Bought a car more dangerous than my FRS

[funwheeldrive]

Hey guys, I just picked up a new ride and wanted to share. I found this car on craigslist and couldn't resist. It's a 1991 Mr2 Turbo with a fixed hardtop. I've never owned one of these cars before, but my friend used to have a clean AW11 and that was a lot of fun.

The previous owner had the car for the last 24 years and she took really good care of it. She had the car painted silver about 14 years ago, it was originally white. It has a blue interior with power windows/locks, but manual steering.

The car looks cleaner in pictures than it actually is. The silver paint isn't in the best shape and there are 2 very small spots of surface rust that I need to take care of ASAP. But I think it will clean up well and the car is pretty straight considering it's 27 years old.

I have only driven it a couple times, but I can't believe how small this car feels, even compared to my FRS. And the pull of the turbo is a welcome change from my stock FRS. So far this car has been a treat to drive, and feels very planted.

My plans for the car are to clean it up as much as possible and to just enjoy it. I plan to keep everything relatively stock and only upgrade with OEM toyota parts when the opportunity arises. Honestly, I don't know anything about this platform (I owned plenty of Hondas and DSMs in the past), so I have a lot of learning to do. I tried looking for Mr2 forums, but it seems like everything I find is really dead. Hopefully I don't have an issue finding certain parts and trim pieces.

But yeah, I didn't mean to start a blog, but just wanted to share with you guys. I figure some people on here know about the SW20 and was hoping for some input. Thanks guys!

[TommyW]

Congrats. Those are highly under rated. Mid engine turbo RWD the best equation going.

[Summerwolf]

AWESOME!!!! Those are very fun, especially with the boost turned up. A true Japanese classic.

[bfrank1972]

Congrats! I used to own one of these many many moons ago. Tons of fun, really light and responsive front end. Stock turbo is laggy as hell compared to modern motors, but that can be kind of fun Motors are tough, and make power - co-built with Yamaha and have some interesting features inside. Some folks turn up the power with just a boost controller but I found that really wasn't the right way to do it - the motor's ECU goes super rich. Really needs a comprehensive upgrade package, but can be a really great car. Check this site:

http://www.koracing.net/viewarticle.php?article=10

Also suspension upgrades/alignment make a pretty big difference on these cars - like any other rear biased car, these will just plan themselves under power through a corner, but are also a bit trickier under throttle lift oversteer at the limit. Have fun!

[serialk11r]

If you weren't in California, I would say 2AR or 2GR swap

The 3S is admittedly good for really big power if you're into that kind of thing.

Just be careful about spinning it, RIP my MR2 Spyder The 91 cars are even more twitchy.

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

If you weren't in California, I would say 2AR or 2GR swap

The 3S is admittedly good for really big power if you're into that kind of thing.

Just be careful about spinning it, RIP my MR2 Spyder The 91 cars are even more twitchy.

And I would say 4th gen 3sgte. Haven't seen any V6 swaps live a long life. They tend to oil starve to death.

My 3rd gen 3sgte has out lived, out raced every 2gr or other V6 from back in my MR2OC days. Rip

As far as the infamous snap oversteer, this is one car I recommend taking it to an autox or an empty parking and find out is handling limits.

Good job finding that gem. I say your best bet for a MR2 community is the Facebook group. But alas even I'm not a member of that because it's half retarded half legit members.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

And I would say 4th gen 3sgte. Haven't seen any V6 swaps live a long life. They tend to oil starve to death.

Really? Marc from Frankenstein Motorworks says the AR and GR engines have really good oil systems and he has lots of success racing them. When I blew my first 2ZZ-GE (leaky head gasket I wasn't aware of) at Laguna Seca, a non-turbo SW20 oil starved its 5S and died, so I assumed the 3S doesn't have very good oil control either.

[Mr.ac]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Really? Marc from Frankenstein Motorworks says the AR and GR engines have really good oil systems and he has lots of success racing them. When I blew my first 2ZZ-GE (leaky head gasket I wasn't aware of) at Laguna Seca, a non-turbo SW20 oil starved its 5S and died, so I assumed the 3S doesn't have very good oil control either.

5sfe and 3sgte are apples and oranges.

The success are due to aftermarket oil pumps major oil pan baffles. Stock for stock 3sgte are just better overal.

[8RZ]

Love those, congrats.

I always liked the snorkel intakes on those lol.

[funwheeldrive]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

If you weren't in California, I would say 2AR or 2GR swap

The 3S is admittedly good for really big power if you're into that kind of thing.

Just be careful about spinning it, RIP my MR2 Spyder The 91 cars are even more twitchy.

I'm not in California anymore. No smog here.

I would only swap the engine if this one blew up all of a sudden. Hopefully that doesn't happen for a long long time.

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

And I would say 4th gen 3sgte. Haven't seen any V6 swaps live a long life. They tend to oil starve to death.

My 3rd gen 3sgte has out lived, out raced every 2gr or other V6 from back in my MR2OC days. Rip

As far as the infamous snap oversteer, this is one car I recommend taking it to an autox or an empty parking and find out is handling limits.

Good job finding that gem. I say your best bet for a MR2 community is the Facebook group. But alas even I'm not a member of that because it's half retarded half legit members.

That's a great idea about the parking lots. This is my first mid engine car, so snap oversteer is something I've only read about, never experienced.

This car will be mostly for cruising and spirited drives. I plan on using the FRS for the track stuff.

[ermax]

Yep.. you see those things going backwards at autoxes all the time. Hahaha. A friend of mine has had a bunch of them over the years. He used to road race one in either ITB or ITA.. can't remember for sure. His current one has a V6 swap. He had to cut his last autox short because it was blowing oil. Luckily it was just the dipstick that blew out.

[bfrank1972]

I never had too many problems with mine. I would recommend AutoX to get a feel for how the car behaves, but then again I'd recommend that for any car. Any car changes balance with trailing throttle oversteer - cars set up to understeer with tighten up a bit and probably not step out. Neutral and oversteery-cars will rotate at the limit as the weight transfers from rear to front. The thing about cars with a rear weight balance vs front/mid balance is: with rear bias set up for neutral/oversteer, when the rear breaks it has the majority of the momentum. You're also likely going faster through the corner as rear biased cars have more rear traction under throttle. So it does require a bit more skill to contain once the rear starts moving out. But there's a lot of variables with alignment, tires, surface that can exacerbate or mitigate this. Just don't lift

[funwheeldrive]

Originally Posted by bfrank1972

Just don't lift

This will be something I need to drill into my brain constantly. I've heard that a bigger front rollbar helps with the 91s. That is probably going to be my first upgrade. That and better intercooler piping , t-bolt clamps, and little stuff that that.

I'm already very impressed by the car stock.

[ermax]

@funwheeldrive, so you have been FF, FR now MR. It will be interesting to see what your preference is once you get used to MR. My first car was FF. After going FR I could never go back to FF. AWD doesn't interest me at all. I'd love to go RR but can't afford that yet. Hahaha