Update: Chassis wings n tings

Making movements

One of our measures for if we’re achieving what we wanted to achieve was a complete off the shelf chassis mounted wing kit. We always thought they’d look awesome on the zzw30. With the fact that the inserts on the rear bumper are effectively a window through to all your hard work under the bonnet, we wanted to make something that could almost be considered an optional extra. Well, that’s if Toyota’s optional extra department was run by baller scene kids.

But this wasn’t just about appealing to the ‘scene’. We always wanted to make sure our products were cool but functional. We wanted this to not only make your car stand out from the crowd but also be a serious option for the serious track guys. We started by getting the wing to where it needed to be, in the clean air and worked downwards from there in terms of styling. There are a lot of awesome kits out there but a lot of them give an element of misproportion to the car. They’re either too big as a whole, have arms too long or somethings just too skinny. We spent a lot of time looking at other products on the market, none of which were even an option for the Mr2. A little inspiration and a lot of debate led to us sitting down with Kris to finalise the design.

Kris is known at times to maybe ‘over engineer’ a little bit, but there’s times when it plays to your advantage! We all knew what we wanted the end product to look like so we needed to make sure we were on the same page. After a few different prototypes and a lot of time in CAD, the shift from design to production happened pretty quickly.

Once the kit was assembled on the Iron Man-like gear stand, we stood back and realised it was a serious bit of kit! I almost wish i’d filmed the reactions of all of us in the room at the time as we all knew we’d really come up with something great. The size was just right and worked excellently with the 175cm wing. The eagle-eyed amongst you would notice the above image is actually of our sw20 bar, which will soon be in the store. This was designed for the zzw30 as a priority but I was desperate to see it on my car so convinced the guys to throw it up against mine to see how it’d look. From the day I bought my sw20 I always wanted a chassis wing. It was almost the centre piece to what I’m aiming for in my head. My reaction to it in the garage was nothing compared to seeing it on the car.

This was exactly how I imagined the car would look in my head. We’ve had a lot of debate about whether to add end plates or not. I personally really like it without them but I keep being told i’ll be even more impressed with them on. We’ll see how that goes but for now, I’m happy to say the least!

Attack attack

So anyone whose been following the blog will know that one of the reasons Ropey Racing produced this is because of the time Deej binned it at the ring. We promised Dan it would never happen again and that he’d be safe exiting corners at 120mph. It’s not a promise we’re confident we can keep but this is the best chance we have. The great thing about the zzw30 is that there is absolutely zero cutting needed to mount this kit. Advantage is taken from the existing inserts so the wing can come straight through the bumper. Unfortunately, we forgot to actually take photos of it with the bumper on.

I tried my best to get Deej to run the car without the bumper. He wasn’t so keen.

The whole kit went straight on which is exactly was exactly the goal from a user perspective. It might sound obvious but when you’re a very small company and don’t have huge R&D budgets or equipment at hand, getting a perfect fit first time is a huge win. Again, much like my car, we all stood back in awe of how perfect the wing looked on the car. Now if I worked at Toyota, this is certainly an optional extra i’d have pushed for. The wing was at the perfect height, just inline with the roof. The arms allow for a range of attack angles by sliding the wing along the top of the arms. There’s also a range of bracing to go between the arms themselves to add to the rigidity.

An unexpected advantage to the wing was how well it complemented the vent. This will look even better when it’s back from the powder coaters in matching satin black. We’re really stoked that the parts we offer complement each other as we wanted to get to the point where people could get ‘the look’ so to speak. Similar to what you’d usually get by spending £1000’s on a specific body kit but without the huge overheads. Realistically, someone could buy an Mr2 outright and get what we have here for less than the cost of a deposit on a shitty financed French ‘hot’ hatch. I know what i’d rather drive.

The kit is now finished but look out for updated pictures. I know a lot of people were eager to see it on the car so I wanted to get this post up asap, so all these shots are pre paint and without the bumper back on. I’ll be sure to update the site soon with those images too. You can find the kit in our shop and if you’ve found your way here and don’t have an Mr2, either buy one whilst they’re as cheap as they are or message us on the home page as this kit is surprisingly Universal!

Robin