Toyota's venerable mid-ship engine turbocharged MR2. This is a 1992 model, built in September of 1991. It came from the factory with all available options, including t-tops, a full leather interior, 7-way adjustable seats, A/C, Power steering, ABS, a driver's side airbag, and a premium 7 speaker stereo. Priced around $25k in 1991, I purchased this vehicle in July of 2003 in stock condition with 94,000 miles for $7500. As of October 20th 2005, it has 140,000 miles.
An out of date picture of the lightly modified 3S-GTE.
250 hp @5900 rpm and 250 lbft @4000 rpm. The Toyota OEM CT20b turbocharger was run at 15psi the last time I ran on the dyno. I run 17psi daily today. The CT20b has a 48mm compressor wheel, and a ceramic turbine impeller . With an Aussie 3" downpipe, it reaches full boost by 3500 rpm. A custom 3" to Y-joint and dual 2.5" exhaust with dual Spin Tech mufflers will be fabricated and installed soon. Estimated 1/4 mile is in the low 13s at approximately 110mph.
Full leather interior.
This was the stock interior. It is much the same today, however I have added a dual guage pod on the driver's side out of necessity, and installed a Twosrus.com custom short-shifting kit. The wood trim was installed by the previous owner and will be replaced as soon as I can find a good condition set of stock black interior dash trim.
Wheels and Tires.
The stock '91 and '92 MR2s came with 6x14 front and 7x14 rear Toyota wheels weighing in at 16 lbs each. Tire sizes are 195/60/14 in the front and 205/60/14 in the rear. In an effort to put more rubber under the car, I went with 7x17 front and 8x17 rear OZ Superleggera wheels. Previously I ran 215/40/17 front and 235/40/17 rear Potenza S-03 tires. Today I'm driving on Hankook's new RS-2 Z212 in the same sizes. Thus far they have had excellent grip and response in dry and rain on both the street and the track. Yes, those are stock sized brakes with 17" wheels. No, braking performance has not been reduced. All four corners are outfitted with Porterfield R4-S brake pads. The OZ wheels weigh in at 15 lbs each, resulting in an overall same unsprung weight as the original tires and wheels.
Autocrossing
A lot of body roll was reduced with a set of Suspension Techniques front and rear swaybars, which are approximately 150% stiffer than the stock swaybars. As well, the entire suspension has been redone with ProThane Urethane bushings. These updates greatly improved the handling and response of the car, however will it benefit even more from a set of H&R coilovers.
Music
So what does a stock MR2 running at 15psi sound like at WOT anyway? This is a recording of the engine driving uphill at WOT, shifting at 5,500 rpm. Listen to this MP3 to find out. Check back later this August to hear a stereo recording of the car with the new turbocharger and exhaust up the same hill at WOT and shifting at the 7,000 rpm redline.
News
- The exhaust still isn't done yet. I've decided to ditch the Flowmasters and go for Spin Tech mufflers instead. Square mufflers? We'll see how that goes. On the up-side, the exhaust will now be 3" from turbine to tips.
- The BC MR2 meet in Vancouver (http://www.bcmr2.com/BC2004/BC2004.html) was awesome. Ran the autocross 1.5 seconds faster than any other MR2 participating. And then tapped a cone in the stop box enough to disqualify my time. Bummer. Video of two runs is here! The file is 23MB, so please right click save-as if you wish to view it.
http://www.seattlefenix.net/mr2/video/Ben-autox.mpg
2004.10.07 -
I received the car from the shop after installation of a new SPEC Stage 3 clutch, Fidanza aluminum flywheel, ARP bolts, and Urethane motor mount inserts. The entire chassis now vibrates mildly at idle. The Stage 3 clutch holds 490 lbft of torque, and grabs hard. The engine itself is significantly more responsive with the lighter flywheel, and revs very quickly. Now that I've got this combo in, I wonder how I ever raced the car without it.
2004.10.23 -
New dyno. Fun stuff. Peak boost was 15.4 psi, peak intake air temp was 130F. The stock intercooler was doing it's job. Sadly, the engine is being choked by this stock exhaust. Boost and torque fall off after only 4000 rpm and simply crashes after 5500 rpm. This car desperately needs a new 3" free flowing exhaust system.
2004.10.30 -
Play Day at the Bremerton Raceway held by the IRDC. In all, I racked up about 100 miles on the track today. Faded the brakes once, ran out of gas once, and passed many slower cars on the straights. There was opportunity to pass in turns, but play day rules prohibited that. If this is what the car is like at only 250hp, I can't wait to see what 300whp and 350whp feels like.
I melted a little bit of my rear bumper. I removed the super restrictive last 90" degree bend at the end of the exhaust to gain a little more power and torque, but the exhaust was shooting flames when I lifted from WOT or downshifted quickly. Oops.
