Hi guys, been a rather non-active member around here for a bit. Today I just agreed to purchase what will be my first car, a 2000 MR2 Spyder!
The fuel economy is already really good, should be a piece of cake to get 35-40mpg, but of course the nerd in me wants to improve stuff. When test driving, the 5th gear was definitely too short, but I looked into a 5th gear swap and it sounds too hard, especially if I want to avoid spending 230 dollars on an OEM gearset:/ Call me a wimp. Since the car is already at 138k miles I figure I might as well just wait for something in the driveline to die and then do something about it. I am considering a Miller cycle 1NZ setup for when it dies, but that's just a fantasy currently. A 6 speed gearbox would be really nice, but they cost too much. Here's to hoping Toyota brings a new 1.5L ish engine with 6 speed gearbox standard to the US someday.
Of course, the next thing to look at is aero. The aero on this car is a
complete mess just quickly eyeballing below the car and at the softtop. So of course, as a good nerd should, I am planning out aeromods to do in the future when I have some time. Part of the reason for doing this is also to reduce the noise.
I am requiring myself to make any mods aesthetically pleasing, as the car is such a beauty. Aside from the obvious grill block and belly pan (will require exhaust modification as there is a massive heat shield sticking out under the bumper :\), a few ideas I've thought up of are:
1. Spoiler mounted to softtop window. I think the top storage area has a little bit of excess space to accomodate this, but not sure. Will draw and upload a photo of what I am thinking sometime. As far as construction goes, I am thinking a thin acrylic sheet bent at the appropriate places, aluminum brackets, and held together with silicone glue (clear, durable, easy to apply, not brittle, reasonably high tensile strength) held to both the vinyl bonded to the glass as well as the glass itself, to reduce stress on the glass to vinyl bonding.
2. Trunk (engine cover) mounted "vanes" to reduce trailing vorticies. No idea how to optimize shape, and no idea how to fabricate, but maybe some experimentation will help. Comes much later down the road obviously.
3. Reworked exhaust and side intake ducting. The side ducts could potentially pipe a lot of air straight into the wake, which is great for drag. This is 75% of the reason I was so excited about mid engine. Fake bumper grills will need some material cut away, exhaust outlet can hopefully be moved upwards to the bumper, and ducts carrying the air from the side to the rear can hopefully be added. Engine can pull air from a diverted portion of the duct, and cooling air can be provided through a smaller hole. Stock exhaust will need some cutting and rejoining to make this work.
Any more ideas?
