Go guide to beginner MR2 owners

[mr2driver]

Many new owners of MR2 are alwas ready to make there car "faster". Though most just think
intake and exhaust are what they want to go "fast". Yes intake and headers will increase horse power but by little margins. From my own experience i see to many new owners of MR2s and not just limited to MR2 go into performance shops and ask for more power. Though more "power" does not nessicerly youll be faster. To be "fast" most knowledge able racers drop down there money on; suspension, brakes, and tires. Again these 3 aspects will make you go "faster" tho non give any horse power gains. yes i said it NO horse power gains. Now sum of you will stop reading this cause you only want more power and you wonder why come autox day your car is running slow times.

SUSPENSION: it can lower car giving you a lower center of gravity. it also minimizes roll, sqaut, and nose drive. (which by the way are not good): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_%28vehicle%29

BRAKES: having betting brakes allow you to brake later before you enter the turn, therefor theres more time on the throttle then on the brakes. In addition bigger calipers offer better cooling which reduces glazing on the pads.

TIRES: IMO one of the most important things you can buy for a car. it impoving all aspects of the cars performance. inables you to accerate harder, turn harder, and yes brake harder.

Now if you still with me your saying to your self where are sum good wedsite to get these things mr2driver speaks of (hint: suspension, brakes, and tires) well it happens to be your lucky day!

that is just general mr2 items
http://www.twosrus.com/


sum more stuff for 2s
http://trdparts.jp/english/list_mr2.html


the king IMO of suspension
http://www.eibach.com/cgi-bin/start....ach/index.html


my brand name choice in tires
http://www.michelinman.com/


and last but not least sum reading material that i highly recommend you read
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096...lance&n=283155



Have fun and stay safe

[mr2_dori]

Yah what your saying is true. i remember when i bought my mr2 for the first time, the first thing i did was all suspension and brakes. then rims, tires. then performance mods. so i totally agree with you. and if there are any new buyers that read this, please do what we are saying cuz we no what we are talking about. just dont go out there and buy a mr2 then go from 200-245hp stock to like 300-400hp. there is no point in doinmg this if you have the proper set up and you will most likely crash you r ish or get smashed on by some car at track day, that has like 100hp less than you.

[mr2driver]

sum more suspension tips: important read
http://shell.deru.com/~sgn1/AW11/Suspen.htm

[mr2driver]

i will try to make this an ongoing project to help people learn a little more about driving. And if you dont aggree with me or believe i have posted incorrect data then please stop me so i can correct.

i will try togo more in detail with suspension. What is road holding? Its the car ability to keep the tires in contact with the road. How is this acomplished? By keeping the tires on the road because that is the only thing creating friction to allow you to brake, steer, and accelerate. What is cornering? The ability of the car to travel in the path attended. What we all what is to try and minimize body roll from the centrifical forces that tend to push a car outward, raising one side of the car while lowering the other. We want to transfer the weight off the car from the high side to the lowerside.

Camber: very import to tune to get optimum cornering ability, which i know with the mcperison struts the camber is usually fixed. Camber is the angle made by the wheel. Most cars that are designed to turn well usually have negitive camber adjustments, so that the tires stay flatter and increase fiction (grip) though the turn.

Though you can buy aftermarket slots for strut mounts.

Caster:
The dotted red line is the path the suspension will travel and the grey line is where the tire contacts the road.


Toe: Its is the symetric angle at which the wheel makes contact with the longitudinal axis of the car. Toe in? Its when the tires are more pointed in toward the center of the car. This adjustment can be made on all cars, and should be done after you choose aftermarket suspension parts. Toe is the culpret to increased tire wear if not propertly adjusted. Caster tire wear is only visilble after the entire life of the tire.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_%28automotive%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caster_angle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camber_angle

[mr2driver]

I just had to post this after i saw it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_handling
Read that article also. Look at the bottom for a cool chart on how to tune your car to reduce over or understeer.

[Gairloch]

Originally Posted by mr2driver

BRAKES: having betting brakes allow you to brake later before you enter the turn, therefor theres more time on the throttle then on the brakes

In addition to having a higher drag co-efficient bigger brake calipers will draw more heat away from your pads reducing the odds of glazing them.