A friend has a Toyota MR2 Spider.
Is there any way to add traction to this car for winter driving? She got new tires, and that didn’t really help.
Would weight behind the front seat help or hurt, or is this impossible?
Thanks
Mike
Are the new tires WINTER tires or all-season radials? Add a light foot to the mix too.
This is a car that demands 4 winter (not all-season) tires. It’ll keep them out of the ditch!
Four winter tires will help significantly. They should be relatively cheap if you get steels rims and tires mounted/delivered from tirerack.com Some good tires are Michelin X-Ice and Blizzack.
That car is very light, I would think adding some weight as far to the rear of the car would probably help.
Her only hope is to mount 4 winter tires. This will never be a great snow car, but the correct tires will make a huge improvement. Without winter tires I wouldn’t even attempt to drive an MR2 in the snow.
I would have guessed that an MR2 would have excellant traction in snow based on the weight distribution. What’s the problem?
The car is low so will never be good in snow but should still be alright in slippery conditions. More weight won’t help enough is my guess.
Little weight and lots of torque. Definitely not a winter car.
I absolutely garee that the best winter tires your friend can afford should be on all four corners.
Besides the light weight, the weight’s near the center, making it easier to spin. C&D actually had problems with one in the winter because they tried putting only two snow tires on, spun it, wrote about it, then got read the riot act by Toyota for putting only two snows on, instead of 4 as (CLEARLY) stated in the manual. OOPS!
Yeah that 1.8L Corolla engine in it is a real torque monster, I heard it could twist and ruin axles 
It’s also easier to spin a short wheelbase vehicle. And the MR2 is definitely in that category.
I’m a fan of the MR2 by the way. Except for the luggage space of absolute aero.
zing!
Geared the way it is in the MR2 it does pretty good for itself. You can’t make any assumptions about the MR2 from driving the Corolla. Drive one and I think you’ll be impressed.