Spinnetti wrote:I don't quite get it.... MR2's are simple, reliable and cheap. I've had them for many years and modified the hell out of them. The 4AGE is a great motor unless not cared for, and you can do that BEFORE the race The long cooling lines mean less worry about radiator capacity too. In my last street one, I took out all 3 cooling fans and did a 20v swap, and 10 years after I sold it, its still going strong. Just do your maintenance like any car you want to still have running at the end, and it should be good to go. The thing I don't like about MR2's on the track is that the handling will bite you in the ass at 10/10ths and its hard to recover once it goes.... Much prefer the Corolla for road racing and at the same weight and same engine, the Corolla is pretty much always faster (I have a Corolla too)
I follow your logic, and even agree with it, mostly. That's what led me to decide to use an MR2 as our race platform.
But the results on track don't lie. There is hardly a team running an MR2 (or even a 4AG in another chassis) that hasn't blown their motor at some point. Schumacher just blew theirs in an FX16, but as Rob has noted, it was a 200k motor that had run 5 races, so it was kind of due anyway and might not be the best example.
Most of us don't have the luxury of knowing the entire history of our engines, and the fact that we're getting these cars at the prices that we're getting them practically guarantees that the engines have not been well-cared for in their prior lives.
If you follow the results of all the AW11 MR2-based teams in Lemons, their tale of woe is usually pretty similar across the board. I've been in contact personally with pretty much all of them at some point and the conclusion that I've come to is that these engines, at the age and wear state in which we are running them, have a very tough time holding together under endurance race conditions. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but it's tough and the teams that make it happen often seem to have many, many years of 4AG experience prior to entering Lemons.
But when they are working right, they are damned fun to drive on the track. Just don't abruptly lift off the throttle in mid-turn unless you're intending to execute a spin.
Pat Mulry, TARP Racing #67
Mandatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone & not those of 24HOL, its mgmt, sponsors, etc.