Toyota certainly knows a thing or two about making a good sports car. They are responsible for building quite a few historic and well-known sports cars over the years, a lot of them have left quite a mark on history. Some of those are worth insane amounts of money nowadays as well.
But, what happens when one day, the chief of Toyota has an idea to make a mid-engine, affordable sports car that handles just as well as the best supercars, at a fraction of the cost, purchase price and maintenance alike? The MR2. The MR2 is a somewhat underrated sports car, filled with cool facts.
10 An FWD Car... Backwards
As we already know, the MR2's engine drives the rear wheels. One of the most interesting things about the MR2, however, is how Toyota pulled off the drive layout. It turns out it was quite unorthodox.
In layman's terms, the MR2 is quite literally an FWD car, except flipped backwards. On the earliest MR2 models, the rear axle and suspension components were straight out of a Corolla, and if one were to look very closely, stuff like steering linkages from the FWD Corolla was visible.
9 The Spyder Was Faster Than The Miata
While it may not be a difficult feat to achieve, the final generation of the sporty MR2, dubbed the Spyder, was actually quite a bit faster than the Miata. For reference, when the MR2 Spyder arrived on the scene, the NB was the Miata generation on sale at the time.
Even though the MR2 Spyder had a slightly smaller horsepower figure, 138 compared to the Miata's 140, it still managed to be just a little bit quicker than its best-selling roadster competitor. Of course, it wasn't all that important in the long-run, as the MR2 Spyder had the same thing in common with the Miata; it was all about the drive, save the speed for later.
8 The Turbo Was Amazing
The first-generation MR2 from the 80s was available with a supercharged engine, which made it reasonably brisk. When the second generation, also known as the SW20, arrived in 1989, Toyota decided to crank up the forced induction to 11, by way of a turbocharger.
The snail that Toyota bolted to their tiny sports car resulted in the aptly named MR2 Turbo, also called the GT-S in foreign markets. The 3S-GTE in the back produced 200 hp and 200 lb/ft of torque, mated solely to a 5-speed manual transmission. The best part is, after 1993, the MR2 Turbo was only available with T-tops.
7 Lightning McQueen?
Ever since Disney and Pixar's Cars introduced young audiences to car culture in 2006, numerous cars around the world have adorned the iconic livery of the film's protagonist, Lightning McQueen. Amazingly, this MR2 Spyder race car was endorsed by Disney themselves.
Throughout the 2000s, Disney supported race championships like the JGTC, in which the MR2 Spyder was competing at the time. The end result was a race car that looked like a mid-engined, touring car Lightning McQueen. It even included a small pair of eyes in the windshield. It might look like a Spyder, but this monster and the road car share little to no parts.
6 Name Change
The MR2 is one example of a car that didn't experience any significant name changes depending on the markets where it was sold. It was called the MR2 almost everywhere, except in France and Belgium.
When read in French, "MR2" sounds like the French word "merde". Needless to say, Toyota immediately got to work with the best attempts to change the name to avoid misinterpretation and to make it more appropriate. In the end, they settled for MR and MR Spyder. As a result, the MR2 Spyder was called the MR Spyder only in France and Belgium, while in Japan it was known as the MR-S.
5 The Origin Story
One of the most interesting things to know about the MR2 is its origin story. Back in the 1970s, Akio Yoshida, a member of Toyota's testing department, had the idea of a compact car that would provide great handling and dynamics, without hampering fuel economy all that much.
Toyota's engineers eventually settled on a mid-engine layout with two seats. Because it was a fun runabout with a midship layout and two seats, it became a Midship Runabout Two Seater, which eventually got abbreviated to MR2. The SA-X prototype was the result of the team's efforts at first, and eventually, it was morphed and finessed into the MR2.
4 They're Still Affordable
As mentioned previously, virtually every single one of Toyota's sporty models have shot up in value quite a bit, with the Mk4 Supra leading the way. Since the MR2 doesn't get nearly as much attention, or indeed, as much as it deserves, prices have stayed relatively low.
A potential buyer should expect to pay a five-figure price tag for a pristine one, but slightly rattier ones can be found for some very low prices. What's more, the MR2's powertrain can take a beating, and there's quite a bit of aftermarket support. If all else fails, there are tons of engine swap opportunities as well.
3 The Group B Prototype
When the MR2 finally arrived in the mid-1980s, Toyota decided that it deserves a spot on the Group B rallying grid. They set about tooling and tinkering with an original AW11 MR2 and prepping it for Group B duties, which resulted in the bonkers 222D.
The 222D, although based on an MR2, shared little to no parts with the production model. Judging by the figures alone, the 222D was absolutely insane. The engine could be tuned to produce up to 750 hp, in a car that weighed only 1,650 lbs. Sadly, by the time it was completed, the writing was on the wall for Group B, and Toyota never actually got to race it.
2 The SARD MC8-R
Although the MR2's rallying story was never written, let alone told, the little two-seater saw success in other motorsports. Toyota's Sigma Advanced Research Development team, also known as SARD, took an SW20 MR2 and built a totally insane machine out of it.
The resulting car was the MC8-R. Designed for the GT class, the MC8-R looks like what might have happened if Hennessey Performance used the SW20 MR2 instead of the Lotus Exige as a basis for the Venom GT. In the back, there's no puny 4-cylinder, but rather Toyota's legendary 1UZ-FE V8, tuned to develop 600 hp.
1 The Meaning Of The Name
One of the coolest things about the MR2 was undeniably its name. Toyota's focus groups and marketing teams scrambled to find an appropriate name for the little two-seater, until they decided to look at some of the technical details of the car that the company created.
Eventually, they noticed, the result of Toyota's engineering work had a mid-engine layout, or midship, it had only two seats, and it was a fun, throw-into-corners and easy to drive fast runabout. After arranging and abbreviating these pieces of info, they ended up with MR2, standing for Midship Runabout 2 Seater.