Bnicho's 1985 AW11 Toyota MR2
Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 6:06 am
This car I acquired almost by accident.
I used to own an 1988 AE82 Toyota Corolla Seca with a glorious 4AGE twin cam engine. It was my grassroots track car and was terrific fun. I sold it some time ago and regretted it afterwards.
Anyway, last year when I bought my Beetle and started using it daily I no longer needed my old daily. It was a tidy 1980 Toyota Corona Liftback. Essentially I just got bored with it!
On a Toyota forum I regularly haunt there was a temptingly cheap 1985 Toyota MR2 for sale. It was a bit scruffy and had been for sale for months with no takers. The seller needed something larger and said he would consider a swap for a Corolla estate or similar.
An early MR2 is a car I've often admired from afar. Unkillable 4AGE mechanicals (like my old Corolla) combined with great handling from the mid-engined layout. I never thought I would actually own one. Yet here was one right under my nose.
It was small enough to fit on my car trailer if necessary. Best of all, being a 1985 build it was now 25 years old so it qualified for cheaper but more restrictive Historic registration. So I could drive it to the track rather than trailer it.
One e-mail exchange later and I found the MR2 owner was interested in my Corona Liftback. An appointment was made and I wafted across Melbourne in the Corona to check out this MR2.
That O-So-80's wedge shape, squishy red and black velour seats, white wheels, pop-up lights and a rorty exhaust. Plus the unashamedly impractical mid-engined layout. The MR2 also came with a heap of useful spares. I was sold. The MR2 owner was equally happy with my tidy old Corona and we shook on a direct swap deal. Don't you just love it when things work out that nicely!
When I arrived home and proudly parked my new purchase out the front, one of my neighbours thought it was a Lotus.
So, what exactly did I get? Well, it's a 1985 AW11 MR2 and its quite possibly the oldest MR2 in Australia. The MR2 wasn't released in Australia until 1988, this car actually started life in America. I'm a real softy when it comes to cars with an odd history and this car is no exception.
Some nutter shipped it to Australia in 1986 as a personal import, before the MR2 was released here. Back then Left-Hand-Drive cars were banned in Australia, so a Right Hand Drive conversion was required, probably at huge expense.
The RHD conversion appears to have been done very well. But there are few giveaways that the steering wheel used to be on the other side. The wipers sweep the wrong way, the lumbar support and height adjusment are fitted to the wrong seat and the speedometer is still graduated in miles-per-hour.
It's had a biff in the right rear corner which has only been roughly beaten out and there are various other battle scars. The paint is an amatuer job which may have been performed with spraycans. The carpets, stereo, air con and various bits of trim inside has been removed to save weight. In short, just right for my intended purpose. After all, it doesn't need to be pristine for the track.
I did some dipping into the car's history. Thanks to a stateside contact I was able to establish that the car was sold new at Cabe Toyota, Long Beach, California in July 1985.
All the MR2 needed was some new rack bushes and it passed inspection for Historic plates. No complaints there. Then it was just the small matter of adding a few stickers and some bonnet pins to ready it for the track. But the first service was not fun, with the oil filter tucked in a rather inaccessible location!
So how does it perform? Well the extra 200kg of weight over my old Corolla is noticeable under acceleration. But the pin-sharp handling and more driver-friendly layout of the controls more than compensates. It encourages you to chuck it into corners hard and the lovely exhaust note just screams more!
Now my Beetle's clutch has expired, I have been using the MR2 daily for a few days. It hadn't been driven for eight months, but with a freshly charged battery it started first try. Typical Toyota reliability!
Cheers,
I used to own an 1988 AE82 Toyota Corolla Seca with a glorious 4AGE twin cam engine. It was my grassroots track car and was terrific fun. I sold it some time ago and regretted it afterwards.
Anyway, last year when I bought my Beetle and started using it daily I no longer needed my old daily. It was a tidy 1980 Toyota Corona Liftback. Essentially I just got bored with it!
On a Toyota forum I regularly haunt there was a temptingly cheap 1985 Toyota MR2 for sale. It was a bit scruffy and had been for sale for months with no takers. The seller needed something larger and said he would consider a swap for a Corolla estate or similar.
An early MR2 is a car I've often admired from afar. Unkillable 4AGE mechanicals (like my old Corolla) combined with great handling from the mid-engined layout. I never thought I would actually own one. Yet here was one right under my nose.
It was small enough to fit on my car trailer if necessary. Best of all, being a 1985 build it was now 25 years old so it qualified for cheaper but more restrictive Historic registration. So I could drive it to the track rather than trailer it.
One e-mail exchange later and I found the MR2 owner was interested in my Corona Liftback. An appointment was made and I wafted across Melbourne in the Corona to check out this MR2.
That O-So-80's wedge shape, squishy red and black velour seats, white wheels, pop-up lights and a rorty exhaust. Plus the unashamedly impractical mid-engined layout. The MR2 also came with a heap of useful spares. I was sold. The MR2 owner was equally happy with my tidy old Corona and we shook on a direct swap deal. Don't you just love it when things work out that nicely!
When I arrived home and proudly parked my new purchase out the front, one of my neighbours thought it was a Lotus.
So, what exactly did I get? Well, it's a 1985 AW11 MR2 and its quite possibly the oldest MR2 in Australia. The MR2 wasn't released in Australia until 1988, this car actually started life in America. I'm a real softy when it comes to cars with an odd history and this car is no exception.
Some nutter shipped it to Australia in 1986 as a personal import, before the MR2 was released here. Back then Left-Hand-Drive cars were banned in Australia, so a Right Hand Drive conversion was required, probably at huge expense.
The RHD conversion appears to have been done very well. But there are few giveaways that the steering wheel used to be on the other side. The wipers sweep the wrong way, the lumbar support and height adjusment are fitted to the wrong seat and the speedometer is still graduated in miles-per-hour.
It's had a biff in the right rear corner which has only been roughly beaten out and there are various other battle scars. The paint is an amatuer job which may have been performed with spraycans. The carpets, stereo, air con and various bits of trim inside has been removed to save weight. In short, just right for my intended purpose. After all, it doesn't need to be pristine for the track.
I did some dipping into the car's history. Thanks to a stateside contact I was able to establish that the car was sold new at Cabe Toyota, Long Beach, California in July 1985.
All the MR2 needed was some new rack bushes and it passed inspection for Historic plates. No complaints there. Then it was just the small matter of adding a few stickers and some bonnet pins to ready it for the track. But the first service was not fun, with the oil filter tucked in a rather inaccessible location!
So how does it perform? Well the extra 200kg of weight over my old Corolla is noticeable under acceleration. But the pin-sharp handling and more driver-friendly layout of the controls more than compensates. It encourages you to chuck it into corners hard and the lovely exhaust note just screams more!
Now my Beetle's clutch has expired, I have been using the MR2 daily for a few days. It hadn't been driven for eight months, but with a freshly charged battery it started first try. Typical Toyota reliability!
Cheers,