User Friendly?

Hi,

Would you say a MR2 Turbo is a very novice friendly car? It would be my first serious car that I would race with and I want to know if I should get something else for my first.

Thanks!

my input is that u should get an old honda civic hatch and just work on that to learn the jist of buildin a race type car. u can learn alot from a honda. my boy had one just to learn and take it apart and put it back together. now hes 17 has a gti 1.8t and has had it apart and knows and understands alot. same with me i had a avenger and fucked it up. wont get into that. lol

Hi,

Would you say a MR2 Turbo is a very novice friendly car? It would be my first serious car that I would race with and I want to know if I should get something else for my first.

Thanks!


MR2s are NOT novice friendly in any way.
The engine being in the middle makes repairs (labor) more expensive, but more importantly:

Although it has great handling, characteristics of an MR drivetrain can be deadly to uninformed drivers.

MR2s are not very novice friendly... once you know what you are doing they are a very fun car to race. If you want an mr2 to race, I'd suggest getting a mk1 to learn the characteristics of a MR car before you spend the money on a mk2 turbo.

HAHA...User friendly my ass...NEVER! :-) You want a challenge, get an MR2 :-) Dont get me wronge I love my 2, but its not an easy one to work on unless you know quite alot about cars (rear engine cars at that).
I got mine thinking that I would get a cheaper car to learn to work on...thought hey what a fun looking car! Yeah learned that its not so fun of a car if you hafta work on it :-). But whichever you decide to do, good luck with it!

i agree with draz, the labor in the mid engine chassis makes small engine repair technicians steer clear of the mr2. i ran into this problem when i wanted to find someone to take out my ct26 and replace it with the ct27 and downpipe, i went to three different performance shops, all said they "had to do a little research" i ended up doing it myself.

OK. I have owned an MR2 for a while now. Labor costs actually haven't been much more than on a front-engine car. The problem is that mechanics have NO IDEA what to do when they see one, and more often than not, they'll attempt the job uneducated and screw something up. What I do is.. if I need a repair done and can't do it myself, I leave the Haynes repair manual on the passenger seat and hope they actually think to look at it. :banghead:

As far as driving. Very fun, not as fast as most people make them out to be but they have fantastic handling and it feels like you're going much faster than you are. They're very comfortable to drive but be CAREFUL. Due to the mid-engine setup... turning can literally be deadly if you don't know what you're doing. You really have to practice how to break the ass-end loose through turns and how to avoid spinning. They're very tricky sometimes but they handle like a dream if you figure out how to work it.

The MR2 was the first car I ever raced with and it worked out alright.. but I've heard horrible stories. :uhoh:

lol ... I find it interesting that there are so many responses to his question, but not one person asked what kind of racing he is going to be doing.

If he is looking to drag race, the MR2 is much more user-friendly than a Civic ... unless you consider: under-powered = easier to drag race

I agreee with gkelter, I haven't labor prices being any more expensive because of the location of the engine, but I have seen the mechanics that seem to get lost with everything "back there."

I'm curious as to why gkelter said the cars are not as fast as people say.
Can you give a specific example? What were you expecting? What haven't you experienced that you thought you would?

SRP | Lucian, find a car that you will love and invest the time into learning how to drive it and you will be fine whether it is an MR2, a Hyundai or a Ferrari. If you respect the car and take time to learn it's nuisances it wil lreward you. Rush into and any caar can bite you in the butt ... MR2s might just do it a bitt quicker ;)