MR2 + mud = scary stuff

Well I've done my first event in the MR2. Stupidly I chose an event with 30 miles of white roads (gravel, mud, grass and some BFO bumps), when the MR2 has absolutely no guarding underneath and road tyres. But with a new clutch, new brakes, some big bits of metal bolted to the front end for strengthing and a few other tweaks we wanted to give it a go!

The 120 miles of tarmac bits were excellent, exactly what the car is desgined for. Gravel was more or less OK, except to the big potholed bits. But mud/grass were a nightmare. I had to fight hard to keep the car on the road whilst trying to keep up some pace. I had one amazing move when I was coming up to a massive bump and had to slow down but the back end stepped out and I went over the bump sideways at about 45 degrees and completely missed it :) Not so lucky all the other times though. One time I think one back wheel got caught in a rut which sent us well out of shape an left us 90 degrees to the road with all 4 wheels stuck in ruts. Got towed out by a Landy. Similar thing happend again and got pushed out. Another time I locked up and went straight on at a corner into some long grass and got stuck again. Got pushed out. With a bit of luck, lots of opposite lock, and some abuse of the floor pan and a few more iffy moments we made it through and finished, which was our main aim of the night.

Bit of a poor night we thought, but it turned out everyone else in our class had come home late or had retired and we won it :) Amazed, but very very happy!!! Hopefully we got some good pictures to go with the throphy :D

Hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Reply to
Carl Gibbs
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Sounds like you've had a fantastic time.

Not sure you've got the opportunity to alter car setup mid event but adjustable suspension is a must have as on rough stuff you really do need to raise the suspension on gravel and soften it a bit to prevent damage/aid traction and also stiffen up the antiroll bar considerably to help stability.

Its hard choosing tyres to cover an event like that. Tarmac ones will get ripped to bits on the gravel and be useless on the mud. Gravel ones will wear like hell on the tarmac.

Reply to
Conor

Indeed I did :)

If there was adjustable bits in place then there would be time, but budgets dont normally strech that far in the sort of events I (can afford to) do. Its only at a grass roots level.

I knew I would have problems with standard road tyres, but I spent my whole prep'ing budget on just fixing things just so the car would get round. I've got a whole heap of things I'd like to spend money on, but that will have to wait! If I do another event with that much unsurfaced mileage again the first thing I'll be buying will be gravel tyres for the rear and sacrifice a bit of speed on tarmac!

Reply to
Carl Gibbs

wow my old MK1 rules! :)

Reply to
Vamp

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