Wilhelm Raceworks Blog

Ever wonder just how stiff (or not stiff?) the MR2 chassis is?  Or how much difference various braces make to chassis stiffness?  Me too!

While I had my 2GR torn apart to fix and upgrade it, I took the opportunity to attempt some improvement on the oil drains from the cylinder heads.

There's always room for improvement.  My SLA rear suspension conversion worked well in the limited testing I have done, but there were just a few things design wise that I wasn't completely happy with.  So on to V2.0.

OK, confession time.  Earlier this spring while working on another project, I did something dumb.  Possibly the dumbest "little mistake" I have ever made while working on a car.  While re-installing the lower intake runners on the 2GR-FE, I lost a nut.  I'm sure you can guess where it went...

The E153 transmission from the MR2 Turbo is strong, but that strength is also it's greatest weakness.  Large, heavy gears that generate a lot of heat, waste power, tear up synchros, and don't shift very nicely (especially the early boxes like mine).  Plus they have become difficult to find on the used market, and rebuild parts are no longer available for the early years.  There has to be another option!

There's a lot of things to like about the MR2, but the McPherson strut rear suspension really isn't one of them.  But that's so thoroughly baked into the design of the car that we couldn't possible change it, right?

Right?!?

The ABS system in the MKII MR2 is known to be a bit... let's just say it was the best they could do in 1990...  Toyota did improve it quite substantially in 93, and I had retrofitted a 93 ABS ECU into my first MR2, but that only helped so much.  But what about something more modern?  Like the system from the MR2 Spyder?

For years my suspension has been basically all of the parts that I sell, but not much of it was unique.  Standard geometry kit, Koni coilovers with my top mounts, the control arms were the only "custom" pieces.  Spring of 2020 I found myself with some extra time on my hands, and I seriously revisited my suspension model for the first time in years (see these links for the original analysis).  Maybe I can improve things a bit...

Almost since I first v6 swapped on my car, I have been reading about the performance benefits of a true dual exhaust with an x-pipe compared to the y-pipe I have been running.  But I was skeptical.  How much difference could it really make?  Would I even be able to fit two pipes over the cross member?  Finally I decided to give it a try.

Toyota rates the 2GR at 269hp (at the flywheel), give or take a bit depending on the application.  My swapped MR2 initially dyno'd 280hp (at the wheels).  Assuming 15% drive train loss, that's 330hp at the flywheel, or a gain of 61hp vs stock and a specific output of 94hp per liter.   Not bad for a stock motor with intake / headers / exhaust, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement!

Building a (functional) rear diffuser has been on my list of things I wanted to do for a while, but getting it to fit nicely around the exhaust was always a problem.  My new center exit exhaust solved that, so on to the diffuser build!