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Owner :
History :
Mods :
Disposition :
I decided I would turn the car into a race car. I stripped out all of the carpeting, door panels, radio,
headliner, sound deadening, A/C, heater, wing, ground effects, and even dash. I bought D2 racing
coilovers, suspension techniques front and rear sway bars, full Prothane polyurethane bushing kit, new
ball joints and tie rod ends, new racing style tie rods (front and rear), Porterfeild R4 full compound racing
brake pads, super lightweight Oddsey racing battery relocated to the front trunk, and stainless steel brake
lines, all of which Paul installed. I also installed a master cylinder brace, and a short throw shifter. In
addition I have lightweight Rota Slipstream 15” rims and super lightweight lug nuts that have not been
mounted because I don’t have tires. Needless to say the car handles amazingly well.
Future modifications will include a new hood, new windshield, new dash/consol, stage 2 race wheel
alignment, Momo steering wheel, racings seats, racing harness, paint, roll bar, manual window/mirror
conversion, and a JDM Sprinter Trueno blacktop engine swap.
headliner, sound deadening, A/C, heater, wing, ground effects, and even dash. I bought D2 racing
coilovers, suspension techniques front and rear sway bars, full Prothane polyurethane bushing kit, new
ball joints and tie rod ends, new racing style tie rods (front and rear), Porterfeild R4 full compound racing
brake pads, super lightweight Oddsey racing battery relocated to the front trunk, and stainless steel brake
lines, all of which Paul installed. I also installed a master cylinder brace, and a short throw shifter. In
addition I have lightweight Rota Slipstream 15” rims and super lightweight lug nuts that have not been
mounted because I don’t have tires. Needless to say the car handles amazingly well.
Future modifications will include a new hood, new windshield, new dash/consol, stage 2 race wheel
alignment, Momo steering wheel, racings seats, racing harness, paint, roll bar, manual window/mirror
conversion, and a JDM Sprinter Trueno blacktop engine swap.
Paul:
After TTR-011 was totaled, I had no (running) car of my own, so I was using TTR-009 as my car until April
of 2005. At that time Phillip took the car to New York which made it very inconvenient for me to use
anymore. So I needed a cheap car. And I had never even driven a mid engined car so I bought this 1989
Toyota MR2 for $2000 from I guy in Phoenix out of AutoTrader Magazine. Okay car. Slow and didn't
corner as well as I had expected for such a light, mid engined car, but it was cheap, fuel efficient, different,
and mildly fun to drive. It also made me learn how to dive the vastly different driving dynamics of a mid
engined car. I sold this car to Peter in January 2006 after replacing it with TTR-014.
Peter:
After totaling TTR-013 I was in a lot of debt and didn’t have anything to show for it. I needed to sell my
280Z TTR-008 to raise cash to pay off some of my debt but I also needed something to drive. Luckily Paul
“accidentally” bought the Bertone X/19 and was willing to sell me the MR2. I bought it in January of 2006
for $2,000. I sold my 280Z for $3,700 making $1,700 on the swap. I really did not want to do this because
the few times I drove the MR2 I didn’t like it. The front end felt very unstable, especially at high speed. It
was very underpowered, and I didn’t like the seat and shifter positions. It didn’t have the classic feel of my
Z, but it was far from new. I didn’t like the look or color of the interior or exterior, and it didn’t draw attention
like the other cars I had owned.
The car had it’s drawbacks but it also had its virtues. It was very inexpensive and got great gas mileage. It
was reliable and fun to drive. I didn’t really like it so I didn’t mind beating on it. I drove the car really hard,
and I didn’t knit pick on every detail. At this point, thanks to Arizona’s graduated license program, I was
one moving violation away from loosing my license and the lack of power kept me out of trouble for a year.
In fact it was so weak, that driving with the A/C on made the car unacceptably slow so I just chose to drive
with the windows down even in the summer.
The summer of 2006 I decided that I would paint the car so I started doing the prep-work. I wet sanded
half of the body down to a mix of factory (white) primer and faded/scratch blue paint. I stopped half way
through because I stopped caring. The car was left with a “two-face” look. This was the first of my many
abuses to the, MR2 that would eventually turn it into a rolling junk yard car.
I needed a set of rear tires so I decided I would upgrade the spray painted stamp steel rims at the same
time. I bought a set of used 17” rims and tires on ebay. Turns out that every single rim was bent beyond
repair. The least wobbly of the new rims went on the back and the stock rims went back on the front,
adding to the patched and hobble together look the car was beginning to take on. I drove the car with
mismatched rims until I had two blowouts, the second on my way to my economics final exam at 8:00 in the
morning. At that point I broke down and bought the cheapest set of tires I could find and mounted them on
the stock rims.
After buying the Audi TT the MR2 did its duty by giving me a car to drive for work doing things I wouldn’t
have wanted to do in my Audi. I didn’t really care to sell it because it was worthless and worth more to me
than anybody would be willing to pay for it. I then continued my abuse towards the car. I hit the windshield
with my fist on a hot day in the summer creating a pizza sized web of cracks in the direct sight of the
driver. I still have not fixed this.
The hood kept popping up and I got tired of closing it over and over again so I just left it up. This made it
very cold for me when driving because air would enter in the front truck and come through the firewall
blowing on me. I fixed this problem with painter’s tape over the holes in the firewall. One day after hitting a
bump going down Valencia at 60 mph the hood flew up and impacted the windshield significantly impeding
my vision of the road. I could only see through a small slit at the bottom of the windshield and drove for ¼
with the hood completely blocking my view, looking extremely cool the whole way. I took it off and left it on
the side of the road and am still driving the car without a hood.
After TTR-011 was totaled, I had no (running) car of my own, so I was using TTR-009 as my car until April
of 2005. At that time Phillip took the car to New York which made it very inconvenient for me to use
anymore. So I needed a cheap car. And I had never even driven a mid engined car so I bought this 1989
Toyota MR2 for $2000 from I guy in Phoenix out of AutoTrader Magazine. Okay car. Slow and didn't
corner as well as I had expected for such a light, mid engined car, but it was cheap, fuel efficient, different,
and mildly fun to drive. It also made me learn how to dive the vastly different driving dynamics of a mid
engined car. I sold this car to Peter in January 2006 after replacing it with TTR-014.
Peter:
After totaling TTR-013 I was in a lot of debt and didn’t have anything to show for it. I needed to sell my
280Z TTR-008 to raise cash to pay off some of my debt but I also needed something to drive. Luckily Paul
“accidentally” bought the Bertone X/19 and was willing to sell me the MR2. I bought it in January of 2006
for $2,000. I sold my 280Z for $3,700 making $1,700 on the swap. I really did not want to do this because
the few times I drove the MR2 I didn’t like it. The front end felt very unstable, especially at high speed. It
was very underpowered, and I didn’t like the seat and shifter positions. It didn’t have the classic feel of my
Z, but it was far from new. I didn’t like the look or color of the interior or exterior, and it didn’t draw attention
like the other cars I had owned.
The car had it’s drawbacks but it also had its virtues. It was very inexpensive and got great gas mileage. It
was reliable and fun to drive. I didn’t really like it so I didn’t mind beating on it. I drove the car really hard,
and I didn’t knit pick on every detail. At this point, thanks to Arizona’s graduated license program, I was
one moving violation away from loosing my license and the lack of power kept me out of trouble for a year.
In fact it was so weak, that driving with the A/C on made the car unacceptably slow so I just chose to drive
with the windows down even in the summer.
The summer of 2006 I decided that I would paint the car so I started doing the prep-work. I wet sanded
half of the body down to a mix of factory (white) primer and faded/scratch blue paint. I stopped half way
through because I stopped caring. The car was left with a “two-face” look. This was the first of my many
abuses to the, MR2 that would eventually turn it into a rolling junk yard car.
I needed a set of rear tires so I decided I would upgrade the spray painted stamp steel rims at the same
time. I bought a set of used 17” rims and tires on ebay. Turns out that every single rim was bent beyond
repair. The least wobbly of the new rims went on the back and the stock rims went back on the front,
adding to the patched and hobble together look the car was beginning to take on. I drove the car with
mismatched rims until I had two blowouts, the second on my way to my economics final exam at 8:00 in the
morning. At that point I broke down and bought the cheapest set of tires I could find and mounted them on
the stock rims.
After buying the Audi TT the MR2 did its duty by giving me a car to drive for work doing things I wouldn’t
have wanted to do in my Audi. I didn’t really care to sell it because it was worthless and worth more to me
than anybody would be willing to pay for it. I then continued my abuse towards the car. I hit the windshield
with my fist on a hot day in the summer creating a pizza sized web of cracks in the direct sight of the
driver. I still have not fixed this.
The hood kept popping up and I got tired of closing it over and over again so I just left it up. This made it
very cold for me when driving because air would enter in the front truck and come through the firewall
blowing on me. I fixed this problem with painter’s tape over the holes in the firewall. One day after hitting a
bump going down Valencia at 60 mph the hood flew up and impacted the windshield significantly impeding
my vision of the road. I could only see through a small slit at the bottom of the windshield and drove for ¼
with the hood completely blocking my view, looking extremely cool the whole way. I took it off and left it on
the side of the road and am still driving the car without a hood.
Paul : Peter
Specs :
