MR2 Championship

sorry about this folks my dads getting me to find out costs before buying anything... if it was up to me i would have had my MR2 ages ago! LOL!

how much does testing cost? (roughly i understand its probs different from track to track)

tyres... how often do you recomend getting a full new set... and do you have 1 really new set incase it rains or just 1 set?

camping... do any of the tracks charge for camping?

what fuel and how much does it cost for a test day and race day? (Aprox)

cheers... hopefully this will convince him!

laustin wrote:how much does testing cost? (roughly i understand its probs different from track to track)

It varies depending on circuit but is roughly £200.

laustin wrote:tyres... how often do you recomend getting a full new set... and do you have 1 really new set incase it rains or just 1 set?

It's always worth having two full sets of tyres in case you get a puncture. Tyres are different front to rear and have directional tread so you really do need a full set. Most people have a well worn set that they use for drys and a scrubbed but otherwise unused set for wets. When the drys are work out, the wets become the drys and you buy a new set for wet weather use.

laustin wrote:camping... do any of the tracks charge for camping?

Nope. Some tracks have electrical hook-up, all tracks have showers.

laustin wrote:what fuel and how much does it cost for a test day and race day? (Aprox)

We always budget on 1 litre of fuel per minute on track. This is an over estimate (You'd have to be running the car flat out at 100% injector duty to use 1litre/min) but it means you should never run out on track. Better to have too much than not enough.

We use Shell V Power 99 Octane Fuel, and I would recommend that you use the highest octane fuel available to you (subject to regulations obviously!).

awsome cheers!

when you say worn out for the tyres... roughly how long into there life is that?

laustin wrote:when you say worn out for the tyres... roughly how long into there life is that?

These tyres are at their best just before you chuck them in the bin!

laustin wrote:when you say worn out for the tyres... roughly how long into there life is that?

To give you some idea of tyre life, nobody used more than four sets of tyres last year and some drivers did every race and every test.

Does 99RON give a noticable difference from 97RON??

I think I need another fuel can!!!

LuckyP wrote:Does 99RON give a noticable difference from 97RON??

The MR2's ECU will retard ignition if it detects knock, which in turn will reduce power. IIRC, the ECU will make a couple of temporary adjustments to see if the knock event once a one-off, but if it sees too much it will permanently retard the ignition by a progressively greater amount until it no longer detects knock (or reaches the end of it's adjustment range).

Running a higher octane fuel reduces the possibility of knock occurring. In theory, you could also add a degree or two of ignition advance on the base timing, but obviously you run the risk of making the engine more prone to knock and therefore more likely to have the ECU step in and calm things down.

Patrick
Is this adjustment process by ECU reversable, so if you change from 97 to 99 the ECU changes things in the other direction?
Or once you've used 97 - that's it, you are snookered?
Thanks for the info!
Andrei

Andrei wrote:Is this adjustment process by ECU reversable, so if you change from 97 to 99 the ECU changes things in the other direction?
Or once you've used 97 - that's it, you are snookered?

The ECU learns from an optimal baseline. Cutting the power to the ECU will force it to start again and everyone goes through this procedure at the start of a race meeting when they test the battery cut-off switch in scrutineering.

Using a higher octane fuel doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have more power than someone using a lower octane fuel - it just means that you are less likely to suffer a power loss during a race due to knock.

Thank you!

Car was showing the orange fuel light yesterday so I took it to Mr Shell to purchase some of his finest V-Power (filled with whatever, where ever til now). Filled a quarter full and took off....expecting my head to be thrown back against the seat

Sadly not.

However, just after a trip to Halfrauds this morn, went to take off from a T and the motor just faulted at low revs, like a deep 'BRRRRrrrr' sound like a missfire. Then picked up. Again, 30 seconds later on a roundabout, and then OK.

Do you think this is the ECU doing a quick 'taste' of the fuel?

Pete

LuckyP wrote:Car was showing the orange fuel light yesterday so I took it to Mr Shell to purchase some of his finest V-Power (filled with whatever, where ever til now). Filled a quarter full and took off....expecting my head to be thrown back against the seat

Sadly not.

However, just after a trip to Halfrauds this morn, went to take off from a T and the motor just faulted at low revs, like a deep 'BRRRRrrrr' sound like a missfire. Then picked up. Again, 30 seconds later on a roundabout, and then OK.

Do you think this is the ECU doing a quick 'taste' of the fuel?

Pete

It sounds like it could be ignition related rather than fuel related.
You'd find it hard to notice the difference (in my humble opinion) between 95 and 98 ron in a normally aspirated mk2 MR2.
Maybe circumstantial, but worth a kill/reset of the ignition cut-off and see if the problem reoccurs.

Rowland

Rowland wrote:

LuckyP wrote:Car was showing the orange fuel light yesterday so I took it to Mr Shell to purchase some of his finest V-Power (filled with whatever, where ever til now). Filled a quarter full and took off....expecting my head to be thrown back against the seat

Sadly not.

However, just after a trip to Halfrauds this morn, went to take off from a T and the motor just faulted at low revs, like a deep 'BRRRRrrrr' sound like a missfire. Then picked up. Again, 30 seconds later on a roundabout, and then OK.

Do you think this is the ECU doing a quick 'taste' of the fuel?

Pete

It sounds like it could be ignition related rather than fuel related.
You'd find it hard to notice the difference (in my humble opinion) between 95 and 98 ron in a normally aspirated mk2 MR2.
Maybe circumstantial, but worth a kill/reset of the ignition cut-off and see if the problem reoccurs.

Rowland

I'll give that a try mate. I told the Techs at work and they asked if I had washed the car recently....err...yes, why?

Water in the lead wells.

Oh Ok.

But as I think Patrick suggested earlier, they said to reset the ECU buy disconnecting the battery, or in our case, kill switch.

I'll try.

Pete

LuckyP wrote:
I'll give that a try mate. I told the Techs at work and they asked if I had washed the car recently....err...yes, why?

Water in the lead wells.

Oh Ok.

But as I think Patrick suggested earlier, they said to reset the ECU buy disconnecting the battery, or in our case, kill switch.

I'll try.

Pete

Quite true, the mk2 does sometimes suffer with ignition problems, especially water ingress into moisture sensitive ignition components.
If you're using the fibreglass 'turbo' lid with the rain drain removed, this can allow water very easily to collect on the distributer/ignition leads and cause problems.
A high tension lead that doesn't seal tightly to the spark plug will allow water to seep into the well as has been suggested.

In fact, I'm pretty sure Steve Lumley had this problem with his car at Anglesey.
Water ingress had caused the car to run on three cylinders misfiring badly after rain water was found in one of the chambers.


To summarise, it's well worth checking that all ignition components are sound in the event of a misfire on a mk2 MR2!

So what caused the misfire?

The o/s plug full to the plug tip with water!! Doh!! Blew out the water and WD40'd

Checked the codes after and the IT came back with 'O2 Error'

Could this be the misfire that has sent neat fuel to the sensor?

Took a fuse out and will try agqin later.

Pete