Ran my wife's '00 MR2 Spyder yesterday

Killercanary

The car that set the bar.
Founding Member
Nov 29, 1999
5,676
1
76
Altoona, PA
Some of you may have seen the pics of my wife's '00 MR2 Spyder that I put up in Caldwell's thread about buying a new car . In that thread I told him that I thought the car was supposed to run mid 15's, but I wanted to find out for myself. Our track had one of its last T&T's yesterday so I decided to go and there was over 350 cars there! I only got 2 runs in, and it cost $20 to race too. :mad: This is the first time I had raced at the strip since last april when I hurt my car, so I was a little rusty, and on top pf that there was one hell of a head wind which is a real rarity at our local track as the wind hardly ever blows straight on. Anyway, with all my excuses out of the way I managed the following in the little 138HP go cart!


Run #1
R/T:---.113
60':----2.289
330:---6.587
1/8:---10.172
MPH:--68.65
1000:--13.243
1/4:---15.895
MPH---84.89


Run #2
R/T:---.159
60':----2.214
330:---6.500
1/8:---10.055
MPH:--69.15
1000:--13.108
1/4:---15.748
MPH---85.34

Given that this track is a solid 2 tenths and 2mph from some of the others I go to under ideal conditions, I think it would definitely go 15.5 or better at 87-88mph at a lower elevation track which I think is damn respectable for it only have a 1.8L 138HP motor. The car is NOT geared for the 1/4 as I had to shift into 4th at a little over the 1000' mark at around 81mph. I would have tried and run out 3rd if I had another run, but it wasn't to be. This car is a VERY good example of power to weight ratio, especially concidering that when my car was stock with 215hp I ran a best of 15.2 at 90mph at this track under good conditions. I think with more practice I could have gotten the 60' down into the 2.1 range (gotta love no torque, and the mid engine design putting all the weight over the rear tires!), and found what the ideal shift rpm was. I shifted it at around 6900 or so. I now see why with only a small turbo kit these cars are running in the 11's! Now if I could only get my wife to let me put one on... :D
 
  • Sponsors (?)


Killercanary said:
concidering that when my car was stock with 215hp I ran a best of 15.2 at 90mph at this track under good conditions

Wow Paul. That must be a pretty slow track. My best was a 15.19 @ 92 mph (stock) with my patented über crappy launches (I'll have to work on those next season).
 
Killercanary said:
Some of you may have seen the pics of my wife's '00 MR2 Spyder that I put up in Caldwell's thread about buying a new car . In that thread I told him that I thought the car was supposed to run mid 15's, but I wanted to find out for myself. Our track had one of its last T&T's yesterday so I decided to go and there was over 350 cars there! I only got 2 runs in, and it cost $20 to race too. :mad: This is the first time I had raced at the strip since last april when I hurt my car, so I was a little rusty, and on top pf that there was one hell of a head wind which is a real rarity at our local track as the wind hardly ever blows straight on. Anyway, with all my excuses out of the way I managed the following in the little 138HP go cart!


Run #1
R/T:---.113
60':----2.289
330:---6.587
1/8:---10.172
MPH:--68.65
1000:--13.243
1/4:---15.895
MPH---84.89


Run #2
R/T:---.159
60':----2.214
330:---6.500
1/8:---10.055
MPH:--69.15
1000:--13.108
1/4:---15.748
MPH---85.34

Given that this track is a solid 2 tenths and 2mph from some of the others I go to under ideal conditions, I think it would definitely go 15.5 or better at 87-88mph at a lower elevation track which I think is damn respectable for it only have a 1.8L 138HP motor. The car is NOT geared for the 1/4 as I had to shift into 4th at a little over the 1000' mark at around 81mph. I would have tried and run out 3rd if I had another run, but it wasn't to be. This car is a VERY good example of power to weight ratio, especially concidering that when my car was stock with 215hp I ran a best of 15.2 at 90mph at this track under good conditions. I think with more practice I could have gotten the 60' down into the 2.1 range (gotta love no torque, and the mid engine design putting all the weight over the rear tires!), and found what the ideal shift rpm was. I shifted it at around 6900 or so. I now see why with only a small turbo kit these cars are running in the 11's! Now if I could only get my wife to let me put one on... :D

I'm just impressed that you freely admit to driving a spyder... Paulette.

Just kiddin, nice times. I wouldn't want to be the guy in the aode 5.0 with flowmasters who gets pwned by your wife in the spyder, thats for damn sure.

adam
 
illwood- I'm not sure I know what you mean on the track being really slow. It is definitely slower than some I go to, but there are others around me that are even slower than it. The track's elevation is ~1250' above sea level. I was brand new to drag racing when I ran the 15.2 at 90mph (my 60's were in the 2.3 range back then), so I think I may have been able to do slightly better than that now, but that is what it ran. I assume you have a coupe so with that assumption I would expect my heavier 'vert to be slower. From what I have seen on here and other sites over the years most 5 speed 'vert owners run in the low 15's at 90-91mph stock... most 5 speed coupes run in the 14.7-14.9 range at 92-93mph stock.

YEAHLOH95- Troy, maybe the escort wants some of the little go cart now!?!? The track was CRAZY busy. All three entrances had cars lined up all the way out to rt22. I heard them announce that there was over 350 cars there... and they claim they are making no money. I hate our track more now than I ever did, and from the talk in the lanes just about everyone felt that way too.

Caldwell- LOL! I thought that too but I didn't want to say it. It even made me depressed that I only ran .5 better in my 5 speed vert when it was stock! The more and more I read up on these MR2's the more and more I think I may make this car my next project after my wife gets tired with it. Its just such a unique car with a mid engine design, RWD, and a curb weight of 2200lbs that with relatively few mods (like a turbo kit which has got to be the easiest thing to put on one of these things as there is only about 3' of exhaust on the whole car and the rear bumper comes right off exposing 90% of the engine bay) they can SCREAM!.
Take a look...

jay-mrs01-640.jpg


mr2-stageII-01.jpg



lxfiveo- LOL! Yeah, it was pretty bad in the sense. I was racing an '03/'04 cobra from our local mustang board on the last run and he clicked off a 11.4 at 122. I sat in the spyder just watching him until I could no longer read his license plate. I saw his time light up and thought, wow, that was a pretty good run for him and then I started counting... one thousand one...one thousand two...one thousand three...one thousand four... and then I crossed the traps! LOL! I seariously laughed out loud in the car!!! Its OK though, as it still impressed me for all it is. I have been reading some more on the MR2 boards at what others are running and it seems I over rev'd the car and I launched at way too low of an RPM. It seems the best times are coming from 4500rpm launches and 6000rpm shifts. I launched at around 3000 and shifted it near 6900 as it sure felt like it pulled to the limiter to me. Oh well, maybe next year I can give it another shot.

Black95GTS- Paulette LOL! I figured someone would say it. Honestly when I first looked at the car before I bought it for her I told the salesman that it was a nice car, but I doubt I'd ever be caught driving it. Man was I wrong. I'm sure some of the attraction I have to it is due to the fact that I didn't have my car all summer, but right now I'd drive this car every day if she'd let me and not worry a thing about what the guy next to me was thinking, unless he had a rainbow sticker on the back THEN I might worry. :rlaugh: Your comment about the AODE's made my wife's day. I read it to her and shw asked me if her car could actually beat a stock AODE with a big grin on her face. I told her she'd need to do a little more practicing but it was a possibilty. Her smile grew even larger!
 
Hahha
that's just nuts man!
Just insane. :rlaugh:

It helps with the fact that there's no weight to the car, but i just can't get over how mean that looks. I bet if you tossed a turbo in that thing you wouldn't leave it alone :D
Not that I blame you, It's a nice car, but the fact that you can mod it to punish virtually any car on the road today for a low buck is something to consider.
Keep me posted with mod events. I'm interested to see what you may decide on doing to it :nice:
 
Killercanary said:
illwood- I'm not sure I know what you mean on the track being really slow. It is definitely slower than some I go to, but there are others around me that are even slower than it. The track's elevation is ~1250' above sea level. I was brand new to drag racing when I ran the 15.2 at 90mph (my 60's were in the 2.3 range back then), so I think I may have been able to do slightly better than that now, but that is what it ran. I assume you have a coupe so with that assumption I would expect my heavier 'vert to be slower. From what I have seen on here and other sites over the years most 5 speed 'vert owners run in the low 15's at 90-91mph stock... most 5 speed coupes run in the 14.7-14.9 range at 92-93mph stock.

Forgot about the vert weight thing for a second. :bang: My local track is at sea level (or close to it), so barometric pressure is more in my favor. My 60's are in the 2.4-2.6 range :( so I definitely need to get more practice in.

The worst part is that my best launch at the track was when my foot slipped off the clutch when I was starting my burnout. It hooked like a mofo. Then I bogged at the tree. :nonono:
 
Killercanary said:
I have no doubt that someone has run 11's with just a turbo kit, but I doubt that it is common. The 2nd link had all the fastest Mr2's listed, BUT only 3 were in the 11's and one of those had built motors. I'm not sure about the other one, it just said PFC, MWR---whatever that means.

The third link looked to be more than a "turbo kit" it said "turbo system" and includes: MWR Wiseco 8.8:1 pistons, MWR Crower rods, MWR valves and springs, MWR custom exhaust, Prototype ECU, Quaife differential. I'm also quessing that the stock trans from a 130hp car wouldn't last too long going 11's.

I guess the built motor explains the vast difference in 1/4 times listed in the 2nd link. All but maybe 1, are running 12.6-14.2 with turbo kits.
 
Ahh, I saw the car in the first link. The only thing I'm confused about is the big difference in 1/4 times compared to the other cars on the list. Why would the other people be mostly in the 13's with turbo kits.