What is it like to own my MR2 TRD 2000gt project?

Once you’ve read “project”, you can think about a track car, a restored car or a show car. This is a little bit of the three…

Let’s begin with form and add some function. The TRD 2000GT widebody kit is merely the “form” part of the car. It was a tough decision buying the kit and installing it. Why? The photos all over the web don’t look that good to me and I have the only 1998 MR2 in Perú. It widens the car by 2 inches. After 4 months of hard work, the looks are amazing. Worth it.

The restoration was done in the interior; it’s not quite finished but it looks good. It has a couple of details that came from Japan: “MR2” badge in the shifter surround and “Twin Cam” badge at the bottom of the rear window. Classy. Engine is a standard 3rd-gen 3sgte and running 10psi (factory psi is 11). Blitz BOV and manual boost controller. Nothing else is needed.

The only things that are performance oriented are the Yellowsport coilovers. It handles like heaven compared to the 95 g-limited MR2 I have. Federal RS-Rs give a decent amount of grip for daily and track use. This car doesn’t help for autocross use but it gives tons of fun. I’ve owned ‘98 WRX, ‘05 STI, AE86, MR2 AW11, ‘11 Boxster Spyder and this MR2 gives me the most smiles for the buck.

As a daily it’s amazing, breaks necks in every corner and even the police just see me fly by or give thumbs up to the car. I don’t care about mpg (or kpg as is used here). Sunny day = t-tops out and the joy of driving listening to the 4pot turbo music.

Trackdays are fun as hell as I already said. I can’t keep up my times with GT86s, Elises and STIs with Hoosiers, ok. I don’t care. I like to drive, period. I drive my car hard. I know what it’s capable of and what it’s not. It’s not the best performance car, the weight transfer is awful, the turbo is laggy, but I won’t sell this beauty. I’ve been offered US$25k. I said no. If I sell this, I can buy a ‘91, but never again a ‘98 being this the only one here.

I think cars are meant for driving. If you want something to look at, go buy a poster, a painting or a scale model.