Toyota MR2 Mk2 Review

Overall Rating

This car out handles everything, especially after I upgraded from the stock Tokico (garbage) shocks and installed heavy duty billsteins, coupled with Pirelli PZero Assimetricos. Its close gear ratios provide good tug no matter what speed you are going.

The only bad points come from the people that own the car and beat them, not the MR2 themselves. However despite extreme abuse that most MR2s take they are probably your finest example of the bulletproof reliability which you will only find in a Toyota. You just can't break these cars. The NA could use a bit more power but overall it's not awful just a personal preference. However it is highly advised against upgrading the NA in any way especially with a Turbo, it kills the engine no matter how you rebuilt or prepare the engine for it. As soon as you upgrade the MR2 NA or TURBO in any way this rising value of the cars drops substantially.

Heavy duty billsteins, coupled with Pirelli PZero Assimetricos allow me to eat everything in the corners, Minis, 05-06 Corvettes, 98 BMW M3, 04 Mercedes E55 AMG, and a 02 Porsche 911 Carrera. In the proper trained hands, this car can easily be one of the faster cars on any given day at the track. Toyota set out to make the MR2 handle as closely as possible to real super cars of the day, (cars above Ferrari and Lamborghini's level) and Toyota exceeded. As a matter a fact Toyota gave the car such a stiff suspension that untrained drivers were losing control and skidding out because they were pushing the car to the limits, were not even close to being prepared, and were causing skids brought on by snapback oversteer. However if you know what you are doing, you can both avoid this problem and recover from it quite easily. (Yes I have experience here). The wider stickier tires help avoid snapback oversteer and give the car better grip, The stock lateral acceleration is supposedly .86 for the NA but after upgrades .95 averages have been achieved and this car is capable of reaching higher amounts of grip but ONLY averages .95, this car could most likely reach .97-.99 in this set up.


----------------------ALL NUMBERS ARE STOCK---------------------
1991 model year NA Turbo
Engine 2.2L 5SFE 2.0L 3SGTE
BHP 130 200
Torque 140 200
Available Trans Auto/Manual Manual ONLY
0-60MPH time 7.6sec 5.9sec
Top Speed 125-127MPH 145-150MPH
1/4 Time 16.5-16.8sec 14.1-14.3sec
Lateral Accel(grip) .86 .91
Chassis-Idenification SW21 SW20

Weight PLEASE NOTE THIS CARS WEIGHT VARIES DEPENDING ON OPTIONS and TRIMS However DRY WEIGHT SHOULD BE AROUND 2360 for the NA and 2480 for the TURBO models.

Production time frame: in North America only 1991-1995
Japanese and European markets enjoyed the production of the MR2 from 1990 to 1998. There is a substantial amount of more information on the MR2 US, JDM (Japan), and EURO spec.

The Japanese and European MR2s did have different NA engines as well as different amounts of horsepower, as well as more model trims (GT, GTS, Turbo, GT-Limited, etc.), options, and TRD packages, TRD parts not available here in the US.
Most people that own MR2 in the US install the Japanese spec Turbo engine in the NA chassis or replace the stock Turbo engine with the more powerful Japanese engines. Be careful of these, make sure the swap is complete, the trans, ecu, exhaust, wiring harness and clutch is done, fuel pump, etc. despite popular rumor, the Japanese and euro spec MR2s had numerous different engine components, not just stronger turbos. There is quite a list of different parts, if you are curious ask a Toyota dealership and they can tell you. If purchasing, make sure to have the engine fully inspected and make sure all seals and filters are in proper working order.