ok ok so vauxhalls aint that slow :)

"Vamp" wrote

At Ultimate Street Car 2003 at Santa Pod, the second fastest road-legal car I saw go down the strip was a completely factory standard VX220 Turbo (they'd just been released IIRC and VX were promoting it at the event). It was only marginally slower than the 600bhp Skyline R33 which posted the best time of the event.

Obviously the overall standard of cars at USC was pretty low compared to say, TOTB but it was still mighty impressive. Especially as both VX220 Turbo and Skyline posted better times than most, if not all of the V8 "Street Eliminator" cars, of which my favourites were the BMW "375" and a beige Cortina that looked totally bog standard save for the superwide rear tyres. Even the V8 rumble was quite hushed until the taps were opened.

Just for the record, Lotus Elises are crap at the 1/4 mile! I have seen plenty of those post 15 or 16 second times, about the same as my old Dedra Turbo :S

Man, writing about this stuff makes me want to go and watch some drag racing! Bring on the season :)

The non-turbo 2.2 would probably waste your MR2 to 100 mph. They are very very light and much smaller than the MR2. 700kg springs to mind as the weight.

The turbo must be a beast...

The VX220 is actually 900Kg ish, light but not elise light!

Vamp ( snipped-for-privacy@none.com) wrote: : think the VX220 turbo has the same bhp as my MR2 turbo doesn't it? 220bhp my : MR2? but then the little VX220 must way sod all too! it shifted but seemed : to die off a bit after 80mph. was fun though :)

200hp, 0-60 4.7, 0-100 12.6, 1/4mile 13.5, 151mph, 930kg (courtesy of Top Gear).

Blair.

"B.G. Finlay IT Services" wrote

The one at Santa Pod did it in the mid 11's but that's a sticky dragstrip and they probably sent their best driver, plus as it was a promo car, they probably cheekily upped the boost a bit perhaps ??

I like vauxhalls but have to admit that the vx220 is not much more than a rebadged lotus. I`m using the rear calipers for my car, which once belonged to a vx220. Brembo - nice!

my MR2 is 220bhp, 0-60mph in 5.8 0-100mph is 12 and 1/4mile is 13.5 also top end is 155-160mph mind so stat wise there close. it's the -300kg's that does it :) a guy i know at imoc running just over 300bhp said he just about beat a VX220 turbo at the pod, the VX went off but he said he caught him up about halfway down.

lightness seems to really help for the 0-60mph dash but more bhp seems to help at top end

exactly.. the VX220 hasn't even got electric windows, just to save those precious lbs.. one of the car programs took an old XJS and stripped out absolutely everything that wasn't necessary, including all the unused seats and they managed to get the 0-60 down by a couple of seconds, IIRC. Think I'd rather have all the mod-cons and a bigger engine meself ;)

Bigus

yeah that's what i was thinking last night as i went over the dartford bridge! he maybe faster but i'm sure my car was less scary at 110mph plus mine probably didn't feel like it was going to get blown away by the wind gusting across the bridge :) i bet the VX220 is well uncomfortable on a long-ish cruise! My old MK1 used to gimmie really bad back pain and the engine done my head in being a high revvy 1.6 my MKII is quite nice cruising at 80mph and your just off the turbo at 80mph too so it has nice pick up there if you do need to pass something without bothering to change down :) really bloody shifts though if you change down mind!

Power required to overcome drag.

ah of course! i guess a VX220 would suffer a bit more drag than my MR2 as the VX220 being a soft top

Countered by the much smaller frontal area - if you've not noticed you don't have to be able to fold your body three times to get into the MR2. People of my build can only get in and out of VX220s / Elises with the roof off - it's the reason I could not own an Exige - well, that and the Gp 20 insurance. And the 30 odd grand needed to buy one.

They're underpowered really. Whilst light enough that they're pretty quick to 60mph, they soon tail off as soon as a bit of wind resistance enters the equation :)

i had a similar prob in a MK3 MR2, closed the door and the door handle smashe my knee into the steering wheel! OUCH! i am 6" 2 and don't fit in most cars i like :( i know the MR2 MKII body shape is good for 200mph+ as tested by some nutter who whacked some mental powered engine into one in the US nevada speed record thingy.

my MR2 turbo counts as gp20 but groups seems to mean f*ck all these days, it's more cost of car and image of car i find.

My mate had a Mk3 MR2 and had the same problem, so he removed the handle, and taped over the gap with that carbon fibre style sticky stuff you can get. A lot of owners do it.

-- Peter

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