mr2 as a trackcar - honest opinion

[paul_h]

From all you people who regularly do trackdays whats your honest opinion of a mk2 as a trackcar?

I have been doing trackdays on my motorbike but fancy having a go in a car, I don't want to take my roadcar so was thinking about buying an mr2 to use as they are so cheap these days.

so would you recommend it? or is there another obvious choice for sensible money

discuss


paul

[dantheman]

When i was trying to decide what car to buy as a track car i narrowed it down to an mx5 or an mr2. In all honesty the only reason i ended up with an mr2 was because i managed to find 8 eligible ones before i found 1 good mx5, although the mx5 always seemed underpowered.

Having now owned an mr2 as a track car for a few years i dont regret the decision. If you go for the turbo, the power is excellent. There are better handling cars than the mk2, a lot of people say the mk1 and mk3 are better handling. But they are good fun, highly modifyable, quick, enjoyable and a good challenge to learn to drive it fast. Also if you want to keep it cheap then a good service is all you really need to make it track worthy. Standard brakes and suspension will cope.

hth.

[mr2_mat]

Haha, posting on an MR2 forum asking whether an MR2 would make a good track car, lol ... Anyway, besides the fact that you are bound to get biased views on here, in all honestly I can say that an MR2 makes an excellent track car.

I have been running an NA Mk2 for a few years now and it has proven to be very capable on track. I started by taking it on track completely unmodified and it was fine, but over the past couple of years I have slowly been making 'improvements'. Nothing too radical, but everything has made at least a small improvement, to the point that the car is far better on track now than it was at the start.

The only caveat I would put on this is that there are a few very fast cars at most track days, so as long as you don't mind pulling over occasionally to let the faster stuff past then an NA is perfectly suited, but if you want to be mixing it with the fast boys in their high power supercars and track specials, you will need to be looking at a modded turbo (but, this will of course mean more cost and potential for something to go bang).

Are there better track cars out there?... yes, probably, but they will all be different experiences (and most of them will cost more to buy and to run). It depends on what you want, and your budget, etc. I will be keeping my 2 for some years yet... But if I were to change in the future, I would be looking at a Caterfield type.

[paul_h]

besides the fact that you are bound to get biased views on here,

hence the honest opinion bit

cheers for the feedback

[mr2tel1]

I bought my to use it for fast road & track, i have only had it a five months but am very happy with it. i think the best thing about it is that its a realy good laugh to drive i have had a few fast road/ track cars including a skyline but this is by far the most fun which for me is what its all about.

btw i have a rev2 turbo

[freak_in_cage]

Imo the mk2 isn't bad, but its not great.

The engine is fantastic, and near bulletproof, but the car is a bit heavy.

If you can shave some weight off them, aim for the mr2 race car sort of weight, they become very good imo.

Loads of info here

http://mr2championship.freeforums.org/a ... ng-t6.html

Depends how dedicated you are, but it seems around 1100kg weight is possible without crazy sacrifices.

I have just bought a track based car, got a mx5, didn't go for the mr2 only because I couldn't find any which were track based, plus as the 5 is lighter its cheaper on consumables