Got my MR2 - only 25 years late!

[PeteP]

When I was 17 years old this was the car I admired most, but I could never have afforded one. Then last week I had a rush of blood to the head and bid on one on eBay. Yay! I won!

So I'm now the smirking owner of a white 1988 T-Bar in fair condition.

Before meeting with Richard to collect the car, I had never even sat in one, so imagine my concern when my 5' 11" 'ample' frame only barely fit in. A little seat adjustment, and some experimenting with the getting in & out procedure, and I started my adventure.

In the 5 days since I got it I've racked up 980 miles - and as many smiles. It takes a bit of getting used to 80s car standards, and a bit longer to get used to a mid-engined pocket rocket that doesn't seem to know when to stop gripping the road.

Not that it's all been plain sailing: I've had a speedo cable detach itself and HT leads that are a tad temperamental and caused me some concerns about getting home to Aberdeen from Kent.

Any previous owners of E259 JLL are welcome to tell tales.

The best bit so far has been discovering what the TVIS does (and sounds like), and finding out what grip an MR2 has on the long curving off-ramps from the motorway - is it even legal to take them at that speed?

The next step is to fit some of the cosmetic parts that I got off the wonderfully helpful Paul Sims, and sort the knocking noise from the front when going slowly over pot holes (drop link?), then maybe a little tinkering with the engine, but ultimately I want to keep the car standard and get it looking as good as I can.

[Master-B]

Hello Pete. Welcome.

Fair play to you for putting in the best part of 1000 miles in your first week! They really are great little cars to drive, I bet you havent stopped grinning either!

It does sound likely its your drop links knocking. You can save a few quid using ford ones, you have to spin one of the ends around though.

Kris

[HowardB]

Hi there - sounds like I've done pretty much the same as you, at the same time, as I got mine 4 months ago having admired an old Maths teacher' car when I was 17 too!

Great cars and great friendly club too.

[PeteP]

Hi there - sounds like I've done pretty much the same as you, at the same time, as I got mine 4 months ago having admired an old Maths teacher' car when I was 17 too!

Great cars and great friendly club too.

All I can say is thank goodness I wasn't inspired by a teacher's car or I'd be driving a Bond Bug right now.

No, the MR2 that I always admired belonged to a woman who worked at the Job Centre (or Dole Office as we called them then). Every day I would make the 2 mile walk to the office to look for a job and would often speak to her because she was so helpful and friendly (they used to be like that) and I always thought that getting one of those cars had meant I'd made it. In truth I could've got one years ago but it never seemed the right time. After a big motorbike crash I am left with some injuries that mean that although the MR2 is hard to get in/out of, it's nothing compared to how it'll be in a few years so I'd better enjoy it now while I can. ///sob story ends///

I took my wife out for a half hour drive on familiar country roads and unfortunately she found it a bit scary. I think it was as much because the passenger really doesn't get much of a secure feeling, what with not even having a steering wheel in front of them, and she must've thought I'd bought an oversized Scalextric car when I started throwing it around the tight corners. To be honest, I wonder what some more powerful modern cars must be like if this is what a 25 year old 1.6lt car can do.

Anyway, I think it needs a couple of days rest and then I'll make a start on the steering/suspension with a few new parts and a deep inspection of the underside while it's off the wheels.

I hope everybody else still gets as much pleasure out of their MK1 as I am in my first week.

[superwhite90]

Hi and Welcome!

I am currently rebuilding my engine and bodywork and still 6 years on, I am like a kid in a sweetshop just itching to get it all sorted and up and running! Long and time consuming process though at the moment, but she will live again soon!!

[tommundy]

Great intro Pete! Welcome to the forums and to the club also!

They're great cars and you'll be hooked for life now, hehe.

The 1.6 litre engine in the Mk1 was very advanced for the time it was produced and it's only really recently that production cars power outputs are matching or exceeding it on normally aspirated engines.

The handling on them is sublime, especially if all the geo is as it should be.

Looking forward to some pictures! :D

Cheers,
Tom

[PeteP]

Pictures? Well I've been trying to load some into Garage all week but I kept getting "unable to move image" errors. I resized them all to 1024x768 this morning but they still get bounced. Then I realised I needed to create an album first, so I did, and guess what... they still won't load. It's not that much of a minger! What am I doing wrong?

[PeteP]

I can't get any photos to upload in the Garage section of the forum so I'll have to settle for adding them here.

Here she is brooding outside the hotel, a mere half hour after finding out who her new pilot would be...

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2013/05/8717057904_50699a8e75_c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97267691@N00/8717057904/)

Most of you will be used to this, but at this was only a day after I bought her and I was still getting used to the idea of powerless steering. I was rather pleased with this bit of parallel parking - first attempt!:clap: ...

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2013/05/8717058048_eed69fb81c_c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97267691@N00/8717058048/)

Enjoying the sunshine in Kent...

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2013/05/8715938897_b9fdfbff3e_c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97267691@N00/8715938897/)

Nearly learning a lesson about low ride height and spoilers...

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2013/05/8717057942_c9763f99fd_c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97267691@N00/8717057942/)

Top off and back in Scotland. Yes, we do get summer up here...

http://www.mr2mk1club.com/images/imported/2013/05/8715944151_2333df2371_c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97267691@N00/8715944151/)
After this photo I decided to see if I could get the wheels to spin up. I was given some assistance by the dust but we managed to leave two black squiggles on the road as we fishtailed away.

[julianw]

Welcome to the forum. You've started your Mk1 ownership in fine style and bought a great looking example!

Kris is right - the front end knock at low speeds on the rough is most likely the anti roll bar drop links. You can: buy them at a fierce price from Toyota; buy cheap generic items from eBay that most likely will not make a year before making the same noise; or buy Ford Fiesta items and heat em up enough to turn one end round 180deg. However, if the drop links have already been done and the knock is all from the nearside at the front, there's a single daft nylon bushing on the steering rack that will give you the same noise. Toyota only part this, but only about £5. Let me know if you need the part number dug out. It's a steering rack off job to do this, but it's one of my pet hates - noises that show the car's age.

Toyota still has a (perhaps) surprising amount of spares available, but some are just an insane price, hence the thriving trade in salvaged parts and spares or repairs cars.

Julian

[PeteP]

Thanks for the input guys. I've gone with el cheapo drop links because they've done me right on previous cars. However, I've since realised that other cars weren't performance oriented or driven with such gusto. But if I get everything fit for this summer then I can spend the winter (and lots of money) making it the best car it can be.

I plan to keep it quite standard except for the common improvements to make it more civil and the essential cost compromises on replacement parts. I can't decide whether the K&N comes under this category or not, but as it was on when I bought it, so it'd be rude to change it.

I hadn't considered doing a minor service at this point because it had one not that long ago, but as with any old car, getting to know it includes knowing what has and hasn't been done. What's a few more pounds? It's only money!

[snoball]

love the description pete and the photo's look amazing :)

my mom lives in inverness so i might pop up that way at some point :) just for a laugh :)

sounds like you've found the weakness in the package in that you gotta have some serious muscles at times lol :)

take care and make sure that above all else you enjoy yourself :)

[PeteP]

Some the roads up here were made for these cars (and bikes) and if you bring it up here feel free to drop me a line.

[snoball]

last time i was up that way i was giving my last scooby wagon some serious abuse lol :) and it was loving it :)

love the roads out the back of elgin, inverness and then out through bunchrew and up towards ullapool they are so well macced - so flat, no kinks cambers in the right places, it just encourages you to throw your car around :):):)

[PeteP]

The wonderful thing about the roads out there is that they suffer with so little traffic that the surface stays pristine - as long as it was laid properly and maintained. You should try the road to Loch Muick: it's single track but because it's a dead end and because it runs up the open valley, you can see for a mile or so ahead and know if there is any other traffic coming your way. Sheep & deer may still wander down, as I found out on my bike, but otherwise the worst thing to contend with is sand/gravel. It's a great test road.

[PeteP]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

That's over a year since I got the MR2 and almost a year since I last did any work on it, and it's currently sitting next to the house looking a little worse for wear after a winter of neglect. I still don't have my garage and we're heading into summer fast, but with at least one essential job that needs finishing, several jobs that I'd prefer to have done before going back on the road in ernest, and a whole raft of jobs that I want to do to get her up to standard.

Am I the only person who thinks the sensible option is to sell her on to somebody with the time to do the project work, and buy myself a new one with everything sorted for the summer? I know I'd feel like a heel for not finishing the work, but the other part of me knows I'd then be able to enjoy one for the summer.

Of course, the really sensible option is to buy a new one that needs no work and keep the existing one ready to be the winter project car...