Suspension & 19's

[jonb-]

Sticking 19" rims on a sports car

That's one of the stupider comments i've seen here. Go and buy a porsche, tell me what sizes wheels you get and tell me if it handles like a sports car.

Sure, you can get 19s on the 2 with coilovers and if you were REALLY smart you'd setup the ride so it wasn't as awful as everyone makes out (i'm starting to wonder how many people have actually driven the same MR2 on 18+ back to back with stock wheels). Lets face it, if you want to go fast buy some stock wheels and use them on trackdays.

For the record my 18s actually ride better for the most part than my stock 15s (and yes, i swap them around alot because i'm a loser) as the increased circumference rides road changes better. There's no less roadholding, just the grip is a little more difficult to exploit due to muted feedback but if i'm getting to that point on a public road it's not just my life i'm risking and should probably reconsider my driving style.

Just my 2psi.

[Driftlimits Performance]

I've driven a car with 18's, coilovers, the works. It's damn right bumpy.
Annoyinglyso.

handling is a slightly different matter. when i'm driving with my 17s on a nice surface it feels flatter and more stable than the 15s. but again, more factors come into it such as width etc.

Do it. put 19's on. Just don't say we didn't warn ya!

ohohoh, and your speedo will be way out. I much doubt you can put tyres on 19's that retain the stock rolling radius.

[jimGTS]

ohohoh, and your speedo will be way out. I much doubt you can put tyres on 19's that retain the stock rolling radius.

and if you cant, acceleration will slower as well. (another downside obviously).

[thai boxer]

I've got 18's on my rev2 Tubby mate, still handles damn well and the ride is fine, quite hard yes, but you get a better feel for the road Marks on 17's and Andi is on 16's and their rides are still hard!! Wheel size doesn't make that much difference, its the suspension that determins the ride quality.

19's with the right kit will look amazing. Go for it!!

Don't listen to the others.....they know nut tin!!

[MarkP.]

Jonno modded the front so he could fit 255's on the front. Not 19's!

Jonno moved his standard spring seat up on the strut.Thats what he asked in his first question,if it was possible.And i think Jonno's running a 235 up front.
Mark.

[MarkP.]

Mark P, did you have coil overs? How low will they go?

Yes mate i had coilovers,not sure how low i went just kept screwing them down till it looked right.

[Harry]

.......like martin luther king said i had a dream....

[drew3555]

And back onto the ferrari kit thing.

You know a bad ferrari kit will look SHOCKINGLY bad if EVERYTHING isn't done. Ie, boot, wings, dash, and even more of a pain, is moving the headlights forward.

For the effort and money it's worth, you'll never get the result you want IMHO.

sorry, just my 2psi

I am using an Extreme kit. The only part of the mr2 that is still visible is the glass and the roof skin.

This is considered the best kit available & the panels were moulded from a genuine car. There are some mods to allow it to fit onto the mr2 such as the slightly longer tail behind the rear wheel and the screen shape but otherwise its exactly as enzo intended it. The lights are moved forward but full brackets and mounts are provided making it one of the simpler jobs in the build.

I have been in the kit car scene for about 10 years now & its the kits that bring me to the mr2 / 406coupe etc not the other way around. I know exactly which areas need attention & where you can get away with standard toyota.

Like I said 19's on a standard mr2 could suggest a max power type car. 19's on a ferrari replica do not look out of place. The standard 18's are the very minimum that should be fitted and 17's just dont look right. Many of the genuines are putting 20's on & they look perfectly reasonable. I just want a slightly larger than genuine look & the 19's are only 1" larger than the ferrari 18s.

I will let you decide when its finished. Like I said before, dont humour me, tell me exactly what you think. BUt wait until you actually see it - dont assume & group the extreme kit with some of the sh1te half ar$ed kits that are out there.

Just getting back to the topic, did jonno actually re-weld the original spring seats onto the shock body or did he weld a spacer and a fresh spring seat above the original? I thought that welding to the shock body would knacker the shock??

[MarkP.]

He used early revision rebuildable struts and Koni inserts,this way you can reweld the spring mount further up without damaging the shock or the risk of the shock exploding!Instead of using a 40mm lowering spring he used a 60 thus moving the spring seat up 20mm.

[RichardPON]

Sticking 19" rims on a sports car

That's one of the stupider comments i've seen here. Go and buy a porsche, tell me what sizes wheels you get and tell me if it handles like a sports car.

Except that the Porsche is designed around its wheel size, and often with a specific manufacturer tyre in mind. They also have multi-million pound r&d and test facilities that enable their engineers to extract the best all round compromise, whilst retaining the sports car angle.

Take for example, the E46 M3. 19s available as an option, but reported to ride and handle better on the standard 18s.

However, since the fitting of aftermarket wheels and moving up sizes is often at the expense of ride/value etc (which is not something modifiers worry about), then that's fine. There is of course the possibility of going too far.........

[Mikejc]

Sticking 19" rims on a sports car

That's one of the stupider comments i've seen here. Go and buy a porsche, tell me what sizes wheels you get and tell me if it handles like a sports car.

Except that the Porsche is designed around its wheel size, and often with a specific manufacturer tyre in mind. They also have multi-million pound r&d and test facilities that enable their engineers to extract the best all round compromise, whilst retaining the sports car angle.

Take for example, the E46 M3. 19s available as an option, but reported to ride and handle better on the standard 18s.

However, since the fitting of aftermarket wheels and moving up sizes is often at the expense of ride/value etc (which is not something modifiers worry about), then that's fine. There is of course the possibility of going too far.........

A good point well made and one I would have made the effort to make myself if I thought some would have a hard time reading in between the lines in the first place!

The MR2 MKII was designed around the 15" rim. If you have a good look at the max size people choose to fit you will see that it is in fact 17", and for good reason! You can only take things so far before they become pear shaped

Mikejc

[Peter Gidden]

The MR2 MKII was designed around the 15" rim. If you have a good look at the max size people choose to fit you will see that it is in fact 17", and for good reason! You can only take things so far before they become pear shaped

Agreed, which is why i love my forged 16"s.

[juliankv73]

The MR2 MKII was designed around the 15" rim. If you have a good look at the max size people choose to fit you will see that it is in fact 17", and for good reason! You can only take things so far before they become pear shaped

Agreed, which is why i love my forged 16"s.

Ive personally have had 16"s, 17"s and then back to 15"s.

But must say my best set up so far has been my current alloys: -
16"s front and 17"s rear - all lightweight Weds Racing forged alloys

[jonb-]

The MR2 MKII was designed around the 15" rim. If you have a good look at the max size people choose to fit you will see that it is in fact 17", and for good reason! You can only take things so far before they become pear shaped

Mikejc

The MR2 geometry was designed around the 15" wheel but we ruined that with the lowering. Fortunately coilover units can give us enough adjustment via various methods to wear 18s and not suffer to much for daily driving.

In my defense my original comment was aimed at the "sports cars with 19s how stupid", NOT "mr2 with 19s how stupid". There's a difference.

I still think there's too much sheeping on these forums ie people relaying information most people assume to be true but only a few actually know but that's a topic for another day.

[Mikejc]

I still think there's too much sheeping on these forums ie people relaying information most people assume to be true but only a few actually know but that's a topic for another day.[/quote]

If you are trying to say that I am one of these said sheep Jon you are way off buddy!? I have tried many set up's to date on one MKII or another and I can tell you from first hand experience that I know my onions regarding the old 18"rim debate regarding 2's. I could also point you in the direction of a good few others who are well known for having tried 18" rims only to come fall circle.

The biggest problem with running them is just how limiting it is regarding tyre sizes. Rolling radius is one of the many things to suffer hear let alone the obvious problems of substandard handling thaat comes with running over sized rims!

Mikejc

[jonb-]

Not aimed at you mike, just a vent in general.

I've 18s sitting behind me at the moment as i've had the 15s on the past few weeks, enjoying the driving but not so keen on the look

[EarL]

Hmmm... MR2 on 19's. Not a bad idea....



...if you want to plough fields.

[Pete J]

Must say my car drives better on my 15's, but the 18's are just fine 99% of the time. As mentioned earlier, its when your really pushing hard that you feel safer on the 15's, because of the feedback they give. Of course, when you have 2 sets of wheels to hand you can change them for a trackday or when you fancy a change.

The worse thing about 18's is dammed pot-holes and man hole covers. If you dont spot one in time, you get out expecting to see square wheels

[Bobby (aka Shaggar)]

At the end of the day mate you've now got the opinions stacked up and only you can make the right decision. If you're going to build a car which spends most of its time at shows adn not much else then no harm done but if, like many of us here, you like to 'really' enjoy driving your car as it was meant to then 19"'s are NOT the way to go.

The whole point of a forum like this is to pull together experience and knowledge and right now it's not saying 19s. Me? I'd say go for 17s all round typically though if you can swallow the extra cost get 17s front 18s rear although in Japan they tend to get raced a lot amongst the privateers with 16s front 17s rear.

had to mention it but 355 kits make no point to me. Not douting the quality of your work but why be a pretender using a very capable and very regarded sports car? Am i missing something here, why say "look at me I've got a pretender/fake/cheap copy of something I cant afford"?????????

If its your bag then have fun , just doesn't make sense to me when anyone in the know knows what an MR2 is. Why get respect for a lie?

Bobby

[Harry]

Must say my car drives better on my 15's, but the 18's are just fine 99% of the time. As mentioned earlier, its when your really pushing hard that you feel safer on the 15's, because of the feedback they give. Of course, when you have 2 sets of wheels to hand you can change them for a trackday or when you fancy a change.

The worse thing about 18's is dammed pot-holes and man hole covers. If you dont spot one in time, you get out expecting to see square wheels

... =D>