Yesterday, 18 months after buying my Roadster, I finally made my own mark on it, pesonalised it after all the great work the previous two owners did, Ive added to it, tastefully, hopefully! And made it mine
I must admit that the look of the MR2 Mk3 Roadster never quite gelled with me, I was a thoroughbred Mk2 owner, until a cold November day in 2006 when I was in invited on MR2 Only Magazine business to attend a MR2ROC Mk3 mega meet and dyno run, coupled with a chance to go out on Silverstone circuit in Silverstone Performance
(The host) 240bhp TTE turbo powered Roadster, a truly inspirational day, not only did I see some great tuning and styling options for the Mk3, but experienced turbo power in a mk3, that day little did I know it but I met the car that Id become the owner of in less than a years time.Following on from that day SP invited us back to take their SP240 out for the morning, to photoshoot for a feature, I took along my colleague Simon Skinner, akin to track driving, and being a Triumph designer, he appreciated the technical side of what was making this SP240 drive and handle like it had rolled out of the Toyota factory.
It was a cold damp morning when we lapped up the twisty Northampton A and B roads, but even with a 100hp hike in power, the little Roadster felt planted to the ground, any momentary loss of grip from the rear, could be easily rectified with a turn of the wheel, and a blip of the throttle, I was hooked, I was more than hooked, I wanted one.2007 was a rubbish year, change of job and the addition of company car, allured me to the darkside, trading in my much loved caribean blue anniversary Mk2 for a black GTS turbo, although steeped with history, little did I know this car was to become the bain of my life, an absolute money pit.
JAE 2007 saw my Tubby return on an AA truck, an ignition and overboosting problem had broke the ring landings on two pistons and scored the bore
guttedBad timing as Id handed the company car back in favour of a wage rise, so I had to commandeer the stripped out MR2 Only Mag Mk1 AW11 for my daily ride, before buying a
£300 wonder mk2, until October 2007, on the MR2ROC a little turbo powered silver Roadster was for sale that Id seen a year previously at that meet, at this same time Id been talking to Gaspar from Budapest about buying his C2 powered 400hp monster, black one, seen on Youtube embarrassing a Lamborghini
only put off by it being left hand drive.After very little persuading, I struck a deal, and headed by train to London, bankers draft in hand, returning home with 220hp powered Mk3, that was it, I was hooked, the Mk3 had all the nimbleness of the mk1, but better, it actually made the mk2 feel like a boat, the next few months were spent enjoying the car, daily ride, and weekend fun, even cold winter days, heaters on, bobble hat and fleece, hardcore Roadster owner!
In 2008 I hooked up with the original owner of my car, Dan
(Ekona) and got hold of lots of info about the original turbo conversion, kind of cheating really, me buying a car thats already done.2008 saw my engine rebuilt for the mk2, forged, and for a month, I owned both mk2 and Mk3 turbo, in perfect harmony, but in the back of my mind, owning two two seater turbos was not ideal, and deep down one of them would have to go, and after many for and againsts, the mk3 won on pure fun factor, it was the mk2 that would be going, however fate played a hand in my chance, my expensive forged engine developed a catastrophic fault starving itself of oil, wrecking big end, main bearings and crankshaft, sending swarf up the bore enoughs enough, Id lost heart, the engine was removed and stripped, the expensive after market parts removed and sold, rolling shell sold, engine stripped and sold, expensive lesson learned.
Summer 2008 saw my second house move in a year, the last of my bits from the mk2 sold, and by now the Roadster was getting a bit weary from the winter, and my journey to and from work being a speed hump nightmare, so with some of the funds recouped from the mk2
I purchased an Audi 2.8 Quattro daily hack and towing car after some great advice by MR2ROC admin and fellow Mk3 turbo owner Ste Pittey, the Roadster limped over to Charlesworths for an overhaul. The main reason for the overhaul was to cure a re-curring problem once and for all, the motion of the turbo had pulled out and snapped the pins between the turbo and manifold twice, opening up the gasket, so Ste and Steve from Charlesworths stripped it all down, and fabricated a swanky brace to keep the turbo firmly secured to the block, whilst stripping down more problems came to light, the undermounted intercooler was pretty much hanging on by its pipework
(thanks to Staffordshire County Council Speed humps) and the exhaust was also hanging together just about.
Ste stripped and cleaned the engine bay meticulously, and Charlesworth simplified the exhaust system, re-routing the exit to the other side, still keeping the sports cat, and fabricated another bracing support hanger to keep the system firmly in place, and everything was coated red to look nice.
The workmanship was second to none, Ste put a lot of his own time into my car, for which I am eternally grateful.Having collected the car I could once again enjoy the grin factor of Mk3 handling and Turbo power, albeit on nice sunny days, not the daily commute.
Funds were low for the remainder of the year, having suffered some serious financial loss on the mk2 engine rebuild. I did take along the Mk3 to an MR2OC dyno day, where the car made 209hp on the rollers, first run, 11hp down on its mapping 3 years previous, 2nd run aborted because of high charge temps, but Im sure it makes more power on the road with more cool air flowing under the car through the intercooler.
2009
a new era, I finally make my mark on the carNothing wrong with the head unit in the car, but with the car standing a lot, the battery was weakening, and with the power drain, the wind down part of the Sony head unit jammed half way, so a bit of Chrismas fundage was spent on a new Alpine head unit with Ipod link, ideal! Oh and eventually a new battery was fitted.
My MR2 Only mag colleague Mark Thorpe became Mk3 owner, and between us we bounced wheelage ideas off each other, its taken me 18 months to choose a set of wheels for the Roadster, as Im not a big fan of aftermarket wheels, although from the magazine one car has always stood out for me, white mk3, green Rota grids, this was the future, and with thanks to Rare Rims, ordered lunchtime Tues, delivered before 10am next day, a set of gunmetal grey with polished rim 16x7 front, and 17x7.5 rears arrived, and Toyo Proxy T1Rs ordered and delivered from Mike at Camskill.
Saturday morning could not come around too soon, and 8.30am I was on the phone to my friend at Hot Lane Tyres to see if he had time to fit them, I was in luck! 9.30am back home and itching to go down to the basement and put them on the car, after keeping Lisa happy by vacuuming the lounge, a small price to pay for a day of car indulgence! By lunchtime the wheels are fitted, and its looking good, just the look I wanted from the car, subtle, not too Max Power, which compliments the GB Toyota kit and TRD spoiler, and black hard top, I did have thoughts about getting the gunmetal resprayed gloss black, but having fitted them Im not so sure now.
Along with the wheels some of my bracing had arrive, a front strut brace from Che, which was quickly fitted with a little help from my brother Andy and looked superb, along with FMB, and RMB that I cannot fit until Ive ordered some new droplinks as they were not going to come off.
I also received a breast plate from Corky, I took the car out for a little test drive, even with only breast plate and front strut brace the car felt even more planted, not going to mad with bedding the new tyres in.
BUT, the car finally feels like its mine, having made my mark on it!
Ive much more planned for the car in the near future, mainly on the handling side, Im going to fit a rear strut brace, under floor bracing, and the FMB and RMB once I get around to buying new drop links.
Im looking to achieve the factory feel to the SP240. Id like to thank Ste Pittey and Steve from Charlesworths for their work on my Roadster, my friends Mark Thorpe, and Ally MacFarlaine for their ideas along the last 18 months, MR2 ROC, Spyderchat and MR2OC for much inspiration, my brother for the help, and mum and dad, and Lisa for listening to my whinging, and time spent messing with MR2s.Highlight of this year has to be the MR2ROC road trip to Corfu myself and Lisa have enlisted ourselves on, which will no doubt be featured later in the year, in MR2 Only Magazine.
Here are the photos I took yesterday, first shots taken with my new Nikon DSLR, I have a lot to learn!
