As I had my eyes firmly set on entering the car for the MR2 race at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks I needed to gain a bit of experience having not really driven the car on track without any engine spluttering. I had just got the car back from the garage on the Friday so loaded it up with my road tyres (it was still on the track day rubber from Oulton Park at this point), tools and various other bits and bobs and headed to Ians where I was staying the night before we drove down to Rockingham. The first task was changing the wheels as I didn’t fancy driving down on Toyo Proxes R888s on a cold, damp morning. Not being particularly experienced at doing this, doing it in a sloping garage and only having a T-bar socket, the soon to be christened hero pipe and a scissor jack it took us a while, but we managed it and got everything set for the morning. We were taking two cars down as the MR2′s passenger seat was full of tyres.

Being a bit uneasy about using the Toyos on the road and wanting the road rubber was maybe a mistake. I knew I wouldn’t do many miles on the road tyres and probably most on the motorway so I opted for some cheap rubber from Event Tyres. Grip in the dry was quite good, but even with the go kart handling of the MR2 I now know why they say to avoid cheap tyres for when it rains. Ian, in a Peugeot 306 with Arrowspeed tyres was going round corners with lots of grip to spare at speeds I could only dream about. When you understeer at such slow speeds in such sweeping corners you really do wonder if the tyres are made of rubber or wood. I got out to check, and to my amazement the tyres were still on the rims, inflated, and looking like new. Hmm, not good. This was highlighted again in the formation laps at the track which was a bit damp with the occasional puddle. Even at those low speeds it was understeer city and as soon as humanly possible Ian was putting the Toyos on. We would have done this earlier but a slight misunderstanding with the sat-nav meant we arrived a bit late to change tyres first.

We met up with Jon Walton on the track day who had come along for a ride and also to drive the car as I was pestering him to get his own MR2. After a record 30 minute tyre change using the same tools as last night Ian asked me to take it slowly for a few laps and pit back in, as he hadn’t changed many wheels in his life and wanted to check things. I trust him, and things felt fine straight away so I pressed on. I can report via Jon the horror on his face when I came past the pit wall on the first lap in excess of 100 mph.

As the day progressed I started getting more confident and also hitting the apexes more often, which is something I was struggling with. I also discovered tyre pressure changes make a much bigger difference in real life compared to a race sim. We took 1 psi out of the front tyres and the car was instantly more pointy, and slightly terrifying in the fast turn 1 chicane, though that might have been because of a particularly hairy moment that put the Druids one at Oulton Park to shame. 105 mph tank slapper. Need I say more. Ian, who was my passengar at the time will probably be bringing that one up for the next 10 years. Speaking to one of the BookaTrack.com guys later in the day who were having a look at the car and suggesting some changes to make as they had run several mk1 MR2s before, they were not quite sure if it was skill or luck that straightened that one out. As I was driving, I clearly know the answer to that one.

I was very impressed with the pace Jon had when driving too. We had both driven Rockingham earlier in the year on a Vauxhall track day, but considering he’d never driven the MR2 before he was right on the limit straight away. I could only stomach a few laps with him as it was clear I was a rubbish passenger, so for his second run I sent Ian alongside him who didn’t seem to mind. It was weird because I’d been a passenger on track before with a driver who was pressing on, and insisted I look where we’re going through the side window and I felt perfectly comfortable, and I knew Jon was braking earlier than I was and carrying less speed into the corners, but somehow it made me nervous. I’ll put it down to being my car, and only just getting it. There, that’s a fairly decent excuse to get me off the hook.

We got home quite late that night so I stayed over at Ians again, and we decided to make some of those changes the guys had mentioned the next day, mainly removing the heavy radiator fans which really aren’t needed on a track car.