There’s one car, just one that as a teenager
you wanted, lusted after, just had to have and one day gosh darn it you were going to get it.
Well, for me that car was a red mk1 Toyota MR2, T-Bar if I could get it! And like many
of you, I’m still waiting to get one. In the 1970s and 80s Japanese car companies were
trying to break away from their reputation of cheap yet reliable econoboxes. One way was to
produce a sports car. Nissan was the first to gain prominence with the 240Z, but Toyota charted
their own path with their interpretation of a small European sports car – the MR2. They would
make three very distinct models over 23 years. But why was each so different, and when is the
fourth generation car supposed to appear? This is the Toyota MR2 story. [music] The MR2 can trace its origins to 1976. Toyota were known for inexpensive, economical
cars which didn’t give much excitement. Their Datsun Z car competitor,
the Supra was still 2 years from production, but Toyota saw a gap in the market for a small car
that was fun to drive, yet economical. This wasn’t necessarily a sports car, but that wasn’t ruled
out. The chief development officer for the project was Akio Yoshida. He’d had experience working in
California and appreciated the car culture there, with their love of small British MGs and
Triumph sports cars. Toyota’s sales were growing steadily in North America, and their
operation were crying out for their own small sports car, so it was natural to consider a
fuel-efficient two-seater – something that could be used for the commute during
the week and for fun at the weekend. But the fuel crisis in the mid-70s forced
a change of priorities. Would more people take the bus now that fuel prices were four
times as much? Not if Toyota could help it. They threw their weight behind research and
development for more fuel-efficient cars, and the idea of a fun car was shelved. But it was
brought back to life in 1979 as a pure sports car project. There was great excitement in the design
team – a sports car was an exciting thing to be working on, and some gave up their spare time
& holidays. They took inspiration from previous Toyotas such as the 1965 Sports 800 and the
Toyota’s Jaguar E-type wannabe, the 2000GT, but other cars were studied as well, such as the
Ferrari 308 GTB, Lotus Esprit and Matra Murena. No ideas were off-limits, but the team settled
on a mid-engine layout, mounted transversely. A glass cover for the engine was considered
but it made the engine bay impossibly hot. Platform testing took place in both Japan
and California, tested by none other than professional motorsports legend Dan Gurney, the
only American to have won a Formula 1 race in an American made car, and winner of the first
unsanctioned coast-to-coast Cannonball Run in 1971. It was expert feedback like this that honed
the platform into a true driver’s car, but it was always a compromise. The car had to handle well,
but it also had to cruise at close to 120mph (190 km/h) on the Autobahn without feeling dangerous.
The first prototype broke cover in 1981 as the Toyota SA-X. That’s A as in Saxophone, not the
other word! The angular wedge shape showed the direction the final car would go and seemed to
have shades of the equally angular wedge-shaped Triumph TR7 that was about to end production.
But clearly the main influence was the Fiat X1/9. Both cars were mid-engined and looked surprisingly
similar. This was at odds with other car makers that were moving towards rounded shapes. Although
it could be seen as just another Japanese car company copying a European design, project lead
Akio Yoshida insisted they were aiming for an original style; as he said the design inspiration
came from the curved katana samurai sword. Toyota are certainly guilty of lifting others designs in
the early days, but now the shoe’s on the other foot. The Chinese Great Wall Coolbear can be
seen as a blatant rip off of Toyota’s Scion xB. There was the usual Toyota attention to detail -
door handles and bumpers were flush to reduce drag to make this car as fast as possible. This
was more than just an outlandish concept to increase the public’s excitement in Toyota, this
was a step along the way to making a real car. Small two seaters can be a squash for
all but the smallest people. Toyota’s sports car was destined for
North America – a land of tall people, so the team focused on easy entry and exit.
It might be a small car but the interior space would be generous. Despite this, driver
and passenger were divided by a large hump, similar to the Lotus Esprit. The Esprit used
it to hide the structural backbone of the car. Toyota used it to hide the fuel tank that helped
give the car near perfect weight distribution. The 1960s Sports 800 had been underpowered
with a tiny 800cc engine. That had never made it to North America as Toyota knew it wouldn’t
have stood a chance, but the new car needed an engine that could compete against cars like the
new Pontiac Fiero. The A engine from the Tercel and Corolla seemed perfect. It gave good power,
especially with double overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. At low revs 4 valves became
2 to increase torque. This gave it a respectable 112hp (84 kW) which in a small, light car got
it to 60 in 8.4s – enough to keep up with a Porsche 944. With fuel injection and being less
than 1.6L it also gave good fuel economy. No wonder then Lotus was looking to use it for
their own aborted small sports car project (M90). The path from concept to production is lined
with walls of reality. Yes, Toyota wanted those streamlined bumpers, but they’d be expensive
to produce. How about something not quite as streamlined, but a lot more cost effective?
Maybe the whole car needs to be a little bit larger because it still can’t comfortably
accommodate large passengers, and in any case, it will improve straight-line performance? Oh,
and add a spoiler to help high speed stability. The car also got more pronounced side skirts to
disguise the fact this was a relatively tall car – taller than the Pontiac Fiero and Fiat X1/9 at any
rate. The next two years had Toyota getting the design closer to production, so when the new SV-3
concept broke cover at the 1983 Tokyo Motor Show the shape closely resembled what would go into
production. Toyota would, of course, have a large stand at this show, and the new SV-3 concept was
the centre of attention. The public was excited by this concept, and even happier when Toyota told
them they could buy their own in just a year. After the glitz of the show, Toyota got down to
the hard work of getting the car to production. The digital instrument panel from the SV-3 looked
cool, but it was costly. Sports cars never sell in great numbers, so cost savings needed to
be found somewhere, so switchgear and dials came from existing cars and the pop-up headlight
mechanism was lifted from the Celica. The final interior cocooned the driver and added a sense of
drama, but funky features from the concept such as headrest-mounted intercoms were ditched.
Another thing that was ditched was the SV-3 name. Toyota’s new car would be known as the MR2 for
“Mid-ship Runabout” and 2 because it had two seats. Like all mass market cars, and especially
Toyota’s, the MR2 had to work in all conditions, so test cars were shipped all over the world to
endure extreme conditions and high Autobahn speeds. That showed up some issues with
the spoiler, so it was revised. The MR2 was subjected to a continual stream of water
to be sure there would be no surprises. This was a time when Toyota was constantly
redefining its high standards of fit and finish, especially with the new Lexus project. [music - BassJmp5 - Big Car] The Toyota MR2 launched at a glitzy Tokyo press
conference, as Japan was expected to be the second largest market behind North America.
And Japan would get a budget model – the MR2 S - without many of the bells and whistles. Its
smaller 1.5L engine didn’t have the powerful twin cam goodness. Japanese buyers knew
what they wanted, and it wasn’t the MR2 S! 60% of them went for the top of the
range G-Limited in its two-tone hotness. In early 1985 the MR2 made it to North America
where sales were brisk, thanks to glowing press reviews of course. In a market used to
European sports cars from the 60s and 70s, the MR2 was a breath of fresh air. The
interior had been ergonomically designed, and it “just worked” like any other Toyota.
Even though the engine screamed behind you, just inches from your ears, it was remarkably quiet.
Unlike some of those European cars from the 60s and 70s it could be ordered with an automatic
gearbox and air conditioning. It made the Fiat X1/9 look pedestrian with a 0-60 time of 7.5s. It
was more spacious inside than the Pontiac Fiero and, most importantly, faster as the Fiero’s 2.5L
engine had been tuned for maximum fuel economy. It was clear that Toyota could not only make small
economical cars better than the west, but it had made a sports car that beat them as well. Even
the unfavourable exchange rate that made the MR2 expensive was an advantage. Toyotas were quality
vehicles and were being priced as such. Customers looked at Toyota in a new light.
Was this the best small sports car, irrespective of price? The MR2 make it to Europe in early 1985. The
French Wikipedia page says the car “is called the Toyota MR2 everywhere in the world except for
French-speaking countries where commercially the MR2 name leaves something to be desired.” What
they’re referring to is the letters MR2 when said in French are very close to the French word
“merde” which is a French colloquialism for poop. The Toyota Poop was less than desirable, so the
car was renamed the Toyota MR, or should that be Monsieur Toyota? Regardless, most MR2s shipped to
Europe ended up in the UK, not on the continent. Interestingly CAR magazine compared it to the Ford
Escort RS Turbo. Although both cost about the same and had similar performance figures, the MR2
came out on top in everything but practicality. Maybe Toyota took inspiration from this
comparison with their MR2 rally car – the 222D. But the short wheelbase was hard to
control. Only 3 were ever made as Toyota decided this wasn’t the right path to take.
On the front of each road-going MR2 was a rather odd bird emblem that Toyota said was supposed to
represent “aerodynamic beauty through evolution”. That created more questions than answers.
Owners just called it the “screaming chicken”! The MR2 went down well in California where the
sun always shone. Air conditioning was a plus, but what owners wanted to do was to take
the roof off. The car had never been conceived as an open top, and make a seamless
convertible for a reasonable price would have meant a major redesign, although a handful of
semi-official conversions were attempted. Fiat produced a targa version of the X1/9, so Toyota
designed their own – the T-Bar. Both roof panels could be removed and stowed conveniently
behind the drivers and passenger seats. The Fiero might be losing out on power,
but that was easy to change. After all, American automakers default position was power,
not fuel economy. The Fiero got a 140hp (104 kW) 2.8L V6, and the MR2 had to respond.
Toyota fitted a supercharger, matching the Fiero in power, but beating it on the drag strip.
Despite these improvements, Toyota was learning that sports car buyers were a fashion-conscious
bunch. The MR2 was expensive, and soon customers were looking elsewhere. No wonder that Fiat had
done little to update the X1/9 since 1972 – there weren’t enough sales to justify the cost.
But Toyota felt early sales of the MR2 justified a second generation car. It was clear
exchange rates meant the car wouldn’t be cheap, so Toyota moved upmarket. The new car would have
more passenger space, more luggage capacity and a larger fuel tank – that was what North American
customers were telling them that they wanted. But most importantly it would have killer looks
that could grace a car double the price. Cars had softer, rounded lines and the new car would be
no exception. And unlike the first generation car, this wouldn’t imitate existing cars but
would strike out with its own bold design. An internal design competition threw up
conventional and boundary-pushing designs, but by the clay model stage all the teams had
coalesced around a similar shape, not surprising as Toyota’s mantra was low drag efficiency.
A T-bar was planned from the outset, so the new larger body was made stiffer to compensate.
The central fuel tank also played a part in structural rigidity. This all meant a quieter
car with fewer vibrations. The interior was made even quieter by using the new sound deadening
material from the upcoming Lexus LS400. Again, Toyota turned to official bas-ass Dan
Gurney to fine tune the whole package. The larger, heavier car would need a bigger
2.0L engine, and power increased across the range. This would give the car a higher top
speed, but roughly similar acceleration. The mid-engine transverse design meant Toyota
could use almost any engine from their range, as all they were doing was moving it
from the front of the car to the back. This was the same trick that Rover used with
the K series engine on the MGF in the mid-90s. The radiator moved to the front which meant
less to stuff into the cramped engine bay, and placed less importance on optimising the side
scoops. Supercharging gave way to turbocharging, with the whole package lifted from the Celica
producing a 6.3s 0-60 time. All that power needed stopping, so ABS was included to help you stop,
and a driver’s side airbag in case you didn’t. Inside it was similar to the previous
model, but with updated controls and instruments – again from the Toyota parts bin.
For the first time the interior was designed with the audio system in mind, so a couple of
bass speakers could be installed behind the seats. Practical measures like an immobiliser
helped ensure the new model wouldn’t be as popular to steal as the old one had been.
The second generation MR2 launched in 1989, again at the Tokyo Motor Show, 6 years after
the original. Toyota took it on a nationwide road show tour, with the low loader opening up to
reveal the new car. Again, the public loved it, as did the press, comparing its looks favourably
to the Ferrari Testarossa, but it would take 8 months until it made it to the UK and a year until
North American drivers could get behind the wheel. That delay was a problem, as another car was
taking North America and Europe by storm – the new Mazda MX-5. If you remember, American market
studies had shown that customers wanted more space, and didn’t mind a larger, heavier car.
Toyota were to find that market studies weren’t to be trusted. What American customers actually
wanted was the smaller, lighter open top MX-5. The MR2 was a great car - solid, reliable, high
quality. But although on paper the new MR2 was faster, with a lower rev limit in ended up being
less… fun, and wasn’t that the whole point of a sports car? Although initial MR2 sales were good,
they quickly dropped off, and weren’t a patch on MX-5 sales. Like the first generation, the car
was expensive, but unlike the first generation car customers could buy sporty cars with the
same quality now such as the 1992 Honda Del Sol. Worse was to come. CAR magazine in the UK ran
a front cover story detailing how easy it was for novice drivers to lose control when hitting a
corner too fast and backing off the throttle. The car’s snap oversteer would put you in a hedge or
worse. Not the “fun” car Toyota were hoping for, but at least owners were happy they’d fitted
an airbag! Toyota rushed to fix the problem, but the story had dented public confidence.
Regardless, the MR2 would prove what a great handing car it was in several motorsports series
throughout the 1990s winning many accolades. And Australians could buy a lightweight, stripped
back track version of the MR2 – the Bathurst special edition that would also compete in
Australian motorsports events to drum up interest. 1992 and 1993 would bring more handling
improvements and a performance boost from the work done on the Celica’s turbocharged
engine. So much so that the MR2 beat a Ferrari Mondial in a drag race. Admittedly the
13 year old Mondial was about to end production, but hey, Toyota could beat a Ferrari, so that was
something they could shout about, and something MR2 fans could brag about down the pub.
The performance upgrades never made it to the USA because sales weren’t high enough
to justify the work to recertify it. Sales in what should have been the MR2’s largest market
ended in 1995 with no sign of a replacement. Although the MR2 had been designed to please
Americans, it carried on being sold in the rest of the world, although it didn’t help
that the second largest market, Japan, was entering a 10 year economic recession and
the UK market – the third largest market - was suffering from a joyriding epidemic that was
limiting interest in fast cars. Regardless, Toyota celebrated the MR2’s 10th anniversary
with a special edition in both Japan and the UK. And to give the car a little more pizazz they
offered an aftermarket body kit upgrade through their motorsports division as the TRD 2000GT,
presumably named in honour of the Toyota 2000GT from the 1960s. The MR2’s engine got variable
valve timing late in its life giving it another performance boost, but maybe because of the age
of the MR2 only around 1,000 of them were built. Like the first generation car, there were
limited attempts at making a convertible MR2, this time by Toyota Technocraft. Toyota had finally
got the hint – people wanted an open top MR2. Or maybe it was the phenomenal sales of
the Mazda MX-5 that encouraged Toyota to look at making the third generation car a convertible.
After all, the original small, lightweight MR2 had been a big hit. Surely an open top,
mid-engined, lightweight MR2 could also be a hit? The new car started out as a skunkworks
project. With no one officially working on it, a team of engineers were told they’d been given a
“training project” to chop an MR2 in half, shorten it and install a smaller 1.8L engine. The team
did such a good job that when Toyota’s management saw the result they agreed to produce a full
concept for the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show – the MRJ. Toyota took note of the Honda CR-X Del Sol’s crazy
motorised removable TransTop roof and fitted the MRJ with their own version. It would also be
the first MR2 with rear seats – microscopically tiny seats, but seats nonetheless! And what’s more
they could be folded flat to make the boot larger. It also included four wheel steering which was
featuring on several Japanese cars of the time. Toyota liked the smaller open top design,
but all those gadgets didn’t help the goal of making this an inexpensive, lightweight car.
What’s more, Toyota was focused on perfecting eco technologies like the hybrid drivetrain.
Sports cars might bring some caché to the brand, but given sales of the previous car, the
new MR2 needed to be made on a tight budget. The new car was lighter, so the engine could be
smaller. Toyota picked the 1.8L 138hp (103 kW) 1ZZ 4-cylinder which was the successor to the original
MR2 engine. This was barely more power than the original car, but as the MX-5 showed, a fun sports
car wasn’t all about raw power, and this engine allowed the new MR2 to be the most fuel efficient
in its class. It was allied to a 5-speed manual or 5-speed automatic and would be the first
Japanese car to use a sequential gearbox. The team were obsessed with weight to
make sure this the nimble-handling car they knew they could produce. It helped it had
a smaller engine and lacked a roof of course! Team members who saved the least amount
of weight would be named and shamed. In the end the car came in 254kg (560lb) lighter
than the old car – the weight of a vending machine with all its sweet delights! This and the
smaller engine meant that like the previous car, the new car had roughly the same
acceleration as the original MR2. This work in progress was shown at the 1997
Tokyo Motor Show as the MR-S. The MX-5 style door handles showed exactly what car Toyota was
gunning for. And with MX-5 sales still good, Toyota and their North American dealers
saw good potential in the new car and it got the green light for production.
The next two years were spent getting the next MR2 ready for production. From the outside
it seems Toyota just tinkered with the design, with slightly larger side air intakes.
Like the first and second generation cars, inside the new model was black throughout with
off-the-shelf components. This was no bad thing though – it gave the car features and technology
it wouldn’t otherwise have had for the price, but it lacked the drama of cars like the
Audi TT. With the fuel tank now behind the driver and below the engine the large hump
between the driver and passenger disappeared. Handling was critical – Toyota didn’t want
a repeat of the snap oversteer debacle. So, even though the new car was 29cm or almost a
foot shorter than the old car the wheelbase was actually 5cm or 2” longer with the wheels pushed
to the ends of the car. There wasn’t space for a rear boot in the new model – owners would need
use the limited storage up front and behind the seats. The suspension layout was similar to
the previous two generation cars – after all, if it’s not broken why fix it? Extensive testing
produced a car that behaved well around town and most importantly on the edge. The 1997 concept
had rollover bars behind the driver and passenger, but like the BMW Z1 the new car would
protect the driver in a rollover by strengthening the frame around the windscreen.
It had a soft top that like the second generation MX-5 used a glass rear window. Also like the
MX-5 there was the option of a removable 18kg (40lb) fibreglass hard top. Like with the
first generation car, extensive rain tests were conducted to be sure the soft top, not a
common Toyota part, would be bullet proof. Well, not exactly bullet proof. I mean, it’s just
fabric, but at least rain and hail proof. Breaking with the past, the new
car wouldn’t be known as the MR2, in Japan at least. There it would be known as the
MR-S. In Europe, and especially France, you would think Toyota would get away from the MR2 “merde”
name, but France was a very small market so in Europe it would be known as the MR2 – the MR2
Roadster and in North America as the MR2 Spyder. Toyota was clearly looking to take sales away
from the popular MX-5, but some might say the MX-5 was the better looking car – in my eyes the
bulbous headlights made the MR2 look like it’d been hit with an ugly stick! And it wasn’t
the car people like me wanted – fans of the original MR2 who now finally had the money to
buy one. In fact, I rejected it as soon as I sat in one – I’m not that tall at 5’ 11” (180cm),
or more like 5’ 10” (178cm) as I’m shrinking!, but every time I changed gear my knee hit
the steering wheel. The interior was just too small. I bought a car that my whole family could
fit in and had a lot more style – the Audi TT. It didn’t help that Toyota was confused over what
the target market should be. In Tokyo they felt this was a young person’s car, and they’d
designed it with that in mind. But Toyota of Australia felt it would be bought by empty
nesters who could finally buy a bit of fun. In the end it appealed to neither demographic.
Toyota set stupidly low sales targets. They expected to only sell 5,000 in the first
year in the USA. The original MX-5 sold 35,944, and the original MR2 37,674 in their first
full year of US sales. This allowed Toyota to claim success when they beat these modest goals,
but 7,233 sales in their first year were hardly a knockout blow. In the UK the cheaper MR2 was still
outsold by the 5 year old MGF, made by a company that seemed to be on the brink on bankruptcy.
But the press loved the handling and performance. It's ironic that the previous MR2 had
been criticised for lacking fun. The new model had fixed that – who would
have known that a lighter car would be more agile? But customers weren’t interested. If only
they’d given it a test drive to give it a chance. Maybe those looks were getting in the way
of a sale, so Toyota showed off a radical reinterpretation of their new car just
over a year after launch as the Zagato VM180. Gone were the oversized, cartoonish
headlights and taillights for a meaner, more purposeful look. This was a car you knew
could handle a race track. Toyota showed off another concept the same year – a 5s 0-60 souped
up track day concept that was designed to get the public excited about Toyota’s debut to Formula 1.
Unfortunately, neither were sold in any volume. In 2003 both manual & automatic gearboxes got an
extra gear. Outside it got slight headlight and taillight changes and there were a few tuning
tweaks, but overall it was a very similar car. 2004 brought some safety improvements. These
all did little to get more people buying the MR2. Sales ended in North America in 2005 and
production finished in 2007. That same year Toyota were fighting to get their first win in Formula
1 after 5 years of trying, but they didn’t have much of a sporty line-up to get customers
interested in buying their passenger cars. Ever since the third generation car ended
production there have been rumours of a fourth generation, but it may still happen. Forbes
reported that Toyota is teaming up with Daihatsu and Suzuki to produce a new small sports car in
2025. It will use the platform from the GR Yaris, and the 1.0L 3-cylinder 110hp (82 kW) Suzuki
engine tuned to 150hp (112 kW) and mounted transversely in the middle of the car. One thing's
clear though, it won't look anything like the photos Forbes used in their article, which were actually fan art from Esa Mustonen in 2018, and not
“Courtesy of Toyota” as Forbes stated. Still, any new MR2 will have big shoes to fill.
Or should that be small, mid-engined shoes? The original MR2 kick started a change of
attitude towards Toyota. Those inexpensive, economical cars could be fun as well. The second
generation bought a level of maturity to the car, and the third generation reminded us that
it wasn’t just Lotus or Mazda that knew how to make lightweight fun cars. And it’s
a car that will always be in my heart. Thanks for sharing the MR2 journey
with me. There’s videos about two other excellent 2-seaters, the Mazda MX-5 and the MGF on the right. Thanks for watching
and I’ll see you in the next video.
