Donato's Track Rev3

[Donato]

My drill bit arrived today. So out came the rear cubby hole brackets!





Removed all the rest of sound deadening too. Just need to clean it up now with some spirit. I've weighed the bag that I collected it all in, it came in at 7.6KG. It's probably more around 8KG as there's pieces that flung out the car that I couldn't find and also tiny shrapnel that I hoovered up.


Remember the Dynomat that i put on the doors? Off it came



The MR2 also moved into its new home. The back garden, which is more shielded against the elements. Will be able to get it on axle stand ready for suspension work next year.

[ashley]

My drill bit arrived today. So out came the rear cubby hole brackets!

Hope you didn't make any holes in your fuel tank!!


Good work mate

[Donato]

Hope you didn't make any holes in your fuel tank!!


Good work mate

It's s special drill bit specific for spot welds. Let's you take away just enough metal from the first skin so it doesn't make any holes like a normal drill bit would. Luckily

[ashley]

The spot weld bits I've used in the past have a central pilot drill that goes all the way through, so you're left with a small hole. Your's sounds better

[DanT]

dedication right there!

[matt-mr2]

8kgs a nice weight saving there

[craig]

Some serious effort gone in there, nice work. 8KGs, nice result.

[synXero]

Hope you skimped on Xmas dinner or this is all a waste!

Would be so interesting to see how the weight loss affects the car. What percentage of overall weight have you removed? Against an otherwise identical car, how much of an actual improvement is there in terms of 0-60 (say), 60-0, lateral grip, fuel economy etc.

[ashley]

What percentage of overall weight have you removed? Against an otherwise identical car, how much of an actual improvement is there in terms of 0-60 (say), 60-0, lateral grip, fuel economy etc.

Doesn't matter. in a track car every single gram saved is good- it all add's up

[Donato]

8kgs a nice weight saving there

Some serious effort gone in there, nice work. 8KGs, nice result.

Hope you skimped on Xmas dinner or this is all a waste!

Would be so interesting to see how the weight loss affects the car. What percentage of overall weight have you removed? Against an otherwise identical car, how much of an actual improvement is there in terms of 0-60 (say), 60-0, lateral grip, fuel economy etc.

Cheers. It's hard work. Loads of cuts from sharp pieces and bruises from missing the chisel with the hammer

I went full board over Christmas. But I'm hoping to lose a bit of weight myself next year, so it all adds up. I wouldn't be able to tell you exact numbers or figures. The only thing I've weighed is the sound deadening. But I've removed a lot un-necessary bits. I've put a small list somewhere. But for example the rear carpet on the firewall, I wanted to keep that but I took about a kilo of insulating off the back of it. The car won't be road legal for a while, so I won't be able to tell you how things have improved. But a lighter car is always a bonus.

Doesn't matter. in a track car every single gram saved is good- it all add's up

Exactly. It's a second car, so I can live without a lot of things. But I'll be driving in it to such track days and road trips, so I want to keep other things in it.

[Donato]

Fitted my AeroCatches last weekend. What a nightmare! It's a pain measuring ad aligning everything to make sure it's right.

No real reason for fitting these other than appearance It mean i could take out the bonnet catch, cable & latch though!

Started off with the kit;



I was originally going to mount them on the radiator brackets. Decided against that after trying to enlargen the hole already there. Drill bit shot into the rad and pierced it So i moved it to where it is currently!



Marked it out with some grease and closed the bonnet to see where it meets. Then drilled through with a step drill bit.



And then measured and masked up the templates ready for cutting;



And cut! Me being the idiot i am and concentrating too much on getting it all perfect, cut the wrong sized hole on the bonnet So i had to source a new one. One sourced and a morning wasted later, process repeated and measured up again and templates back on;





They are on and fitted now. Finally.





It just gives me an excuse to have the car painted now as the bonnet is a touch a different colour red. Also, time for a Mishimoto rad?

[DanT]

loving the bonnet pins

[Donato]

loving the bonnet pins

I've been a little busy today wrapping up my manifold and tidying up the car. I've put the lightened back carpet in place, centre console and seats. Then I started working on relocating the aerial cable so it didn't come across the floor and now is under the centre console. Took the radio out as I need to rewrite the dodgy cables behind that's for another day though!

It started getting dark quite early so I packed up and headed in to finish wrapping up my HKS manifold. Actually can't wait to have it back together!





I've also bought some wheels off Sheppy on here. 16" Enkei RP01's 7J Front & 8J rear. Perfect wheels! When I receive them, I'll decide if they need a refurb and stick some sticky Yokohama rubber on.



Excited

[matt-mr2]

The manifold looks great did it take long to do ?

The white wheels will look the great on a red mr2

[craig]

Nice developments buddy

[DanT]

i very nearly got a set of those wheels..they suit the mr2 very well

[Donato]

The manifold looks great did it take long to do ?

The white wheels will look the great on a red mr2

It took about 3 hours to do. I kept removing it and doing it again to make sure it was spot on. Didn't realise these had fibreglass in them so I had stupid fibreglass splinters

Nice developments buddy

i very nearly got a set of those wheels..they suit the mr2 very well

They do indeed. I've been after a set for a while now. Didn't really have the money so I sold a few bits to get them. Which I shouldn't of!

[Donato]

Not much of an update, but I have received the Enkei's. They do need a full going over, shouldn't be too much of a problem though.
I've also purchased a 22mm TRD front ARB which arrived this morning.



If the weather holds off I'll be fitting both ARB and Enkei's to see how well it sits.

Updates tomorrow hopefully!

[DanT]

i always get a little excited when i see you have updated this

[VanderBoon]

Want that mani!