PH Goes Sprinting. In A 19-year-Old Toyota
What's it like to take your baggy MR2 for a spot of grass-roots motorsport? We find out...
Toyota isn't a brand presently associated with PH-type activity. Despite blowing inconceivable amounts of cash on an underperforming F1 challenge that seemed precariously short on passion, it's years since you could buy a new Celica or MR2, and even further back since the days of the MR2-Celica-Supra trio, TTE-fielded rally cars and sports prototypes such as the 89C-V and the GT-One.
Nerves build...
Perhaps sensing the prevailing wind, Toyota UK is sponsoring both the 750MC MR2 Championship and the Toyota Sprint Series. The latter in particular is pitched as genuine, grass-roots motorsport, and when the invite came though to participate in the first round of the series, we jumped at the chance.
But what car to compete in? MR2 specialist Rogue Motorsport suggested a car of their own, but given the grass roots nature of the series we had a better idea: you can't get more 'grass roots' than turning up in a 19-year old Mk2 MR2 (UK Rev2 GT) that hasn't been on the road properly in seven years, mainly sitting outside rotting. It's my car - a sadly neglected family friend of many years that I've been trying to resurrect over recent months with limited success - time, money, motivation, work space: the usual excuses. Now there's just a week to sort it all out...
Thursday 6pm:
...a bit more...
8pm:
So far so good: nothing has fallen off. Brilliant.
8.30pm:
Still nothing has fallen off, but it feels a bit weird on this ancient rubber - three different brands, one very slow puncture, and one on the markers - so what can you expect? Then I remember the raised eyebrow of the Rogue mechanic when discussing the health of my car's suspension. Note to self: don't expect miracles of handling and road holding - it's knackered.
...and still more...
Still don't have any tyres, and time is rapidly running out. The rear boots on an MR2 are unusual - 225/50 R15: wide, squat and plump, basically - so it really restricts the appropriate tyre manufacturers to choose from. In the end we settle on some A048s - Yokohama's sticky, semi-slick road/track tyre. We might be feeble in the engine room, but we won't be lacking in mechanical grip at the contact patch. Can't quite believe it, but this might actually happen after all...
Sunday 6am:
Early start: check oil and pressures and get on the road. What a great feeling to be driving to a circuit with a day's competition ahead of you, it's an emotion worth the entry price alone.
7.30am:
...before our Adam is finally off
7.31am:
Our plan has backfired. Far from giving us an unfair advantage, the sticky Yokos mean we've been bumped up to Class C Pro: against the opposition in that class, we might as well have entered a wheelbarrow...
8.30am:
There's the Toyotas you'd expect...
10.00am:
It's time for a sighting lap of the course before the first of our eight runs of the day; a single lap of the banked circuit at Rockingham with chicanes, and both fast and slow corners artificially created with the help of cones. The start is just inside the pitlane facing the wrong way, followed by a 180-degree turn onto the start/finish straight. Can't help a slight tinge of disappointment that we're not using the infield circuit...
11.30am:
...and ones you wouldn't
1.30pm:
Pause for lunch and time to take stock, have an amble around and talk shop with fellow competitors. We've knocked whole seconds off our time so far, and aren't last. There's a terrific mix of sporting Toyotas here today: wildly modified Celicas with up to 700bhp, rapid MR2 Turbos with yelping dump valves, a gnarly ST165 Celica in TTE colours, Supras and even an IQ.
4.30pm:
Ridiculous, sublime. But which is which??
The biggest weakness isn't the engine, but the brakes: despite the new fluid it's like pushing your foot into a vat of mushy peas. The only really fast corner turns against the outer concrete wall of the banking, and it takes a while to build the resolve for taking it flat in the top of 'third'. Lose it here and you'll need a skip and a broom ...
5.00pm:
It also possesses perhaps the finest V6 induction note I've ever heard in a car, which drills through the Arai and makes all your bones rattle. It's quick, too, at 300bhp/ton, with beautifully sensitive and direct steering to rival an Elise's. This time the course really is too short, but it's a tantalising taste of a fascinating car.
5:30pm:
7pm:
Nothing helps you bond with your car like competition, even more so than a track day. The drive home is a happy one.
If you want to find out more pop on over to www.toyotasprint.com, and our thanks also go to the folks at Rogue Motorsport
The MK2 MR2 is a chronically underrated car in my opinion. Sounds like you had a riot! Rogue are an institution within the MR2 community so sure you were in the safest of hands.
I owned two UK cars and two imported turbos over the years and each was a fantastic ownership proposition - great fun and reliable.
Next how about a feature on MR2 Turbos? Surely one of the greatest performance car bargains out there... 5.5 seconds to 60, mid engine and bullet proof Toyota reliability with decent examples from £2k and up?
Failing that maybe a feature on the aforementioned blown nineties trio - Celica GT4, Supra TT and MR2 Turbo?!
There is one problem with this series though, Toyota stopped making the more sporty cars a while back when the MR2, rally Celica, Supra etc went out the door. I "raced" a stripped out Aygo, as you can see above people are making the iQ into something the Aston Martin Cygnet should be
but Toyota needs to be producing good sporty cars again so the TSS competitors don't have to be racing 200 000 mile cars.Luckly it seems Toyota is making that first step. If only they had continued with their fast cars rather than blowing all that money on F1.
Andy
Great fun, my wife and I are in to our 3rd year of doing this and still thoroughly enjoying it,
Jake
Andy
I ran my Clio 172 cup in my first event at Lydden hill in April and won my class, so it is really accessible.
My Clio has just ticked over to 130k miles and other than an oil and filter change, has had nothing done.
Off to Snetterton at the end of the month, Lydden and Goodwood next Month, Brands before the end of the year.
Get your shopping trollies out and give it a whirl. Check out the Hillclimb and Sprint association or one of the organising clubs (I am a member of Tunbridge Well Motor Club).
Steve
Being in competition adds a whole new dimension to a "track day" you start off just taking in the fun of it all and then you start looking at other peoples cars and thinking maybe you should do that as well to it ....finally you go home thinking about that perfect lap, that you didn't have, and wishing for a time machine.
Given the above, the cost is very cheap indeed. It's 3D not 2D like a track day is. It adds that extra frisson of competition.
Andy
Great fun, my wife and I are in to our 3rd year of doing this and still thoroughly enjoying it,
Jake
A small group of us used to hire an airfield and run against the clock (one at a time), even 3 or 4 timed runs at no longer than 2 minutes each still felt like a good way to spend a day. Sadly the NIMBYs put an end to our 4 events per year, even though we were running standard cars no noiser than the fairly busy main road nearby. We then hired the Haynes Motor Museum Circuit for a while but that wasn't the safest place if you had an off.
There are several track day companies that use airfields (with unlimited run off) here in the South West, I wonder if they would consider looking into such an event, or are there insurance issues running a 'competitive' event over and above a standard track day??
A small group of us used to hire an airfield and run against the clock (one at a time), even 3 or 4 timed runs at no longer than 2 minutes each still felt like a good way to spend a day. Sadly the NIMBYs put an end to our 4 events per year, even though we were running standard cars no noiser than the fairly busy main road nearby. We then hired the Haynes Motor Museum Circuit for a while but that wasn't the safest place if you had an off.
There are several track day companies that use airfields (with unlimited run off) here in the South West, I wonder if they would consider looking into such an event, or are there insurance issues running a 'competitive' event over and above a standard track day??
http://www.aswmc.org.uk/sprint.htm#SCAL
I know going against the clock adds an extra dimension, but even after dozens of track days (and the odd sprint) I've yet to drive a suitable performance car around a track uncompetitively and feel bored. If money is tight, then I can well see why people would trade the competitive element for some extra track time.
Of course, what would be best is [something closer to] track day track-time and some like minded individuals to compete against. But then you're talking circuit racing and the costs that go with it...
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