Immaculate REV3 Turbo - and so my watch begins...

[James Junior]

Hi guys,

I am a long time member and serial MR2 owner, having had two turbos and two NAs in my younger years. I left MR2 ownership around 8 years ago and over the years that followed never stopped pining for another MR2, despite being fortunate enough to own some nice cars in between. I would often find myself scouring eBay and Autotrader whistfully with a beer, or day dreaming about owning another one. Earlier this year I decided enough was enough and finally started looking for another REV3+ turbo as a second car to join my 370Z.

I wanted the best that money could buy and after a few months of searching, in April I was fortunate enough to become the owner of an absolutely stunning REV3 MR2 Turbo bought from fellow IMOCer and all round top bloke 'dan mkii'.

I believe this car is quite well known on the forums as the £200 MR2 that went on to be a show car. Dan picked up the car for peanuts when it was traded in at the Toyota dealership where he worked and thus began a near nut and bolt restoration. For those who haven't read about it, you can do so here:

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic. ... highlight=

The car is in incredible condition and I reckon must be one of the best examples left in the UK full stop. It truly is a credit to Dan and is in such good nick, I feel a real sense of duty to take on the care of this incredible machine.

Challenge accepted...and so my watch begins...

I have plans of my own for the car and have already made some changes, so thought I would start chronicalling it all in case anyone would like to continue to follow the car and the changes I make to it.

[James Junior]

So...on April 18th the big day arrived and the MR2 was due to be delivered.

Being the experienced and shrewd car buyer I am these days I followed all the usual protocol when buying a specialist car.

Oh wait...no I didn't!

I spoke to Dan on the phone and immediately got a sense that I could trust him. Dan lives in Welling and I live in Manchester, so my friend (and fellow MR2 owner) James viewed the car for me and reported back. He sent me a video walkaround of the car and called me after the viewing, stating 'It's like a new car - if you don't buy it, I will!'. Strong words my friend. Later that day I called Dan and asked him what history came with the car. Thus began a 30 minute phone call as he talked me through every service, bill and MOT since the car was first imported in 1999!

I decided the car was too good to pass up despite having a fair few miles under her belt, so paid Dan a holding deposit. Unfortunately I was so stacked out with business up in Manchester I just couldn't find the time to get down to pick the car up, so found a car delivery service via Shiply. At this point I further broke the rules of 'car-buying-club', by dropping a significant sum of money into the account of someone I had never met, to buy a car I had never seen, to be ferried up to Manchester by a haulage company (albeit one with very good reviews). I like to do business with everyone via the honour system, but this was truly testing the limits!

But lets face it, Dan's a nice guy and no IMOCer could ever be a bad guy eh?!

Now its fair to say the collection and delivery didn't go quite to plan. The car was so low, that the guy loading the car had great difficulty getting it onto the back of the flatbed. This lead the underside of the Aeroware spitter being badly scuffed, to mine and Dan's mutual horror.

However, aside from this everything went without a hitch and with the use of copious blocks of wood, i was able to safely unload the car when it arrived in Manchester.

The moment of truth had arrived....











HOLY CRAP IT'S BEAUTIFUL. LOOK AT THE PAINTWORK. AND THESE RECAROS. AND THAT NARDI WHEEL. AND THOSE WORK VS SPLIT RIMS.... ITS BETTER THAN I COULD POSSIBLY HAVE IMAGINED!!!

[James Junior]

So it was fair to say I was both delighted with the condition of the car and generally to be back in MR2 Turbo ownership. My insurance was set, so all I had to do was tax the car online.

Upon completing the process on the DVLA website, their immediate suggestion that I put myself on the organ donor list was a tad worrying! I know these cars have a reputation but...

[James Junior]

So naturally, I did what any of us would have in the same situation. I calmly waited for the traffic to die down, then went for a drive. I am lucky enough to live on the edge of the Peak District, with Woodhead and Snake Pass only a 20 minute drive away. Fortunately despite the omnipresent Mancunian rain clouds, it was still dry, so off I went in search of some of my favourite twisties.



A quick visit to the petrol station first of all was a refreshing reminder of both how tiny these cars are by modern standards and in turn how tiny their fuel tanks are. It looked like a little toy car on the forecourt and only cost £45 to fill up. Win! Then it was off to get reaquainted with a modified MR2 Turbo...

A number of people both on and off IMOC had suggested I might be lookig back at my MR2 Turbo ownership with rose tinted specs and even I had built up a healthy dose of apprehension. Would it still excite me 8 years on having owned and driven all sorts of fast cars?

This fear was dispelled within all of about 5 miles. I loved it.

I had forgotten how raw they were. They demand your full attention at all times when pressing on. I love how old school everything is: it weighs nothing and feels tiny on the road, the fact that it has an actual key not a fob, the way the steering is so heavy at low speeds but lightens up once on the move brimming with feel, the hiss of the dump valve, the pop up headlights (why did they ever stop being a thing?!).

As many of you well know, you have to be very progressive with your throttle inputs as the boost comes on so strong, but once fully lit with the turbo spooled up, it hurls you down the road with savage force. It's exhilarating, involving and a bit scary in a way that modern cars just...aren't, even if a current day hot hatch would no doubt show it a clean pair of heels on a good road, with the advantage of modern brakes, traction control and computer gizmos. I was immediately smitten and felt giddy as a school kid to have one of my favourite ever cars back in my possession. Here are some pics from the drive:

[James Junior]

I was excited at the prospect of having a new and very challenging car to master.

However, my run over the Peaks and some subsequent pottering around revealed some issues that needed attention, the first of which was the suspension.

The car had largely been a show car whilst in Dan's possession, having only covered around 500 miles going to and from a couple of Jap shows, where perhaps unsurprisingly I believe it won some awards.

It was absolutely stunning to look at, but the aggressive stance and rock hard Tein coilovers were not well suited to performance road driving, or even regular use really.

On Snake Pass the car took off over one hump, slamming down with a scrub, bounced again, then scrubbed again all whist doing all of about 50mph! The was a brown trouser moment... The set up was so firm that the car poggoed dramatically over anything other than super smooth tarmac, sometimes shaking you out of the seat! It also bottomed out easily given the very limited clearance between the back wheels and the arch, scrubbing with a wince-inducing scraping sound. This wasn;t just confined to B-road blasts either. It would scrub even on the motorway under full acceleration and whilst pulling out of my local supermark over a patch of rough tarmac. I am a driver first and foremost so a suspension overhaul was marked as the number one priority...

I already had a set of KW V3 coilovers for my 370Z which whilst not cheap, are really good. So I put together a short shopping list with nearby Demon Tweeks who I use for a lot of my performance modifications:

- KW V3 coilovers
- New OEM top mounts
- 15mm spacers for the rear (down from the 20mm as was already fitted)

[craig]

That is a stunning car mate.

[James Junior]

However, with the parts ordered I then hit a busy spell with work and pleasure, squeezing in some professional driving tuition in the Nissan, a long (messy) weekend in Amsterdam, a weekend at Silverstone for Japfest (where Cobra exhausts borrowed the Z as a demo car) a weekend away driving in Wales and then a ten day driving tour of Europe, again in the Nissan. This meant the MR2 sat mostly idle for six weeks or so and the parts sat on the shelf at Demon Tweeks!

The driving tuition was a great experience and to date is the best money and time I have invested into my development as a driver. I cannot recommend it enough - it has made me more aware of my surroundings, smoother in my driving and overall much more confident carrying speed down an unfamiliar road without constantly being on and off the throttle. I used a chap called Mike Cooper and details of his training courses can be found here is anyone is interested:

http://www.drivertuition.com/

Although the tuition was in my 370, the skills are totally transferable to the MR2 (and any other car!) and have given me much more confidence. Here are a couple of pics from my day with Mike:

[James Junior]

Also in and amongst all these shennigans, I was invited to an extended test drive of the new Alfa 4C Spider, as I do some work for my local Alfa dealership and was originally on the waiting list for a 4C coupe. The invite included a plus one, so I invited my mate Lee to come along, being the biggest Alfa nut I know. I also took the MR2 turbo with me, as the two cars have quite a lot in common, despite a 22 year age gap.

The test drives were pretty full on. We were each given a 4C Spider to take for a 15 mile blast around a predetermined route through the Cheshire countryside, with a professional racing instructor sat beside us egging us on!





Driving the 4C and the MR2 back to back was a fascinating comparison, as the two have much more in common than you might think. In fact, I would go so far as to say the 4C could be considered something of a spiritual successor (albiet an Italian one) to the MR2 Turbo.





Both cars share mid mounted engines, both are light weight two seaters, both use small capacity turbocharged 4 cylinder engines to drive the rear wheels... Though whilst the MR2 may lack a carbon tub, it does have pop up headlights, which we all know counts for a lot! Even the interiors of the two cars aren't poles apart... Having driven both however I actually prefer the MR2s cabin!





The 4C was a hoot and very quick out on the road, but in no way did it feel like a come down to get back into the MR2. In a straight line there wasn't actually much to separate the two in terms of performance. On the way back I let my mate Lee have a drive of the MR2 and he was gobsmacked by how quick it was, even coming from his 147 GTA which is not a slow car. In his words: 'this is next level xxxx right here!'.

[James Junior]

I won't bore you with the details of the Welsh and Euro tours as we're mostly here to talk about MR2s (I'll get back to that!), but basically think amazing roads, incredible cars, cameraderie and a lot of hard driving!

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures from Wales:







And the Euro tour:











I would love to take the MR2 on one of these tours, but to be honest I think the way we push the cars and the sheer toll it takes on mechanicals and consumables would not be fair treatment of such a beautiful modern classic. Also its hard enough to hang onto a lot of my fellow tour-mates in my Z given the firepower some of them are packing, let alone in the MR2!

[James Junior]

So anyway, back to the MR2... Whilst I was off hurtling down mountains and getting baked in Amsterdam it had a bit of a rest, whilst the suspension parts continued to gather dust at Demon Tweeks.

I managed a quick drive out one evening to see my friend Gav who breaks MR2s and has a lovely REV1 turbo. His attic is an aladdin's cave of MR2 parts!




Also the MR2 was gaining notoriety amongst my Facebook friends given my relentless blathering about it, so it wasn't long until one of them spotted me out in the wild. He said if the red MR2 wasn't enough of a giveaway the slurping and hissing of the turbo and the BOV sealed the deal!

[James Junior]

Then the day finally came! It was time to go to Demon Tweeks for the suspension refresh. I arrived early in the morning and camped out in their waiting room for 9 hours with my laptop, as it took them all day to take off the old coilovers and top mounts, fit and calibrate the new ones, then set the ride height and carry out the suspenion geo.

I would just like to say that I cannot recommend Demon Tweeks enough. They did me a great deal on price and fitting and the quality of their workshop and their professionalism is to their credit. Last time the Z went in with them there was a classic 911 and a Ferrari 599 in the workshop when I arrived. Always a reassuring sign...

Here are some pics:

[James Junior]

With the new set up on the car and starting to settle, it was time to test it.

Whilst you wouldn't tell from the pics above, we had actually raised the ride height by 10mm all round. The pillow ball top mounts were replaced with OEM rubber ones, hopefully to get rid of a bit of the harshness of the ride, whilst the slimmer spacer on the rear meant we were able to set the car up to have a less aggressive camber at the rear, hopefully helping traction and reducing uneven tyre wear. Well, a bit anyway! It's still pretty extreme!

At first I just had chance to test it on the motorway on the way home and the car immediately felt better - more planted and better damped, with less hopping around.

However, the next day when I drove across country in it on some rougher roads, the ride seemed really harsh. It was almost as bad as the Teins! My girlfriend is usually pretty cool about me p1$$ing money up the wall on my cars and doesn't get involved, but even she remarked 'so you've paid money to have the suspension done and this is how its supposed to be?!'

Fair point my love.

Then I had a brain wave. The KW V3s are adjustable in a number of ways, including rebound which is altered by using a little tool that you use to tighten or loosten a dial on the top of the suspension struts. I lifted the frunk and the bonnet and found all the struts were easily accessible. It took all of about five minutes to realise that the rebound was turned up almost to maximum, so I turned this right down to around 20%.

I set off again and the car was instantly much better. More composed and soaking up the lumps and bumps in the road in a much more controlled way. Result!

[James Junior]

Right, thats me out for this evening before I go cross eyed. I have some more pics and mods to list which I will put up later this week and then plenty more in the pipeline.

I hope my ramblings are at least of interest to some. If not at least there are plenty of pretty pictures for you to skim through!

At the very least this is a nice way for me to chronicle my journey with the car as I begin to put my own slant on it, whilst building on the amazing platform Dan has passed on to me.

So happy to be back in MR2 ownership and back on IMOC. I am pretty booked up the rest of the show season, but will be sure to join you next year for Jap Fest when it comes around again.

[pistol pete]

Awesome write up..mwell done

Epic car lovely!

Enjoyed that read

[shane34]

Fantastic read, glad your suspension is sorted I could only imagine the thoughts running through the head when it was a harsh ride.

Looking forward to some updates

[JLW]

Brilliant write up mate, enjoyed reading that.
nice to see such a clean Mister 2.

I understand how you feel with the road setup,
I had Abbey Motorsport sort my geo on my Meister R zeta R's
last year as soon as I bought the car and it improved the road feel immensely.
however it wasn't until I started playing with the rebound and dampening
settings that it became much more UK "road friendly"

Keep up the updates

[James Junior]

Thanks for your kind comments chaps. Glad my ramblings are of interest. You never know when you are writing this stuff if anyone will actually be interested or if you are sending people to sleep!

[Rob66]

Great looking car, fabulous write up really enjoyed reading how you have improved the car even further. I am hankering after a turbo now.

[James Junior]

So with the suspension improved, it was time to address the exhaust situation. I think the outgoing system was a Japspeed. It was okay at full chat when pressing on, but was very boomy and made your ears ring at certain points in the rev range, with a particular talent for droning badly when sat cruising at 70mph on the motorway. Upon starting the car on a hot day with both windows down it created some sort of weird sound chamber sonic boom that made your head feel like it was going to explode!

I already had a Cobra system on the Z which I was very pleased with. Cobra obviously were too, as they asked to borrow the car as a demonstrator on their stand at Japfest earlier this year! Loads of people came over to have a good listen as I revved it up on the stand and Kirstie and I both got in the spirit of it, decked out in some sweet Cobra merch!







I talked to the Cobra guys on stand about the MR2 and they said they would build me a system to my requirements and look after me on price, so finally got around to taking the beast from the east to Sheffield last Friday.

The outgoing exhaust looked okay and I quite liked the twin back box design, but wasn't overly keen on the skinny rim of the tips. Als because they came out at an angle they were creating a build up of carbon deposits on the edges of the GReddy spats as they were almost touching. When we got the car up in the air too, the technician pointed out that the flexi was battered where it had been catching due to the car being so low and scrubbing on speed bumps. He also explained that a dual back box system can often create unwanted drone compared to a single back box.











So, I specced my exhaust. I told the Cobra guys that I wanted something not too loud, with no drone or boominess, that was quiet when pottering about, but sounded aggressive when driven in anger.

They recommended a smaller single back box to achieve the sound profile I wanted. They also found that the Japspeed had a pinch point in the system where the diameter suddenly got smaller where it was mated with the Y-pipe. Obviously this was impeding air flow, so said they would improve on this ensuring the new system kept the same diameter all the way through. They also advised that they would raise the new flexi pipe more so that it sat as flush with the underside of the car as possible to help prevent it catching again. I chose some 4.5" double rolled tips with a diagonal slash to complete the look, but as it was hard to tell how they would look prior to fitting, I asked them to fit them with adjustors, as this would enable me to change them for different tips later if I decided I didn't like the.

[James Junior]

So, after camping out in Cobra's (pretty plush) customer waiting room with my laptop for five hours, they called me through to show me the finished article!

These were the tips I chose - 4.5" double rolled with a diagonal slash. Was hoping they wouldn't look too lairy as I like all my modifications to look OEM+.



And here is a close up of one on the car:



New single back box looked tiny from under the car compared to the pair of bazookas that had been removed:



Nice shiny new flexi tucked right up close to the underside of the car:



A few of the system from low down:





And one from above:



And here is the finished article! Looks classy and subtle I reckon. Really pleased with how it looks: