. A few then went to sample Kamikazi’s at a local bar after being introduced to them by our Greek friends and Ads ended up falling asleep only to wake up with some very fetching painted nails!

Day 7: Finally a day to relax and soak up the sun again by the pool before an early evening drive through Corfu town to a viewpoint above the runway at Kanoni, an excellent location for a sunset photoshoot in another location where ‘James Bond’s, For Your Eyes Only’ was shot.

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Day 8: This was a really lazy day, cars were forgotten about and the trip returned to chatting with friends. The weather had turned slightly and we woke up to some torrential rain and had to tip-toe around the island. When it rains out in the areas where the olive trees are it washes the oil off the trees and turns the roads into a skating rink and great caution was exercised by all who were even half sane. Nathan had arranged for us all to go to a taverna for a special lunchtime BBQ where almost every animal on the planet had been cooked for our delight with a small amount of salad to go with it! Later in the afternoon the weather cleared up and the group took a siesta in preparation for the evening.

We dropped down later into the idyllic bay of Kalami to visit Thomas and his taverna set in the middle of the white shingle beach. Thomas has a real knack for providing surprise deserts with loads of cocktail umbrellas and sparklers.

Day 9: This unfortunately was our last day in Corfu so we went to say thank you to the lovely ladies from Agni Travel who helped us with ferries and to Nathans wife Eleni.

Afterwards Nathan, Nigel, Carol and Stu went on a run to gather supplies for the goodbye BBQ at Villa Carolina, which involved a rather interesting drive to Ipsos

and back, slippery bends and drifting aside we were rather surprised when the local constabulary in their RAV4 came haring up behind us and asked for an interview! The fast thinking Nathan managed to placate our way out of the situation by telling them we were leaving the island and would bother them no more! Oooops!

Later that evening the finest pyromaniac skills of Ed and Ad (Ant and Dec?) cooked us some culinary delights on the BBQ where we were given a chance to say a huge thank you and farewell to Nathan

The Journey home: Rise at 4.00 am, poor MR2s loaded to the gun whales (in a complete Tardis of a car) to start our epic journey back to England. The run on the twisties back to the port were spectacular although with the extra weight reminded us that they should be treated with respect.

24hrs later and we see Venice in the rush hour with boats in the canals doing a very good impression of the M25. After saying our goodbyes to a few who were extending their trip home we started off devouring the Autostrada and Autobahns through the beautiful Dolomites and Alps up past Lake Constance(Bodensee) to a stop overnight at Strasbourg again and then on to Dunkirque for a 4pm sailing back to the UK. This has been the ultimate road trip and the smiles that have been on everyone’s

faces throughout the trip have said it all. The Roadster can definitely put itself in the GT class after a trip like this. The members of MR2ROC who went would like to say a huge thank you again for everything that Nathan has done for us and hopefully we can return the kindness one day.

Now to plan the next one………………………..

Journey facts

No. countries – 8 in 3 days No. miles combined ~ 24300 No. litres petrol ~ 3000L No. litres of petrol Nigel’s (V6) used approx. = 384020L No. pints of Mythos consumed…. LOTS! No. bottles of wine drunk by Nigel and Carol, Les and Anne: Even more ;-)

Trip done in association with www.agni.gr www.mr2roc.org www.mr2club.gr

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Elite, based in Rainham, Essex, contacted us and asked if we would like to do an MR2 Only club day. They offered us some very tempting discounts for the day including tyres, suspension parts, 4 wheel alignments and wheel balancing, exhausts and brakes.

Planning started in December and a post to the forum (www.imoc.co.uk) was made to gauge interest to see how many members were interested in taking up the offer and to make a club day of it. It quickly became clear that the interest was high and a date was set for Sunday 24th February. Claire and Barry of Elite added more and more offers to keep our appetites whetted!

An Elite day out

The attendance list continued to grow and soon we had a potential attendance list of 40 cars, over half of which had booked to either have new tyres, 4 wheel alignments or wheel balance checks...or a combination of all 3!

The only thing that was needed now was a sunny day!

alloys and tyres....and not forgetting the excellent cafeteria area...man that all day breakfast was GOOD!!!

The 24th quickly came round and I woke to a glorious sunny morning. The car was polished from the day before and I set off early to set up the IMOC flags ready for the day.

Arriving at Elite we were greeted by Claire, Barry and the rest of the Elite team. Cars started to arrive and work soon got underway. Ramps began to fill up with all ages of MR2s. We had Mk1, Mk1.5 conversions, Mk2 N/A & Turbo, both standard and modded and a number of Mk3s all checking in. The mechanics were kept busy beavering away on all versions of Jap machinery!

Whilst the cars were being worked on it gave everyone a chance to catch up with each other and also to view the impressive showroom that Elite have put together. Lots of mouth watering deals on

Elite had also organised for a specialist to be present for the day to offer advice on ‘corner weighting’. With coilover suspension you can have the option of having all 4 corners set up so that all 4 wheels are working to their maximum efficiency with the suspension. This involves placing the car on 4 sets of scales (one per wheel) and with the driver in the drivers seat all 4 corners independently set up. I opted for this service and I must say it’s very comforting to know that my Tein Flex set up has now been expertly tweaked!

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And so the cars continued to arrive. At one point over 30 MR2s of all types had congregated in the Elite car park. Quite a spectacle!

And so the end of the day arrived. With the majority of the cars still present we arranged a bit of a photo shoot. The IMOC banner was brought

out and Barry and Claire held one end whilst myself (the handsome one at the other end) held the other. The cars were arranged and everyone assembled for a final group photo.

All in all a very successful day. Elite made lots of new friends and a large number of MR2 owners drove home having steering wheel wobbles cured, alignments checked, adjusted and set up and new sets of rubber fitted!

I would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to Claire and Barry of Elite for all the help and expert guidance they gave to all the owners throughout the day. It really was a worthwhile day.

Claire of Elite added “The 24th February was a great day for us! The IMOC members who attended were our type of people, friendly, great attitudes and enthusiastic about their cars!

And the cars – every one an MR2 and yet all so different!! Some fantastic looking cars! A really enjoyable day! I would like to say a quick thanks to Scott for organising a great day! And a big thanks to our lads who gave up their Sunday, on alignments Deano, Fabian, Lee and Jason and in the workshop Ricky, Mark and Paul. Also Tony who did the corner weighting. A fantastic day had by all, can’t wait to see you all again at the next IMOC day !!!??? – Claire, Elite (ArmyMR2 @ Elite) Barry and Steve Eldridge.”

If anyone is interested in any of the services that Elite offer then please contact username ‘ArmyMR2 @ Elite’ via the IMOC forum. I am pleased to say that they are now an official IMOC affiliate and are continuing to offer great discounts on all their products and services.

Alternatively you can contact them direct www. elitedirect.com but cannot guarantee that you will be offered the IMOC discount.

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The importance of alignment you will have a very unstable car and although its something you ‘get used to’ over time, the results can be devastating! To your car, to your pocket and ultimately to you!

It doesn’t matter how pretty and powerful your car is, unless you have decent tyres and they’re all pointing the right way – it won’t look pretty in a bush!! Safety issues aside, you want your car to perform its best, having the alignment done will set your toe and cambers up so you get the up most from your car.

Your tyres are the only contact you have with the road, so you want them to be performing at their best in two ways, the rubber contact to tarmac and the wear. Having your alignment done will make sure you are getting the highest performance possible out of your tyres.

Why get your Alignment done?

Reduced tyre Wear

Improper alignment is a major cause of premature tyre wear. Over the years, a properly aligned vehicle can add thousands of miles to tyre life.

Better Fuel Mileage

Fuel mileage increases as rolling resistance decreases. Total alignment sets all four wheel parallel which, along with proper inflation, minimizes rolling resistance.

Here are some alignment sheets from an MR2 MK2 to demonstrate the wear and tear on your alignment of every day running.

The first sheet is classed as the diagnostic sheet, and tells us how the vehicle is sitting, we then discuss what is need, in this case a camber adjustment or camber bolt and a four wheel alignment. The second print

Before

Improved Handling

Does your car pull to one side?

Does the steering wheel vibrate?

Do you constantly have to move the steering wheel to keep your car traveling straight ahead?

Many handling problems can be corrected by total alignment. With all the system components aligned properly, road shock is more efficiently absorbed for a smoother ride.

Safer Driving

A suspension system inspection is part of our alignment procedure.

This allows us to spot worn parts before they cause costly problems.

out is after the work has been done and show the vehicle is sitting back within spec and has a overall steer ahead of 0, which means the car is sitting straight and parallel, got to love those straight lines!

It is very important to have the alignment correct on an MR2 being a rear engine mounted car we all know how ‘back happy’ they can be and as all the power is transferred straight to the rear wheels it puts all the suspension components under a lot of stress and results in them being prone to movement. Then on top of that add cornering, speed bumps, pot holes, kerbs and any other type of impact on your suspension as well as every day wear and tear and

We cannot stress enough how much of a difference having the alignment sorted can make!! MR2’s are very adjustable ie. the toe and camber front and rear. For those angles that cannot be adjusted as standard such as the caster, there are various aftermarket parts supplied from such manufacturers as Tein, those parts enable us to alter those angles and bring them back to specification.

Here at Elite we have a section of our building dedicated to Alignment.

We currently gave 4 ramps in our alignment centre and have a dedicated team of technicians who work 6 days every week. So if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us direct on 01708 525 577

After

If you have recently had a new suspension fitted it would be well advised to get your alignment checked. If you are experiencing steering wheel shake, irregular tyre wear, any ‘pulling’ either to the left or the right, or any other weird symptoms then its best to get it checked.

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THE GREAT NORTH RUN (MR2 Roadster Owners’ Club (ROC) Northern Spring Drive: May ‘08) Two years ago, a small maverick team of Roadsters took to the countryside for a day of driving. Up until that point the northwest’s characters and the cars that propelled them had been little more than an avatar and some faceless banter on the forums. It was time to find out if they really existed.

We weren’t sure what to expect: this was the first official get-together out in the real world - a bit like Blind Date on Wheels.

Would Steve’s car be as shiny in 3-D as he’d led us to believe? Would Gazz bother to clean his? (Actually, we kinda knew the answer to that one!). Was Celine really French?

Fast forward to the present and it was time to celebrate those pioneering days with

To add to the excitement, word got out that we were venturing north, and a ROC crew from the northeast decided to plan similar jollies from the opposite direction for a rendezvous somewhere in Cumbria.

The destination: Kirby Stephen. But that was hours of fun away for both groups ....

THE BLATTERS’ BIG PUSH NORTH – by Ste (aka ‘spit’) The chosen starting point for the northwest crew was ‘the spitstop’ in south Manchester. Gazz rolled in early: we can only speculate whether this was due to the sheer pace of his blistering TTE Turbo or a less than taxing breakfast car wash regime. A quick hello and he was off again to collect a peace offering of flowers from the ROC for Ste’s neighbour who was celebrating her 85th. Nice touch guys, she was lost for words (and we nearly had another willing passenger for the day).

The McDonalds stop was supposed to be a in’n’out to get caffeine for the push into the Trough, but we were two cars short thanks to a snarl on the M6.

We didn’t mind leaving Chris behind(!) but there was no way the crew were going to abandon Kirsty and Dave in their Striker. So we opted to hang back and wait. To kill time we employed some spacegrabbing cunning and careful choreography to get the ‘2s lined up for a photoshoot. A great sight.

With the Striker safely on board and a liberal sprinkling of two-way radios (thanks Nic), we meandered around the ‘skirts of Clitheroe and onto the Waddington road. Some lovely twisties - a mix of straights and chicanes with a cute little village nestling at the end. Having tootled quietly through Waddington to smiles of disbelief from the residents, it was time to hoof on to Dunsop Bridge.

As we spread out across

We needn’t have worried. It was curiously like meeting up with old friends, and the trip was such a hoot that we’ve been getting together ever since to share some of the nicest scenery that the area has to offer.

a planned trip through the stomping ground that kicked it all off: the Trough of Bowland. This time around it was going to be a little different: the original gang of seven had doubled, and inter-Club relations saw us welcoming additional visitors from the OC, the DC and Pistonheads forums.

his pat-pending traffic light chicken manoeuvre was a comical failure which had us staring up the business end of a muck spreader for the next ten minutes. D’oh.

And then the others started to arrive, filling the garden with noise and banter and some very tasty Roadsters. It was great to see new faces mingling alongside the more usual die-hards, and particularly good to see that Rob was back in the UK to join us, and that Pam and Cyril had honed their navigation skills to find Manchester and represent MR2 Only magazine in their now famous top up style. It’s about time we told them what those clips are for!

The crew spent a few moments waving goodbye to Ste’s poorly car which was languishing in the garage with a case of the clunks. Ste (and flask) jumped in to pax with Danny, and the crew headed off in formation to their first merge point on the M61. With military precision Steve, Jason and David ventured out from Bolton West services and mingled in to swell the numbers. A quick stop at Tickled Trout for splash and dash and a couple more pick-ups and we had become the Dirty Dozen.

From here it was an A-Roadster snake to our final meet point of McDonalds, just south of Clitheroe.

Danny’s attempts to keep everyone together with

the countryside, the rear-gunners reported that they had been joined at the back by the Local Constabulary. All are welcome at the ROC! A few miles on, and with the blues’n’twos diverting south for doughnuts, we picked up the road with no name across the heart of the Trough of Bowland. A crazy mix of scenery, from lush to barren and flat to steep. It was amazing to see the train of Roadster colour (mostly silver!) weaving through the valleys and up over the tops.

Next stop, Jubilee Tower. On a clear day you can see Blackpool ... if you really want to. Food orders were taken and Ste phoned ahead to his mate’s butty box just outside Caton. As we trundled in, the smell of bacon, egg and sausage was waiting for us and everyone had a chance to stretch and bemuse the locals.

It was at this point that Danny had to return home, mumbling something about getting married (nice one, matey). And then it was Nic’s turn on point.

This guy has an amazing sense of the road. There’s a kinda bat radar thing going on with him. As he cleared the way, we swallowed up the miles through Kirby Lonsdale - slowing for a quick honk towards the Devil’s Bridge biker gathering - and then onto one of the most smiley roads in the area, running between KL and Sedburgh.

Sedburgh, now there’s a place. Usually sleepy and quiet, but today it was wide awake and celebrating its annual Gala. Half an hour earlier and we’d have been caught up in the fancy dress procession. Rob would’ve won it easy. Ally resisted the urge to get out and have a quick go on the bouncy castle, and we pootled on towards our next stop: Moon Base

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Alpha. This was a great photo opportunity but boy was it ever cold. As the wind howled through the valley, the gang managed a few smiles and banner shots through gritted teeth before we bounced out through the potholes and back onto the flowing tarmac.

And so on to our northern destination, via several small hamlets which were curiously all called ‘Loose Chippings’ (ar$e!). As we burbled into Kirby Stephen a few of the crew stopped to engage the interest of the locals, but what caught our attention was a bunch of familar faces with unfamiliar accents waving us into the deserted car park next to the school. We had arrived at our rendezvous with the northeast crew.

THE NORTHEAST CANNY CREW by Phil Martin Northernalex (Dr Slow as he’s known in the northeast), and me (evileye_xc) left Newcastle heading immediately onto the A1 southbound. The rain had stopped so it wasn’t as bad as I’d first predicted when I opened the curtains that morning.

First stop was Scotch Corner, but not before I had shown a Nissan 350z that all that extra weight around the middle means you can’t accelerate as quick. We met Jonny5 there and had a cuppa which Alex promptly spilt all down the front of his white jacket, one of the reasons I do so love to wear combats!

Not being sure of the next stage of the route Alex got his Satnav out as we’d planned to have a spot of lunch in Constable Burton. This is where the Drive really got started as we came off the motorway and headed thru Richmond on some proper, windy roads. After Richmond the satnav decided to take us the scenic route to our next stop and down a long straight single track road. Straight road, single track, very boring I hear you say? Well maybe ... except that it wasn’t that straight and the corners were vertical!

Several miles of up and down action later and with Jonny’s rear nappy being the only one still attached, we arrived at the Wyville Arms - meeting point number two - where we were due to meet Carl Evs and a new owner, Pocketacer.

Alex had already decided that we weren’t eating at the pub on account of his inability to pay more than the price of a Big Mac Meal for any form of food when Carl arrived. He gave us the bad news that Pocketacer had spun out coming off a roundabout and wacked his car into a wall! Not too serious but bad enough to need a new front bumper and put his

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plans for joining us out of the window. Don’t worry Sports Fans, news on the forum is that he sourced a new bumper the same day and is getting everything sorted out ready for the next trip.

After drinks with Carl at the Wyville, we decided to head towards Leyburn, the next waypoint on the route, which was shut! We parked up, took a few quick snaps of the cars and discovered that nothing was open on a Saturday lunchtime. With thoughts of food starting to preoccupy our minds we decided to push on through to Kirby Stephen and get some food once we’d met up with the guys from the northwest.

The next leg was great: 33 miles of narrow and windy A roads. AndyB had suggested the route, but he was off wandering around a golf course in the rain instead of out top-down with the ROC. We followed the River Ure up Wensleydale, and towards its source through the village of Hawes.

Dual carriage all the way. There’s nothing worse than getting onto a single track road and having to slow down at every corner in case there’s a tractor coming the other way. So, with nothing coming at us to worry about we were prepared for some vigorous driving.

Alas, as always, it was the other motorists heading in the same direction that were to be the fly in the ointment. The joys of the twisties are suddenly diminished when you’re stuck behind a VW Camper van spewing lethal

grade pollution in your face and oblivious to the attempts to pass by. With my car having a turbo it wasn’t impossible to get past the cars which decided to block our way. But at one point a 4x4 driver was purposefully hogging the middle of the road to stop Alex passing, even though the road ahead was clear.

On the clean stretches the driving was great: accelerating hard up to 60, keeping the speed up round the corners, passing the same hay wagon twice as we waited for Alex! Sheer bliss following sheer frustration is the only way to describe it.

Eventually we turned off the A684 and the driving just got better. A right turn onto the B6259 and the roads became more twisty, more up-and-down, and more empty. For the last ten or so miles we hardly saw another vehicle. The corners were spaced out just enough so that there was plenty

of overtaking space (even without boost!). But there was another downside for Alex: some sections had just been resurfaced and advised a 20 mile an hour speed limit. Worried about stonechips he accepted the advice and stuck to it. I didn’t, and neither did Jonny behind me, it was too magnificent a road to do at 20mph.

At the end of this driving bliss we hit the 30 mph signs and I realised we’d arrived at Kirby Stephen, our final destination.

THE DECAMP - Ste again!

Its normal on a meet for everyone to drift off home once the main route has been completed and the sun begins to set. So as we hit the M6 for our journey south it was no surprise to lose some of our convoy to their evening commitments. Ste’s plan was for the few remaining cars to take a creative route south through Nether Kellet, Crook’O’Lune and down to Oakenclough (fantastic roads), with a quiet stop for an evening meal at his old gigging haunt, ‘Owd Nells’.

Ha! Best laid plans etc… on arrival, we still had a massive convoy and 18 hungry punters baying for food. Plans for the quiet candlelit repas had to be quickly revised. A word with the manager and we were treated to three huge platters of wings, skins, dips, chips and pizza. Excellent.

And so to bed … almost

… Ste negotiated his ride home in exchange for coffee and Red Dwarf. And, just as the day had begun, we were back at ‘the spitstop’ reflecting on the fun of the day. It may have been the Roadsters that called us all together, but this had been first and foremost a grand day out with some excellent friends. (with thanks to Rob, Gazz, Chris, Debbie, Jaik, Danny, Ally, Pam, Cyril, Rich, Justine, Jason, Steve, David, Lynne, George, Kirsty, Dave, Nic, Chris(h), Karen, Phil, Alex, Jonny and Carl for making a great day. And to Dave Ibbitson of the butty box and the staff at Owd Nell’s for making great food!).

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with, we head up that we entrust our pride and Joy re the out list cia spe 2 MR the on version...

In our on-going spotlight e, the name behind many a V6 con Fam t por ods Wo of , ods Wo l Pau North to Durham to drop in on Mr 1) When and how did Woodsport begin?

I’ve always been a mechanic by trade and a Mk1 MR2 caught my eye in the Autotrader many years ago. Being a mechanic naturally means you learn how to take everything apart and rebuild it yourself which is what I had to do on that car as it was a total shed back then! Over time I started to get involved with the North East region of the MR2 Mk1 club and found myself working on other members’ cars after work, the odd cambelt change, clutch fitment that sort of thing. This grew to a point where I decided to jack my well paid job in and give working for myself a shot as it was something I always fancied doing and I had found a car that I had a real passion for so it ticked all the boxes for me.

Woodsport started back in 1999 operating from a very small 1 car garage not much bigger than a council lock up! but from day one I wanted to be totally focused on the enthusiasts. So Woodsport started from nothing more than my own love for the MR2 and finding ways to make them better but we struggled for years in the early days and 32

didn’t even make any money at it, working on MR2s every day suddenly became more of a job satisfaction venture than a business one.

2) Why did you choose to specialise in MR2s?

The MR2 for me as an owner was always a weekend toy and knowing about cars meant I knew I wanted something that was mid engined, handled, looked the part and had a certain classic status. So when I first saw and drove my original MR2 I knew I wasn’t just going to be another owner added to the V5! They really do tick all the boxes for me. I could have specialised in anything really but the MR2 was special from the beginning and I wanted to learn every aspect of repairing it and improving it.

3) Where did your inspiration/ideas come from that it would be a good idea to put the 3SGTE engine into the Mk1 MR2?

Ah that’s the fault of a certain chap called Deno Plumley! I started reading the MR2 forums to gain knowledge about the car and over ten years nobody was doing anything special with them in the UK. It was all happening in the US ironically. Deno is a Brit who moved to the US years ago and he was the first in the world to install a 3s-gte into a Mk1.He covered his build on the US forum and that lit a fire under my ass! The one thing a Mk1 MR2 lacks is serious oomph, they perform well enough as stock but I wanted to turn my car into something that would really take off, so after a full 6 months of soaking up everything Deno had done and a lot of planning I did the conversion myself.

It was the first 1.5 in Europe back then and little did I know how far that conversion would take us. Today we have a thriving MR2 engine conversion club www.twobrutal.com founded by the UK’s second 1.5 builder Mr Nik Farmer (love your work! sorry private joke).So yes its all Deno’s fault I’m afraid, I cant take the credit for that one but I do hope we have come a long way in building them better than the early cars.

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new we find out about these cars we post about. True other garages read it and no doubt benefit from it but they are MR2 owners too, so if it helps them out I’ve no problem with that. After all we learnt a lot of what we know via the forums too in the early days and I get maybe 10 to 20 emails per day from MR2 owners worldwide seeking help and yes, it does become very time consuming and it’s work I never get paid for but that’s the MR2 enthusiast in me and we will never stop helping and posting up new discoveries even if it means we lose business as a result. We founded the V6 scene in the UK, pioneered all of the problems and glitches and then wrote several articles on how to do it yourself at home. Not exactly a wise thing to do with a business head on but it’s how we do things and always will. No secrets here!

6) Whilst we visited you discussing Johnny’s project, I noticed you are constantly coming up with new ideas to overcome problems and are willing to take on the impossible, always innovative.

4) Can you remember the first conversion and what were the stumbling blocks, problems etc? How did you overcome them and what were your initial thoughts out on the first test run?

The initial problems weren’t actually with the car or conversion I had a very difficult time explaining to fellow MR2 owners why it would be such a fantastic thing to do but quite a few dismissed it out of hand as being a bad idea. It won’t handle it’s too heavy, you’d be better off fitting a SC instead but I was determined to prove them wrong.

During the conversion itself I just worked out each individual problem as it came along.

The entire job really was 75% research and 25% work. Preparation was key and I was amazed when it actually started for the first time. The only mechanical issue I had was no oil pressure showing on the dash and it was only after a frantic email to Deno asking what was up that he told me that I needed to fit the Mk1 oil pressure sender instead of the Mk2 one which is just an on/off idiot light. A schoolboy error. The first drive of that car took my breath away as it was amazing! It wasn’t the sheer power I now had, it was more the feeling I got knowing this was the first one in Europe. To be honest

I always expected the engine to drop out at any moment with those original doubters words of woe still ringing in my ears! The acceleration was unlike anything I had ever driven. It exceeded all my expectations and I envy home builders these days who drive them for the first time and realise what it is that they have created. That feeling for me is something I will never forget.

5) You seem to be the nice guy of the MR2 world, sharing your know how on forums, and answering technical questions and giving advice. Does this not do you out of business, or attract business?

Woodsport has and always will be 100% focused on MR2 owners and their cars.

That’s our roots and although it’s terribly clichéd we are totally dedicated to helping the guy at home. Twobrutal is the essence of this very ethos. Nik created it as a platform for the home builder to get as much free advice and help as possible. We have always covered every engine conversion we do on the forum with step by step pics of the entire build that happens with every customer’s car but yes it doesn’t do us any favours from a business point of view as everything we learn gets shared on the forum and anything

Yes, we only do engine conversions these days. Regular servicing and repair work is just not challenging enough as we would get bored very quickly! Having a fresh conversion problem to tackle is what makes us tick. Finding solutions to problems and working around almost impossible tight spaces in MR2 engine bays is what we live for. Johnny’s ridiculous chargecooler that’s about the size of a domestic fridge and him asking for it to be located in the engine bay is just one of those moments!

We have always believed in truly excelling in one area and being the best we can be rather than being mediocre at many things it’s very hard to keep standards high when you are doing so many things at once but dedicate yourself to one area of expertise and the end results speak for themselves.

MR2 engine conversions were the birth of Woodsport and it’s what we will continue to do. Now who’s up for funding a V8 into Mk2 build?

7) Other than the obvious engine conversions what other services do Woodsport offer to MR2 owners?

We have a fully functioning spray booth and both myself and Anth (my right hand man) are fully competent bodywork specialists.

We have fitted many bodykits and resprayed countless cars over the years. Our standard of bodywork is of the same quality as our engine conversions and we do struggle to find time to do spray work these days with the engine conversion scene being as popular as it is. We are well known from years ago in being able to turn out Mk1 cambelt changes in under 40 minutes and it’s still something I do from time to time just to keep my hand in .We could open a servicing bay tomorrow and keep very busy. The amount of MR2 repair work we

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turn away on a daily basis is amazing but our passion is for the engine conversion work.

8) Your recent move to bigger premises is obviously an expansion, so how do you see the future and direction of Woodsport?

Well I’d love to think I will still be sticking big engines into MR2s for at least the next ten years but it’s an uncertain world we live in at the moment with rising environmental issues and the cost of fuel which are bound to have an effect on what we do plus you never quite know what crazy automotive law they will bring out next forbidding engine conversions of any nature that would almost certainly end it all except maybe motorsport builds. We are expanding into the Celica engine conversion market and have several bookings this year to install V6 engines into various other Toyotas as well so who knows where it will go! Ask me in ten years time when we are converting ACME rocket packs to run on hydrogen fuel cells.

9) You’ve recently transplanted a V6 in a Mk3 roadster. Was this a straight forward conversion and what were your thoughts on the finished conversion?

We thoroughly enjoyed that one as it was a first in the UK closely followed by Rogue’s Vm180 (waves to Patrick). It threw up some interesting problems that’s for sure! We went into that one totally blind. I must thank Nigel Eccles for having the balls to let us chop up his 03 Roadster pride and joy. We really had no idea if it was going to be possible but sometimes you just have to go for it and sincere thanks to Nige for being the guinea pig. Things were made a lot harder for us on that build due to the fact we had no factory ECU to work with which is essential for

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communicating with the dash clocks.... no ECU=no instruments! So we had to think right outside the box on that one and come up with a completely new display in the form of a digital unit from an early Astra GTE. It worked out really well and although the dash has the odd teething problem with calibration, it works and looks very cool.

We were also worried about adding extra weight to the Roadster but these worries were dismissed when we first drove it as it felt very planted and stable. I believe Nigel had it weighed and it came out at 40Kgs heavier than his previously turbocharged 1zz package which is not bad at all .He’s recently done a tour of Europe in it and had a blast.

For me I’d have to say it’s the perfect engine for those 360 DNA reps that are begging for more power and a Ferrari’esque exhaust note. We already do quite a few 355 rep V6 builds on the Mk2s which is proving popular.

We also had to totally design and build a gear selector mechanism from scratch which was really fun and I’ve one or two more to build this year but they won’t be as much fun as the first one for us, its all about the challenge I guess.

10) Abflug style arches. I believe you have recently been developing a universal fit wide arch for the Mk1 and Mk2?

Yes, this came about due to my not being able to find any wide arches for my own project car. There was simply nothing on the market that you could use to make your own wide arch MR2.The Abflug ones are nice but I wanted to create something more universal that a bodyshop could trim down to whatever size extension was required rather than having to buy wheels to fit arches, which is much more costly and limiting. We are still in early days with them but the first fittings are coming out with really good results. It should be noted that these arches are for bodyshop

use only. We could make them a stick on affair for the man at home but they would come in a fixed width which sort of defeats the whole object of producing a universal trimmable wide arch.

11) The detailing which goes into each engine that leaves Woodsport is second to none and the quality speaks for itself. Can you give me a phrase that sums up your attention to detail and attitude towards each project that you undertake and that each job is a lot more than dropping in another engine?

Yes, the detailing is something we are very proud of as each car gets a show standard engine bay. It’s not something we actually charge for but we realise our conversions get seen throughout the UK at meets/shows and also worldwide via the web so detailing the bays to a very high standard is very important to us. Recently we have started detailing subframes and suspension arms as well as part of the V6 conversion process. The logic behind that

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was “well it’s attached to the rear engine mount and we have it off the car.....let’s paint it”, Probably not the wisest business decision I’ve ever made but it makes customers smile when they see we have gone the extra mile. I suppose if I was to come up with a phrase, it would probably be “we work on your car as if it was our own” because that’s pretty much what we do, always looking for better and newer ways to do things and improve the conversion. Its all in the little details which is what the customer notices six months after the swop.

I recently caught Anth painting the INSIDE of a gearbox bellhousing. What can I say, its a form of OCD.

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09/06/2008 20:06:47

Diary of a Toyota Sprint Series entrant Written by Vykki Hoult

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

16th Feb The plan for this weekend was to change the gearbox. As already discovered, Humphrey popped out of 5th gear which wouldn’t be so bad for the actual sprints but might get rather annoying on the long drives to and from the tracks.

However, in the end, perseverance and hammers did the trick.

I caught a sly pic of Phil working under the car:

end as the guy he bought it off gave him loads of other MR2 bits too. Obviously it’s a bit of a risk as it’s a complete unknown. Watch this space…

The plan to get the gearboxes changed was to raise and lower one side of the engine, using a rather lovely engine hoist.

Whilst Phil was doing the gearbox, I was stripping the interior. I’ve got a bad back again today for a change so took quite a long break but I’ve got to the point where there are just carpets left in there:

This plan worked rather well, although it was difficult to get the bolt back in to the engine mount at the end of the day. It took ages! Phil tried all kinds of methods including getting into the engine bay himself:

As you can see, we had plenty to choose from: The two in the picture were the most easily accessible, although if the worst came to it we also had one in Mister-Two. One of the ones in the picture was out of The Red One and the other was an absolute bargain. Phil got it on eBay for 99p, although ended up paying a fiver for it in the 36

It is just a case of unscrewing every screw you can see and then finding a few you can’t!! Tomorrow the carpets will come out and then the seats and centre console will go back in. We aren’t sure which seats yet as we think we have someone interested in Humphrey’s but we do have two other sets to choose from! There is also the option

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24th Feb

to put in a proper race seat, although we are currently trying to think of a way to make one adjustable as my legs are slightly shorter than Phil’s!!!

I returned home from work on Friday to find that Phil had managed to do three corners of suspension already! Cue some quick pics before he gets done:

The exhaust will be going on tomorrow so I thought I’d attack those tailpipes with Autosol.

It’s a bit battered anyway but much shinier now!

We need to pay the final part of our entry fees this week and have also been told that we can buy spectator tickets at £3.50 rather than the £7 they will be on the day. Does anyone want to come? The first sprint is at Waterbeach (Cambs) on the 16th March. It would be great to have some support!

The new suspension waiting to go on, currently sat in the front boot!

Suspension on the car: Whilst I was doing this, Phil had finished fitting the exhaust. The cat can do the next one for us as she expressed great interest in the whole thing.

Sun 17th Feb… Phil started fitting the exhaust manifold and I carried on stripping the interior. Once the carpets were out I also removed the glove box and radio! It all adds to the weight saving!

Once this was done, Phil gave me the bad news.

Where there is a funny red bit on the side of the fuel tank, the floors and also the back wall are covered in a soundproofing material that needs to be removed in order to save weight.

This is horrible stuff, like glued foam, which chips off in small amounts. I protested loudly as I wasn’t getting anywhere and eventually with Phil’s help we discovered I was using the wrong tools. If anyone is thinking of doing this, you need a small sharp screwdriver and a small hammer, unlike the blunt screwdriver and large hammer I was originally using! Once I had the correct tools I was well away and it’s a rather therapeutic activity.

Here is the result of today’s chippings and next week I have just the floors to do!

Undoing the drop links to get the old suspension off: Phil also managed to sort out the rat’s nest of wires discovered upon removal of the carpets. The car had two alarms fitted, both of which were coming out. It was a slight worry that they may immobilise the car but we managed to sort that, despite a worrying moment when the engine turned over but then died. We realised that we had no fuel as we’d been running him about on the fuel light more or less since we got him and coupled with the fact that he was on ramps at the back when we tried to start him, no fuel was getting through. Once he was wheeled off the ramps he started, although fuel is now needed!

Total costs so far amount as follows: Getting Humphrey through MOT £500 approx – includes welding and windscreen.

Up rated suspension £160 Entry fees £200 (£100 each driver) We have also gained about £3 from what we have found in Humphrey when stripping the interior! I found another 56 pence today!

Plans for next week are: suspension, stripping floor of soundproofing and hopefully a bit of time for polishing and fitting nice race parts like steering wheels!

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And Phil finally putting the last wheel back on.

All done!

And we have a much more stripped out car:

are entering 5 diesel Auris’s (Aurisses?) in the series. They are going to be driven by a different driver at each event and we have been told to look out for celebrities and racing drivers as well as general customers, employees and press.

We have paid our entry fees for the first round and currently there are only 3 drivers in our class. It is official that I’m the only girl driving too. However we beat the Aygo class as that only has one entrant! I will be soooo gutted if that beats me though.

Well, that’s now the end of all the really technical stuff and we now have a car that is road and track worthy. We’re well ahead of schedule so we can now do all the niggly bits such as polishing and trying to save as much weight as possible. However, first I had to clean my own car as she looked like this:

We had to be in Chelmsford on Saturday night for a friend’s surprise party so work was finished early. More stripping (!) will ensure next weekend. On the way back from seeing our friends on Sunday, we picked up some Sparco race seats and harnesses, which are a lot lighter than the standard MR2 seats. Have you ever seen an MR2 with four seats before? Now you have:

We still have a few things to do, the seats need fitting which is going to take some bodging. We also plan to do an oil change. I still haven’t cleaned Humphrey but obviously this can be done last. We will soon get our entry pack with sponsor stickers and numbers to plaster all over him too. He looks like a race car on the inside now, with the stripped out interior but the logos and number will make him look like one on the outside. Hurrah!

9th March ONE WEEK TO GO!!!

Phil has taken next week off work to get the last few bits sorted. We have had a bit of a setback with Phil’s car failing the MOT last week and Sakura failing this week! This weekend has mainly been spent getting Phil’s car ready for the re-test which he passed on Saturday and having a look at what we are going to do with Sakura.

She’s been neglected lately so I gave her a quick wipe

Unfortunately it rained on the way home so they are now drying off in the living room!

1st March No pictures today as nothing was really done worth documenting! I continued chipping the soundproofing and have finally finished this awful task. The whole bag of chippings I created weighed 10kg, so that’s some weight saved!

OK, now on with Humphrey! I carried on chipping away at the soundproofing whilst Phil got started on the dash and heater. We had originally decided to keep these items in, but as we had time to kill, we may as well remove them.

One big pile of stuff later:

The only work done on Humphrey were an oil change, top up the gear box oil and then grind off the front towing eyes. That might sound like a bit of a silly idea but the towing eyes at the front were really only there for tying the car down and are connected to such a rust prone area that it’s a gamble trying to tow from them. It’s better just getting rid of them and pointing to the tow points further under the car! (Hopefully we won’t have to be towed anyway but it’s a requirement to have marked tow points!)

Phil had other things to be getting on with today due to his car failing the MOT on Friday and also Sakura’s being due at the start of March.

We know she is going to fail and is already booked in for body work, however, her brakes also need attention. So once I had finished the soundproofing, I helped Phil change the brake fluid and we also found some other problems which would explain why her brakes had been so pants lately. Good!

There have been some interesting announcements in the Sprint Series this week.

They have managed to get a sponsorship from Toyo Tyres which means cheap tyres for us!! The best thing about this is they are doing the deal on the tyres Phil decided would be the best for us. We got a very good deal, although we aren’t allowed to disclose the price.

The other announcement was that Toyota

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MR2

RACING Pit Chat...

SILVERSTONE 27th April 2008 This was the opening round of the Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MR2 Racing Series for Mk1 cars. Silverstone greeted the drivers with a glorious and totally unexpected sunny day. With 20 eager drivers featuring a lot of old faces and more than a few new ones.

It was a welcome return race for the 2006

series winner Sam Mayer-Lounhnan, competing in Bradley Philpott’s (last year’s runner up) car, sporting the number 1, supported by Kevin Poole of KPM Motorsport and young Sam Hare, from the 2007 season taking a break from his Ginetta race series this year, to compete in Ross Stoner’s orange 22 car, who was currently on honeymoon. With new drivers Jonny White, Alex Gassman and Krish Kumarasinghe competing in their first race and what a place to start – Silverstone!!!

Not totally unexpected, Sam Mayer-Lounhnan threw the gauntlet down on this opening round, claiming pole position with Liam O’Toole making a welcome return. Jonny White, Kevin Poole and Alex Gassman taking the next four places on

With Jurno - Maurice Stoner the grid. Surprise must be young Arron Pullan, who in 2007 was always a middle pack runner pulling up his socks and putting in a qualifying time of 1:16.680 to claim 6th on the grid, which was only a little over five tenths of a second slower than the pole man’s time of 1:16.119. Alex Gassman, a newbie, posting a time of 1:16.675 in his first race.

The weather was superb and the track sporting quite high temperatures. Tyre pressures were fairly critical but with Andrew Meacher, from Toyo

Tyres, on hand to offer advice, most drivers were able to adjust accordingly. The first race saw some superb racing with drivers coming onto the main straight sometimes three abreast and as this was a televised meeting, it made for great viewing!

(MOTORS TV – SKY – 1st televised Friday 30 May at 9pm) and repeated again on Channel 5 on future dates.

Surprise of the meeting was Jonny White, Alex Gassman and Arron Pullan who kept pace with Sam Mayer-Lounhnan not letting him get away and keeping him honest with the lead swapping on several occasions courtesy of young Alex Gassman. Jonny White, on his first outing fought a sterling race and not wishing to take away the credit of Sam’s ultimate wins, was possibly the star of the meeting. These guys repeated their fight

for the lead in both races with Kevin Poole coming out of retirement putting up a great fight to finish in the top three using Steve Woolfe’s car 78 proving that an old head can still produce the goods! Sarah Wherry finished a credible 8th having some close racing with young Sam Hare. Adam Lockwood experienced an unspecified fault on his newly rebuilt engine but finished 10th. Jason Jesse and Nigel Buttfield ran their own race along with

Chris Dunnett, Paul Barker and Daniel Lowe.

Gareth Newton campaigning John Wilson’s last year’s car 17 competing in his first race came over the finish line in 14th position but with a grin on his face that started at one ear and finished at the other!

The races were incident free and made for great spectator viewing with little or no mechanical failure wetting the appetites of the drivers for the next round at Mallory on 26th May 2008 (Featured in this issue). The Mk1 boys (and Sarah) proved that the 1600cc cars can put up a great show and provide a great starting point for any potential racers wishing to get into motorsport.

RACE DATES FOR 2008

MR2 RACING MR2 CHAMPIONSHIP - (PRE-DOMINANTLY MK2)

Sunday June 22nd - Brands Hatch - Double Header Saturday July 5th - Cadwell Park - Double Header Sunday July 20th - Donington Park - Single Race Saturday August 23rd - Silverstone - Single Race Saturday September 6th - Oulton Park - Single Race Sunday September 28th - Snetterton - Double Header Saturday October 25th - Silverstone - Birkett Six Hour Relay Race (Non Championship)

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- (PRE-DOMINANTLY MK1) Jun 7 Aug 25 Sep 7 Oct 19 Nov 9

Rockingham Mallory Park Cadwell Park Snetterton Brands Hatch

Race Race Race Race Race

x1 x2 x2 x2 x2

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photo’s by Woolfie Plum and Nurburgring photos

BRANDS HATCH – 19th APRIL 2008

T

he 750 MC MR2 Championship rolled on to its 3rd round at a very wet and windy Brands Hatch in the heart of Kent’s countryside.

With all the usual suspects in attendance, the paddock was a mixture of the old faces from the 2007 season with more than a good few newbies hoping to make their mark and strut their stuff!

New drivers like Dallas Jackson, Paul Coombes, Alric Kitson and Zac Chapman showing early promise. Phil Wilson who threw the gauntlet down in the 1st opening rounds at Mallory

failed to produce the same performance managing only to qualify 22nd on the grid but pulled the rabbit out of the hat finishing in 9th position after a great drive through the pack.

Marcus Mahy starting in 26th position failed to find any ground and finished in his starting position. A disappointing state of affairs after such a promising showing in the previous round. However, Adam Lichfield, Anthony Day, Steve Lumley and Mark Jessop, from the old brigade (if you’ll pardon the expression!) showing that there’s no substitute for experience taking the first four places on the starting grid with Adam on pole and Anthony alongside.

The surprise was possibly Dallas Jackson, who took a credible 5th place on the grid posting a time of 1:01.65 only just over one second off the pole sitters time of 1:00.45 however, faded in the race to finish 16th overall but a good strong effort nonetheless. Alric Kitson (our featured driver in this issue), after suffering some car damage, could only manage to finish in 13th position but hopes to have the car 100% for Cadwell Park on 11th May. The 750MC MR2 Championship has a small class of Mk1 drivers out there, notably Arthur

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Gilmore in his trusty 99 car, Jonathan Grimes (car 79), Ms Toni Gladding (car 57), David Rowe (car 15), Hugh Gilmore (car 98) and Ben Rowe (car 21), with Arthur Gilmore taking fastest lap in class at 71.46mph, which is only 2.79mph slower than the Mk2 cars with their 2 litre engines! Finishing in 15th position, beating 9 Mk2 cars in the process proving that the more agile nature of the Mk1 1600cc car can be an advantage in the corners.

Despite the adverse weather conditions, the racing was strong and close with near paint swapping manoeuvres from Steve Lumley, Mark Jessop and Patrick Mortell, with Mark Jessop taking fastest lap with an average speed of 74.25 mph. but Steve Lumley went on to take the chequered flag closely followed by Mark Jessop and Patrick Mortell.

Adam Lichfield, pole man, probably had the most heart stopping moment of the race when coming out of Druids down the hill, spun and finished up facing the way he had just come - quite a surprise to the chasing pack. Great spectator stuff!

Brands Hatch always produces great racing and this meeting was no exception proving once again that MR2 racing is coming of age.

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MALLORY PARK 26th May 2008

Photos by Andrew Cliffe andrew@norwichphoto.co.uk

This was the second round of the Red Dragon Race & Track Club’s MR2 Mk1 racing series and took place at this demanding Leicestershire circuit. With rain forecast the outlook was not a happy one but the rain mostly stayed away but with high winds the track stayed dry.

It was a good grid of Mk1s and qualifying produced some great times forcing lap times down from last year’s. Pole position was taken by seasoned campaigner, Liam O’Toole (car 4) with Arron Pullan (car 26) alongside him. Second row was occupied

by Sarah Wherry (car 23) and Ross Stoner (car 22) (back from his honeymoon – freshly rested and ready to go!) The first four rows were separated by less than half a second proving that the introduction of Toyo Tyres has been a major step forward.

The first race saw Liam O’Toole take the lead into the first corner followed by Arron Pullan and Sarah Wherry and chased hard by Ross Stoner, who took the second place within the first lap. Only to be retaken by Arron Pullan on lap 4 but due to driver error on the exit to Gerrards he decided to inspect the barrier putting Ross Stoner back into second place who proceeded to charge down the leading car of Liam O’Toole. Meanwhile, back at the entrance to Gerrards the four cars of Steve Woolfe, Krish Kumarsinghe, Kevin Poole and one unknown driver decided to get to know each other better leaving Kevin Poole of KPM Motorsport in car 1 firmly in the barrier! This was the first outing of his new car! With the others involved suffering damage which ranged from slight to “I want to kill someone!!!” but all cars involved with the exception of Kevin Poole and Arron Pullan continued on to finish the race.

Liam O’Toole took the race win with Ross Stoner finishing in 2nd place. Alex Gassman produced fastest lap catching the charging front runners. A great effort from Alex following on from his outstanding performance at Silverstone on 27th April. Sarah Wherry and Adam Lockwood put in some good racing providing

close competition and good spectator viewing with the commentator in race control sometimes going into poetic prose and graphic detail of the battles going on behind the leading pair.

The second race of the day saw an almost identical line up on the grid to the first race including Kevin Poole, who miraculously managed to put his car back together in time. This race saw Liam O’Toole, Arron Pullan and Sarah Wherry pull away from the start line but Ross Stoner starting from 4th was 2nd into the first corner, so close to the leading car that only a cigarette paper separated the pair! Liam O’Toole led all the way around Gerrards and into the back straight only to lose the lead to Ross Stoner into the hairpin. Ross established his lead but not without a mighty fight from Liam O’Toole (by this time the commentator in race control was apoplectic!!!) Liam regained and lost the lead to Ross on two occasions but with a slightly damp section on the exit of Gerrards saw Ross lose the number one spot only four corners from the chequered flag ….. slightly annoyed or what?

Fine performances from Sarah Wherry, Rob Jefferies, Jason Jesse, Gareth Newton, Krish Kumarsinghe, Roger Pullan and Steve Woolfe made up what was probably one of the best MR2 races seen at Mallory Park with Liam O’Toole taking fastest lap in race 2 with an average speed of over 83mph. The meeting was slightly marred by the amount of damage incurred during the very close racing and a call to the stewards for Ross and Liam to discuss certain overtaking manoeuvres reported back by the marshals out on the circuit which resulted in Liam being penalised 2 points on his race licence. A fact which was heavily defended by Ross to the stewards as a racing incident and to add insult to injury Liam’s engine decided to join that great scrapheap in the sky!

The MR2 Mk1 racing series moves on to Rockingham on 7th June where we can expect some exciting racing and close competition which has become the trademark of the Mk1 cars ……JURNO

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09/06/2008 20:23:01

Nippon Challenge

Silverstone 27th April Photo by Steve Bishop - MR2 Only Magazine

http://karenphillipsracing.blogspot.com

The inaugural race meeting of the Nippon Challenge was due on Sunday 27th April at Silverstone. Karen’s MR2 Mk1 Supercharger wasn’t actually finally completed until the Wednesday before. The Friday was practice day but only the morning was available. It seemed like a good idea to see if the car would actually perform at all before using it in anger and thus Karen, Richard and Darren kept their fingers crossed as the car ventured out on the National Circuit for the first time since its rebuild.

Things went well and by the end of the morning Karen had posted 1:16 minute times. Despite the new home-brew chargecooler system working effectively, boost was still restricted to 10psi and there were ominous noises emanating from the gearbox…

Image copyright David Avery, used with kind permission

So the crew arrived back at Silverstone on Sunday morning and found themselves a space in the paddock next to Jim Bridge and his Production Class Nissan 350Z. The car was originally from America and had been prepared by a professional outfit to a very high standard. We’d all become acquainted at practice on the Friday. Jim was a little worried about the forecast of very wet weather; in full knowledge his car would be a total handful.

Karen was also concerned, not knowing how the Supercharger would handle with the LSD

Photo by Steve Bishop - MR2 Only Magazine

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in the wet.

Conditions were overcast and dull initially but slowly things began to brighten until Silverstone was bathed in bright warm sunlight! This helped lift spirits and it wasn’t long before the dreaded spectre of scrutineering was upon everyone. Karen was due to lead Jim in his 350Z and Chris Dunlop in his Honda Civic over to scrutineering to let them get a heads up on what happens.

However, as she started the Supercharger, the throttle ran wild and she was forced to kill the engine with the cut-out! It turns out the throttle cable had come adrift of the throttle pulley and so the guys had to go ahead on their own as Darren and Stuart Skinner wrestled the throttle nipple back into place. Things went much more smoothly after Image copyright David Avery, used with kind permission

that until we discovered Jim’s car had failed inspection due to the electrical cut-out not working. Darren and Richard got to work and swapped the cable for a spare Richard carried and got it working.

Seems the outfit that prepared Jim’s car could never have tried the cut-out as the angles were all wrong for it to operate correctly. Jim was soon re-checked and all legal to race.

Qualification was a real eye-opener for everyone concerned. Some of the cars were extremely fast and seemingly spectacularly loud! Of particular note were a couple of RX7s, a Subaru Impreza and Chris Huntley’s bright orange MR2 Mk2 Turbo. Whilst those guys were hurtling around, Karen was fighting for space amongst the throng of MX5s out on track. Karen qualified 34th for Race 1 with a time of 1:18.071 and 32nd for Race 2 with a 1:18.333 from a total of 40 runners. That was disappointing, given her times from Friday would have put her starting in roughly 25th place. Dallas Jackson and David Cross had posted some great times in their MR2 Mk2s, but Dallas was forced to retire from the event with a clutch problem. That left David starting near Chris’s Mk2 Turbo at the pointy end of the grid!

Race 1 saw Karen get a great start, passing the two MX5s in front of her and the Honda CRX Del Sol of Roger Sibley before Copse. Into Becketts and one of the MX5s and the MR2 Mk1 of Mark Thomas briefly got ahead before she passed them down the National Straight. Once again the MX5 of Jennifer Garret passed Karen through Brooklands. The MX5s revelling in their lighter weight and seemingly more nimble handling. As Karen rounded Copse at the start of lap two, an MX5 in front got very crossed up sideways on the outer kerbing until it flung itself towards the centre of the circuit right in front of her! On lap 3 one of the MX5s once again got the inside line for Brooklands and got past. On lap 4 a pair of MX5s overtook Karen through Becketts but she hunted them down along the National Straight and had positioned herself perfectly for the inside line through Brooklands. Unfortunately, she had to abort her manoeuvre as yellow flags began to wave. Two MX5s had a coming together between Brooklands and Luffield and by some bizarre fluke one had driven up the other car into the air and ended up on it’s rollcage upsidedown! The race was immediately red-flagged and the cars were then formed up on the grid in their positions from the beginning of that lap. Karen’s crew figured she was to re-start in roughly 29th place.

The re-start of Race 1 was a minor disaster for Karen, as Jennifer Garrett’s MX5 pulled across to close the door in an uncompromising manner.

Karen was forced to go around her but the loss of momentum saw Karen haemorrhaging placings!

She’d lost six places by the exit of copse (Mark Thomas’ MR2 Mk1 was one of them) and that wasn’t the last of it. She lost out to another MX5 on the exit of Becketts. On lap 2 Jennifer once again piloted her MX5 around the outside of Brooklands to gain a place over Karen. >>

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On the very next lap she was mugged by two more MX5s into Copse. Karen was now defending hard against Roger’s Honda CRX Del Sol. He out-gunned her down the Main straight, but he out-did himself by going too deep into Copse and Karen had the inside line, so re-took him. Yet another MX5 dived inside to beat her through Becketts but the greater torque of the Supercharger saw her past him again and ahead into Brooklands and Luffield. Lap 5 saw Roger re-try his previous move but he didn’t make the same mistake this time and he was away. As they came through Brooklands a couple of MX5s were re-joining from the gravel trap. The status quo remained to see Karen finish 29th overall.

Damage to the car was limited to a large crack down the side of the lovingly crafted front bumper. That was soon fixed with judicious use of red tank tape and new cable ties.

Race 2 didn’t see Karen get a great start and a couple of places were lost immediately. She fought Roger hard down the National Straight and got the inside line into Brooklands. As she exited Luffield, the rest of the field ahead seemed to have little trouble driving away from her. Behind her were Roger and a couple of MX5s that were constantly threatening. On lap 6 Karen was just entering Maggotts when the three front runners lapped her. The two leading RX7s passed without incident, but the Impreza of Graham Poultney had been un-sighted by the MX5s behind Karen. Graham pulled hard in to make Becketts only to find Karen already occupying that bit of tarmac! He gave her a sharp tap on the passenger side on his way past, as they both attempted to reduce the impact of the collision. Lap 9 saw one of the chasing MX5s get their nose into Becketts on the inside, but Karen swiftly out-paced them along the straight. It was Chris Huntley’s orange MR2 Mk2 Turbo that lapped Karen at Becketts on the next lap. Lap 11 saw Chris Dunlop’s Honda Civic lap her on the run into Magotts. At the start of Lap 12 one of the chasing MX5s managed to squeeze past into Copse. Karen chased him down along the National straight and positioned herself to get him on the inside, only to be robbed by the blue flags warning of lapping cars. So as Tony Crossley’s RX7 took the inside line she was forced to play follow my leader with the MX5 ahead until the exit of Luffield, Woodcote and the chequered flag. Once again, Karen finished 29th.

Damage this time was a cracked passenger door mirror and a battered and flattened passenger rear arch. Richard was rather perturbed that all his hard work in preparing the bodywork of the car would have to be re-visited in several areas. Not only that, but it seemed that synchro on third gear had gone on vacation and either the Supercharger clutch was slipping or the Supercharger drive belt was slipping which would account for the lack of boost. Plenty of things to improve before the car’s next outing.

The Nippon Challenge had arrived, and in style.

Lots of smiling faces from new racers and oldhands alike. Admittedly, much of the field was made up of MX5s racing in their own series, but later in the year they’ll get their own races leaving the more varied field of Japanese cars to have their own fun.

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CADWELL PARK -

11th May 2008

This was the third round of the 750MC MR2 Championship and unlike the previous round at Brands Hatch, this Lincolnshire circuit was bathed in glorious sunshine.

With over subscribed grids the racing was split into what were effectively four races, with all the usual suspects in attendance.

The heats were organised as one race and one final.

Heat 13 saw Alan Henderson (car 10) taking pole position which he transferred into a race win with Patrick Mortell coming in second place ably followed up by Raymond Woolley and David Lichfield with last year’s MR2 Challenge competitor John Wilson taking the number 5 slot in his nicely prepared Mk2, finished in his now recognisable blue carrying the number 7. The final which was race 15 saw Steve Lumley take pole position with Alistair Topley, Mark Jessop and Alric Kitson making up the second row. Mark Jessop, in his usual inimitable style, turned his second row start into a race win.

A familiar sight.

Heat 18 saw Rogue Motorsport’s Patrick Mortell take pole position in his familiar green and black number 1 car with Rob Horsfield alongside him with John Wilson and Alan Henderson making up the second row. Patrick drove a sterling race and turned his pole position into a heat win with Rob Horsfield, John Wilson and Alan Henderson taking the next three positions. Their race final was race 22 which saw Steve Lumley take pole position with Alric Kitson, Phil Wilson and Alistair Topley making up the second row. Mark Jessop starting from 5th on the grid could do no better than 7th after a few minor race incidents on track. No lives lost just paint! Steve Lumley turned his pole position into a race win with Alric Kitson, Phil Wilson and Adam Lichfield taking the next three slots.

This pretty circuit has seen many famous races in its time, not least of all the outstanding racing from Barry Sheen. With its tight twisty bends, Park Straight and The Mountain, all of which demanded above average driver skill and certainly separated the men from the boys!

Having spoken to some of the spectators their opinion was that the MR2 racing produced here was some of the best racing that they’d seen in a long time with outstanding performances from some of the newcomers like Alric Kitson, Phil Wilson and whilst not a newcomer, John Wilson whose transition into the Mk2 ranks from his last season’s Mk1 racing in the MR2 Challenge 2007 has held him in good stead producing an outstanding drive. Among the Mk1 competitors Jonathan Grimes and Arthur Gilmore put in some extremely good performances pulling out lap times just a few seconds short of the Mk2 boys. Whilst Tony Gladding (Mk1), David Block (Mk1) and David Rowe (Mk1), all in their first season of racing, proving that you don’t have to win to have a great time!

The 750MC MR2 Championship moves back to Brand Hatch on 22nd June where we can expect yet another thrilling round. MR2 Only Mag will be there! …..JURNO

09/06/2008 20:23:08

DRIVER PROFILE

stepped in and he badly damaged his car in qualifying and with the help of Patrick at Rogue Motorsport got the car ready for the race but driving in wet conditions with a damaged car meant his final position was 13th.

lric appears to be one of the up and coming stars in the MR2 750 Championship, qualifying in pole position for his first ever race and finishing a credible 3rd.

A

True to his vision and determination, he got the car ready to compete at Cadwell Park in May qualifying 3rd and bringing the car home in 4th (with all four corners on the car!)

The second race at Cadwell saw him on the front row next to pole gaining 1st place by the first corner and leading the race up to lap 5 where a mistake cost him the win but still bringing the car home in 2nd place. His achievements in the opening rounds have left Alric buoyant and fully charged for the rest of the season.

It was Alric’s father Adrian who influenced the young Alric from a very early age and as he says “I became a complete petrol head as far back as I can remember”. Unfortunately, Alric’s father died in 2004 and Alric was determined to carry on his father’s tradition of fast cars turning himself into the speed freak he is today!.

Alric is sponsored by his company having worked for them for the past six years, Locate Supplies Limited who without their help and funding, Alric would find it difficult to compete at the front. Alric is very much into anything motorsport related following F1, BTCC and MotoGP and travels to see them with his girlfriend Carla as much as he can.

ALRIC KITSON

Alric’s passion for cars originally took the form of track days but a chance meeting with Mark

AARON PULLAN At age 18 Arron is almost a seasoned campaigner in MR2 racing having competed in the 2007 season, learning his craft at the sharp end, because up to this point his race experience was limited to karting until 2007 when his leap into cars to took him into a new era.

Arron and his twin brother live in the old market town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire with their father Roger who formed MONTANA MOTORSPORT in order to support his son in his motorsport activities and indeed he himself also drives a Mk1 under the same banner.

Arron’s first season in Mk1s was a steep learning curve running mostly as a middle runner amongst the more experienced drivers, but slowly the penny was beginning to drop and his level of race craft expanded to what It has become today, having put up some front running results at both Silverstone in April and Mallory Park in May.

Jessop, last year’s Mk2 winner who has now become a personal friend, persuaded and guided Alric’s desire to race into reality.

Alric’s aspirations for the future are a little unsure at this point, mainly because he’s enjoying his MR2 racing so much but a progression into other formulas has not been ruled out, but his main ambition is to gain his first win in the MR2 Championship.

Having passed his ARDS test at Silverstone in November 2007, he purchased his white MR2 Mk2 from Rogue Motorsport and since that fateful day his rookie season has taken off like a rocket. His first race at Mallory in March 2008 was a huge learning curve giving him skills he didn’t think possible. Alric went on to the next round at Brands Hatch where fate

Alric has laid down the gauntlet to the other guys in the Championship and they would be wise to watch this young 24 year old as he’s coming up the ranks like the proverbial rocket!

DRIVER E PROFIL of the more seasoned drivers wondering just where this lad has come from and are surprised to see Arron filling their rear view mirrors.

Currently Arran is working with a local company called TOP MARQUES Ltd who are supporting him in the 2008 MR2 Racing Series, racing his now very familiar green and black Mk1. Arron’s aspirations in motor racing remain very

much in the touring car vein but would not rule out any sponsored drive and at only 18 years old the world is his oyster.

Let’s keep a sharp eye on the youngster, I think he has more surprises in store for us…………Jurno

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Krish Kumarasinghe Krish Kumarasinghe, like Nick Reed always had a passion for motor racing, getting up at silly hours of the morning just so he could watch the Australian GP, secretly dreaming of the day when Ron Dennis would give him a call…..then he woke up!

Krish comes from the beautiful Island of Sri Lanka and lives with his family in Warwick where he is gainfully employed by Jaguar/Land Rover on their special vehicle operations, fanning his enthusiasm for things with wheels and engines.

Krish’s decision to go racing has been boiling and bubbling for years and only now that he is out of his teens can he get on with the dream.

His teen years saw financial restraints and his racing experience was severely limited to 1 hour’s kart race at

Buckmore Park and a short session in formula First’s…..but now he has a race car! and he his determined to use it.

Under the guidance of KPM, Krish’s pretty blue metallic Mk1 has already attended its first race at Silverstone on 27th April and then again at Mallory Park on 26th May and as Krish will readily admit, it’s a big eye opener. His first race got off to a bad start with a broken throttle cable during qualifying and the second race at Mallory saw Kris come away with body damage to his car….. that’s motor racing, the learning curve is steep and can be a harsh mistress, but Kris is not deterred if anything it’s spurred him on.

..he’ll race it…and his dream would be to somehow represent his country of birth in his chosen sport.

Krish has ambitions to progress through the ranks of motorsport, maybe via touring cars but as long as it has an engine and four wheels

S E I B W E N S ’ O N JUR

Nick Reed The MR2 Only magazine has always sought to promote those new drivers who in their infinite wisdom have decided to join the wonderful world of Motorsport, and this edition is no exception.

JURNO’SS NEWBIE

Next came the car and after many hours searching the internet Nick happened across an MR2 Racing website, that was it, this was the one, so back to the internet to find an MR2 Mk1.

At the age of 33 Nick Reed, a Company Director with a security company in Northampton, is about to realise a life long dream to go

motor racing, having watched the likes of Senna, Mansell and Prost tear up the race tracks of the world with breath taking skills, Nick has now made that leap .

Having made the decision his first step was to take his ARDS test, which saw him arriving bright and early at Thruxston, the Hampshire circuit with the reputation of being one of the fastest in Europe. Still undeterred Nick took on board all the guidance offered by his Instructor and successfully passed. .one milestone out of the way!

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Destiny came along in the shape of a £750 donor car now the work had to begin, two months of hectic building, roll cage, poly bushes, race seat, harness etc, etc and the grin on Nick’s face is yet to wear off.

With the help of his trusty helpers (CP Autos) the work is nearing completion, just a few more tweaks and he will be ready.

Nick would like to acknowledge that without the help and advice offered by CP Autos, KPM Motorsport and the race series organisers, the job would have been a much longer project…..but now his first race is dawning, the magnificent circuit at Rockingham on the 7th June…. we all wish him the best….I wonder if he realises just how steep his learning curve is going to be!!

JURNO

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Sponsoring Nick Reed

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Bolly BOO (Evo 1) - The Engine Work in progress

Before

Since being given the car, it had a slight hesitation with a fairly severe back-fire.

After

Kitchens From Hell

Initial replacing of the plugs and leads with new helped improve the issue. So I knew it was ignition or timing related.

Tom Dyke was commissioned to help resolve the issue as due to work commitments, I didn’t have the time. We removed the distributor known to be working from our old track car and refurbished it. It was a straight forward fit, but Tom had massive problems trying to time the engine. No matter what was tried it just was not possible to get it any better than about 23 degrees out one way or the other even after numerous attempts at resetting TDC double checking cams, cam pulley orientation etc…

We also landed up using 3 different distributors, one of which we pulled off a spare 4A-GE from my shed and found it to be from a Carina of the same age. This obviously didn’t work on the loom/ECU in the car.

We ran a basic diagnostic test and found there was a faulty TPS code, the Distributor signal fault code and an ECU fault code.

I took the decision to strip, refurbish and clean the entire inlet side of things off the old track car which would include the throttle body, plenum, TVIS rail & related gubbins, the wiring loom and the ECU as all these worked perfectly on the old car. This decision was made as previous attempts to remove / replace TPS sensors proved too time consuming and chances of rounding the screw head too high.

TVIS Rail

Everything removed from the red car was laid out thoroughly cleaned and prepped ready to be fitted to Bolly. I have to acknowledge how lucky I am to have a fiancé who is into the cars as much as I am. The kitchen was an absolute tip for 3 days!

Inlet Manifold

All Cloudy Clouds Have A Silver Lining

Giving Up The Timing

The following Saturday was spent removing all the knackered, old, dirty inlet ancillaries, wiring loom and associated gubbins.

We also managed to get the nice refurbished and shiny bits onto the car.

I also opted to use the same fuelling setup as I had on the old track car using the higher flowing 1b injectors with the 1a ECU which is mapped more aggressively for fuelling. To do this I also needed to use the 1b injector loom connectors. It’s good practice to renew all the old tired injector seals. It’s not uncommon for fires to begin due to leaky seals.

Injectors Cleaned

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MR2 MK1 Club National Events 2008 Fuel Rail In Place With Wiring Loom

The Heart Of Betty

Cam Covers Back On We reinstalled the refurbished distributor from the old track car and checked the engine was at TDC. I timed up the engine roughly accurate in order to fill and bleed the cooling system.

I then timed up the engine more accurately only very minor adjustment on the distributor to bring everything back into spec.

A quick check on the diagnostic front and everything had cleared. Good news.

Preliminary test drive proved the hesitation was cured and it wasn’t backfiring on lift-off.

It sounded sweet and the bay was beginning to look a lot better We tested the work by driving to Spa in Belgium. Did 360 miles on track in the two days and drove back with no hiccups whatsoever!

A lot of what was done was probably not necessary, but I thought it would be good to clean bits up and check other areas whilst we had access.

Thanks: Tom Dyke – TDE Jo Walker - Kitchen BookaTrack – Spa Trackdays Photos: Tom Dyke & Garrick Abrahamson Words: Garrick Abrahamson

June 15th – Le Mans MK1 Club trip thread: http://www.imoc.co.uk/ forums/viewtopic.php?t=72545 15th June – Supercar Sunday, Gaydon Motor Museum website: http://www. supercarsunday.co.uk/ July 6th – JAPS, Thoresby, Notts – Event to be confirmed 20th – Beaumanor Hall Classic Car Show, Woodhouse, Leicestershire website: http://www.geocities. com/transtaruk/beaumanor. html 20th - Elvetham Heath Car Show, E. Hampshire – Event to be confirmed website: http://www. elvethamheathcarshow.co.uk/ 25th-27th – Silverstone Classic August 2nd-3rd - Wroughton Classic Show website: http://www. wroughtonclassic.org.uk/ 17th - Retro Rides Gathering, Gaydon Motor museum– needs an event organiser to go ahead 16th & 17th - Tatton Park Classic & Performance Car Show 29th-31st JAE - New Venue: Mersea

Representing the Club

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 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

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.

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

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

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 Toyota Sprint Series 2008 3 Rounds left: 14th June - Teesside (Light) 17th August – Woodbridge 25th October - Teesside (Dark)

September 12th-14th - Scenes of Skye Trip thread: http://www.imoc.co.uk/ forums/viewtopic.php?t=79830 October 26th Autumn Restoration Show, Stoneleigh website: http://www. classiccarshows.org.uk/restor. html 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 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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Castle Coombe hosted the first Jap brand car show of the season, and the MR2 scene was very well represented by owner’s clubs MR2OC, TB Developments and IMOC. True to form the weather was non too clever on my trip down from Staffordshire to Coombe in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside. I was kindly invited to hang out on the TB Developments stand, which has a

MR2 SCENE

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healthy turn out of MR2s, Celicas owned by members of its recently formed forum.

More familiar faces and MR2s were lined up on both the IMOC and MR2 OC areas, where I was secretly talent spotting future potential feature cars. Star of the show MR2 wise has to go to the orange unique wide arch SW20 pictured below, which incidentally was not on a MR2 club stand. This car certainly stirred excitement amongst the MR2 Only Team, with both myself and Nick Turner leaving contact numbers for the owner.

Great to catch up with old friends and see new and exciting cars, this goes to show what a lot of owners have been up to during the winter months in preparation for the show season.

One of my friends, Helen, taking advantage of the

show to have a potential MR2 Turbo purchase overlooked by MR2 specialist Tim of TB Developments, having been given a clean bill of health a deal was made and shook on.

Elsewhere at the show I spotted a few MR2s bravely venturing out on the circuit, rather them than me. Ollie of Sky Insurance fame Mk1.5 with freshly painted wide arches made its maiden appearance on their stand, and publicity whore Nick Turner’s blue beast was also spotted.

Highlight of the day for me had to be spotting a young girl being photographed by her boyfriend next to my Roadster Turbo, hang on does that mean it’s a girly car?

Be sure to come and visit us on our MR2 Only Mag stand at JAE in August folks.

ENE AT JAP FEST - CASTLE COOMBE

MR2 of the show

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TURBOCHARGERS Our regular guide to turbo tuning from Tim @ TB Developments This month we move deeper into the turbo calculation process and unfortunately it means more numbers and formulae.

Because working out a compressor map is a fixed process there’s little input I can make to this so a lot of this process is taken directly from Garrett but I’ll try to add my input where necessary to try and simplify the formulae’s and terms.

Firstly what is a compressor map?

Most turbochargers will come with a compressor and a turbine map, the most important being compressor map and this will dictate how the turbocharger performs. The turbine map is also import to a point but it’s just the driving force so as long as the housing flow is within specs, that’s all that’s needed to know. At first a compressor map will seem very confusing to the novice but it contains a lot of information, efficiency of the compressor, mass air flow, boost pressure capacity and shaft rotation speed. Below is a compressor map supplied by Garrett which shows where each part of information is located on these maps. I will then go into this map and explain what each thing means.

However, this assumes there aren’t any restrictions in the intake system such as filters or cold air ducting that might affect the air feed to the turbocharger. Some air filters can add 1psi+ in pressure loss reduction to the system, this is called induction depression. For our examples we use an air filter with a 1psi pressure loss, but this is why it’s important to get the intake as free flowing as possible and why air filter upgrades can play an important part of the turbocharger efficiency.

14.7psia – 1 psig = 13.7 psia at compressor inlet Taking into account the 1 psig intake depression, the pressure ratio is now: (12 psib + 14.7 psia) / 13.7 psia = 1.95 That’s all pretty simple for calculating Pressure Ratios at sea level but with altitude comes a drop in absolute pressure. 5000ft above sea level the Pressure drops from 14.7psia to 12.4psia so this needs to be taken into account if you’re designing your car to run at those altitudes. 5000ft sounds high but there are many points in the UK and the USA with cities above this level.

So let’s run this example again but with an absolute pressure of 12.4psia as seen at 5000ft above sea level.

(12 psib + 12.4 psia) / (12.4 psia – 1 psig) = 2.14 Compare this to the 1.82 we had at the start it shows how much difference altitude and the addition of an air filter makes. A good air filter will have a 0.5-1psia pressure loss but some of the factory boxes, although good for cold air feed, can show much higher readings adding to additional problems

Mass Air Flow Rate

Mass air flow is simply the amount of air passing through the compressor and therefore engine expressed as lb/min although most tuners and turbocharger companies work in CFM, but this cfm flow can be converted to the lb/min mass by multiplying by the air density. At sea level this is 0.076lb/ft3 but if you’re working this out investigate the air density of your altitude just like has been done in the Pressure Ratio formula above.

Firstly calculating Pressure Ratio This is basically the boost you want to run, but like everything else it’s not simply the pressure you want it’s an equation of Absolute Outlet Pressure / Absolute Inlet Pressure. Absolute means you have to take into account base Atmospheric Pressure which is 14.7psia (at sea level). So let’s put this into an example

PR = P2c / P1c Where: PR= Pressure Ratio P2c = Compressor Discharge Pressure P1c = Compressor Inlet Pressure

Boost Pressure (in units of psig, the b refers to “boost”) measures the amount of boost pressure being produced above absolute atmospheric pressure. If the atmospheric pressure is 14.7psia your boost gauge will read 0 in the car, if your boost gauge is reading 12psib then the absolute discharge pressure is: 12 psib+ 14.7 psia = 26.7 psia absolute pressure in the manifold The pressure ratio at this condition can now be calculated: 26.7 psia / 14.7 psia = 1.82

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For working out Mass Air flow, an estimate will do (a more detailed explanation will follow once you find a range of suitable turbochargers). An average engine will generate 9.5-11 FWHP per 1 lb/min air flow. So 440bhp will require 36-48lb/min. This is just a rough guess to narrow down the turbocharger selection and to see where abouts those figures sit inside a potential turbochargers compressor map.

Surge Line

The surge line is on the left hand boundary of the compressor map, this represents a region of flow instability and can be heard of a mild flutter to massively fluctuating boost and a barking noise from the compressor.

Continued use under load will lead in a quick demise for the turbocharger.

Surge under load is the most dangerous and is commonly found when the compressor is too large, too much air flow is being pushed into the engine quicker than it can flow it. This can be resolved by removing the restriction to allow more air into the engine or altering the turbocharger for a slower speed or even swapping to a larger exhaust to slow the current turbocharger down a little. Surge is also the same as when you lift off without a BOV fitted, although this was covered a few issues back.

Recently ported shrouds or anti surge compressor housing have been fitted to numerous turbochargers, (pic 2) the function of this is to allow excess air flow to exit through the ports to reduce surge from occurring which allows the surge line to be moved further to the left of the compressor map

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increasing its useable range but this can have a small negative effect on the compressor efficiency. (pic3)

map and once you exceed the choke line these speeds very quickly become uncontrollable which will result in damage to the turbocharger and potentially the engine.

Efficiency Islands

These concentric islands on the map represent the efficiencies of the compressor, the centre island represents the most efficient area of the turbocharger and the surrounding rings show an indicated drop in efficiency. Although it’s impossible to keep the turbo at peak efficiency you can tune how you want the car to perform by keeping the peak efficiency where you want it most, i.e., low down or midrange RPM for example as long as the usage doesn’t go into the choke or surge area of the maps.

Putting it all together

Right, now comes the more complicated stuff, putting all this together to choose a turbocharger. We will calculate the mass air flow and boost pressure required to meet a BHP target and then this can be used to estimate an ideal turbocharger for this job.

Things you will need to know for this:

Horsepower Target (FWHP) Engine Displacement (CC) Maximum RPM Ambient Conditions (Temperature and Barometric Pressure)

And things you’ll need to estimate:

Engine Volumetric Efficiencies, (on a typical modern 4 valve head his is 95-99%) Intake Manifold Temperature (typically 100-130’F / 37-55’C) Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) typically 0.55

First off you need to calculate air flow using this calculation WA = HP * A/F * BSFC/60

Where:

WA = Airflow (lb/min) HP = Horsepower (flywheel) A/F = Air/Fuel Ratio BSFC/60 = Brake Specific Fuel Consumption / 60

Ok, let’s run this with some proper numbers, we’re looking for 400FWHP with an A/F of 12 and a BSFC of 0.55, gives you WA = 400 * 12 *0.55/60 = 44.0lb/min of air So a good starting point is to look for a group of turbochargers that can at least flow 44lb/min of air.

Right, now we have to add engine displacement and RPM into the equation.

You do this by plugging the above result into this equation MAPreq = WA * R * (4MAPreq = WA * R * (460 +Tm) VE * N/2 * Vd

Choke Line

This is on the right hand side of the compressor map and on Garrett’s maps this is where the efficiency of the compressor falls below 58% and typically if you find yourself there, turbo speeds are approaching or exceeding an allowable limit. A larger compressor will solve this problem

Turbo Speed Lines

These are used to calculate the rotational speed of the compressor/shaft and turbine. Turbos will accelerate up and down within use but between a balance of variable factors they stay in control if inside the compressor

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Where: (show with example numbers) MAPreq = Manifold Absolute Pressure (psia) required to meet that horsepower WA = Airflow (lb/min) worked about above (44lb/min) R = Gas Constant (639.6) TM = Intake Manifold Temperature (degree’s F) (130’F) VE = Voumetic Effciencies (92% peak) N = Engine Speed (RPM) (7200RPM) Vd = Engine Displacement in Cubic Inch (Convert 2.0cc to CI by * 61.02) (122CI)

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Put all those numbers into our table and you end up with; MAPreq = 44 * 639.6 * (460+130)

.92*7200/2 * 122 = 41.1PSIA Remember this is absolute so if we’re working with sea level through all this remove the 14.7psia to give a true boost gauge figure of 26.4psib After doing all that we’re almost ready to start plotting these on the compressor maps, but we also need to take into account the pressure losses and restrictions from compressor to engine, i.e. intercoolers, piping, throttle body restrictions etc.

Another popular turbocharger is the GT3071r, if you look at the compressor map below you’ll see this is much better suited to the car. The point is still very efficient at 73% and is to the right of the centre line giving it greater protection from surge at lower RPMs but also meaning those lower RPM speeds will pass through the peak efficiency making this a very lively and fast response turbocharger aimed at the mid- to top end, making it an ideal street turbocharger. This has been proven time and time again and I usually recommend this turbocharger for people after the 400-450bhp margin.

On a well designed system this can be less than 1psi but in some cases where a lot of the OEM equipment is still present and especially with elevated levels of air flow like boost increases on the standard turbo these can be as high as 3-4psi. For the purpose of this exercise we’ll estimate them at 2psi but you can get an accurate reading with the correct measuring equipment, but this is beyond the levels of the amateur tuner and 2psi will suffice for now.

Now we’ve found what seems to be an ideal turbocharger lets put a couple of other numbers in there. We have worked out maximum flow, the next point would be peak VE or peak torque, anything else in the red band will be between these 2 points.

To calculate this you use the following formula and using numbers from the previous calculations.

So again WA = MAP * VE * N/2 *Vd

R * (460 + Tm)

P2c = MAP + DPloss Where; P2c = Compressor Discharge Pressure (psia) MAP = Manifold Absolute Pressure (psia) DPloss = Delta Pressure Loss Between the compressor and manifold (psi) Add the numbers P2c = 41.1 + 2 = 43.1PSIA or 28.4psi boost pressure (boost gauge) If you remember back we estimated Induction Depression from air filters was around 1psi so we now need to add that into this equation. Simply done by Subtracting the loss from the Ambient Air Pressure (sea level 14.7psi) to give us a:

As an estimate, peak torque occurs around 5000rpm so keeping everything else the same, work out the Mass Air Flow but with 5000rpm instead

Put in the numbers WA = 41.1 * 0.98 * 5000/2 *122

639.6 * (460+130) = 32.5lb/min If you put this flow into the compressor map you’ll see the gap in between runs through the high efficiency. Meaning midrange will be very good, peak RPM and Peak torque are all 73% or above efficiency. This is an ideal turbocharger for this application.

Compressor Inlet Pressure of 13.7 PSI Final equation is to put all the numbers we’ve calculated together to get a final pressure ratio for this example PR = 43.1psia / 13.7psi = 3.14 Right after all that we have the air flow needed to make 400flybhp, I’ve tried to keep the numbers similar to the MR2 but don’t take it as gospel.

Our final numbers are, and the turbocharger needs to be able to cope with Pressure Ratio of 3.14 Air Flow 44 LB/Min If we plot this on a popular GT2860rs turbocharger you will see its way out of its league at those pressures and flow, it’s a great little low 300bhp turbo but it isn’t a 400bhp turbo.

Remember all this will still only give you an educated guess as a lot of factors are guessed at but it will be good enough to find you a right turbocharger, but there are a lot of other parts at work here to give a pure simulation of what’s happening. Sometimes it comes down to experience and just going out and trying it on the application you want to run, but these calculations should at least get you in the right ball park.

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KELSPORTS PRIDE AND JOY to ensure reliability and further increase compression, a total of 0.5mm taken from between the head and the block, should show a healthy increase in power with 240psi plus on a compression test.

Then for added peace of mind and reliability a set of ARP head studs were added which are also re-useable so cheaper in the long run if you’re into

heavy tuning. This engine is by no means finished and will remain a work in progress for some time. Next on the list is a cold air supply followed by some exhaust work. After that, a throttle body conversion would be a good project to look at not to mention some more polished stainless products!

When I bought the car a few years ago it came to me with steam coming out of everywhere. The guy said it had been doing it for the last 15miles! I bought it, then it sat for a couple of years awaiting attention. >> Then Maurice Stoner of Stoner Racing got in touch with me about some of the products we have for sale for the Mk1 MR2 which gave us the impetus to get the old girl going again. With only 90,000 miles on the clock in pretty sound condition it was going to make a nice car.

The alternator had cracked open due to bearing failure, locking the belt thus stopping the water pump which cooked the engine and caused a valve seat to become dislodged from the head, not so it damaged the piston luckily. So I found a second hand head which I had skimmed 0.05mm then the bores were honed and cleaned

and then 0.25 was taken off the head to clean it up and increase the compression. A complete check of the bottom end only found no problems though I needed to replace the piston rings and crank shaft bearings as a matter of course to be sure of a good job. Then came the head, all valves were removed and thoroughly cleaned and re-lapped into their seats, all the ports were cleaned meticulously removing any carbon build ups.

The head was left overnight with paraffin in the combustion chambers to prove no leaks, all passed. Then I fitted the camshafts and worked out all the shims needed to obtain the correct valve clearances and wrote them all down so that when I checked them again after a thousand miles I would have a head start on what shim was already fitted. Four exhaust valves needed tightening up a bit but otherwise a perfect set of clearances. We used a 0.8mm TRD metal layered head gasket MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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Barkston Heath, Round 2, 4th May 2008

“Why Does it Always Rain on Raceday?”

Barkston Heath is about 2 hours drive from u, but we had an advantage as my parents were staying at a caravan site half an hour away! On Saturday morning we packed up all the essentials, 4 spare ‘intermediate’ tyres, Humprey was on the R888s and we were taking Sakura on the full wets.

Phil found a nice little toolbox which he fills with all the necessary tools needed to rebuild an MR2 at the side of a track, our box of random stuff including tape and blocks of wood, and of course the jack.

It was a lovely afternoon and once we got to the caravan, Phil decided he just had to tinker some more Report written and contributed by Toyota Sprint Series and decided to re locate the boot and petrol cap releases as he keeps kicking them when he is leaving the car.

Participant Vykki Hoult, photos taken by Andrew Cliffe These releases are located normally just by the edge of the driver’s seat by the door. He managed to put them on Jo and Garrick turned up in their Mk1 MR2 which they had finished the back wall behind the seat, so they are still accessible and not painting the day before, which led to a nice MR2 Mk1 Club entry. in the way. Good show.

All tinkering done, we finally settled down to a fairly early night. It rained throughout the night although not constantly and when we got up on the Sunday morning it was very overcast and dull. There were still a few showers as we drove to the venue but they cleared up quite quickly and didn’t appear to put any serious water on the road.

We arrived at Barkston very early and managed to get set up, scrutineered and signed on very quickly. We got some replacements for some stickers which hadn’t stuck very well at the last event – you may remember me writing that we’d had to put these on in the wind and the rain previously! These didn’t take too long to put on at Barkston so we were able to sit in our chairs and look smug whilst other people were dashing about.

We now have race numbers which are magnetic. We just have to swap the 6’s to 7’s when I go out, so Sakura looks after my 7’s in the paddock. It makes her feel like a racecar.

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Soon we were ready for the sighting laps and as before, one of us had to take the road car out as all drivers have to see a sighting lap. I took Sakura out and had the advantage of taking Jo as a passenger, who has raced at Barkston before so was giving me advice on lines and braking etc on the way round. This really helped, thanks Jo! The track was really different to Waterbeach and was a lot narrower, probably a car and a half width and there really was no room for error.

Most apexes were marked with a pole and chicanes were made out of tyres or blocks. It was a twisty circuit with one long straight at the start and a short one nearer the end. This was a circuit that really tested ability and handling more than raw power. This was going to be interesting!

The organisers had listened to our feedback at the end of the last Sprint and they were much more organised with the runs, and more sympathetic towards car sharers. The first driver was to go out quite early and then swap drivers at the end of the paddock and the second driver would jump the queue, making it much less of a rush to get two runs in. Phil and I were grateful for this as we had installed the

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harnesses and due to us being different heights, we had a lap belt each, ready adjusted to ourselves which we would clip in, instead of having to keep adjusting the same harness.

As with the first sprint, there was to be two untimed practice runs and the hopefully 8 timed runs. Phil went out for his first practice with no mishaps to report and then it was my turn. I was much calmer this time but as I went round the track I could feel that I was going too slow and got back to the paddock feeling very dejected. The harnesses had really pinned me to the seat and had caused pain in my shoulder and I could just tell that I could easily have got more speed. I decided to use the normal seatbelt for a bit to see if it made me feel less in pain and more confident!

By the second practice run, I still felt like I could not get any more speed out of the car. I knew I was braking too much and accelerating too little, but couldn’t see where or how I could brake less or accelerate more. This was very frustrating.

The day went on like this for me, although each run I felt I was getting better. When the times came out at lunchtime though, it actually turned out that I had been getting slower. I could not work out how to get quicker although I was feeling more and more confident.

Phil, on the other hand was flying! The two non MR2s in our class had beaten us at Waterbeach, however the Corolla wasn’t doing anything this time, and Phil was slowly catching the mad Starlet.

The weather throughout the day was showery but warm, and it was a bit of a pot luck as to whether you got a wet track or a dry one. We managed to stay on the R888s all day and Phil only got one really wet run where he couldn’t get grip.

In the afternoon I went out determined to be QUICKER! The weather had put me off a little, but as the track dried further into the afternoon, I managed to start pulling back my times a little. My last time of the day was the quickest, as at Waterbeach, and I think I need to have that mentality of ‘right, this is it’ a little earlier in the day in order to throw the car about and really hoon.

We managed to get 8 runs in the end which was great, although Phil wanted one more as he was still catching the Starlet.

When the results were announced, we were really pleased that Phil had got second place in the class, predictably the Starlet was 1st. The difference in time between 1st and 2nd place was just over a tenth of a second!

Phil came 13th overall out of around 50 of us, beating a lot of the higher classes consisting of GT4s turbo MR2s, V8 Supras, and V6 MR2s. You won’t be surprised to know I came last again, but I still had lots of fun!!

day, and on our little convoy back to the caravan I noticed he wasn’t keeping up with me and Sakura at all. The clutch had started slipping badly and he was trying to keep the revs down as we had a 2 hour run home the day after. Needless to say we did manage the run home but now we have a new clutch to fit before the next sprint! So much for a relaxing weekend eh?! At least that’s something to write about, and who knows, we might even have beaten that Starlet with a fully functioning clutch!

Barkston was a good day for many MR2 drivers, Simon Marsh won class A2 in his Mk2 Turbo and finished a stonking second overall.

Patrick Mortell won class C and came a very respectable 7th overall.

Mike Rawlings had been looking forward to this event and has added his viewpoint to the day: Having spent nearly all my free time stripping out the car since Waterbeach I was looking forward to being let loose at Barkston.

I’m delighted to say the car, having shed just over 130kg, feels very agile and the Carbotechs (now properly bedded in) were amazing.

The only downside, read as embarrassing part, of the day was finding out my “low on fuel” light no longer works since stripping out the excess wiring. As I was car sharing with my dad, we planned on running a low fuel load to keep the weight down to a minimum. Plan being, ‘low on fuel’ light + needle on “E” = time to put in more fuel.

Only..err.. I think I may have stripped out that bit of wiring, because the light DIDNT come on and the needle was about 1 dot off “E” when my dad coasted to a stop 10 seconds after the start line.

Other highlights include a memory of me walking around the track and saying “Turn 4 can be taken flat I’m sure”. Simon, dad and SteveL all looked at me as though I was joking. First practice run I thought I’d give it a go. So accelerate out of turn 3, keep it nailed.. force back the feeling to brake.. keep it nailed.. turn into turn 4. Keep the car balanced” talking myself through it “keep it down. Commit to the corner. Commitment” and then.. “****!...” as the back end let go.

From the outside it must have looked like an awesome drift - from the inside it was a frantic twist of the steering wheel whilst trying not to listen to the ScreeeeeeeeeeCHCHHH!!! noise as the R888s yelled in protest. Somehow.. (and I would love to say I stayed cool and it was all skill) I kept it on the black.

I managed to come 3rd in my class again, and if I’ve added up the results correctly then it means Class C has three current leaders.

This event was a noticeable improvement in organisation from the first (Waterbeach). It was also a larger turnout and I’m sure as the series progresses it will not be long before we see even more interest.

Roll on Teeside.

I agree with Mike – roll on Teeside!

Phil had mentioned that the clutch had been slipping throughout the

For more info, event dates and reports visit www.toyota-sprint-series.com MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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09/06/2008 20:24:48

In July 2006, my husband, Jim made my 20 year dream a reality and presented me with a 1991 MKII N/A Jap Import G-Ltd T-Bar. I’ve always loved these cars but they were never practical while my girls were growing up. She was a little worse for wear and in need of some TLC, but as someone happy to get her hands dirty and not afraid of some hard work, I embraced the challenge to bring this baby back to her former glory....with a couple of modern touches!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in complete awe of some MR2s out there that have been transformed by extensive modifying, whether for show or just the sheer enjoyment of it, but the personal choice for

me was to restore and enhance, not change the beautiful natural look of the car with bodykits and LED lights! Sorry guys but at almost 42 I should try to act my age.... well sometimes ha-ha!

Mechanically she was pretty sound but the paintwork was well oxidised and we could see she had some crash damage at the rear at some point which was not well repaired, resulting in a leak in the boot, some rust around the wheel arch and illfitting rear lights and bumper. She had already been lowered and the suspension stiffened so I suspect she may have been used on a track at some point, maybe resulting in the rear end damage? Who knows!

My first plan was to add a few personal touches and cheer up the plain dark interior. A cracked Momo steering wheel was replaced with an imported 320mm Red/Black Mugen Sport wheel. Gear knob, gator and sun shades were replaced with red leather and I matched up CD and Radio Cassette players. A red and black Dragon seat cover and floor mat set was added and I covered the panel behind the seats with what should have been the rear seat cover and took away the middle storage compartment. It finished off the look nicely.

My 18 year old daughter, Jamie-Leigh, is doing her 3rd and final year of her car mechanics apprenticeship this year, so she comes in useful for sourcing, and fitting parts! Her Christmas present 80

to me was a K&N Induction and breather kit. Much better than chocolates or perfume any day!

We all work so when time allowed over the next year and with the help of another mechanic friend, Mikey, the usual oil, filters and plug changes were done but also replaced the front strut mounts, track control arms and track rods, hubs, ball joints, drop links, front brake callipers and handbrake cables.

Added extras were a ‘Sleepy Eye’ kit, Smoked crystal front indicator units from the USA to replace the mixed UK and Jap lights she had on her. (Stolen shortly afterwards so a 2nd set had to be purchased and were BOLTED in this time). T-Bar bags were sourced and an electric

window mechanism and the electric aerial had to be replaced. The ugly hanging rear fog light was replaced with a flush fit that I cut into the rear bumper. She was starting to come together but the wheel arch and paintwork were really starting to let her down.

No matter how much T-Cut and Auto Glym I used she always looked shabby again after a couple of weeks. She was duly retired for the winter and this spring saw the car coming together in my plan to restore her to her former glory. A turbo engine lid in excellent condition was sourced from GTChris. com. A gas prop rod and rear blanking plate from Ebay, original ‘toblerone’ indicators were re-installed (sorry but I kind of like these for some strange reason) and 15” Wolfrace Hybrid Shadow Chrome alloys from Rochford Tyres in Essex. Now, 17” with low profile tyres would have looked lovely but as I said before, my plan was to restore and enhance her. It was also a good way of keeping costs down and not compromising the original handling and feel of the car.

This may sound strange to many of the ‘petrolheads’ out there but I prefer the feeling of the 15” wheels to the more popular 17” and with a mid engine rear wheel drive, a little more rubber on the ground is never a bad thing! A Type A rear spoiler was purchased from Rogue Motorsport and a chrome dragon for the blanking plate, just to complete the new look.

She was booked into Jack Couper’s Bodyshop here in Edinburgh, and he partly rebuilt the rear wheel arch. There was approx 4lbs of CATALOY removed from her and the inner arch was never straightened out!

(There should be an organisation out there to prevent cruelty to MR2s!)

Jack straightened and welded the inner arch and put a proper plate in it. The refurb of the paintwork was already in place the following day with the whole body rubbed down and all dents, heavy scratches etc repaired and smoothed over. He also straightened out the rear panel and bumper to allow a neater fit on the rear lights. She was

primed ready for the next day, when she would be transformed. I chose a shade of red I thought would really suit her better and left Jack to cast his magic on her….. I wasn’t disappointed!

A few finishing touches I wanted to do myself were left for me but Boy! Did I get a surprise?

I came home from work on the Saturday, to her unveiling in my driveway. Jim and Jamie-Leigh had her covered up awaiting my arrival. I hadn’t seen her at all with the new paint so just how much of a difference there was going to be, was unknown to me. They pulled off the sheet and my chin hit the floor! Seconds later, I admit I cried. My baby was home! Nearly 2 years and £3000 later she was looking more like the Princess she should be than the Pauper she had become.

The project will continue with new timing and fan belts, radiator, and a set of Bridgestone tyres later in the year. Rogues quad headlight conversion is also on the planning list in the very near future along with a new set of shocks and springs all round. Jamie-Leigh will be taking apart and rebuilding the engine next year to replace any worn any parts etc and said she will be adding one or two ‘little extras’ during the rebuild.....What are her plans? …..the mind boggles!!!

Hope you enjoy looking at her.

Roslyn Souness

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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09/06/2008 20:24:59

A weekend in Wales

I’d been really looking forward to the Wales run which has become a biannual event organised by MR2 Owners and MR2OC members Rhon and Lewis.

I had hoped my Mk2 would have been back on the road, as this would have been a nice steady run for the running in period but alas not, and as I arrived at the first meeting point I was once again the odd one out in amongst the Mk1s and Mk2s as I turned up in my Roadster.

At the quaint country pub I was greeted by a few familiar faces and quite a few new ones, including a couple, Harm and Eva who had driven all the way from Holland for the run in their recently rebuilt Mk1 and before long it was time to hit the road. Unusually for a bank holiday weekend we were blessed with the sun, so naturally the roof was dropped down, rude not to really.

And so a colourful line of MR2s, made up of Mk1s, Mk2 Turbos, N/As, a V6 and myself snaked its way along the twisty roads, stopping occasionally to regroup the convoy.

With the sun beating down, breeze blowing through the car, tunes on the Ipod, dullset tones of CJs Nurspec on his Mk2 in front of me and the occasional twitter from my Roadster’s dump valve between gear changes, we quickly progressed through roads that were meant for driving.

I smiled and thought to myself this is what MR2 ownership is all about for me, not bickering on a forum on whether V6 or Turbo is better, just appreciation for a fine handling motor car, out

playing on the open road with a group of like minded friends.

Before long we pulled up for what should have been a short toilet stop and re-group on the over-spill car park at Tuffnells. However DAVE!! mislaid his keys and the whole group had to form a line and do a finger tip search of the car park (see photo) much to the amusement of bewildered shoppers thinking that this was some bizarre MR2 owners cult. 20 minutes later, a rather sheepish Dave shouted “**** found them!! Where you ask?? In his bag of sweeties, the clown!

Out on the open road we continued on through some of Wales finest scenery, sun still blaring down, Rhon leading on and indicating when it was safe to overtake slower moving traffic, I began to realise this was probably faster than I’d have wanted to put my Mk2 through during running in but what did surprise me was that Alan kept up with us clinging onto his Veedub camper van.

As we left the mountains and came back into civilisation in the town of Aberystwyth we headed for our final meeting point and much to the bemusement of the locals we consumed a large roundabout with a two deep line of MR2s, absolute quality!!

Back at Rhon’s caravan we all chatted away and I was becoming increasingly aware of the soreness of my sunburn from the run, damn that Roadster! As we all dispersed back to our tents, a few of us sat and admired the camper van, after which, feeling the effect of the beer and a few JDs, I stumbled back and collapsed in my one man tent face down, fully clothed!

In the morning feeling very much worse for wear we were treated to a large fry up and copious amounts of tea and coffee, after which it was sadly time for me to say my goodbyes and head in the direction of home, not at all pleasant journey whilst suffering from sunstroke.

For the rest of the group staying the weekend I believe there was a bit of fun and games in MR2s down on the beach which I sadly missed out on.

I also believe that Harm and Eva just about managed to make it back to Holland but with one or two dramas along the way!

Many thanks to Rhon and family for an excellently organised run/meet and kind hospitality, and great to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, an excellent crowd.

As we formed our group in the corner of a retail car park, we increased in numbers when a few Welsh members joined us and after a much needed driving break we continued on for another 20 minutes to the sea side caravan/ camping site where Rhon and Lewis’s static is located.

We were led to our very own cordoned off MR2 camping area and at this point I was still undecided due to work commitments, whether to stay the night or just enjoy the social and then head back, but having downed a Corona to quench my thirst from an afternoon’s driving in the sun, and then another, it was going down too well so I decided to throw up my one minute wonder tent and continue to attack my box of Corona.

Once we had all set up our homes for the weekend, hospitality was laid on by Rhon, Lewis and family by way of a barbecue outside their static caravan. The burgers were plentiful and the beer flowed throughout the night, albeit for a short break to build a fire down on the beach to satisfy the primeval instinct in us men.

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09/06/2008 20:25:06

MR2 Only Classifieds Super-rare MR2 Mk2 Convertible- £7000 start, anti- hijacking, proximity sensors and glass tamper sensors to name a few.

There’s also a new battery as the previous one was not holding a charge - probably after spending 6 weeks on a boat from Japan. This was £70. It has a Japanese head unit, with the channel expander so you can get all of the UK stations.

As mentioned, there were only 91 ever made in this form and most of them were automatics, I’m sure I read somewhere that less than 20 of the cars were manuals.

I hardly drive it - and it’s just too good to sit there - it will be perfect for someone this year with the summer on the way. Roof down cruising in rare car. I’m going away for the summer, so the will not see any action.

It was sourced by NVI in June 2007 and is in superb condition. The Revision 4 3SGE engine has only covered 38k miles, it produces 174bhp and is in great shape. Very strong, with no smoke or oil consumption.

With it coming from Japan, where the crime rate is very low, there was no alarm fitted on arrival - so I’ve If there’s any questions, please do not had THE TOP OF THE RANGE Clifford Avant5.5 Alarm at a cost of £900 installed. This alarm features remote hesitate to ask! 07747 787711

ITS FREE TO ADVERTISE YOUR MR2 OR PARTS FOR SALE... (Private ads

Toyota MR2 GT

Aug 1993 137000 miles. New MOT and recent timing belt. Exceptional condition. £2 250.00.

only)

Located East Sussex. Phone 01580 859791 eves.

Or e-mail peterlow@napit.org

L Reg. Service History with receipts, leather interior MOT and taxed 83,000 Immobiliser with insurance approved cert £2,000 ono Tel: 0161 7230884 m. 07789076260

BREAKING - 1990 UK revision 1 Mk2 MR2 MOST PARTS AVAILABLE Engine is the 158bhp revision one model, covered approx 120,000 miles, no noticable signs of oil consumption, burning or leaking, and no knocking or rattling, recent clutch fitted, engine, gearbox and clutch - £250 ono. Can be heard running if need be.

Sparco lightweight wheels, staggered wide lip on rears, comes complete with recent new front Toyo tyres, centres resprayed antracite, rims polished, reasonable condition, some slight kerb marks on rim, and one rear has been repaired at some point, although runs perfectly true and has been balanced with no issues - complete with set of tuner bolts that have been machined to fit (was a lot of hassle getting these done) £275 ono All panels, interior available, recent new brake discs, please email or make an offer for any parts to:- steveb@mr2only. com (Also breaking two red Mk1 MR2s)

To advertise private MR2s sales or parts for sale please email:info.mr2only@ntlworld.com

Retrims by Rhon

Mk 1, 2 and 3 MR2

replacement leather gear gaiters available for short shift and standard models in a variety of colour leathers and top stitching.

£12 inc p&p to UK.

AFTER...

White T-bar MR2 GT

82

As you can see there’s a fair few extras that come with the car - and I can try to source anything else that you may want.

BEFORE...

One of only 91 ever made.

There’s a small scratch in the roof, where the passenger 3/4 window would be - but I’ve got another roof for it which will come with the car - along with a whole load more stuff. It’s taxed and tested till June 2008. All 4 tyres have good tread. The brakes have covered < 2000 miles.

Economy is very good to - around 35mpg on a motorway run.

A donation of 25p from each sale will still be set aside for the MacMillan and Leukaemia Unit Appeal Fund.

Email: geargaiters@ hotmail.co.uk

MR2 Only Magazine www.mr2only.com

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09/06/2008 20:25:11

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09/06/2008 20:25:19