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PART I: RED
Hello fellow car enthusiasts!
My name is Joe and after far too long under the knife I am finally driving my project car! That being said, it still needs a lot of work, though I'm happy to say that the majorly expensive parts of the build are out of the way. I'm hoping there are some old-school Toyota fans out there that appreciate my car's quirkiness and can motivate me to keep the spaghetti dish that is my engine bay somewhat presentable!
My car is a 1989 Toyota MR2, chassis code AW11. It's the supercharged model, so it has the 4A-GZE engine, which makes 145 horsepower and 140 pounds of torque from the factory. Its a lot of fun to drive, will always be mistaken for a Fiat/Fiero, and has surprisingly never snap-oversteered me into anything concrete. Huh!
Here it is currently:
Wheels: Enkei 92's, gold, 15" x 8", +25mm offset
Tires: Falken ZE912, 195/50/15
Suspension: ST springs, Tokico shocks
Engine: 4AGZE, 180mm supercharger pulley, Bluetop cams, .30 bore, polished and
ported head, rebuilt functional side intake, de-catted 2.5" exhaust to Fujitsubo muffler.
Other: Tarnished old Momo steering wheel, mismatched blue Cusco strut brace.
I purchased the vehicle from this nice-enough guy, well-seeming enough, definitely the 'I promise you, rust free' kind of guy, but he had not one but two Honda S2000's on his premises, and we bargained him down considerably, so I pulled the trigger! That was in February of 2011. I drove an automatic 1999 Acura Integra LS that I definitely kind of miss now. I saw it the Integra once, a year or so after I sold it, just scrambling through an intersection like mad. The MR2 looked like this, then:
Well, actually, it came with Eibach springs and stock teardrops, which I wish I still had. I quickly located a set of Riken 14"x6",+35mm offset mesh wheels, which I had on for probably six months. I saved up a bit of money and bought the Enkei's which are on it currently. 15"x8", +25mm offset. Definitely a dream wheel, at the time at least, as I love mesh and other 1970's and 1980's influenced wheel designs.
The engine was stock, the exhaust was stock (with rust holes), the stereo speakers were blown, and whenever I stalled it at an intersection occasionally the car would die as if the battery was completely unconnected. And I stalled it a lot, because I had never driven standard before, and I'm not particularly agile; so, well, it was a slow learning process that was made a bit stressful due to intermittent old car issues.
My friend who gave me a blitz rundown on driving stick drove a very cool EP3 Honda Civic, which when shifted made me giggle but also feel sad about my own driving abilities. Nevertheless, I managed to wrangle the thing, electrical bugs aside, as my daily for the next few months, through the last weeks of winter and into a bright and promising spring
The previous owner had told me the engine had been 'recently' rebuilt, though not long into ownership the engine pretty weirdly grenaded, shedding a ton of oil very quickly. In my absolute noobishness I probably wasn't vigilant enough with checking the oil and wasn't as careful about the telltale 'tick' that I now know all too well with a straggling engine...
Regardless, after many horrendous and unaffordable quotes from local (IE, near-rural Fraser Valley, British Columbia Canada) shops to even talk about getting this thing drivable, I nearly gave up. In a last ditch attempt, I joined the local Toyota MR2 owner's forum and contacted a young man local to me, and over the next several harrowing months we rebuilt my 4A-GZE. He's going to be in my wedding party this August.
My next few upgrades included ST Springs instead of the Enkeis, which lowered the car a bit further, the aforementioned Enkei wheels and the 'TOYOTA' rear visor. That dead-connection stalling issue? Rusty battery terminals. Simply replacing many small parts that were all over twenty years old solved the car's reliability issues.
I took it to a couple of local shows, I believe these photos below being from a Japanese Nostalgic show? I was pretty jazzed to get a cool sticker for showing up, a couple of folks told me 'Hey, cool car!', and I had a good time with my buddy Cam (psst, he rebuilt the engine), who was then driving a stripped R32 GTS-T. That was definitely a long time ago.
Continued in part II: Purple!
Hello fellow car enthusiasts!
My name is Joe and after far too long under the knife I am finally driving my project car! That being said, it still needs a lot of work, though I'm happy to say that the majorly expensive parts of the build are out of the way. I'm hoping there are some old-school Toyota fans out there that appreciate my car's quirkiness and can motivate me to keep the spaghetti dish that is my engine bay somewhat presentable!
My car is a 1989 Toyota MR2, chassis code AW11. It's the supercharged model, so it has the 4A-GZE engine, which makes 145 horsepower and 140 pounds of torque from the factory. Its a lot of fun to drive, will always be mistaken for a Fiat/Fiero, and has surprisingly never snap-oversteered me into anything concrete. Huh!
Here it is currently:
Wheels: Enkei 92's, gold, 15" x 8", +25mm offset
Tires: Falken ZE912, 195/50/15
Suspension: ST springs, Tokico shocks
Engine: 4AGZE, 180mm supercharger pulley, Bluetop cams, .30 bore, polished and
ported head, rebuilt functional side intake, de-catted 2.5" exhaust to Fujitsubo muffler.
Other: Tarnished old Momo steering wheel, mismatched blue Cusco strut brace.
I purchased the vehicle from this nice-enough guy, well-seeming enough, definitely the 'I promise you, rust free' kind of guy, but he had not one but two Honda S2000's on his premises, and we bargained him down considerably, so I pulled the trigger! That was in February of 2011. I drove an automatic 1999 Acura Integra LS that I definitely kind of miss now. I saw it the Integra once, a year or so after I sold it, just scrambling through an intersection like mad. The MR2 looked like this, then:
Well, actually, it came with Eibach springs and stock teardrops, which I wish I still had. I quickly located a set of Riken 14"x6",+35mm offset mesh wheels, which I had on for probably six months. I saved up a bit of money and bought the Enkei's which are on it currently. 15"x8", +25mm offset. Definitely a dream wheel, at the time at least, as I love mesh and other 1970's and 1980's influenced wheel designs.
The engine was stock, the exhaust was stock (with rust holes), the stereo speakers were blown, and whenever I stalled it at an intersection occasionally the car would die as if the battery was completely unconnected. And I stalled it a lot, because I had never driven standard before, and I'm not particularly agile; so, well, it was a slow learning process that was made a bit stressful due to intermittent old car issues.
My friend who gave me a blitz rundown on driving stick drove a very cool EP3 Honda Civic, which when shifted made me giggle but also feel sad about my own driving abilities. Nevertheless, I managed to wrangle the thing, electrical bugs aside, as my daily for the next few months, through the last weeks of winter and into a bright and promising spring
The previous owner had told me the engine had been 'recently' rebuilt, though not long into ownership the engine pretty weirdly grenaded, shedding a ton of oil very quickly. In my absolute noobishness I probably wasn't vigilant enough with checking the oil and wasn't as careful about the telltale 'tick' that I now know all too well with a straggling engine...
Regardless, after many horrendous and unaffordable quotes from local (IE, near-rural Fraser Valley, British Columbia Canada) shops to even talk about getting this thing drivable, I nearly gave up. In a last ditch attempt, I joined the local Toyota MR2 owner's forum and contacted a young man local to me, and over the next several harrowing months we rebuilt my 4A-GZE. He's going to be in my wedding party this August.
My next few upgrades included ST Springs instead of the Enkeis, which lowered the car a bit further, the aforementioned Enkei wheels and the 'TOYOTA' rear visor. That dead-connection stalling issue? Rusty battery terminals. Simply replacing many small parts that were all over twenty years old solved the car's reliability issues.
I took it to a couple of local shows, I believe these photos below being from a Japanese Nostalgic show? I was pretty jazzed to get a cool sticker for showing up, a couple of folks told me 'Hey, cool car!', and I had a good time with my buddy Cam (psst, he rebuilt the engine), who was then driving a stripped R32 GTS-T. That was definitely a long time ago.
Continued in part II: Purple!
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