What a dork!
I was 18 in those first few photos, just got my red MR2 a couple months before and was discovering what I liked in a car. Ten years later, I'm on my 4th and 5th MR2s and I'm sure they won't be the last...
Here's #4, a 1993 NA hardtop I call "Nerves of Teal." Love it. I drive it everywhere.
It's the car that got me started going to national autox events. At local events it was just as fast as my modified SC MK1, simply because it handled so well. In 2006 I drove this car 28 hours to Topeka, KS, fully loaded with race tires and tools, won the E-Stock National Championship, then drove it home, averaging 35mpg (high of 39.5mpg!). Great car. I've since retired it from racing duty and it's now my daily.
Deuce #5 is the same except that it's different. :)
It's also a '93 hardtop, but this one's a turbo car, with ABS, LSD, and power steering - all good options to have when autocrossing these cars. It's 2755lbs in race trim which is heavy but much lighter than most 93+ Turbos since it lacks cruise, T-tops, etc. After Toyota made a small initial run of '93 MR2 Turbos (back in early 1992) with hardtops and sunroofs, T-tops became standard on the Turbo model. There are approximately 11-13 known 1993 Turbo hardtops in the US. Mine was used in Toyota's press fleet back in the day and has been autocrossed since new.
I took part of 2007 and most of 2008 to develop this car into a nationally competitive machine. It was mechanically mostly there but I wasn't happy with the setup and felt there was a lot of room for improvement. I tried a lot of things - including one thing everyone told me wouldn't work; stuffing 275/35/15 tires onto the rear 15x7" wheels. That was actually the single best thing I did to the car. It was overheating the 225 rear tires halfway through a run. The Hoosier A6 is constructed almost like a cantilever slick and doesn't seem to mind being squeezed on narrow wheels. Some transitional response is lost but the added lateral grip more than makes up for that. Anyway, I took this car to Nationals in '08, knowing it wasn't "the" car to have in the class (the RX-8 was), and finished 3rd, just a couple tenths out of 2nd place.
For 2009 I succumbed and co-drove a 2005 Mazda RX-8. During a bit of pre-season testing I found I was over 1 second faster in the RX-8 on a 60 second course. And I wasn't even familiar with that car yet. I had a nearly perfect season, winning every national event except one (which I should have won if not for
two computer glitches that threw out my best times!). That car was very easy to drive and lots of fun. I'd say it's the best handling stock sports car I've ever driven - with a close 2nd place going to my old FC RX-7 GTU. But it's nowhere near the challenge of the MR2s. I sold my RX-7 partly because after a morning at the track there was no more challenge to it - it was almost too easy to drive, and by the afternoon sessions I was a little bored.
This year I am running a semi-limited campaign in another Mazda: a 2007 MX-5 MSR. Mazda offered the MSR package as a racing trunk kit for the softly sprung NC MX-5. Only a few have actually been built. The MSR suspension is extremely stiff for a stock car, making it a twitchy challenge to get the most out of.
[The owner's wife is driving in this shot]
Anyway, my FWD experience is limited, but it is there. I drove a
well-prepped Civic Si recently, and did well with it, so that's encouraging.
If y'all are bored sometime I have lots of in-car footage at various events on my video channels.
http://www.vimeo.com/user569760http://www.youtube.com/user/bryanmr2Ok, that's enough about me and what I've been up to!
