1987 Toyota MR2 Mark 1 normally aspirated review from North America

Everything the previous tech had touched.

Clutch hydraulics

brakes

four struts

speedo cable

radio

sub-woofer missing

timing belt

T Top seals

interior plastic trim rotted, lots of it broken, due to brutal 110 degree summer sun out West and a T top. The T top gets this car 20-30 degrees hotter than the others in the parking lot.

Front speakers torn and mismatched.

2100 pounds and 112 horsepower equates to roughly a 16 second quarter mile time. That's all I need, my focus is on handling and that is the story with this car.

It was very scary with 60,000 mile rated radials, over-steer is fierce and the situation gets worse if you come off the gas completely. The acceleration is actually pushing you back in to the turn, so if there is too much you need to push less, ease off the gas and learn to steer with the gas pedal till it's under control. Then go get good rubber. 195/50X15 wheels and tires settled it down nicely.

Toyota addressed this problem with a front sway bar to increase under-steer. This is a classic approach. If the front breaks loose early you can't hang the rear end out and get into trouble so easily. It just makes sense for Toyota to set the MR2 up this way for the public. Who knows what skill level the new owner will have.

Adding a rear sway bar flattens the ride and keeps the back end from leaning and picking up the inside front wheel during hard cornering. Any further misbehavior will happen at much greater speed. I am not going there, it hangs on great now.

Replace eight feet of intake duct etc with a 2" P pipe and a KN cone type of air filter.

3000 miles to a quart of oil still, using 10/30 Synthetic Oil, after 180,000 miles is fantastic.

The new front speakers are only 4" to fit the factory dash mount and can't make bass, so a 6" subwoofer tube ($20) drops behind the passenger seat and connects to the rear speaker connection of the new radio. Believe it or not there aren't any other choices for the front speakers, it's a tight cabin.

For best results trim off bass till the front speakers sound good and get bass by adjusting the fader on the radio to feed the subwoofer.

Regular gas! Remember no blower, in 1989 there was a supercharged model, 145 horse, it would crave premium.

Tinting the T top panels makes the interior more comfortable and might have helped save the interior plastic trim if it had been done a while back.

Can ya tell I love it, I got the MR2 to complement my Nova, It is the twin cam with all MR2 drive train, like a Corolla FX-16. The Nova is so much fun I had to try the MR2.

Both are a joy to drive.