"phenotyp" (phenotyp)
05/27/2019 at 23:43 • Filed to: mr2, toyota, toyotamr2, 2012
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"phenotyp" (phenotyp)
05/27/2019 at 23:43 • Filed to: mr2, toyota, toyotamr2, 2012 | 12
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Sitting on a turn-off viewpoint on the PCH.
I still admire the designers and engineers who made this car possible. iPhone 4s pic from 2012. Probably the car I will always love the most. Perfect proportions. Perfect handling, with a big mod. About as good as it gets. When they first showed them, they were either stale-ketchup-red, or rotten-mustard-yellow, and I hated them.
Then I lived with mine for 8 years, from 2005-2014. With a full-length underbody brace mounted at 10 points. A new canvas roof. And a couple little things on the outside like the short antenna.
As close to a Toyota-factory Porsche 550 as you’ll ever get. Too bad most of them have been either beat or questionably-modded to death.
Nauraushaun
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 00:08 |
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SW20 owner weighing in. It is extremely cool that the mid-engined sports car trickled down to the everyman for a while. In the 60s it was virtually exclusively for racing, but turn the clock forward 30 or 40 years and even the poorest of gearheads can experience the thrills of owning such a thing.
Thrills such as traveling backwards down a freeway entrance you over-cooked in the rain :)
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phenotyp
> Nauraushaun
05/28/2019 at 00:17 |
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I put on a full underbody brace, swapped the head unit with an ‘03's (orange backlight), short antenna, and the red canvas roof, and swapped the tires a couple times after the original Yokos weren’t available.
It was so rad. Just a bare-bones mid-engined race car the likes of which will never be seen again. I still miss the hell out of
that car
.
BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 00:40 |
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There is nothing about this car that isn’t still possible... except maybe externalities like federalization costs, and a shifting cultural view of cars and affordability.
But technologically, they could still build a car like this, probably easier than building 86/BRZ, with more common parts and assemblies.
I know ZZW30 is pure, but to the expense of any ounce of practicality, even the basic practicality that Miata, SW20 MR2, and Fiero had, with a trunk capable of at least 1 or 2 overnight bags or groceries.
Stylistically, it is a squared-off Boxster, and SW20 is the better looking generation, but the convertible top offers a wider lifestyle appeal.
arguably, Toyota, with their Hybrid Synergy Drive system tuned for performance, with a little bit more output,
could build a W-series MR2 successor with hybrid drive, and similar performance to BMW i8, without the carbon fiber monocoque and luxury appointments and their pricetag.
themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 00:45 |
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I want the MR-S. I want one something fierce. I get everyone lauds the SW20, but I want a high revving, simplified lotus elise. Or basically, a lotus elise that works. Now that I know I comfortably fit in a Fiero, I want more MR goodness in my life. And the duke-powered Fiero isn’t enough.
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phenotyp
> BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
05/28/2019 at 01:02 |
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That’s what I’m talking about. I mean, I’ve been driving an i3 for almost 2 years now. Carbon-monocoque, plastic panels, small engine, barely used (5.5 gallons of gas in 2 years, mostly because I was playing around with settings that I programmed from my phone), pretty much the same thing, except the i3 has an amazingly-accessible back seat that my daughter can jump out of. And the i3 is way faster in traffic, because it just goes.
I mean, I have a degree in car design. I want to be designing the best things that we can build.
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phenotyp
> themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
05/28/2019 at 01:07 |
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I never liked any of the SW20s I drove. My MRS is the only one I’ve ever driven, and I owned and built the shit out of it for 9 years. Longer wheelbase, and 200 lbs lighter than a comparable Miata, and the engine’s in the right place.
Make of that what you will.
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Nauraushaun
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 02:01 |
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Ugh you’re making me wanna drive one. The SW20 is great, but it is a considerably bigger and heavier car. I’ve never tried the later one.
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phenotyp
> Nauraushaun
05/28/2019 at 02:46 |
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I could go on for days about the 30.
The 20... I drove a couple. Know how much people lauded them. I was never comfortable in them. This 30 is the only one I’ve ever driven, and it was my DD for 8+ years. I did some serious and thoughtful modifications over the years.
If I could have kept it forever, I would have.
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Nauraushaun
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 07:21 |
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High praise indeed. Was it an only car? Seems they’re less practical, less suited to be an only car.
bhtooefr
> BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast.
05/28/2019 at 07:46 |
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And Toyota’s even had concepts based on the W30 with AWD hybrid systems, and the last concept had 295 combined horsepower (using a production hybrid system from the RX 450h/Highlander Hybrid).
(I guess the GRMN Sport Hybrid II would count as a... GRW30, instead of the ZZW30 that actually shipped?)
Use the current RX 450h’s hybrid system, and you get 308 hp, only 61 off of the BMW i8's combined figure. And that’s without any performance tuning - put a bigger battery in, and due to how Toyota tends to tune the AWD hybrid systems (that is, add the AWD motor, but don’t add any more battery power, so they have the same peak power output as the FWD systems), you’d get more power.
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phenotyp
> Nauraushaun
05/28/2019 at 10:01 |
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It was, and it is.
Khalbali
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 10:02 |
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Love that top!
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phenotyp
> Khalbali
05/28/2019 at 11:04 |
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Thanks! It was a big improvement over the factory vynil, which would tear around the back window. Totally transformed the car, functionally and aesthetically.
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Khalbali
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 12:17 |
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I’ve never really loved the styling on these but that top really does wonders, I was tempted by a green one with tan interior a while back but it was gone before I could check it out so I’ve yet to drive one. I've owned a couple miatae though and am kinda sick of them so these are of interest.
vicali
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 12:20 |
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We didn’t get many in Canada so whenever I see one DOTS;
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phenotyp
> Khalbali
05/28/2019 at 12:37 |
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I hated it when I first saw them at NAIAS in 2000. Badly-colored, anime Boxster. It wasn’t until I saw this one, then bought it, in 2005 that I realized how fucking amazing it was that this car existed in the first place. It’s one of the most-pure designs of all time. I’m sure the business case for it was testing emissions equipment for the Corolla. They only made about 25000 of them, and lots of the early ones lunched their engines because of the precats.
And over the years, knowing what I do about how hard car design is, I appreciated it more and more.
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phenotyp
> vicali
05/28/2019 at 15:12 |
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Canada got the grey with burgundy roof!
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vicali
> phenotyp
05/28/2019 at 15:37 |
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Did we? I’m seeing them here now but they are jdm rhd imports;
Sadly, the potential didn’t equal sales, at least in the Canadian market. In 1992, Toyota sold just 80 MR2s, and exited the market in 1993. The cars would sell in the U.S. until 1995, and Japan until 1999, meaning that second-generation cars at least have greater parts availability, despite their rarity.
Canada would never again see a new MR2, though the naturally aspirated MR-S that was sold in the States is generally considered to be a third generation of MR2. There are several here, brought in from across the border.
https://driving.ca/toyota/auto-news/news/30-years-later-the-toyota-mr2-is-still-an-unsung-marvel
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!