Car Search - MR2 SC -

[Geckz]

Hi All,

During my spring clean of car stuff, I recently came across a bill of sale from 2003 of my imported MK1 SC to a Mr D Hawkes.

I was the first UK owner of this car having had it imported from Japan. I then proceded to get her resprayed, delocked, and had a later supercharged engine (with water cooling) fitted by fensport.

Due to a change in circumstances I had to sell her in 2003, and have regretted it ever since. However, I have managed to get in contact with David, and he has told me that she has quite a lot of history with this owners club...

I have posted some of my photos from when I received the car below. Any stories, videos information on my old SC would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Chris

ok so I need more posts - images below...

[Geckz]

...

[Geckz]

Ok so a few more posts needed - (please can a mod get rid of these...)

[cartledge_uk]

Whats the reg plate?

[cartledge_uk]

The photos









I remember seeing it somewhere, but I cant think where!

[cartledge_uk]

OMG! I remembered its the supernail!!

This car ran numerous trackdays/events but developed some engine issues.

its now got a 3sgte in it

[Geckz]

Thanks - that gives me a seach term to go by

Interested to know how the nickname came about?

[Lauren]

Interested to know how the nickname came about?

It was always breaking down!

I think the de-locking thing, drove every subsequent owner mad.

It's got new doors on it with handles now.

It's now got the best engine in the world in it (3SGTE), think Neil is going to flog it at some point. This car seems to have done the rounds with my friends.

[Geckz]

LOL

she never broke down for me... well there was this one time - but that was the first fensport engine, which then got replaced.

The delocking was excellent especially for locking the keys in the car.

[Basirk]

Hey Chris. I remember meeting you once at Millway when I had my NA in there. You let me have a drive around the block and encouraged me to utilise some of the water in your boot! To cut a long story short, I've now got my own SC Fun.

Chris.

[SySanguinary]

Hi Chris. Are you sitting comfortably?

Then I shall begin.

I was one of the more recent owners of the Supernail. I bought it from David (when he owned it for the second time). He had it back simply for the engine and some of the other goodies on it. I bought it so I could redo my 1.5 track conversion into a bettr chassis. Plus the car still had it's Leda suspension on.

Anyway, I documented this on a different forum so below is a copy and paste of my entries from the thread named:

'One Week One Point Five'

Typically, just as work fInally gets busy due to a little good weather, my Tubby throws a few wobblies. One of the rear ball joints is knackered, the wheel has too much play to keep the car in a straight line. The boost has gone a little wonkey too. Boosting at just under 2bar is bloody quick (usually 1.2), but apparently not good for the engine! The rear tyres now are certainly worn past the point to keep a copper at bay and to top it all off I simply don't have the cash to fix at the moment.
Doesn't matter though, the Landcruiser simply needs a new part to the exhaust, front bushes, steering rack and brake lines all round. I stopped when I found the exhaust would cost me £1200!
So without the Tubby and the landcruiser going for scrap, I've been using my Dad's car for work. He's been using his MK1 as his daily runner. Not great, since it is doesn't have a mark on it. I appear to be taking the rap for any blemishes found and the fact it has now been used in the rain meaning underneath isn't quite as red as it should be!

So where to go?

I'm current building Dave's 1.5 in my garage and have hit a stumbling block on the wiring. I don't do wiring. Tom and Mark sorted that out for me on the first 1.5 build (RIP). I have my track 1.5 but it's far too costly to get on the road.

Last year I bought the Super Nail minus an engine with the intention of spending a while in the Summer building a nice car.
It really was in a state when I picked it up, most the wiring loom was missing, the seats were mouldy and the car was full of junk.













However needs must, today is Friday April 3rd. Now is the time to start the project on the run up to my busiest day at work (Easter Sunday), with the aim of finishing it by Friday the 17th April as I'm supposed to be in Newcastle that weekend and I don't have a car to travel in.

Saturday 4th April

Tom, Dave, Kirsty and my other half Jo were at my house for a meal and wine. I mentioned to them that I had a trailer booked and was going to build the 1.5 over the week in order to get to Newcastle after Easter. 'Good Luck!' Dave laughed at me....and was then voluntered by Kirsty to help out where possible.

Wednesday 8th April

The plan today was to get both cars from my house in Manchester to the garden centre in Wigan. I had already booked the trailer on the Friday so by nine o'clock I was loading the Super Nail. By four o'clock I had dropped the trailer off and had started packing. My parent's caravan is at work. The plan was to work on the cars first thing in the moring, do a days work and then continue until it gets dark.
I arrived back at work by six and only had time to push the Super Nail into the green house and drive the track car up.





Note the height difference of the two!
Time for bed.

Thursday 9th April

I had to work all day so didn't get to touch the car until seven in the evening. This gave me just enough time to grind the SC engine mounts out before dark. Tom was due up the next day to weld in my engine mounts for me.

Good Friday 10th April

Our greenhouse just didn't meet Tom's high standards of cleanliness!



Tom trying to get an accurate idea of where to weld the mounts.



With the issues Tom had, we ended up having a bbq outside the back of the shop before leaving for my house so Tom had a bed for the night.


Saturday 11th April We left my house at around 7am and headed back to work. Busy day for me so I simply had to leave Tom to carry on on his own. We heard from Dave and Kirsty later in the day and they decided to pop in on their way back from Scotland for a bite to eat and a chat. Tom left, having completed the welding, with Dave and Kirsty who were due back in the morning to help me strip the trackcar.


More to follow......

[SySanguinary]

Easter Sunday 12th April
If the weather is good, this day has the potential to be the busiest of the year. Big businesses and other garden centres have to stay closed today. We are classed as a nursery and are allowed to open. It is usually chaos.

I woke up in the caravan at 6am. Got up and headed straight to the greenhouse (via the coffee machine). It really is great not having to drive 35 miles in the morning simply to get to work.

I started off stripping bits off the trackcar. Exhaust, part of the intake manifold, intercooler and alternator. Then I got busy(work wise). Dave and Kirst arrived complete with an extra socket set.
Well, what can I say? I was knocked out by the effort they made for me. Between them they got the engine ready to come out and stripped most of the interior I needed, including seats and gear levers. They were there all day working in what could be described as a slightly warm greenhouse! I can't say for sure exactly what they did bit by bit but suffice to say if I didn't have their help I would have been way behind my target.

Thank You.

The back end of the car after Dave and Kirsty had attacked it.



Monday 13th April

Again I was up as it came light and headed up to the greenhouse. Plan was to drop the engine down, remove the driveshafts and check everything over. I couldn't fetch my engine hoist so the Kamer came to the rescue once again.













I was working by myself so I had to drag the engine from under the car. It really is very, very heavy.

I checked the engine over and tightened various bits on it which had worked loose after hours of abuse on track. Then I dragged the old car out and moved the Super Nail to the centre of the space.



Time to start cutting holes!





I then took any brackets off the old car, painted them blue and fitted them to the Snail. Time to jack the car up ready for it's new heart.





And then it went dark. Time for beer and bed. I was getting very tired by this point. Bloody customers! Always taking your time up and stopping you doing things you want too...

[SySanguinary]

Tuesday 14th April

D day. Would the mounts Tom had welded without a jig fit? Would I remember how the engine goes together? Would the wiring be compatible? The last one was very much an unknown due to the state of the loom in the car.

First job was to get the engine back in the car. I started to drag the engine underneath but soon gave up. There must be a easier way? There was. I ended up dropping the front of the car back to the ground and picking the rear up with the forks. Then plan was to reverse the car over the engine and lower the car onto it's axle stands. This took a while as I had to move the car an inch, get out of the fork lift to check everything, and get back into the fork lift to move the car an inch.... An hour later the car was lowered, the forks removed and the engine attached to the boom.



I didn't have much clearance on the door frame so I had to get the boom pretty close to the bodywork...





Again inch by inch I lifted the motor into place. It fitted into it's mounts perfectly which set Tom's mind at rest.
Now just a job of reconnecting everything and that wiring loom!

By the end of the night the alternator was back on as was the air flow meter. The intake manifold is a pain though. You simply don't have enough fingers to hold the Tvis, two gaskets and the manifold in place whilst locating the bolts. There is also a slight lack of space to content with! As it got dark the intake manifold was held in by two bolts. Good enough.
Once again time for bed.

I was way ahead of schedule by this point. There was a good chance I could try to start it by Wednesday evening.

Wednesday 15th April

I didn't get up early. I was knackered by now, my body was aching far too much for my liking. Wednesday is my day off so I intended to spend all day on the car.

By lunch time I had reconnected everything, tightened everything up and filled the car with water. Before I started on the interior I had to reweld a broken torque mount which sits at the rear of the gear box. First a trip to Warrington as Tom had nicked my welding gas...You just can't leave anything lying around when he is here!





Mount on. Just the wiring to go.

I simply unplugged the wires from the old car so it was just a case of rethreading and plugging back in. I was also hoping that the alarm wouldn't immobilise the car as only part of it appeared to be there.
The hicup I had was the fact that on my mk1b na there are two plugs behind the passenger seat to plug in. The Snail only has one plug leaving me with part of my original loom unplugged. As I said before I don't do wiring, so for the time being I ignored it. My main aim at the moment was to get the doors working because it was really annoying me to keep having to stand on a block and stretch over the windows to open the doors from the inside (there are no handles on the outside).

Battery on. We have power. The alarm seems to work (although I can't set it as the wires have been cut to the sensors in the engine bay and boot), as do the doors!!!!
Double checked the engine again and turned the key.......

Bloody hell, it started.

To my amazement everything seemed fine with it but sadly, once again it was time for bed.
Jobs to do: driveshafts on, recheck everything again, fix seats, belts and neaten up interior. Drive.

Thursday 16th April

Once again it was a busy day at work so I only had time to do the driveshafts. I also swapped the wheels back to the black ones that came with the car. Meaning that once again my dad's car has those ridiculous things on!

Friday 17th April
Spent the morning fitting everything back onto the car. Started it up again and headed for the car park. Two laps it seemed ok so I headed down the road to the local motor factors for some oil and bits. Bloody hell!! It drives so well. I've never driven in an MR2 like it. Very presise and responsive and a little bit quick too!
Spent the afternoon cleaning the car. Got my case and headed up to Newcastle in it! Brilliant drive, really noisy but brilliant. The car made it up there no problems, back again on Monday morning.

So there you go. It took alot of effort and help from some very good friends but I made it. Just.

I now have a car again and I also took the opportunity to check the wiring for Dave's car and to sort out brackets and fitting based on mine so now I can get back on with that one. After that? No more. I'm tired and have too many other things to do!

Thanks again to Kirsty, Dave and Tom for their help.

And Thanks for reading.

Sy.

[SySanguinary]

A few images of the car once cleaned up and on the road:














The rust was cleaned up with bits of welding done to the chassis and then the interior was repainted. I have some photos somewhere, I'll keep looking.

The car was brilliant, if not a little tempermental. I had it on track a couple of times and it handled it brilliantly. It was quicker than quite a lot of the expensive machinery out there. There was also a 'moment' when it completely showed up a young lad (who was showing off to his girlfriend) in his new Focus ST too.

Sadly though, times change and I got to a point where I had no option but to sell. I think I had it advertised for all of around 1/2 a day before it went to Neil who is on here somewhere...

[Icsunonove]

You've missed a huge chunk of history out Sy!

I can fill in the history from when David sold it to Anna and Alex until you got it. Not just at the moment though, I'll try and do it tomorrow....

A starter for 10. Garrick, Jo, Anna just about to fit the rebuilt engine in:

[SySanguinary]

You've missed a huge chunk of history out Sy!

Indeed, just mentioned the part I was directly involved in. I'll leave it to everyone else to tell the rest since I'll only miss bits out.

[pistol pete]

wow
bet the OP never expected this response..

[Icsunonove]

It's a very famous (or is that infamous ) car Pete

Here's another picture from Tom's archives:

Anna on the grass on the exit of School corner at Trac Mon in Anglesey:



And here's a video posted by Ben Formesyn, Anna's driving and Garrick's in the pasenger seat. This is Radar corner at Anglesey:

Anna causing Garrick to OD on Adrenaline when she decided to get a closer look at the Marshalls at Radar ..

http://www.imoc.co.uk/videos/Anglesey_O ... _radar.wmv (10MB, very high quality)

[Neil_turbo]

LOL

she never broke down for me... well there was this one time - but that was the first fensport engine, which then got replaced.

The delocking was excellent especially for locking the keys in the car.

I think everything has been covered pretty well here, but i am the current owner of the supernail.

It has a lot of issues to be resolved before it will be on the road again, and with my other 1.5 project spiralling madly, its really taken a back seat.

It needs bodywork, MOT and some engine attention, aim is probably to sell in the summer.

Thanks to me, it now has handles again

[Speedy]

Another video from old Angersea with me driving, and Paul Port in the passenger seat :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYZhQbCpPU4

Short story when I had it - bought it from D Hawkes, engine was ok, but the car was generally in a bit of a state. At that point, it had the Water Injection system (never worked), big pulley, Leda suspension, Omex ECU, cams, shimless buckets, whiteline Arb, and the original intercooler - with a chargecooler in a box. It was missing some important parts, like a knock sensor.

Eventually, the crappy original map had to go, and the engine got rebuilt (overbored cylinders, oversized OEM pistons, crank ground, new bearings), got the chargecooler fitted, proper LSD gearbox - again was good, had a variety of other problems with it which stopped it from being abused properly - wheel bearing at Donnington Park springs to mind, and the massive fuel leak, splitting the flexijoin on the exhaust the day before a track day.. the usual things..

Finally really thrashed the pants off it at Cadwell park, where it started lifting the head (at least, seemed to have a HG failure, but only mayo was *underneath* the headbolts). At that point I'd started to fall out of love with it, which was a shame after the amount of time (and money!) spent on it.

OEM SC headgasket was replaced with a TRD Metal one, and ARP studs were fitted to replace the OEM stretchbolts. I sold it back to D Hawkes shortly afterwards (where it was replaced by an Exige). I know that it then spent some time at Rogue, where engine and body were seperated. SySanguinary then started down the 1.5 route with the shell, and the engine vanished somewhere else (possibly into the FG bodied racecar thing?)

I have to admit, i've thought about offering neil_turbo some money for the car and rebuilding something special, but tbh, after it's been through the 1.5 conversion mill, and the nice suspension parts have been taken off, it's not for me anymore. Shame though, I had some fantastic times in that car. Good times