That foam on roll bar has the same safety effect as if you have put a sock on it. Now it simply saves your helmet from banging and scratching. Go to race shop and get one stick of proper roll bar padding. It's at the first look hard as hell but in case of a crash it will do its job properly. ;)
Can confirm if you go to a track (such as NJMP for example) with that foam insulation, and an experienced tech inspector techs your car you will fail tech. Then you will have to buy the high impact foam from the Pro Shop at a significant mark up. Try to save some track time and money and buy the right padding to second JKjrbad.
You should check out the Track Dog Racing Ultrashield seat! It's like a glorified Kirkey. You can bolt it right to the floor and hopefully stay just as low, but you have more support
sway bars are a double edged sword: if you run sticky tires and corner hard then the McPherson suspension compresses on the outside corners and you loose camber, so the tire rolls over and lets go before its peak grip. If you run a ton of static negative camber then you give up braking performance and can't fit as wide a tire. If you run stiff sway bars you can corner harder...on flat surfaces. The extra stiffness really unsettles the car on bumpy roads.
The roll bar setup is not safe for your height. In case of a roll over you will crack your neck. Seatbelts give you some gap on the X axis, so think about that. Safety first.
You should be able to get a drop pan for the floor, you have a bit of rust in the pan anyway so you may as well gain the extra inches you need by cutting it out and replacing it with one that sits lower. Hell, you can make it lower yourself by cutting a U in the floor pan and welding in 2" - 3" of steel at the top of the U after bending it down (I hope that makes sense).
Maybe you can make a drop floor plate and use an aluminum racing seat to get even more clearance? For Miatas there are off-the-shelf drop plates but you may have to get a custom one made for the MR2
Hard dog makes a taller roll bar if I'm not mistaken. My buddy has one in his Miata that he uses for autocross and he's 6' 4. If not you could remove it and weld some 1 inch plates to the mounting points and then reinstall.
Hey Ben, if (more likely when) the MR2 engine goes, I think it’d be super unique to see a B5254T5 Volvo 5 cylinder engine swapped in! They’re reliable, turbocharged, and sound like nobody else. Plus, they’re already mounted transversely! Keep up the good content, I’m excited to see where your journey with the MR2 goes!
The electric meat carving knife for foam is maybe the best tool for a job it was never intended for ever. Bosch sells a "foam saw" for 10x the cost and it's literally the same thing
Hi, I am 6ft5 and fit perfectly in the mr2 with my Bride Zeta3 XL and same cage ad you. I have like 5cm room above my head. I’ll quickly go look for the video so you can check it out!
Sorry in advance hahaha, my video making skills were even less good than now but give it a look, this seat setup works really well with a big 196cm with 100kg guy! ua-cam.com/video/CLJ-RsSfNPs/v-deo.html
love that you showed how to dissasemble the foam out of the seat, my S2000 had a bacteria build up in the passenger seat from an irresponsible child borrowing the car. Gunna try putting new foam in it myself now
I had to remove the lower seat cushion in my scirocco to pass tech. Ended up sitting on a yoga pad cut to fit the frame so I feel your pain. Ended up selling the car for other reasons but it's probably for the best since I can't replace my body's lower seat lol
One thing you could do is take the seat and put it at an angle, this helps a lot with head room. This is how a 6 foot guy was able to fit comfortably in a Ferrari 308
You should take this out to NJ Lightning Raceway! Im going in March with NASA NE. HPDE 1. I will be filming my brothers first experience using my Honda Fit. Would be awesome to see the GG MR2! Happy Modding!
A Gen 7 Celica T-Sport (UK name, I'm not sure if they were called that in the US) seat is a good swap. The lowering is marginal but it provides some much needed extra lateral support. Just need to swap it onto the MR2 sub frame.
I'm 6' 4" but as I don't race, I don't require a helmet - so no problem there. However those that I know that do race use the FACTORY HARD TOP. This give you a few extra inches above your head. The issue now might be getting hold of one. I bought the car used 4 years ago but I specifically made sure it came with a hard top, however these are now increasingly difficult to get hold of and hence are selling for a big money. In order to counter against the added weight you can then strip out the soft top and mechanism (which if in fair condition can be sold on to recover some costs).
That seat bottom looked like a ghost buster ectoplasm scene. I find myself fascinated with the MR2 Spyder so this is a cool series to feed my desire to make another senseless financial move.
I had one of these but the SMT, which was known to be a ticking time bomb so I sold it off after driving the car for 2 years daily. It was so much fun, regret selling it, I should've kept it and just let the smt explode and done a v6 or 2zz swap.
Wow, the video came out late last night. So, I guess instead of watching it at 8:00 am Saturday morning with a hot cup of coffee, I will be watching it late on a Friday night with a cold beer!
I woulda sand blasted "silica bead" the seat frames. Get's in all the hard to reach spots, caveat is getting all the remaining granules out/clean-up (if you didn't properly contain lol) It's a neat car to try and take more seriously nowadays. A lot of cars could be given legit second chances with all the more modern tech and materials.
I have modified floor pans before to get the seat lower than the stock floor (6'4"). On a car without a roof it would be easy to do a custom taller roll bar though.
I’m not sure how high cosmetics are up on the list, but I would say that the bonnet could use a rattle can respray. Maybe in matte black..? A carbon bonnet seems over the top, but who knows? Maybe!
Thx for the conversion of your height, really never understood what “feet” and “inches” are. Seem a lot more complicated then the generic nautical mile system.
7:38 the grease goes between the bar itself and the plastic mount. The way you installed it the friction that the bar produces is gona eat away through the plastic piece. Just a heads up
The cause of the floorpan & seat spring being so rusty will have been a hood drain bag problem. Water collects under the luggage bins & surges forwards. It's had water underneath the carpets for probably a long time.
It's funny how we seemed to feel exhausted getting up for school growing up, but we seemed to have to problem naturally waking up even earlier to watch Saturday morning cartoons lol
Refrigerator Bowl Trackcross? Not really “track time”, but good winter shakedown events. iirc, Dominion has some trackcross events as well. Cheaper than going to Barber?
![АЛАУДИНОВ у Скабеевой: эти их ВСУ нас НЕ ДОГОНЯТ 😁 [Пародия]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/an0anqU4WGQ/mqdefault.jpg)
“Nautical miles” had me in stitches!!
Oh man, I cracked up way too long on that one
Yess! 😆
i hope that was a joke
Same lmao
Americans would rather use crude oil per mcdonalds than the metric system
That foam on roll bar has the same safety effect as if you have put a sock on it. Now it simply saves your helmet from banging and scratching. Go to race shop and get one stick of proper roll bar padding. It's at the first look hard as hell but in case of a crash it will do its job properly. ;)
Can confirm if you go to a track (such as NJMP for example) with that foam insulation, and an experienced tech inspector techs your car you will fail tech. Then you will have to buy the high impact foam from the Pro Shop at a significant mark up. Try to save some track time and money and buy the right padding to second JKjrbad.
As someone who drives lemons/champcar, this is absolutely accurate. +1 for the proper padding.
You should check out the Track Dog Racing Ultrashield seat! It's like a glorified Kirkey. You can bolt it right to the floor and hopefully stay just as low, but you have more support
I had a ultrashield rally sport in my miata, loved it.
What.
@@InappropriateJoke its an aluminum seat. Look up TDR ultrashield. I just picked up one too
Ericccc Tybg
Have the 17inch version in my miata. Its a great seat
The MR2 series is weirdly one of my favorites so far. Love unconventional builds that actually go to the track I guess. Also loved the Escort series.
Mine as well. It's also a build many of us could afford.
the notification for a g & g video is an instant hit of dopamine
Stonks
sway bars are a double edged sword: if you run sticky tires and corner hard then the McPherson suspension compresses on the outside corners and you loose camber, so the tire rolls over and lets go before its peak grip. If you run a ton of static negative camber then you give up braking performance and can't fit as wide a tire. If you run stiff sway bars you can corner harder...on flat surfaces. The extra stiffness really unsettles the car on bumpy roads.
Thank you for sharing this!
The roll bar setup is not safe for your height. In case of a roll over you will crack your neck. Seatbelts give you some gap on the X axis, so think about that. Safety first.
Looking forward to the next epic road trip featuring this MR2. Ben should find an old Pontiac Fiero as the companion vehicle lol
You should be able to get a drop pan for the floor, you have a bit of rust in the pan anyway so you may as well gain the extra inches you need by cutting it out and replacing it with one that sits lower. Hell, you can make it lower yourself by cutting a U in the floor pan and welding in 2" - 3" of steel at the top of the U after bending it down (I hope that makes sense).
like this \_______/
Maybe you can make a drop floor plate and use an aluminum racing seat to get even more clearance? For Miatas there are off-the-shelf drop plates but you may have to get a custom one made for the MR2
Yea that's what I was thinking. 👍
Two weekends in a row of early releases? I better buy a lottery ticket!
Love the pfp🤣
Hard dog makes a taller roll bar if I'm not mistaken. My buddy has one in his Miata that he uses for autocross and he's 6' 4. If not you could remove it and weld some 1 inch plates to the mounting points and then reinstall.
Hey Ben, if (more likely when) the MR2 engine goes, I think it’d be super unique to see a B5254T5 Volvo 5 cylinder engine swapped in! They’re reliable, turbocharged, and sound like nobody else. Plus, they’re already mounted transversely! Keep up the good content, I’m excited to see where your journey with the MR2 goes!
Accidental midnight upload part 2 let's goooooooo
Messing with that rusty seat with no gloves, bold move Cotton
The electric meat carving knife for foam is maybe the best tool for a job it was never intended for ever.
Bosch sells a "foam saw" for 10x the cost and it's literally the same thing
I literally watch all of your videos on Saturday morning over breakfast
Hi,
I am 6ft5 and fit perfectly in the mr2 with my Bride Zeta3 XL and same cage ad you. I have like 5cm room above my head.
I’ll quickly go look for the video so you can check it out!
Sorry in advance hahaha, my video making skills were even less good than now but give it a look, this seat setup works really well with a big 196cm with 100kg guy!
ua-cam.com/video/CLJ-RsSfNPs/v-deo.html
I’ve always thought that MR2 spyders looked pretty cool, wouldn’t mind getting one and building it into a track car like yours. Much love from Texas!
As a long time owner of one, make sure you get a manual, not smt and 03+. Preferably 2zz or kswapped already. Otherwise, just get a Miata.
And here I am watching in Saturday morning breakfast !
Great content, as always. love the 'nautical miles'running joke.
Good luck Dawg I had to bolt my seat to the floor in my FC to fit in with a helmet. I'm also 6'3"
love that you showed how to dissasemble the foam out of the seat, my S2000 had a bacteria build up in the passenger seat from an irresponsible child borrowing the car. Gunna try putting new foam in it myself now
You're going to find out the hard way you can't slouch when you're rolling a car over, you dope. I look forward to your in-depth wheelchair reviews.
This comment needs more likes.
I had to remove the lower seat cushion in my scirocco to pass tech. Ended up sitting on a yoga pad cut to fit the frame so I feel your pain. Ended up selling the car for other reasons but it's probably for the best since I can't replace my body's lower seat lol
bummer for you man. I just slid mine out( twisted and turned it of course). love the video.
I use to work with a guy who had a black on that was turbo. Made right around 375. Perfect dragon car.
hype! i'm about to foamectomy my own spyder this month. excited to see what comes up next
Hell yeah!
3:50 litterally so glad i just finished eating my bowl of cereal. And then the comment "sorry guys".. well played.
These track videos are the best. Did my first track day with the Subaru wagon. Next mod, koyorad radiator 😅😅
Foam pool noodle is not good enough for roll bar padding! Use SFI certified foam only! You can buy it online in bulk for cheap.
Early noti squad
Yessirr!!
4:02 yes, i have a cup of tea in my hand and it is saturday morning XDD
I guess midnight is technically Saturday
One thing you could do is take the seat and put it at an angle, this helps a lot with head room. This is how a 6 foot guy was able to fit comfortably in a Ferrari 308
I'm not running any track days this winter. BUT, I am doing a March event at VIR with Chin Track Days. You guys should come with!
Literally watching this Saturday morning over breakfast lol
I'm enjoying these videos
Road America winter autocross series, very fun when there's snow on track.
These are such great little cars. I’m rooting for the underdog here
You should take this out to NJ Lightning Raceway! Im going in March with NASA NE. HPDE 1. I will be filming my brothers first experience using my Honda Fit. Would be awesome to see the GG MR2! Happy Modding!
As I watch this on a Saturday morning lol.
This has got to be my favorite build on UA-cam right now, I love this car.
A Gen 7 Celica T-Sport (UK name, I'm not sure if they were called that in the US) seat is a good swap. The lowering is marginal but it provides some much needed extra lateral support. Just need to swap it onto the MR2 sub frame.
Gosh, so close to a mil. And I have been here since the escort project! (:
Come to Cali. Winter season is track season! (no antifreeze needed)
I bought the same Whiteline front and rear sways for my MR-S. Waiting to install them next week.
Hopefully ill be bringing an mr2 roadster to my channel too😍
I Always watch this channel on Saturdays over breakfast lol
yooo first, also glad to see Ben is feeling better!
5’8” never thought it would be an advantage. Only had my MR2 a week or so, but it fit’s me like a glove.
This was a very chill video and I enjoyed it thoroughly
I'm 6' 4" but as I don't race, I don't require a helmet - so no problem there. However those that I know that do race use the FACTORY HARD TOP. This give you a few extra inches above your head. The issue now might be getting hold of one. I bought the car used 4 years ago but I specifically made sure it came with a hard top, however these are now increasingly difficult to get hold of and hence are selling for a big money. In order to counter against the added weight you can then strip out the soft top and mechanism (which if in fair condition can be sold on to recover some costs).
That seat bottom looked like a ghost buster ectoplasm scene. I find myself fascinated with the MR2 Spyder so this is a cool series to feed my desire to make another senseless financial move.
Damn it sure is dark out for 9:00 am
I had one of these but the SMT, which was known to be a ticking time bomb so I sold it off after driving the car for 2 years daily. It was so much fun, regret selling it, I should've kept it and just let the smt explode and done a v6 or 2zz swap.
Just finished installing my welded diff in my piece of crap miata and this video popped up! Best timing!!
i know a few tall people like the kirkly seats for miatas for this reason might be a decent alternative if you dont mind the full metal seat
Wow, the video came out late last night. So, I guess instead of watching it at 8:00 am Saturday morning with a hot cup of coffee, I will be watching it late on a Friday night with a cold beer!
I woulda sand blasted "silica bead" the seat frames. Get's in all the hard to reach spots, caveat is getting all the remaining granules out/clean-up (if you didn't properly contain lol) It's a neat car to try and take more seriously nowadays. A lot of cars could be given legit second chances with all the more modern tech and materials.
Winter track days is a good idea.
I have modified floor pans before to get the seat lower than the stock floor (6'4"). On a car without a roof it would be easy to do a custom taller roll bar though.
Toronto motorsport park has winter lapping days, if you want to make the trek back up here lol
Late night release lets go
Love all the build videos!
I’m not sure how high cosmetics are up on the list, but I would say that the bonnet could use a rattle can respray. Maybe in matte black..?
A carbon bonnet seems over the top, but who knows? Maybe!
Midnight release beats 8am video release.
Thx for the conversion of your height, really never understood what “feet” and “inches” are. Seem a lot more complicated then the generic nautical mile system.
God damn, i need those wheels on my nb2.....sooooo good.
I love the mr2
Lots of track events down at Sebring during the winter
7:38 the grease goes between the bar itself and the plastic mount. The way you installed it the friction that the bar produces is gona eat away through the plastic piece. Just a heads up
Plenty of winter track events here on the west coast :P
If you remove the front sway bar from the top you don't have to disconect the coolant lines. I've done it several times.
Looking for a weekend back road car and 2000s MR2s are dirt cheap. Looks like this might be the right car.
Stiffer swaybar and medium soft for the springs setup, that would add more grip to your mr...
Time for tall Ben to get his engine swap spotlight. Other ben had had two k swaps and and an sti swap so it’s only fair 🤷🏾♂️
tillet b5 mounted directly should work. a mate had to do that in his elise s1 road car and in his mr2 race cars
Yay
Such great cars the mr2 roadster
The cause of the floorpan & seat spring being so rusty will have been a hood drain bag problem. Water collects under the luggage bins & surges forwards. It's had water underneath the carpets for probably a long time.
You could bring it to a northern ice track event! That would be sick!
Next road trip->>Tall Ben in a Scat pack and short Ben in a Mustang GT 5.0
always a good night when gears and gasoline uploads
These mr2 have a few cool body kits available aftermarket.
Yurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr love you bois
Tfw you get 12am and 12pm confused
Me watching this on a saturday morning over breakfast >.>
4:39 the forbidden potato chips
well thanks ben, now I know how tall is 6'3
Saturday morning cartoons are awesome, but seem to be airing before most children are awake.
It's funny how we seemed to feel exhausted getting up for school growing up, but we seemed to have to problem naturally waking up even earlier to watch Saturday morning cartoons lol
Making me wanna buy one of these suckers..
4:00 he says as im eating lucky charms lmao
Was going to go to sleep… but not anymore!
Any other Ben updates? I would love to hear how he’s doing?
Short ben seems doing better. He updates on instagram more often.
@@hungryalien I would like to keep up with him. What name does he use on Instagram?
Thanks so much for the update!
IG: instagram.com/gearsandgasoline
@@hungryalien Thank you! Found it!
Refrigerator Bowl Trackcross? Not really “track time”, but good winter shakedown events. iirc, Dominion has some trackcross events as well. Cheaper than going to Barber?
The ole' foamectomy! Miata Is Always The Answer
Yes please
Love my mr-s