Just recovering from the first real run in the MR2 to see what I have created. The car ran faultlessly as in, no breakdowns. There are a few little issues which I expected to find as its all about developing the car into a reliable track car.
The oil was 110
Water was 95
I will be fitting shielding to reduce the heat.
Oil pressure gauage seems to be broken
I does not want to do into fourth gear due to some selection issue
Clutch is pretty much shot but have a spare in the shed.
Rear view screen needs a shroud so I can actually see whats behind me!
Brakes: They worked well all day with no fade. I use the 'intima' pads available on ebay. They really are great value. The car has a brake balance issue as the car was a drift car from Japan so the brake bias was set to the rear which made for a few interesting moments into the kink and turn one. This will be sorted in the new year. Im sure with the strong brake system it will reduce my braking distances and lap times, but more importantly .. more fun to drive.
Handling: It has a nice balance to a point then it starts to try and switch ends but you can catch it when it tries to do this and then have a ball trying to get it back! I must have had the car sideways in 3rd gear at 4500-5000rpm to the point of loosing it at least 6 times then it just snapped back into line with some work and off I would go again. It must have snapped back pretty hard as my helment is covered in white paint from the roll cage!!lol.
There is more to be done in balancing the transition of the front and rear to settle the car.Its a excellent base but more needs to be done so I can drive more and slide less. he car is rear heavy so more weight needs to ne lost from the rear (if possible) to improve balance.
Tyres: Hoosiers are excellent tyres which I will learn more about these tyres so they are set correct before I spend any money on handling improvements.
The cash input for the handling of the car will be tuning the nut between the steering wheel and the seat! Im OK but more needs to be done.
Power delivery: I need more torque!!!and a tune but happy with what I have.
Lap times: Surok filmed the early session but a lot of the tape was corrupted with only a small amount of footage saved. I did manage to recover enough to find a few complete laps to work out some times. It was in traffic and I changed a setting which made the car quite tail happy but it showed a 1.10 which I was happy for the cars first time out. The times become quicker throughout the day with the track really working well by the last session where I expect I was in the 1.08's but it hard to confirm as I had no timer.