--IT’S RACING SEASON EVERYBODY!--

Simplify, and add lightness. This has been not only a Lotus motto, but a racecar motto for decades, and something that I plan to follow suit with. So if I plan on racing MisterTwo at autoX all season, I had better prepare. First things first, what class is MisterTwo going to fall into? Considering SCCA solo seems to have something very against removing interior parts, I am going to rocket straight to a prepared class, DP. Since D prepared has a pretty significant PAX penalty, there are going to be a couple more mods before the season starts.

Firstly, weight removal is a must. Ditching the carpet adds a significant PAX penalty, but hardly reduces weight to compensate. Therefore, we must go further. To start, I bought a couple extra doors from a local junk yard and we are going to lose some real weight! A couple hours of work and a plasma cutter later it's obvious I'm starting to take this “add lightness” thing seriously. Weighing my existing doors VS the gutted ones, I’ve lost 40LBS out of EACH door! Now THAT is a high performance-per-dollar mod!

Spray paint.

Stickers.

Oil change.

Check nuts.

Check bolts.

Check alignment.

READY TO RACE!

Okay, I am just going to stop right here. Have I mentioned my MR2 is still on factory struts and springs? Yes, that coupled with several hundred pounds of weight loss equates to an even HIGHER ride height than factory, which is basically a 4x4 pickup truck. This can't happen. I don't have a few thousand dollars to spend on quality Koni race struts and Ground control camber plates, so what do I do? A friend of mine recognized this very conundrum I had, and hooked me up with a set of eBay quality coil overs he had laying around that were once deemed for a fox body mustang. Obviously, these coil overs are completely wrong for an MR2, but nothing that a welder and a plasma torch can't fix! We both instantly started cutting and grinding on the strut body's until we had a smooth starting point. Then we cut out some flanges and welded them in place, cut out some steel camber plates and we were in business in no time. Now the Fox body is a much heavier car, so the included springs were far too stiff for MisterTwo. So, I moved the front springs to the rear, ordered some lighter springs for the front and I had a working suspension setup for autocross! I ended up lowering the car close to 5" from where I started, so probably about 4" lower than factory ride height.

It may not be a perfect setup, after all we are still dealing with eBay dampeners. But with a spring rate roughly double factory, a lower ride height, huge weight loss, and more negative camber, MisterTwo is starting to feel like a real race car.