Autoblog

Nah. Highly unlikely. In your dreams. That's what the folks at Toyota said as I handed the keys to the MR-S V-Edition back to them earlier this year and asked if Toyota had another mid-engined sports car on the drawing board.

So what, pray tell, is this litle number spotted on the back of a Toyota transporter near Nagoya earlier this summer? Toyota is keeping mum, but could this be another prototype from the Committee to create Interesting Cars? Let's hope so.

[Source: BestCar magazine]

Click the image above for a high-res pic.

With the 2ZZ motor in its new home, the additional 29 pounds of mass behind our heads was causing an excessive amount of understeer. That, coupled with the hard life our stock suspension has had to endure over the last 60,000 miles, made a new set of coilovers a necessity.

click the pic above to view a gallery

Why is it that people feel the need to saddle perfectly good cars with replica bodywork to make them look like exotics? There's nothing wrong with the last generation Toyota MR2, true, it's no Ferrari, but then again, you can buy an entire MR2 for very much less than a Ferrari 360; an amount closer to the downpayment, most likely. We'd keep the bodykit away from the MR2 and spend the extra dough on suspension and engine mods. If you really must project the image that a Ferrari brings (you know – this car costs more than your house, and I'll sell it for more, too. Yes, that does make me better than you) you could follow the lead of this MR2 Spyder's owner.

If you can stomach the truncated proportions that haven't survived scaling well, your MR2 will make a solid basis for you to become a total poseur. From what we can see, the car pictured has had time and energy lavished on it. The extra-wide door gap is not pretty, but overall, there's a lot of detail here, and the pictures show something that's reasonably turned out, instead of a total hack job. It's a very well done tribute, in fact. At least you can be fairly certain that the MR2 will have more uptime than the Ferrari, and when it does need to go see the doctor, the prescription's cost will lean more toward ibuprofen, not radical walletectomy.



[Source: Carscoop]

A Russian gentleman has a thing for The Terminator and for glow-in-the-dark paint. In a lot of other places -- or a lot of other heads -- that might add up to a painting hung in the tastefully private confines of one's bedroom. Not this time. Instead of a keeping it to himself, he has showcased those twin affections with a mural that covers every panel of his black Toyota MR2. During the day, it is your everyday two-seater covered in what looks like a Terminator modeling shoot. At night, the fun kicks in when all that paint starts to glow, and the car looks like a stray from the Ghostbusters set. Does anyone know how to say "Feast your eyes on this!" in Russian?

[Source: English Russia via Jalopnik]

Our infatuation with the lightest means of four-wheeled transport has put a number of cars on our must-have list. Today, it's grown by one. La Bala, Spanish for "The Bullet" is the brainchild of Steve Graber, "an average guy in an average garage," whose only goal was to distill outright performance into a compact package.

Beginning with a friend's MR2, Mr. Graber, now the founder of Graber Cars, stripped the mid-engined coupe down to the frame, performed a number of chassis modifications, and then clothed his masterpiece in simple, yet attractive, body panels. The dry weight of La Bala is an even 1,500 pounds, and when mated to a 1.6-liter, 170 HP turbocharged motor, allows the quirky track toy to reach 60 MPH in a mere 4.3 seconds.

Pricing for the kit was just announced and it comes in at cool $25 grand, sans engine and transmission. His site, Grabercars.com, has an overabundance of information about La Bala, including videos and a journal of the buildup. We're only halfway through it now, but we're totally sold.

[Source: Grabercars.com via Inside Line]

What will people do to get attention these days? The answer to that question can be found in two distinct places: YouTube or eBay. This insane piece of automotive engineering can be found for sale on eBay for a starting bid of $30,000.

The ad is very simple. All it states is that it is a 1991 Toyota MR2 that gets its motivation from (2) T58-3 General Electric jet engines with afterburners. Doing a little research takes you to www.toyjunkies.com, where the car is also listed for sale. There you can find a little more info and a few pictures.

The scariest part of the car to us are the aerodynamics. The car sports a stock spoiler on the rear and one of the wildest looking splitters ever built under the front bumper. The super size splitter appears to be designed to generate enough frontal downforce/drag to either keep the front end planted at any speed above 5 mph or to aerodynamically assure that the car will never go any faster than that at all. Oh, and the eBay ad also states that it is ready to race and shows a picture of a magazine article of unknown origin featuring the car.

If any of you have ever sold cars, you've no doubt heard the addage that "there is an ass for every seat." If the dual-jet powered MR2 sells for anything close to the asking price, we'll all know it is true.

[Source: eBay]

Thanks for the tip, Doug!

The MkII Toyota Supra never received the affection garnered by its younger siblings, but it set the standard for future coupes and is still beloved in certain circles.

Power came from either a 2- or 2.8-liter inline six that produced anywhere between 145 and 161 HP and was channeled through a five-speed gearbox. Weighing in at just over 3,000 pounds, it was a quick ride for its time and proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable whip for both this writer and Flickr member longbowmkii.

There seem to be fewer and fewer of these on the road in decent shape, so we thought this particular example deserved a spot in this week's RR of the Day, 80s edition. We're even more enthused that Mr. Longbow has gotten his MkII out to a local autocross to see if it can still hang in the gymkhana world.

We're still on the prowl for more rides of the 80s, so tease your hair out, throw on that zipper laden leather jacket and submit your photos to our Flickr account by following the directions after the jump.

Toyota halted exportation of the MR2 to the U.S. in 2004, primarily due to slow sales and fierce competition from other manufacturers (read: Miata/MX-5). However, in the MR2's home country and in the U.K., sales have continued, albeit at a slower rate than when it was introduced in 1999.

Now, the same trend that killed the mid-engine, drop top Stateside, has spread throughout the world and Toyota has decided to end production of the MR2 altogether in early 2007. However, the automaker has decided that one last limited edition version will be manufactured before production ceases, with 1,000 "V-Edition" MR-S' being sold in the U.K. and Japan in mid-January.

The "V-Edition" will come equipped with distinct wheels, new aero bits and a helical limited slip differential, while the driver is greeted with a new three-spoke wheel, instrument panel and titanium accents inside.

It's disheartening to think that when Toyota kills off the MR-S, as it's known outside the U.S., there won't be a single sporting offering from the Japanese automaker for the first time in decades. We know that the LF-A is on its way and that a new Supra is in the pipeline, but both the heritage, and the devout enthusiast community that has formed around the MR2, will be let down if the esteemed coupe doesn't make a return to market soon.

The Enzo, Veyron, Carrera GT, Koenigsegg, et al each owe something to the car still considered by many to be the greatest supercar of all time, the McLaren F1. While they occasionally pop up on the used car market or in some of the higher end auctions around the world (the last one went for $1,705,000 at RM in Monterey last month), a McLaren F1's price is a bit steep for most of us. As with other desirable classics throughout the ages, the kit car and aftermarket body panel industry is here to help you out.

Read on to find what out production car lives beneath the this kit car's McLaren F1-inspired body...

[Source: DDR]

You have to love the eccentrics of the world. Elton John with his wardrobe, Freddy Mercury with his theatrics, Michael Jackson with his, well, let's stop there. But when it comes to automotive eccentrics, the Japanese seem to indulge in the most bizarre acts of vehicular carnage. One only needs to look at their long-standing "vanning" culture to make the point.

Vans, however, cannot hold a candle to what Japanese tuning firm Rabbit has done to this MR2. The PZR, for Pagani Zonda Rabbit, was the brainchild of a few overly caffeinated designers who wanted to pay homage to one of the world's greatest supercars. As the body panels are easily attached, the whole conversion only took a few weeks.

Sure, it's mid-engine donor car provided them with a good foundation, but would you put it on your car?

[Source: Inside Line]