Maniacs '87 Toyota MR2 Build Thread

Made many improvements between the last event and this one.   I finally got a hold of a throttle cable that works.  I ended up using the throttle cable from a 2nd gen MR2.   The ends and how it mounts is the same although it is overall longer.    Huge improvement in my ability to modulate power.   A full alignment in the garage and new MRF ZDM3 Rally tires really brought the car to life. 

The engine is running decent and the handling is excellent these improvements carried me to first in class and 6th overall out of 42 drivers.  Here is my fastest run from the morning heats.

My fastest in the morning ended up only a couple tenths behind one of our drivers Zoltan.   He is a fantastic driver and is usually fighting for FTD even against the SXSs.   With his permission I put together a side by side of his run and mine to see where we are making our time.    Here's the video comparison.
 

The 2nd night race of the 2021 season was last Saturday.   I ended up first in class for the very wet day.    Got some nice shots of the car for my troubles.

And video of my fastest run.   I need to work out a defroster the combination of rain and night time gave me huge visibility issues.

 

Yesterday was the 2nd to last Central Florida SCCA Rallycross of the 2021 year. This one was at Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park. Big event for season points for me. I took 1st and due to family obligations my main season competitor took 3rd. This should place me 1 point ahead for the season for 1st overall.

Here is the 360 video of my fastest afternoon run. I really like this video because it was bright enough to see my footwork. You can see that I immediately pop over to left foot braking as soon as I hit 2nd. If you angle the video right you can see my brake inputs and the effects on the car. I don't know how to teach it but little jabs and taps bring the front inline. Thousands of hours in race sims have helped me hone this technique.

Was wondering if I passed a board member rolling down the interstate yesterday.  Enjoyed scoping it out as I passed. (crazy guy on a 690 duke zipping down the interstate) Tried to wave/thumbs up as I went by, but I was in a hurry and not sure if it came across as such.  Glad I found the build thread. I'll have to pop a bowl of popcorn and go back to the beginning. Very cool car man!

In reply to Mr. Lee :

I do remember I believe it was on the turnpike somewhere between 50 and I4.   Awesome you found me and I always appreciate the thumbs up.   I've not done a fantastic job keeping up with the changes in between races it gets harder and harder to find time to snap shots and do a write up for garage and repair work.   If you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll happily go into anything on the car and grab some pics.   Our last race of 2021 is at Port St Lucie Fairgrounds Nov 6th.   Spectators are welcome if you have the day free its not a bad way to spend it.

First race of the 2022 Central Florida SCCA Rallycross season was yesterday. I took 2nd in class less than 2 seconds behind the leader Jeremiah Hemphill although I noticed both 1st and 2nd place in Prepared Rear beat both of us.

Time to step up my game looking at the footage I think I was just too timid it's hard to tell though because sometimes that's the last thing you say right before you blow a gate on the next run.

Here's my fastest run of the day my last run in the afternoon. As usual 360 degree video so best watched on the Youtube app.

 

360 video of my fastest morning and afternoon runs at yesterday's Central Florida SCCA Rallycross points event. This one was at Port St Lucie. I'm trying to incorporate some techniques that I've been given from other MR2 drivers, fellow competitors, and rally instructors. Mostly turning in earlier, carrying more speed into the corner, holding more throttle and adjusting my line with my left foot rather than my right.

Its going to be a process to get this smooth and predictable but I can feel the results. I think the main benefit is adjusting line via brake rather than throttle keeps me from compression locking my rears. I had way more stability going into the corners giving me overall more grip. I think now I'm just holding the brakes too long I can use that grip to really drive into the corner harder

I think I really need more power. It doesn't sound like it but I was damn near full throttle the entire run. My tune is incredibly conservative for spark timing. I think its time to change that map and get me some more spark advance going.

Augmented Rally video up for yesterday's Central Florida SCCA Rallycross event held at the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park. Overall I felt pretty uncomfortable in the car and I'm not sure why exactly. I'm working on more angle and higher entry speed but either I or the car don't like it. While I took first in class I'm being beat out by a second or so in comparable machines in other classes.

I've been working on the tune for the car and I'm slowly dialing it in I think. I found out during lunch I had cooked my spark plugs and watching back my wideband shows that I was ridiculously rich especially in throttle tip in. I made some changes to the timing curve, lowered the fuel pressure and the accell curve. You can hear the difference between the morning and afternoon runs but by the last run I started to get a slight hesitation again. I think the way I have the coil setup in tunerstudio may be wrong and its chewing up plugs.

Video of my fastest run from the June Central Florida SCCA Rallycross hosted by Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park. This one was such a huge win for me. I replaced my timing belt tensioner and decided to try zeroing in the cams again. I believe my exhaust cam was setup a tooth retarded. So much so that I had to adjust the timing offset in Tuner Studio to get the car to run right after I put it all back together. I also had to pull some timing out after the change because it was knocking.

This lets me know that I was probably severely off on the valve timing. The Microsquirt let me kind of cover that up with the ignition timing settings that I landed on. Now though I have that fixed and the car is a very different beast. It has so much more power and responsiveness. To the point that my first couple runs were wildly out of control missing a gate on my first run and multiple cones on the next 2. I recalibrated for the afternoon and ran some fantastic times all clean keeping up with some of the fastest in the region. My raw times were 6th fastest overall and that includes 3 UTVs ahead of me.

I took 2nd in class with the missed gate and one of the cones being the deciding factor. I'll take that trade any day having to adjust to more capability from the MR2 was definitely the direction I was looking to head.

SE Divisional Dixie Challenge was this last weekend.   I'm playing with a new camera setup.   Not much done to the MR2 mostly just taking it off the trailer racing it and putting it back on til the next lately.   I do have a host of improvements I'm looking to make but those will be a bit slow coming for awhile.   Here's the vids from day one morning and afternoon.   Bit of a big hit in the first afternoon run took out my external camera mount.

 

I've felt for a bit that the 7age motor is getting choked by the heads and giving it a bit more air will really wake it up.   So I got a set of Tomei Poncams for a 4age.   I'm looking to keep and increase the beefy midrange and just let that carry through a bit higher  to the original rev limit of 7750.

Here's the video of the first time running on the new cams.   I love how it sounds but am sure I need to fiddle with the cam timing and maybe in the ECU

 

Welp I wanted to try again zeroing on the cams as I realized I had potentially made a mistake with the adjustable cam gears, and then I forgot to tighten the timing belt tensioner.    The 4age cams with a 7afe block and poncams becomes an interference motor and I slapped the valves bending all the intake side.

Ouch. 

In reply to DrMikeCSI :

Yeah it always sucks when you make a mistake and have to backtrack to fix it.   Gonna miss my next race because of it.   My 2023 season is already shot because of work so at least I'm not risking a championship spot.   Silver lining though I'm taking the time to clean up the head while its all out so it will go back together even better than before.