trackdaycar

THE NORTH EAST TRACK CAR

Last updated 20th September 2002

THE STORY SO FAR

31st July 2002

The cheapest MR2 in the world - Maybe! Myself and Joanne have just purchased this very early 1984 MR2 MK1 Coupe. The car was bought from Merton village in Co. Durham on 29/07/2002 and came with a new battery, alternator, 4 new tyres, fuel pump, MOT till March 2003 and TAX till September 2002. Apart from a sticking rear caliper and a possible cooling fan relay problem the car is in excellent mechanical order. The body has the usual problems with arches and will need 2 front wings and a lower spoiler. We are not sure what we are going to do with the car at the moment. Possibly a track day car, Joanne to use daily to keep the miles of her 88' coupe or just hammer it into the ground, not sure. The strangest suggestion I came up with was to use the car to promote the club with club logo graphics pasted over the car. Now for the good bit, we only paid £100, yes, £100 for the car, DON'T ASK!!

4th August 2002

It has been decided during a meeting at the motor show on 4th August that the car I bought for £100 is to be gutted and converted into a race car. The car will be used solely by the part owners wishing to experience track days and who are reluctant to use their pride and joy. During the meeting the following people agreed to be part owners and main contributors to the project: Michael Sheavills - Project leader, Paul Woods - Chief mechanic, Mac Sheavills - Project advisor, Mike Johnson - Track day technical advisor, Dave Watchman - Promoter / Financial advisor, Michael Clementson - Part owner / contributor, Phil Moore - Part owner / contributor, John Moore - Part owner / contributor, Alan Jones - Project technical advisor

Over the next few months the car will be stripped of any unnecessary parts but we will be keeping the passenger seat to take people round the track. At the moment we will be keeping the original engine but have the options of a Corolla GTI or a Celica turbo engine to put in. We will probably tweek up the chassis with Fensport springs and performance shockers. The car will then be completely repainted in Subaru Imprezza Sti blue with the clubs logo and website printed somewhere on the car. If anyone would be interested in sponsoring the car then please contact me on 07814347042. Thanks already go to Panorama Motors who have allowed us to store the car there and use their facilities. The cars debut will be the MR2 Trackday at Elvington Airfield on September 7th. We have also booked the same track for November 2nd and December 7th where the car will be in action. See the track car at:

September 7 - MR2 track day at Elvington with Club Track Car debut, November 2 - Elvington Track Day, December 7 - Elvington Track Day

11th August 2002

"AKHa" arrives in Paul's garage to begin the transformation into its new career

The rotten front wings are removed......

.... cutter used to speed things up......

.....wings off.

Welding the new exhaust system......

.... big bore centre exiting tail pipe.

attending to the rear arches

25th August 2002

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Hawkes <dg.hawkes@btopenworld.com>
> To: <Mistertwo@msheavills.freeserve.co.uk>
> Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 8:51 PM
> Subject: track day MR2

Dear Mike, I have just seen the article about your track day special. The
idea of joint contributors - and allowing people to ride in it to see what
an MR2 can feel like on track - seemed a nice idea and, hoping that the
project goes well, I just thought, by way of support, I would offer you
either or both of: a FREE race engine - the bottom end does need repair
(early investigation suggests the no. four piston broke but the rest might
well be OK) but the cylinder head (big valve/ported etc. ) and cams (high
spec. Kent profiles) looks fine - it gave upwards of 175 BHP using a
limiting modified Ford distributor set-up, with twin Weber 40 DCOE
carburettors and a standard exhaust manifold/Magnex system, so with lots
more torque and driveability to come if better sorted and FREE use of the
moulds I have if you should want to lighten/ de-rust it with
fibreglass/kevlar panels etc. I couldn't make the panels for you myself but
if you are interested I would recommend you use Simon Gibson of Gibson
Restoration (in Belper, Derbyshire) who does meticulous work to any spec.
you would ask for and at an average price of approx £100 per panel. The
moulds are available for just about every panel. His work is that seen on my
car (F800 EAM) also on the site as reviewed by Richard Morgan at Donington
this month.
Having been down this road for a while now and having made many mistakes,
taken bad advice and run into dodgy suppliers I also know some good contacts
and can advise on the effects of different suspension set-ups if you want
any alternative feedback.
Hope this is helpful
Regards,
David Hawkes

----- Original Message -----
From: Michael SHEAVILLS <mistertwo@msheavills.freeserve.co.uk>
To: David Hawkes <dg.hawkes@btopenworld.com>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: track day MR2

David, Nice to finally meet you. That is a very, very generous offer and
what's more important is your experience. I have done a few track days in the
past in an NA MK1 completely standard, the thought of the engine you mention
in the track car is very exciting. Obviously without thinking about it we
would all like you on board with the project. To bring you up to date the
car is a very early 1985 MK1a coupe with 130K miles on the clock, red. State
of affairs are the car has had new front wings fitted ( Toyota ) with a
fabricated front spoiler which has been stiffened, we have left a gap for
the radiator and will fit aluminium mesh over the hole to cover it up. The
rear arches were really bad with rust and have been bodged as a temp
measure, fibreglass panels to follow looks like a likely option now. The car
has been completely painted in Subaru WRX 555 rally blue with a touch of
metal flake in. All the interior is still in the car at the moment in fact
we were talking about your car today and liked what you have done to yours.
For the exhaust we have manufactured a single through pipe woth a PICO
performance big bore exhaust which is bolted through the boot and positioned
in the middle of the car at the rear. Springs are being made by
Fensport -35mm and uprated 30% with uprated KYB shocks for now ( non
adjustable ) The car is booked into the MR2 only track day organised by
bookatrack.com and the MR2 Drivers Club on September 7th at Elvington
airfield which is near York, we would very much like you to come if possible
mainly to meet you and discuss the future plans. At the moment we are
financing the project with contributions from the project leaders with
people donating spares they already had but for the future we are looking
for sponsorship. I've spoken to Ken Salmon about the club being the main
sponsor of the project and providing the clubs finances are looking good
they may be interested, I am actually on the committee in the club and
another committee member, Alan Jones is also heavily involved in the
project. The car will be based in the Durham area and we hope to attend as
many track days, performance shows and the main MK1 Club shows, Billing etc
as possible. There are still politics issues to discuss regarding ownership,
use and financing the car. Our 1st goal is to have the car ready for its big
unveiling at our monthly pub meet next Sunday at a pub near the city of
Durham then for its track debut on the 7th. Very early stages but I have a
good positive feel about the project and its nice when there are people
around like yourself with such generosity. If you would like to speak to me
my numbers are 01207 231601 or 0781437042.
Many thanks for your interest
Michael Sheavills
National events organiser MR2 MK1 Club

Thursday 29th AUGUST 2002

Midlands member and track car enthusiast David Hawkes has very kindly donated not only his expertise and experience to the project but a race engine, fully carbed with performance cams which I will be collecting on Tuesday 3rd September. The engine won't be in the car ready for its debut at Elvington but don't worry it will be in for Novembers appearance.

Most of this week was spend mending rotten arches, repairing and welding rear sills and prepping the car ready for its new colour scheme.

The car was fully masked, primed and then painted today with 2 silver race stripes painted up the middle of the car in silver.

Spoiler removed, car primed and ready for top coat

We decided to paint mirrors and door handles...

....not forgetting to mask the wheels

Testing the colour and gun

The 1st paint goes on the car

Ensure you always wear a mask when painting

Paul admiring his handywork

Peeling off the masked stripes, fingers crossed!!

A matt finish as it has to be lacquered

The car has now been lacquered, what a finish!

Friday 30th AUGUST 2002

Only a week to go until the cars track debut and a nice surprise I had from Bookatrack, the company who run the track days. The car is booked to run at the Elvington track day on the 7th September, unfortunately for 7 drivers using the same car they want 3 times as much money, so instead of £99 the track day is going to cost £297!! Not sure now if we are going to run the car, I'm waiting for Bookatrack to get back to me to see if we have to pay the extra costs. On a brighter note the car is almost finished. Today we cut and polished the car right through, then machine polished it. The spoiler was refitted and most of the bits that had came off the car for prepping. Paul managed to solve the overcharging alternator problem so we are nearly there. We need new number plates and have decided to fit huge spot lights to the front. The car is now ready for Alan Jones to fit the new suspension.

Washington Components Ltd, 0191 4169676 based in the NE are an official sponsor of the track car.

The car was cut back to a matt finish

Machine polished

Car completely washed after polishing

Well what do you think?

1st SEPTEMBER

We decided as the car was almost complete it would be a good opportunity to officially unveil it to the members at our regular monthly pub meet. I arrived nice and early before any members to clean and polish it before placing a cover over it to hide it from view. I managed to resist telling anyone about my plans to unveil as I wanted it to be a surprise.

After a brief speech and a few thank-you's, especially to Paul Woods our chief mechanic who did all the work to date it was time to unveil it to the public. The car went down a storm.

Alan Jones will be fitting the new suspension soon, -35mm Fensport springs with uprated 30% KYB shocks, should make a huge difference to the car once fitted.

Oy!! No peeping, its under there somewhere. Formal speech before the official unveiling

The covers come off to reveal....

....the track day car in all it's glory

The steering wheel is actually smaller than it looks

Smiles of approval

SATURDAY 7th SEPTEMBER

What a Day! The day finally arrived for the debut of the track car at Elvington Airfield near York. I ended up having to drive the car down as it wouldn't fit onto the dolly because it was to low. We have just found out we can hire a low trailer for just £10, so that’s an option, another is to modify some ramps with a low gradient to allow for the lowness of the MK1.

The day was an 'open pit lane' which means as much track time as you like, allowing for cooling down periods in between. There were 7 of us all driving the car so we decided for the morning session to drive 5 laps each then come in, we did this and managed to get a couple of sessions in each. The car held out bravely against certain abuse and tail happy moments, that’s what we were all there for. A few of us went over the edge and lost it at high speeds but it was encouraging to see lap times getting better. The only hitch we had was a broken wire from the alternator, which Paul quickly fixed.

A break for lunch gave me the opportunity to salvage more petrol from a local garage and gave the car just enough time to cool down and collect it’s thoughts. For the afternoon session Mac came up with a good idea of an out lap followed by one timed shoot out lap, followed by a cooling down in lap. We worked out by doing this we would each get 3 sessions in the afternoon. We swapped the Goodyear tyres on the front with Colway racing tyres and wow, what a difference, much smoother handling, not as tail happy. Here are the times from the 3 sessions.

Mac Sheavills - 1"42.17 - 1"39.29 - 1"37.34

Dave Watchman - "45.76 (had to leave early)

Paul Woods - 1"43.37 - 1"43.31 - 1"41.25

Michael Cleminson - 2"21(spun) - 1"43.31 - 1"39.53

Andrew Hudson - 1"47.35 - 1"41.53 - 1"39.99

Michael Sheavills - 1"44.53 - 1"40.49 - 1"38.06

Mike Johnson came in his Supercharger and agreed to test the car for us, he managed a superb lap time of 1"36.50 an amazing time from a standard NA. We timed Mike in his SC and he did 1"35.70, so less than a second gap between NA and SC.

Unfortunately we destroyed the front tyres and had to borrow spares to get back home to Durham.

The day was absolutely fantastic, a success, even more importantly the car was the star, faultless throughout the day. Never underestimate the brilliant 4AGE power unit, it certainly has convinced me. The next step now is to fit the race engine, shocks and springs. Hopefully this will all be ready for its next outing in November.

On a personal note today was a very proud moment, to see the car on the track and everyone experiencing the thrills and spills of trackdays was special. It wouldn't have been possible without the will, commitment and dedication from everyone who has been involved in the project, hopefully today you will have been rewarded in your own way and take away what can be achieved when you put your mind to it. What a day!!

Michael Sheavills