I picked up a Toyota MR2 mkII project car - I think I'll name it Dan Gurney

Bought my wife a 1985 model for $600 in about 1995, she drove it for 10 years until I wrecked it. The insurance company gave us $3000 for it, of which $2800 was soon spent on a much better condition 1986 model.....which she also drove for about 10 years.

Great fun to drive in the twisties. One-to-one manual steering. Wheelbase less than 8ft. Something like 4ft high. 2200 lbs. 5 speed manual transmission.
Even with the standard 1.5 liter engine, basically a very fast factory-made go-cart with leather seats, power windows, and a toolbox sized trunk.

Both engines had well over 200,000 miles on them by the time we were through.

Sold the '86 to a mechanic. It's still on the road.
 
ac63df12a6e44d88b6545fce66ff2d97.jpg
 

Nope - never had that problem since I figured out how to tune out the oversteer with larger rear wheels/tire (like the later turbos) and tire pressures. Took me an hour on a short track to figure out - 32F / 38R.

I had an 1987 first generation MR2 back in the day. Great Car and much lighter than the 2nd gen - but lacking in power versus my turbo.
 
His shop is called AAR (All American Racers) and ran Toyotas (before they made them in the USA - go figure).

Actually, Toyotas were built in California starting in '86. AAR was contracted by Toyota, in 1983, to prepare Celicas to run in IMSA (first in GTU, later GTO). That class, even then, was essentially silhouette racers. The only things they would have had to use from a production car were the windshield and roof though they did use the complete tub. Any engine in Toyota's production lineup was allowed, as long as the displacement requirement for the class was met (normally aspirated, under 3 liters = GTU; up to 3 liters with forced induction and normally aspirated up to 6.5 liters = GTO). Just about anything else was left to the team's designers - suspension, gearbox, brakes, wheels, etc.

Celica GTU - http://photos.wildhirt.com/lsimsa84/images/30lsimsa84.jpg
Celica GTO - https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3064/2656619627_6236058a6a_z.jpg?zz=1

Toyota then decided they wanted to move to GTP class for 1989. They had already been running prototypes in '87-8 in Group C/LeMans and the All Japan Sports Prototype Car Endurance Championship with Dome supplying the chassis (while AAR was running the Celica GTO in the States). AAR prepared a Toyota (Dome) 88C and designed/built the Eagle HF89 for this project.

88C - http://m6.i.pbase.com/g9/61/35561/2/107937926.Mm5zfYxF.jpg
HF89 - http://m8.i.pbase.com/g9/61/35561/2/133893748.wYek1uco.jpg
HF90 - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJU52qMUYAA4zUs.jpg

The HF89/90 was then replaced by the Eagle MkIII. It was during the design phase of the MkIII that a friend/coworker landed an electrical tech/data acquisition geek (DAG) job with AAR. He was involved in rigging up the wind tunnel model's instrumentation and made a few trips to Japan with Mr. Fujimori (aerodynamicist).

Eagle MkIII - http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Toyota/92-Toyota_IMSA_GTP_Eagle_MKIII_DV-08_MH_08.jpg

Once the economy had started the death spiral of GTP (and AAR/Toyota had buried it), they moved to (CART) Indycar (first with Eagle chassis then with Reynard) with terrible results (Toyota's engines were complete and utter trash at that point) and that lead to the end of AAR's racing days.

Eagle MkV - http://www.canamcarsltd.com/photo/1996_Eagle_ChampCar_CART_Toyota_Gurney.jpg

note the completely incorrect aero parts on the car above. superspeedway front bits with a triple-element (streetcourse) rear wing.

Eagle MkV (superspeedway, correctly set up) - http://www.fototime.com/CFAF8AC1532141228973F510F5ECC6D8/standard.jpg
Eagle MkV (road course, correct) - http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bxlTrO8Jy...Q/HBbQWKZCDiY/s1600/3208567840_8f4c682aa2.jpg
 
Last edited:
716B38B1-6164-49A9-9801-A523C6623CE5.jpeg


Hard to believe I’m 5-1/2 years into my MR2 adventure. Still using it as the pace car at the regional SCCA races but on Thursday I took it to a “Track Night In America” event at Lime Rock Park (LRP) in Connecticut.
LRP is unique to New England tracks in that it has serious “flow”.
For about 1.3 of it’s 1.54 mile length you’re basically trying to carry speed.
That means anyplace you lose speed effects the speed into the next corner and then down the front straight. There’s only 1 major braking zone, everywhere else you’d ideally be hard on the throttle or light braking.
Yes - it’s scary fast.
I first drove here over 40 years ago and every corner has the memory of some occurrence; like spinning out, rolling on my side or having a car fly over my hood (yep).

The picture above shows me at the top of the “Up Hill” where you are (or close to) airborn.
Speed secret - when your tires have scant contact with the road surface don’t try to alter its trajectory - an expensive lesson learned by a Corvette owner at this event.

Some more pictures:

114D0453-F311-4DF0-91AE-6CB8B298C6F3.jpeg


7326FF34-35C0-4DE1-9C9C-3FAED1862857.jpeg
 
There was a local-ish guy that used to autocross in one of those. Manual, turbo, hardtop.

He cracked about three windshields after doing some suspension and used track tires. Those were stiff cars or at least could be made to be quite stiff.
 
After 8+ years I'm still enjoying my MR2.

I've had some explosive adventures - almost 3 years ago I found out the downside of running too much boost and cracked my block, which resulted in lots of smoke and a small fire which I extinguished quickly much to the apparent disappointment of the fire department which arrived on scene very promptly.
I found a used low mileage JDM engine was only $1200 shipped on ebay so that wasn't too bad.

Then, the following year the other shoe fell and I broke the transmission.
Finding a replacement transmission for a car built in 1990 was a challenge. I ended up getting an upgraded 93' box and with the help of some fellow racers had it pony expressed up my way from Virginia.
Never having opened up a transmission before I took the opportunity to put in a taller fifth gear for more relaxed highway cruising.
And of course, the engine had to come out again but I have a friend who specializes in these and has a home shop so that again wasn't overly painful.

Here's an article I wrote that's featured in the current issue of the SCCA's magazine "SportsCar":

https://www.sportscarmag-digital.co...hmFc_CsocSO03HxbgsHBJWJiOw&pm=2&folio=40#pg40
 
On the road

Got the shoes in today and took it for a spin. Put in 10 gallons of fuel mixed with Techron to clean out the deposits a bit.

So far only some minor issues - the biggest of which is that one of the links in the right rear suspension is loose which is letting that corner shift around a bit.
I wasn't sure about the wheel design but now that I've got them on I think it was the right choice.

attachment.php

attachment.php

Smart-lookin' Toyota. The perfect color for this car.
 
After 8+ years I'm still enjoying my MR2.

I've had some explosive adventures - almost 3 years ago I found out the downside of running too much boost and cracked my block, which resulted in lots of smoke and a small fire which I extinguished quickly much to the apparent disappointment of the fire department which arrived on scene very promptly.
I found a used low mileage JDM engine was only $1200 shipped on ebay so that wasn't too bad.

Then, the following year the other shoe fell and I broke the transmission.
Finding a replacement transmission for a car built in 1990 was a challenge. I ended up getting an upgraded 93' box and with the help of some fellow racers had it pony expressed up my way from Virginia.
Never having opened up a transmission before I took the opportunity to put in a taller fifth gear for more relaxed highway cruising.
And of course, the engine had to come out again but I have a friend who specializes in these and has a home shop so that again wasn't overly painful.

Here's an article I wrote that's featured in the current issue of the SCCA's magazine "SportsCar":

https://www.sportscarmag-digital.co...hmFc_CsocSO03HxbgsHBJWJiOw&pm=2&folio=40#pg40

Holy cow - I hadn't noticed that you'd started this thread in 2012. Glad to know the lil MR's still in the game. Thanks also for the links to the article.
 
Back in 1988, a friend of my girlfriend's father had a supercharged MR2 that he let me take for a spin. For a small displacement engine, the car scooted prettty good. For some reason, I had trouble hitting 2nd gear consistently when accelerating fast. Not sure if it was my technique but I'd been driving stick for a few years by that time.

You did a great job on your resto project and it sounds like you've had a lot of fun with it!
 
Back
Top Bottom