Toyota MR-2 and Lotus Elise

Every now and then, you guys ask for this kind of story. Requests usually crop up when it's time to start talking about the Ultimate Street Car Challenge, or from readers who want us to take our modified car tests a step further. "Yeah, that old car you guys tested looks pretty sick, but I bet it wouldn't hold a candle to a bone stock [Evo, STI, Z06, etc.]"

We've been curious as well. Call it cynicism or simply our not-so-secret desire to thrash nice new hardware at the track, but we've always wondered what a thoughtfully modified sport compact could do against its new, class-leading counterpart.

The Lotus Elise is a thinly disguised race car that begins life not with a machine-welded unibody like a typical mass production automobile, but with a 169-pound tub made of extruded aluminum. A fully independent double wishbone suspension is bolted on, followed by disk brakes and R-compound tires. A 1.8-liter double overhead cam 2ZZ-GE Toyota motor is tucked in behind the open-air driver's compartment. Put on a helmet, lose the soft-top, and the cramped, low slung, driver-oriented cabin-with thinly bolstered seats and lots of exposed metal-gives off a strong race car vibe.

With such tightly engineered panel fits, the Elise stands in stark contrast to our duct-taped and zip-tied MR2 Spyder. Since starting life as a pre-production prototype in late 1999, our Project MR2 has made sporadic appearances in the magazine since early 2002.Initially, Dave Coleman set out to improve the handling with upgraded suspension components from TRD. After that success, Dan Barnes went looking for power by testing a bunch of exhaust systems. Unsatisfied, Mike Kojima tore the new exhaust off and had XS Engineering build a turbo kit. After more than a year in R&D, our MR2 finally emerged with the power to match its handling. So enamored were we with its newfound prowess, suggestions were made that it might be able to take down the new Elise.

In Project MR2 Spyder's most recent installments, engineering editor Jay has been preparing it for track attack. Normally, to keep things fair, we try to test cars that are as equal in performance as possible-stock versus stock, mod versus mod. Forget that. The Elise is a softened up race car, so we're not pulling any punches. First, the MR2 got a fresh set of Yokohama A048 race tires. Then we popped in some Project Mu brake pads. To finish it off, it went to Shoreline Motoring for some aggressive, track-oriented alignment.

The ensuing battle was difficult to score. This wasn't a heavyweight fight with boxers throwing knockout punches. This was more like a UFC cage match between flyweights, with one of them seriously doped up. With all the flailing and screeching going on, the only way to keep track of who was winning was with data acquisition and telemetry. Here's how everything went down:

Grip
First on the skidpad is the Elise. It's stable and easy to place on the line. But as the speed increases, it develops some serious understeer. Not Dodge Caravan understeer, but a lot more than you expect from a sports car. Trying to induce oversteer by lifting and stabbing the throttle just pitches it off the line, invalidating the test. Even with these issues, the car is able push its way around the skidpad at over one g going left, and almost that much going right.

Project MR2 Spyder jumps on its first chance to outperform the Elise. With its alignment set to toe-out in the front and the rear, it does anything but understeer. The back end waddles constantly and is highly sensitive to throttle inputs. As good as the turbo set-up is, it does not make controlling the car any easier during this test. But once the car settles into its sweet spot, it rips around the skidpad with vigor. Round One goes to the MR2.