New AW11(MR2) Owner In South CA

[HunterXero]

Hey there how's it going every one? Well, my week is going quite well. Why? well that is the whole reason for this thread... I went out and bought myself My first drift car... A 1985 AW11(MR2.) I was cruising around town and on my way home from Stater brothers here in south county and noticed an awesome little car sitting infront of the market with a forsale sign in the window. Long story short, Called the guy, he came out that day and was asking $1650.00 for it, I managed to talk him down to 1k, and am now the proud owner of a 1985 1.6 liter, 5spd manual, good condition Toyota MR2. As you can imagine I am STOKED! the only things I found the car needs so far to have no problems are;

Brakes: Pads n Rotors
Gasketvalve cover gasket)
Tires: uh... tires?
miles: 230k

Other then that the car shifts smooth as a babies bottom, passed smog on the first try(keep in mind i'm in CA, not only do we have smog, but we have physical inspection, and now an evap system check too.), and Hauls some serious ass!

Anyway, my Plans for the car are simple, I want to drift, and this is the car I'm going to do it in. at least to get me started and used to the sport my only concern is the manual steering (and by manual i mean non-assisted.)
In adition to my aspirations of becoming a drifter, I would like to upgrade the brakes, super, or even turbocharge the motor, and maybe add the ground effects kit from the 1986 AW11's , though I might stay wingless. i'm not sure yet.

I could ramble on for days! but I gotta sleep, I got a midterm in 8 hours >_> so i'll let my pictures do the talking:





Because of midterms I havn't had a chance to give her a wash or even attempt to clean up the engine bay, but the first things on my list for spring break are new rotors and pads, new sparkplugs, and undoing the beanerfied stereo system... (i don't mean to be stereotypical, but once you see what the guy did... you'll get what i'm saying.) anywho, off to bed. Have a goodnight!

[328FTW]

Welcome

That is a clean looking 2. I'm not too sure about drifting it but it should be a fun car. If you take it to a track day (after tyres, gasket and brakes of coarse) you can get a feel for how it handles, they are a bit too "snappy" and short wheel base for a drift car. Hard to explain by text but a track day will show you what I mean.

[328FTW]

Double post!

[Bradmph]

Drift? You just got this old classic car you luv and now your going to drift it? Well, it may have one problem drifting for you and that is it will probably do alot of pushing since the front is so light. Could drop a ton of weight up there and try it, but then your going to need horsepower to keep them rear wheels spinning hard.
The more MR2's that people put into wrecking yards just makes mine keep climbing in price. AHHHH go ahead and drift, have fun...hehehehe jk!

[masagsxr]

Welcome aboard!!!

[HunterXero]

Look, i'm getting sick of this so i'm gonna say it now... I would rather not drift this car, however it was the only thing in my price range that was even close to being capable of a drift... ever since Tokyo drift, and Initial D, anything with the names "AE86" "240sx" "s13" "Trueno" "Corolla" "RX7" "FC" "FD3s" Or anything else rear wheel drive capable of a drift, Have Skyrocketed in price. Believe me, I'm no amature when it comes to driving, I've been behind the wheel of Nascar's, 500+ hp musclecars on and off the strip, and all sorts of other kinds of trucks, n cars alike. So believe me when I say "Crashing this thing is the LAST thing on my list" That I do actually mean it. I don't plan on wrecking. Yes, I know in any automotive sport things can go wrong, but i'm gonna do everything I can to keep that from happening.

Personally, for drifing I would much rather have an RX7 or 240sx, but even those (running or no) have jumped up to about 5k just for the ****** ones.

So this is what I can afford, and this beautiful little car is gonna have to do.

ok, now that my rant is over.

I understand I'll have to redistribute the weight some how, that I figured from the beginning with the engine sitting right on the wheels.

I also know I'll probably at LEAST need a rear sway bar.

Suspension is probably gonna be a must

Improved rotors (probably drilled n slotted)

Roll cage...

and the things I mentioned before.

Any one know where I can get a good deal on some quality parts (sway bar, rotor's etc)

anyone know the torque spec for the valve covers? I know it's not really needed, but I'm a very precise person, and don't want this leak to happen again any time soon.

And for those of us AW11 owners in so cal, know any good shops for suspension work?

-----------------------------------

Again, sorry for the rant. I'm just sick of people thinking i'm some dumb kid looking to wreck a nice car. Yes I know it comes with the newb mentality, but it's overwhelming not to mention deterring. Anyway, i'm off to sleep, I need to fix my valve cover gaskets in the morning. Have a goodnight

[M.Bailey]

by the way Nascar races in circles and road coarses. IHRA and NHRA race on the strip. good luck drifting.

[Azul36-ps3]

Drifting an mr2 is possible. Id like to try it myself. Sure, taking a corner at high speeds if fun and all. But id like to go sideways too. Its the sense of losing control, while still being in control. Don't let other people change ur mind. If u want to do it, then just do it! Ur probably gonna need more power though. A LOT more power. Keep the wing. Without it the mr2 feels....empty XD

[328FTW]

If you are serious about drifting I can get my rally car into some good slides with the 4agze. The basic setup is a locked diff with some slightly harder springs. I found the backend swung much better and easier when I wound a lot of tow out onto the back wheels to quicken up rear response and make it swing but anything over 130kp/h and would sway and wander back and forth badly but I got the balance right in the end.

I can't hold slides for long just because I lack the power to keep a locked diff lit during a slide but when I get the turbo working that will change. Personally I think you would be better off building a car from a shell, you can take almost any RWD shell and put whatever you want in it and set it up for drift, nissan turbo engines in old BMWs, V6 turbos in old datsuns that sort of thing and it would be much more competitive.

[Davis]

Welcome! Happy drifting.

[mr.ac]

Welcome, as for your drifting good luck on that. By the way you need a lsd tranny for good drifting, which your car does not have. Also power, which you don't have, and a longer wheel base, which you don't have.

Also there is a big differance with nascar and circle dirving...example, you make right turns.(I'm not a nascar fan by the way. F1 ftw!!)

But don't get me worng your little mr2 is great for road racing, and auto-x. Drifting no good. But don't let me stop you go out and try it for yourself. You'll quickly see how hard it would be set up your car to drift.

If you really wanted to buy a cheap drift car go with a old '90ish mustangs with possi traction. Plenty of those out there, or old bmw's, old '80 celicas
Anyway have fun.

[HunterXero]

Originally Posted by 328FTW

If you are serious about drifting I can get my rally car into some good slides with the 4agze. The basic setup is a locked diff with some slightly harder springs. I found the backend swung much better and easier when I wound a lot of tow out onto the back wheels to quicken up rear response and make it swing but anything over 130kp/h and would sway and wander back and forth badly but I got the balance right in the end.

I can't hold slides for long just because I lack the power to keep a locked diff lit during a slide but when I get the turbo working that will change. Personally I think you would be better off building a car from a shell, you can take almost any RWD shell and put whatever you want in it and set it up for drift, nissan turbo engines in old BMWs, V6 turbos in old datsuns that sort of thing and it would be much more competitive.

thanks alot for the info, I don't know too much about suspension modifications, I was thinking harder springs but I wasn't sure, thanks for letting me know! ^_^ as for holding a slide, yea it is kind of interesting, it rained in my area this morning and the roads were a little slick. Needless to say I slid out once or twice since it was my first time driving this thing in the rain. and it snapped back really quickly.



As for the wheel base and power issue also mentioned, i've seen corolla's drift just fine, and they have the same wheel base. Granted all their weight isn't ontop of their rear wheels, but still it is possible, it's just about finding the right combination of weight control and braking technique (i hope, and none of which I have yet XD)

anyway, quick question for you guys.

It doesn't happen all the time, just once, maybe twice a day. I'll take the car out of gear when I'm decelerating, and instead of returning to idle, it goes past the idle point, drops to zero and dies. Any Ideas? (it starts right back up once I turn the key btw)