4WD MR2 MK1!!

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Discussion

Sponge bob

Original Poster:

226 posts

247 months

Friday 22nd April 2005
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Some guy from another forum... said:
Also, did you know that the MK1 Toyota MR2 came about as an aborted attempt to take on the Ford RS200? The MR2 was supposed to have 4WD and a turbocharger.


Did anyone else see this... is it valid?

Does that mean you could do a 4wd conversion to a mk1 as the car was designed with it in mind... and would that be an intersting thing to do... i've never seen or heard of one before - but i'm also not too sharp on the mechanics of 4 wheel drive so not sure if it's technically possible.

What about the turbo - i know about the Woody turbo conversions (dropping a tasty 3s-gte into the somewhat limited 4a-ge space) - but what about bolt on's - do they exist for the mk1... surely the drive and tranny can take it as the later models all had the same innards as the supercharger...


Comments?

sadako

7,080 posts

239 months

Saturday 23rd April 2005
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Considering the mk1 MR2 came out before the RS200 I find that unlikely.

The original design brief for the MR2 was a 2 seater runabout. At some point someone said "Just because its 2 seater shouldnt mean it isnt fun to drive", someone else had the bright idea of mounting the engine amidships which was unheard of for a cheap sports car. They found out about an abandoned prototype from lotus that was similar and thought it was a good idea to borrow someone from lotus to help set the car's handling up and thus the Midengined Runabout 2-seater, or MR2 was born.

However another thread revealed to me, yes, Toyota did make a 4wd rally version but that was after the release of the MR2.

The fuel tank on the mk1 is between the driver and passenger in what would be the transmission tunnel in front engined cars. What they could have done is relocated the fuel tank elsewhere, say, one of the luggage compartments, and passed the driveshaft through the space left behind.

>> Edited by sadako on Saturday 23 April 17:24

deltafox

3,839 posts

233 months

Sunday 24th April 2005
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Heres the aborted Group "S" Toyota Mr2 ...stealth bomber huh?

http://aomori.cool.ne.jp/akinee/wrc/groups/

ccharlie6

773 posts

241 months

Sunday 24th April 2005
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both of those lancia's are absolutely nutty!!!!! best era in rallying without a doubt in terms of technical advancement. motorsport magazine had apiece on the secret mid engined audi group S car which only ran 30 miles and the engine chucked out 1000bhp!! i bet that little MR2 could move some aswell

>> Edited by ccharlie6 on Sunday 24th April 00:26

Sponge bob

Original Poster:

226 posts

247 months

Monday 25th April 2005
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nice looking cars...!

Hmm, got me thinking - have you any additional information on that 4wd version that Toyota made. I assume it was just a one-off?

deltafox

3,839 posts

233 months

Tuesday 26th April 2005
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Sponge bob said:
nice looking cars...!

Hmm, got me thinking - have you any additional information on that 4wd version that Toyota made. I assume it was just a one-off?


As far as im aware theres only one left in the whole world.
Its in a museum in Tokyo, painted white....black looked better.

The other 2 were written off/stripped.
AFAIK they made 1 rear wheel drive and 2 4wd cars using the 3SGTE engine tweaked to churn out nearly 800bhp........no wonder they crashed!

Ill see what i can find and post it in a while.

Sponge Bob

Original Poster:

226 posts

247 months

Tuesday 26th April 2005
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deltafox said:

AFAIK they made 1 rear wheel drive and 2 4wd cars using the 3SGTE engine tweaked to churn out nearly 800bhp........no wonder they crashed!

Ill see what i can find and post it in a while.


Cheers - the 3s-gte drops are getting quite common actually - a guy called Paul Woods does the conversion for £1500 and a mk2-t donor engine. A Mr. Farmer has also done the conversion I believe - they kick out 0-60 in 4.5 secs and pull right the way through

I've heard quite a bit about twincharged mark 1's too - that sounds a tad extreme!!

gofasterrosssco

1,238 posts

237 months

Sunday 1st May 2005
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As far as I can remember, the Group-B mk1 MR2 was a total one-off; if you look at the pics you will see that it has a custom designed spaceframe chassis so in effect it had virtually nothing in common with the original MR2 at all. I think it used a back to front celica GT4 drivetrain also so dont think comparisons can be made with the original car....unfortunetly!

V6 conversion all the way, sounds great also!

www.mr2mk1club.com/V6MR2.html

If u can read japanese, lot of pics though also

www.kcn.ne.jp/~nabeck/grs.htm

deltafox

3,839 posts

233 months

Sunday 1st May 2005
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Thats the baby! Was 3 only ever made tho with different drivetrain. Lovely little rocket!

gofasterrosssco

1,238 posts

237 months

Monday 2nd May 2005
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deltafox said:
Thats the baby! Was 3 only ever made tho with different drivetrain. Lovely little rocket!


Yeah mate your probably right, digging deeper into my (lack of) memory, did 1 or 2 of them not have the engine londitudinally mounted for better weight ditribution/traction on tarmac, but the other 1 transversely mounted for 4wd and offroad?? or vice-versa.

Pity they never competed and produced a homologation special!

deltafox

3,839 posts

233 months

Monday 2nd May 2005
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gofasterrosssco said:

deltafox said:
Thats the baby! Was 3 only ever made tho with different drivetrain. Lovely little rocket!



Yeah mate your probably right, digging deeper into my (lack of) memory, did 1 or 2 of them not have the engine londitudinally mounted for better weight ditribution/traction on tarmac, but the other 1 transversely mounted for 4wd and offroad?? or vice-versa.

Pity they never competed and produced a homologation special!


Yes indeed! Shame that such mad machinery is hardly ever on offer to the public, cos theyd have sold millions of em!