Mk1/A or Mk1/B

[Damen]

My car is registered Aug 1987 so is there an easy way I can spot if its the newer one or the older one.. did I read somewhere that the older ones handle better?
Also what are the front brake disc diameters? Thanks!

[Lauren]

If your car is August 87 it will be a later car.

It is reasonably easy to tell tbh:

Later cars had all colour coding, sideskirts, horizontal strakes on the engine vent rather than the 'double vent' of the earlier cars.

Later cars typically either had blue or black seats which are all one colour.

Earlier cars had dual coloured seats with the center and shoulder panels matching the colour of the car.

To save me writing an essay have a look at this:


http://www.challoner.com/mr2/tech/mk1bg.html

HTH

[PW@Woodsport]

can i just add to that lauren,we have found out theres a 3rd revision that falls exactly on year 87 as they were changing from early to late....these cars are a mixed up hybrid of mk1a and b as they must have been using up the last of the early parts on the new late shells.

87 cars include late shells with early engines,late spec air filter trunking (but no plastic resonator in the engine bay or provision for it),some have early interiors and an odd few have early brakes.Ive even found that some later 87's (oct-dec) have late engines fitted to late shells but have early 40mm crankshafts fitted to them! but these late engines sometimes have early ecu and early injectors fitted.Talk about scrounging from the parts bin!

The answer is theres 3 revisions,mk1a 85-86,an 87 hybrid year and from 88-89 mk1b.....thats not to say that some 87 cars may be total late spec with no early parts at all.Its safe to say the last of the "pure" mk1a's finished in 86.

If i could find a really good one id have an early car everytime,way lighter,handle better,and have a more aggressively and finer mapped ecu so the early cars are noticeably faster than the lates.

[Lauren]

can i just add to that lauren,we have found out theres a 3rd revision that falls exactly on year 87 as they were changing from early to late....these cars are a mixed up hybrid of mk1a and b as they must have been using up the last of the early parts on the new late shells.

87 cars include late shells with early engines,late spec air filter trunking (but no plastic resonator in the engine bay or provision for it),some have early interiors and an odd few have early brakes.Ive even found that some later 87's (oct-dec) have late engines fitted to late shells but have early 40mm crankshafts fitted to them! but these late engines sometimes have early ecu and early injectors fitted.Talk about scrounging from the parts bin!

The answer is theres 3 revisions,mk1a 85-86,an 87 hybrid year and from 88-89 mk1b.....thats not to say that some 87 cars may be total late spec with no early parts at all.Its safe to say the last of the "pure" mk1a's finished in 86.

If i could find a really good one id have an early car everytime,way lighter,handle better,and have a more aggressively and finer mapped ecu so the early cars are noticeably faster than the lates.

Yes that is true Paul, though by august 87 the cars seem to be into the later spec. I had a May 1987 car which had all the late spec stuff, including the resonator. It did have blue cam covers (if that means anything).

I do agree though 87 was a funny year for MK1s. Hopefully he will be able to work it out via the buyers guide as that has some detials as to what differences there are etc.

[DevaMR2]

My car is an October 87 model which has the later body bits on it but does have a blue top engine. I'm going to count the ribs on the block (as per other thread earlier this week) later to find out exactly what I've got!?!?

[PW@Woodsport]

deva has it got white square top injectors (early)or pink more rounded topped injectors(late)? ive found this to be a general rule of thumb to determine if you have a late or early engine,there's very few exceptions to that although it seems anything goes when it comes to an 87 car.

[DevaMR2]

Hi Paul, they are the white square-ish ones.
As a matter of interest then, if I'm ordering parts for what appears to be one of these hybrids, how are you meant to know whether to order parts for a mk1a or mk1b? For example it seems if my engine looks like an earlier one but thats not to say my brakes are from an early one. Very confused...

Thanks,

Andy

[Lauren]

Hi Paul, they are the white square-ish ones.
As a matter of interest then, if I'm ordering parts for what appears to be one of these hybrids, how are you meant to know whether to order parts for a mk1a or mk1b? For example it seems if my engine looks like an earlier one but thats not to say my brakes are from an early one. Very confused...

Thanks,

Andy

It could well be like my old May 87 car, which i think had an early engine, but everything else was late spec on it.

A good guess would say everything else is likely to late spec tbh. If all the obvious things like bodykit, interior, airfilter location etc conform to late spec i would say that your brakes, suspenders etc are likely to be late spec. A lot of parts are interchangeable between the revisions anyway so its not a mega problem.

Using your chassis number and trim codes from the VIN plates should alleviate most problems and at the worst you'll only order the wrong size discs once won't you?

Seriously though, HTH

Lauren

[DevaMR2]

Cheers Lauren.

It's in for a service at the weekend so hopefully any parts they need to order can be identified by the VIN hopefully, like you said .

Andy