Contemplating selling up

[Raf]

Think you've got it bad? Check this:-

My mate Jim spent 3 years and £20 grand building his 5.7 V8 Spitfire

http://www.madspit.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Got it all finished except for the bonnet and a bit of paintwork, magazines begging him for a feature....caught fire on the M25 and totally trashed the interior/half the bodywork/& a fair bit under the bonnet ...£6k or so to repair, insurance paid out £4.5k.

He's sticking with it - not sure if I could, but this does sorta come with the territory!

think thats bad.... i had a scooby for a very short while, all was well until i fitted an air filter, it knackered one MAF sensor; broke down on the way to Leeds, fitted a new one and all is well again. then it breaks down again in the Asda carpark , couldnt start it but by the time the RAC arrived it fired up, a day later i break down on the motorway ; guess what, the new MAF sensor is gone!!! was told that its because of the air filter so i took that out and fitted the standard box as well as a new MAF sensor. drove okay for about a week then it gave up on me for the last time; again on the motorway but this time it was the fuel pump. All this happened in winter (flippin freezin) and over the space of 1.5 -2 months! I sold it straight after fitting a new pump!... even the RAC were threatening me and thought i was taking the p!ss!

but thats it- some people have the will power to press on and not let things get them down- others (like me) easily get frustrated; i did a simple air filter change and thats as far as i got!

If i was in geoff's mates shoes (dude with the spit fire =D> ) i would have probably just give up hope on the M25 and walked into the path of a truck!

I say press on- its obviously your territory!

[MR2Mania]

My opinion is as warranted as anybody elses,unfortunetly your opinions seem to get aired alot more than mosts

Everyone's opinion counts, peeps.

[GROUPHUG]Come on, let's not squabble![/GROUPHUG]

[Stu Wilson]

Steve,

Heart says: Must build hybrid MR2 which will blast down 1/4 mile like Starship Enterprise and p1$$ on racing GT3's round track.
Ckuff the expense.

Head says: Need car to travel to and from work and to meet clients at their offices so must be reliable,never give trouble.Should I use my MR2?

You're an accountant.

Go figure.

Sorry.

P.S.

JJ----A Honda Accord!!!

You are now mentally older than I am physically.

[mikewright]

i know exactly how you feel steve - mines been in pieces for a year or more now and it should have been finished last month but wasn't and now it's just dragging on and on. Soon though it will be done and all that hassle will finally be worth it [-o<

[Bender Unit]

Steve if you could stretch for it buy a pug 205 diesel and run it on vegatable oil - IIRC even with duty paid to use it as a fuel it works out as 21p a litre and will cost balls all to run. Then you can keep the Mr2 and park the 205 in some side street safe in the knowledge that no one would bother to touch it. I am planning to do this for a laugh - super cheap motoring! As your an accountant it would also look very frugal in the eyes of the clients you visit to turn up in a car powered by your local chippie! lol

Job done, happy days and keep the daft money pit Mr2 for fun ...

[Lauren]

My opinion is as warranted as anybody elses,unfortunetly your opinions seem to get aired alot more than mosts

No, no its not. That wasn't my opinion I was merely referring to the forum posting rules that is all. The poster in question responded and amended his posts, with no problem and wasn't upset a all. I'm not quite sure where your 'opinion' comes into it at all.

[craig]

My opinion is as warranted as anybody elses,unfortunetly your opinions seem to get aired alot more than mosts

No, no its not. That wasn't my opinion I was merely referring to the forum posting rules that is all. The poster in question responded and amended his posts, with no problem and wasn't upset a all. I'm not quite sure where your 'opinion' comes into it at all.

ONCE MORE FOR TIME THE HEARING IMPAIRED

[GROUPHUG]Come on, let's not squabble![/GROUPHUG]

[Dale_V]

[GROUPHUG]Come on, let's not squabble![/GROUPHUG]

no thanks

[craig]

[GROUPHUG]Come on, let's not squabble![/GROUPHUG]

no thanks

I meant Bry and Lauren

[senie]

Steve,

Sorry to hear your distress. I can imagine what your going through as i had serious probs with my FTO, but 5 grand spent in 8 months and im almost there (still a s**t car i know). The smile is almost back on my face and will be in a couple more days.

Financially, as your an accountant, you must have realised that if you buy a s2k, its gonna depreciate roughly by what youve probably put into the '2 each year. Plus you'll have higher parts costs.

I know what u mean about turning up to clients houses in suped up car. it doesnt give the right impression all the time, but, whats to stop you getting a cheap runaround that looks smart eg old MB or BMW, and as others have said park that on the side street at night.

Chin up ol' chap and we will all look forward to seeing you represent us at TOTB!

[Bry]

My opinion is as warranted as anybody elses,unfortunetly your opinions seem to get aired alot more than mosts

I'm not quite sure where your 'opinion' comes into it at all.

[Bry]

[GROUPHUG]Come on, let's not squabble![/GROUPHUG]

no thanks

I meant Bry and Lauren

I'll pass on that one

[Quigonjay]

just out of interest steve, what sort of power do you expect you would be putting out if you where to put all these parts together?
Jay

P.S. DONT DO IT

[ENSMR2]

I think he's aiming at 400rwbhp.

[JJ]

JJ----A Honda Accord!!!

You are now mentally older than I am physically.

Bah ! I didn' think it was engineeringly possible to have such a quiet engine !!

I too need something to runaround in.. perhaps up and down the country soon... hence the boat purchase !

Radio 4's not that bad these days !!

[stevecordiner]

Cheers for all the words of encouragment chaps. I still dont know what to do. The price on an S2k didnt come back as low as I'd hoped, so now I'm still unsure what to do lol.

As for what power all those parts will give. Well, I was aiming for around 400rwhp + nitrous. Though it will be a very peaky power band, e.g. everything starts at 4500rpm and then goes to 8k.

[Quigonjay]

Steve, if you are after your car still being a daly driver and need a bit of reliability, have you thought about going down a different road? ie - a bit less power at the wheels and a bigger shot of nos? (could maybe recoup a bit of money through selling some parts then)
You seem like a very sensible guy so i imagine you wouldnt be using all that power all the time anyway (if you did have 400+atrw). Some people would say 'yeh but thats cheating, its not real power' and all that but if your intention is to use all that power on the dragstrip only then does it matter? and on top of that isnt it true that a 300bhp car with a 200 shot of nos would be quicker on the strip than a car with a 'natural' 500 bhp?
Hope i'm not just talking rubbish but the thing is, i have been using the imoc for over a year now and for me (considering the spec) your car is one of the most eagerly awaited builds that i have been waiting to see 'destroy all' on the strip. How did it feel last year when you did that 12.6 with a hell of a lot less mods than you have now? how do you think it will feel blasting JJ of the top of the tree with 11.6? 10.6? fastest mr2 in britain?
Sorry for such a long post (especially if anyones bothered to read it all, lol) but mate, if you chuck it in, it can only have a detramental effect on the imoc, by that i mean people may look at this situation and think that if a guy who has put so much effort/money/blood/sweat/tears into building his dream machine and then chuck it in when he is so close, then maybe its not really worth it after all, see what i'm getting at?
Mate, be an inspiration to us all and finish that dream that you had all those years ago, please
Jay

[stevecordiner]

Lol ... kind words but at the end of the day its up to everyone else to do what they want to do ... haha ... dont put the blame of other people racking up debt onto me.

Yes, dont get me wrong I'd love to be tearing down the drag way pulling 11's - but after a couple of goes my CV joints will break (probably) if other high powered drag MR2's are anything to go by.

Then I'll need to import ATS cv upgrades and get them fitted - another £300-400 quid once fitted. I'll also see that my brakes will be becoming not up to the job for slowing me down from hard acceleration, so I'll need a hi spec brake kit - another £800, but alas they wont fit under my wheels, so I'll need to buy some big wheels too with good tyres - another £1,000. Then for improving 1/4 times still further I'll want a set of drag tyres - £135 each for MT's and a set of drag wheels say £100 each, oh and a line lock setup £200. By which time I'll be launching like a demon and I'll be snapping engine mounts or a roll cage might be useful, or I'll kill my clutch and I'll need yet another clutch etc etc. Do you see what I'm saying ... it wont end after I get it on the dyno and produce big hp because I want to use it with anger. Even if I'm not thrashing everywhere it'll still be getting used hard.

In the past 8 months I'll have used 3 different clutches and 2 different gearboxes and thats just off low power levels of around 300 at the wheels on street tyres. Not to mention I've to replace my driveshafts as well.

I can afford to build a very high horsepower MR2, but whether I can afford to maintain and use it how I'd like I dont know. I wouldnt want a very high hp car that I cant use the way I'd wish.

As soon as you dont maintain a car like that or get a bit lax it can become very very expensive, very quickly.

Steve

[MR2Mania]

Steve, some very good points there. Not many people realise the expense of maintaining a beast that will be dragged regularly!

For example, a lot of people see the results that the Fensport boys are getting, but don't realise that:
1) Adrian's car is pretty much a drag monster only (sure, he drives it and from events, but he no longer is interested in trackday stuff)
2) they rebuild their engines quite regularly (LOT's of money!)
3) things do break, even when you're using the very best components. Adrian is having problems with gearboxes, blocks, etc

My friend Ian Ashton is actually trying to decide what to do himself with regards to his monster. As some may know, that's a monster 600bhp ST205 GT4. He's able to get consistent low 11s, and that's only at 1.6bar (plenty more to come if he has it set up to 2bar+).

HOWEVER, he's now wondering whether it's sane to have a car of that spec because he can't use it on track (and that's with 4wd!). He's either thinking of "downgrading" the spec, so that it's more tractable for track use, or selling up altogether. He doesn't want to get into the scenario of spending loads of money to keep it going in the current spec just to do drag stuff, as he only fell into drag stuff by accident (he just wanted to see what it could do acceleration wise!). In his own words, "I don't want to start having to replace gearboxes, driveshafts and diffs every other event just so that I can tear up a strip".

Mate, with regards to getting a practical everyday car that's still reasonably smart to be seen by clients in, why not go for a TDi of some kind as James suggests, but maybe a Golf/Audi/Seat version? Sure, they're still holding their money, but at least you know you can just jump in, turn the key and go, and you'll be getting good mileage out of it. Then, you can still realise your goals with the MR2, and actually drive it just for enjoyment, rather than be stuck in some traffic jam in it.

[stevecordiner]

Lol ... I bet a few of Fensports cars are company cars that get tax relief on the parts and VAT back on them too. Which makes the cost considerably cheaper for the scale they do it on.

I've got an interview on monday which might see me get a decent salary increase. I'm just going to assess it over the next few weeks and see how I feel after my holiday

I like to use my cars the way they're intended, I dont just want a dyno queen.

Lol ... just done a scary calculation. Petrol, insurance, road tax, drag racing entry fee's, nitrous, repairs and mods - in the last 12 months I've averaged over £1,000 per month on my car hahaha