Ok guys,
The black 1987 MR2, team "Stick Figure Racing", who apparently has a stock 4A-GE, told me they average 18 miles per gallon while racing. Our engine will have higher power output and it's possible we are more aggressive drivers, so my guesstimate is that we'll probably make 13-15 MPG.
I really think we should look into a small tank mounted in the front trunk. Even if its only 3 or 4 gallons, at about 6 pounds per galloin, that is only 18 or 24 pounds full, no more than 30 pounds tank+pump+lines.... I really don't think that will "destroy" our handling. Remember it will help our weight distribution and front traction when the little tank is full, and then it will just act like normal when its empty. I like to carry my 50 pound tool box in my front trunk and it hardly makes a difference in my car (granted my car is heavier).
I heard a couple of teams talking about how great it would be to have extra fuel storage for better pit stop management. They said there is a MR2 team running a 5 gallon front trunk mounted fuel cell reserve tank and it really helps them manage their fuel stops. They also were commenting how large cars have huge tanks by default, some up to 18 or 20 gallons. We are at a big disadvantage in this category with our little 9-9.5 gallon tank that we'll probably need to refill every 8 gallons (or else risk running out of gas while cornering if we really push for 9 gallons per pit). Maximizing our time on the track is going to be very important.
Also, I never saw any judges opening up trunks. Not once. If we don't say anything about it I bet they wouldn't even look. And if they do look we'll hand over all the documentation for it.
I know that our old Formula-Toy had a small fuel cell that we are not using. Maybe I can get it for our car, I'll have to look into it.
The best setup would be a fully automated system. We *could* have some toggle switch to pump gas from the reserve to the main tank, but that would be one more thing to worry the stressed out driver. What we can do instead is when the gas in the main tank gets to a certain level, say 1/2 or 1/3 tank, I will have a device that activates the pump in the reserve tank, pump all its gas into the main tank, and then disable the reserve pump. Piece of cake.
What do you guys think? I would like to do this for the March event if I can come up with a reserve tank that meets the safety & rule requirement. I'll take care of this entire reserve tank project so no one else has to worry about it. This will give us a serious advantage over other MR2s.
Mike
