Well the chassis rails aren't bent. I didn't realise at the time, but the mounts the rear reo bar attaches to has some play in it, so that threw my measurements off a bit. Also, the mounts themselves got a bit bent. After a little searching and some work with a big hammer, I repaired the damage and managed to get a new reo bar and mounts bolted up. I still haven't repaired the rear pods, so they're off for the moment.
Everything was a bit of a last minute rush to get everything done in time for the nationals. The 3 weeks coming up to the nationals, I didn't have a day off so it was hastily thrown together at the last minute. All was going well, and I managed to get a respectable 1.06.523 on the QR Sprint Circuit, spitting flames the whole way.
Apparently throwing the car together last minute has some downsides. The top hole on the KW's are elongated so that you can adjust camber at the hub. I mustn't have done it up tight enough (thank god it held together on the track!), so on the Sunday club run I hit a ledge while doing a U turn which was enough of a jolt to knock the camber out. The grinding noise was terrible. Luckily the knock happened at low speed, and I only had to drive about 30m, so the damage wasn't too bad. It's shaved off a tiny bit of the inside lip and chewed out some of the coils. For the most part its unnoticeable but it was pretty annoying to damage my new suspension and wheels on their first proper outing. Our group pulled over, did some emergency roadside camber adjustment and off we went again.
After the nationals I was so fatigued from 3 days of continual driving, plus not having any days off work for the previous 3 weeks that I just parked the MR2 and forgot about it. It spent a good month just collecting dust before I got the motivation to sort out some of the issues that came up.
First thing was to make sure my wheels never fall into my suspension ever again! I made up wooden wedges to put in between the hub and coilover, effectively stopping it from achieving more negative camber if the bolts do happen to come loose again. It might be a bit ghetto, but it's cheap, wont scratch anything and best of all its not permanent.
I basically just cut up some small wood wedges and notched the top so that the zip tie wouldn't slip off. Hammer them down into the space, zip tie them into place and hey presto!
I also noticed that my front bumper had no rigidity at all and was flapping all over the place, especially doing those high speeds on the track. I got some aluminium tubing to make up some bracing for the front bumper. It may not look like much, but it definitely strengthens up those front corners. Once the wheel arch liners back on, you wouldn't even know its there.
I've got a few goodies coming in the mail soon. The next update should be a big one!