My new (well new to me anyway) MR2. The polar opposite of the Fabia vRS. Light at the front end, so nimble. Totally gutless engine unless you rev the nuts off it. Not exactly quiet or practical.

Off out now to drive it some more. Will post a review when I get my head around the handling a bit more, but intitial impressions are rather good.

Chris

Watching this thread with great interest

1 hour 40 minutes after his post CHRISGB has not returned ,hes either enjoying it too much or he hasn't got to grips with the handling yet LOL

1 hour 40 minutes after his post CHRISGB has not returned ,hes either enjoying it too much or he hasn't got to grips with the handling yet LOL

Both! I have yet to drive it on a dry road since collecting it at 6pm today. Got close on the way back with patchy dryish roads. These cars have a reputaion to bite the unwise, so I figured that not losing it big time was a good idea. I have been working up the amount of cornering force and power to see haow far I can push. So far, it seems to be behaving pretty predictably. I did provoke it in second on a wide roundabout just to see if it would let go in a big way, by stepping heavily onto the throttle. It just gripped and went round the corner. Maybe I am treating it with a bit too much caution, but better that way than the other.

Thus far, the car seems very stable at speed on wet roads. Cornering, I need to get a little more used to the balance before I really push on. The first thing that I noticed driving it is just how quickly it changes direction, however it never feels like you are working the front tyres hard, even when the direction change is very rapid. Best technique seems to be slow on approach (the brakes are phenomenal and very feelsome) then guide the car into the corner, add power to settle the rear end and keep building it past the apex into the exit.

Next nice thing is steering feel. Tonight I have been trying to just gently hold the wheel, almost fingertip light grip, and feel how the front tyres are working. It is easy to feel the fronts going over wet patches and you can guide the car with the minimum of force although the steering is not overly light. The back end is a bit more of a mystery. I have been leaning on it progressively more. As you get power on mid corner, the car takes on progressively more slip angle and you just unwind steering lock to counter it giving really nice balance (as in near equal slip angle front and rear). What I am having trouble figuring out is just how much of this I can get away with. I will be booking an airfield day handling course for this in the dry, but need to find somewhere big and wide enough to practice while it is raining.

Last pleasant surprise about handling is just how fast you are cornering when it does not feel like it is working too hard. I bought the car as a challenge to hone my skills. On tonights evidence, it was a good buy.

Comfort wise, the car is reasonably quiet with the roof down. I may need to source a dished steering wheel as the pedals are a little close to the wheel for my height. Stay at 30mph + and you dont get wet with the roof down. Nice and warm in the car, but need a hat on in this weather.

The engine will be a complete change for anyone used to Fabia vRS torque delivery. It needs to be revved to make serious progress (although it is pretty flexible for a 1.8 N/A petrol engine). Once you get it on the cam, it does accelerate well. Various forums reckon around 7 seconds to 60 and that sounds about right. The 6 speed box has a narrow but well sprung gate and very short throw lever. It is precise and completely natural coming from the Fabia. The gearing is surprisingly quite tall as well so even on dual carriageways, the cruising is pretty relaxed.

Must resist the urge to go out again tonight. Day off tomorrow so will get plenty of hopefully dry miles in.

Chris

thanks for the feedback chris , sounds like your gonna have some fun with the MR2

Great review as ever Chris, always make for good reading

Have fun tomorrow - or have you already given in and gone out again tonight?

Daft question, but any pics of her yet? I suspect not, but try and get some in the dry tomorrow, while you're having a short break!

Steve

Great review as ever Chris' date=' always make for good reading

Have fun tomorrow - or have you already given in and gone out again tonight?

Daft question, but any pics of her yet? I suspect not, but try and get some in the dry tomorrow, while you're having a short break!

Steve[/quote']

Hi Steve

Resisted the urge to go out agian. I should get some pics tomorrow. Think I will head off up to Suffolk for the day and take my camera. Sounds like a good excuse for a drive, like I need one.

Chris

Not jealous at all, having the prospect of a day not working, dry weather and a open top mid-engined RWD :drool:

Mind you, I've been enjoying the past few weeks with the Polo, discovering a small, quite nimble hatchback that doesn't have a lump of pig-iron over the front axle Very well setup by VW by all accounts, and I'm consistantly surprised by the amount of steering feedback it affords.

Look forward to more details of your day out....

Steve

Excellent write up

I cannot wait to get mine, I am starting to get impatient

I also thought about booking a handling day for the MR2.

Just wondering if I am going to miss having mountains of torque?

Excellent write up

I cannot wait to get mine' date=' I am starting to get impatient

I also thought about booking a handling day for the MR2.

Just wondering if I am going to miss having mountains of torque?[/quote']

Walkie - careful with impatience. I got impatient waiting for a 4x4 Octavia and agve up - regretted getting the FWD ever since I had it Jabba'd.

You may miss the torque - if you do just drop the hood and you'll soon forget about the Fabia.

Walkie - careful with impatience. I got impatient waiting for a 4x4 Octavia and agve up - regretted getting the FWD ever since I had it Jabba'd

I know where your coming from. I came cose to p/x'ing it at a low price, for a non-facelift MR2 with quite high mileage.

I knew if I had done that I would regret it for the whole time I had the MR2, so decided against it.

Excellent write up

I cannot wait to get mine' date=' I am starting to get impatient

I also thought about booking a handling day for the MR2.

Just wondering if I am going to miss having mountains of torque?[/quote']

Yeah you will miss the torque for sure. However, when you get back in the vRS you will miss having the rev range. Different but not better or worse.

Chris

I miss the torque less than I thought I would. Possibly because there's a larger rev range available with a petrol engine? IMHO, what you loose in mid-range grunt, you gain in a more rewarding driving experience as you're not relying on the turbo and better engine sound. But that might just be me

Steve

Hi to All

Well really starting to push it now. Tried the classic "how does it respond to entering a corner too fast" today. Into corner, brakes on, turn in. Well having the engine behind has two effects here. The less desirable one is that it feels like the car will spin (although it did not). The better aspect, and really surprising, is that the car just seems to dig in at the front and haul you accurately into the apex at an unbelievable rate. I have never driven anything that turns in so quickly under duress before. Result was getting off the brakes much earlier than anticipated and just driving round the corner at a faintly ridiculous speed. Obviously this was done where there was room for a spin and nothing else about and I would not drive it like this normally, but really very impressed.

The car is getting under my skin and me it's. The speed in corners is really very high, but the very limited roll and dive mean that you dont really appreciate just how fast the plot is moving until you check the speedo on approach to a corner and find you are well above where you thought you where on account of leaving the last one so quickly. But it is not about raw speed, it is all about balance and feedback and accuracy. When really pressing on in the B roads, the front bobs but never skips, the rear takes on an angle but does not feel like it will let go. Had one little shimmy earlier on, but I did provoke it intentionally. Not as difficult to catch as I expected. Tried really pushing on in a high speed sweeper tonight up to the point were the steering was strting to really load up and understeer was balancing out throttle induced turn. Still very stable though and just a reduction in power bought it quickly back to line. Reckon that is about as far as I can push, but the public hghway is no place to find out what happens beyond that stage.

I bought the car as a challenge to learn. I am just starting to see that challenge is maybe greater than I expected, but equally more rewarding. The car has greatly exceeded my expectations. Thats twice in 7 months that has happened.

Out in the Fabia tomorrow. Need to remeber to avoid revving round to 7000rpm.

Chris