RE: SOTW: Toyota MR2

[anything fast]

Is anyone brave enough to post a pic of a Ferrari 355 MR2 on here and admit to owning it?

I will never forget when this guy kept insisting his was REAL. When I asked him why there was Toyota sticker on the back window he looked like he was going to cry!

Point being this is by far the Best MR2 shape and having ragged a very fast turbo round the block I have to say its one hell of a fun car to drive!

[Hellbound]

anything fast said:

Is anyone brave enough to post a pic of a Ferrari 355 MR2 on here and admit to owning it?

I will never forget when this guy kept insisting his was REAL. When I asked him why there was Toyota sticker on the back window he looked like he was going to cry!

Point being this is by far the Best MR2 shape and having ragged a very fast turbo round the block I have to say its one hell of a fun car to drive!

About 13 years ago I remember a blonde Paris Hilton wannabe pulling up outside the Cardiff Students Union building in a yellow Ferrari 355 replica. It wasn't a very good one and was clearly distorted along the crucial lines of the car, the proportions made it look ridiculous.

Anyway, the look on this girls face was absolutely priceless. She clearly thought everyone was duped into thinking she was driving around a Fezza. We drove past laughing but she just gave us this smug grin and drove off slowly in the opposite direction!

There's another chap in Cardiff which I'm suspicious about (I'm in Wales on the occasional weekend). He has a red MR2 355 replica AND a genuine red 355. Hmmmmmm!

[Bezza1969]

..its probably just me, but the past few sheds have been really rather average at best. Im sure there are more modern and interesting sheds available for under a grand, even the £695 Lexus LS400 I was looking at on Auto trader yesterday would beat this for me. I've never really got these cars tbh, not helped by too many encounters with idiot boy racers driving them like they were something really quick.

[helix402]

Great cars, paid £750 for mine and sold it for £1200 2 years later. Best mpg was 42.

[jilbobagins]

Found a photo of my old rev 3 turbo....was a bit of an animal, damn they're cheap its rather tempting

[Umar B]

SonicShadow said:

It's my forum name for a reason!

Absolutely beautiful

looking at all the 2's is making me hanker after another one!

ETA: as we're all posting photos, be rude not to


Rev 1 Turbo. T-Bar (also named T-Bag by my dad as the roof leaked water over both of every-single-time )

Edited by Umar B on Friday 15th February 21:25

[Garlick]

splitpin said:

I'm thinking back to having two of these new (loved them), but mostly how come it's SOTW again and only about seven months since the last time?

Are you guys that lacking in creativity?

you think seven months is recent, we're amazed it's been that long! Shed has run for about 8 years now and we're bound to repeat from time to time depending on how many good sub-£1k cars are available that week.

We'll never get complete agreement on what makes a good shed, what some like others dislike.

[405dogvan]

On the 'track toy' front, I've been searching for a pic but can't find one - someone locally, however, actually competes one of these in rallycross!!

Looks pretty nice - I'd have thought it was far-too low-riding but seems to not be an issue

[dc2rr07]

Lee540 said:

Thought this would be an old thread.. bought one of these for shed money back in 2005..

Was a great car.. except wasn't very watertight!!

Had a T-Bar import in the mid to late 90's, loved it but have to agree with the watertight part.

Never found the leak, on another note always liked the upside down louvre's/grill on the engine cover off the Turbo's.

[LukeSi]

Got a Rev 3 N/A as my first car. Discovered a hole in the rear arch though. Rev 3 onwards are considered safer due to improved suspension. If you can get a Rev 5 do it. Loads of paper work is good but not too important. Buy on condition rather than the amount of paper that comes with it. Oh and expect to spend money on it for modifications. They will have had a lot of owners (I'm the 9th on mine) which means at times servicing will have been neglected, however if it has been owned by one person for a while then that is good. All in all buy on condition and budget for any rust repairs which may need doing.

On mine there is no way you could see it without taking the wheel off and having it on a ramp. Look after them and they will be great. Oh and don't let me put numberplatss on. I'm useless.

Edited by LukeSi on Friday 15th February 22:07

[MarJay]

It's a bit too leggy for my tastes, but an excellent choice of shed nonetheless.

[anonymous-user]

With UK Rev 3s being shed money that are very tempting. Only thing that stops me is fear that one day I might need rear seats...

[magicalex]

i had two mr2s, a rev 1 & a rev 5 ('91 & '99) and still miss them dearly. I never understood the tail happy reputation though, in my experience if driven correctly on decent tyres they are more than manageable, those engines dont exactly throw out massive amounts of torque. I'd buy another in a heart beat but decent examples at sensible prices are few and far between here in Canada

[magicalex]

For anybody thats interested I found the Rev 5 less fun than the Rev 1 - in comparison to the earlier car it suffered from a little understeer and didnt quite turn in as sharply. I got round it buy removing the spare and throwing a strut brace on the front but honestly for this reason alone i'd say the rev 3 is the one to go for. Its horses for courses i guess but I loved the suspension set up of the early revision!

[MadDog1962]

[quote=405dogvan]I agree that history doesn't look kindly on MR2s, but I think it's perhaps partly a Toyota thing and not just the car itself.

The Celica isn't really looked upon fondly either, yet in Gen 4/5/6 guises (the pop-up and bug-eyed years) it's one of the best coupe/GT offered at it's price, not fantastically fast but really well made, nice to drive and cheap to own (jsut keep the cosmetic rust at bay - the rest will fix itself).

The MR2 also evolved oddly, the MK1 was a bit "effete" but a great drive wheras the Mk2 was much prettier package but far less fun to drive. The Mk3 simply looks like an ad for a bathtub mould-maker and seems to share the Gen 7 Celica's slide into poorer quality materials too.
[\quote]

Agreed. To me the Mk 2 looked fantastic, a lot like a baby Ferrari, except realistically attainable for most of us. I knew a guy in New Zealand who had one when I was working down there, it seemed to be a properly fast little car for not much money. For shed money a good one is likely to be a bit of a bargain.

[japaneseskoda]

Rev 3 Turbo at 241 bhp as standard is cheap as chips. Bargain motoring

[Mr2Mike]

magicalex said:

i had two mr2s, a rev 1 & a rev 5 ('91 & '99) and still miss them dearly. I never understood the tail happy reputation though, in my experience if driven correctly on decent tyres they are more than manageable, those engines dont exactly throw out massive amounts of torque.

I guess you've not driven a turbo then?

LukeSi said:

Got a Rev 3 N/A as my first car. Discovered a hole in the rear arch though. Rev 3 onwards are considered safer due to improved suspension.

The suspension was revised on the Rev 2 onwards.

[RickofManc]

Erm...my 1995 GT Coupe does 27 mpg with granny eco style driving. Around 20 pushing on, so not too cheap to run for some.

Is that just me? Is everyone else seeing late 30's even 40's?

[LukeSi]

RickofManc said:

Erm...my 1995 GT Coupe does 27 mpg with granny eco style driving. Around 20 pushing on, so not too cheap to run for some.

Is that just me? Is everyone else seeing late 30's even 40's?

Mid 20s here.

[Christian85]

Can you pick up decent ones for sub £1k?