Project #26 MR2MAN

[2mAn]

Hey everyone, time to share the new build. There was a milestone I wanted to reach and I hit it Sunday night. Some of you may know what happened to the Datsun, but some dont... That car was a blast but after a spun bearing ended that ownership I knew what was next. Someday I’d like to have a Porsche but for now a 2ZZ MR2 will do.

Knowing that the 1ZZ was coming out, it let me be free to be picky elsewhere. I stumbled on a high mileage stock fairly clean body (from the pics). I wasn’t expecting to win it, but I did! After paying for a car I’d never seen in person I was at the AIIA waiting for my car... the delivery was quite a moment...





It did run and drive and my buddy got this pic on the initial drive... haha smoking!! 250k miles, diff that wasn’t cooperating, tough to get into most gears, and yet it still pulled nicely once I laid into the throttle.





It made it to my friends house a few miles away, but I wasn’t too confident it would make it to my house. Here I am admiring my purchase...










The next day (5/30) it was dropped off at my house and the tear down began




On the ground, but for not much longer.













After a busy weekend, and a little mid-week evening work I got hit the milestone I wanted to get to before sharing it









Ive already got parts coming from MonkeyWrench Racing, and have already bought a bunch of other stuff. I don’t want this on the jack stands too long ... shouldn’t be too bad right ? ( lol famous last words)

[2mAn]

I also made a Time-Lapse video of my engine removal.

https://youtu.be/pEoG5o8Fjpc

and last night I spent some time in the garage cleaning the engine bay

Before & After

[amcp]

Subbed!

[mike.bmw]

Sweet! What's the power bump from 1zz to 2zz? ~60hp? That'll be quite fun! Tell us about these "other parts". :)

Sub'd!

[2mAn]

Sweet! What's the power bump from 1zz to 2zz? ~60hp? That'll be quite fun! Tell us about these "other parts". :)

Sub'd!

Yea the 2ZZ comes in right around 190bhp and with a curb weight of under 2200# it should be a nice combo

I already bought some stuff to stiffen up the chassis. Havent decided on suspension yet because I havent found the setup I really want yet, but I did already buy some wheels. While I wonder if I can get my SSRs back, they really arent the ideal setup as the ones I had were a square 16x7 all the way around. The wheels I bought are actually double staggered in a 15x7 front and 16x8 rear. Bought them from the Lotus forums haha... building a budget Elise means you can sometimes use their parts too

[ForcedFirebird]

In 1996 to about 1999(?) I had a 1992 GL. Fun little cars.

[amcp]

How crazy are you getting with this?

[2mAn]

How crazy are you getting with this?

Define crazy! haha

Likely not too crazy. I just want to have a car that I can drive hard and wont break my wallet when it starts falling apart

[amcp]

DD or trackrat or a mix of both? Ac/stereo?

[2mAn]

It wont be the DD, unless somehow it becomes spectacular at it... With the joke of storage space though, thats not likely...

Plan is that it will be my canyon / track car, but it will still have A/C. Im not sure on the stereo side yet. Id like to shave some weight out of it, so we'll see

[s14brent]

man, sad to read about the datsun' demise. Honestly I was kind of hoping to see something about a k-swap in here! always thought these were a cool chassis to build off of. can't wait to see the progress and hear your thoughts compared to the last few cars you had!

[2mAn]

Yea the Datsun was tough to let go, but I have to move on!... Being that it got parted out the budget for the new car was much smaller and while I considered a K-something swap, I decided to just build the car that Toyota should've built.

[jhaurimn]

If you squint, its basically a porsche ;)

GL on the build sir

[MrBurgundy]

OMG simon

Those cars are fun. Please turbo it and take me for a drive with the top down.

The 2ZZ is mean thanks to yamaha

[2mAn]

Well... garage space is getting more limited. I better get to work swapping over the wiring and oil pan over so I can get the 1ZZ and dead 5-speed out of here. Gotta keep the wife happy and if she loses her parking spot she will not be happy