17 Facts About Toyota MR2

Toyota MR2 is a line of two-seat, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports cars manufactured in Japan and marketed globally by Toyota from 1984 until 2007 over three generations: W10, W20 and W30 .

Name Toyota MR2 stands for either "mid-ship run-about 2-seater" or "mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-seater".

Toyota MR2 debuted its SV-3 concept car in October 1983 at the Tokyo Motor Show, gathering press and audience publicity.

Some MY 1986 cars have a rear sway bar, while the mounting tabs on the strut housing were either there for both sides, only one side, or none at all depending on when Toyota MR2 ran out of the older rear struts with mounting tabs as production used up parts.

The Toyota MR2 was on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 1986 and 1987.

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In 1988 and 1989 Toyota produced two final production runs of fully optioned "Super Edition" MR2s, based upon the supercharged Japanese market model, and only sold in Japan.

Second-generation Toyota MR2 underwent a variety of changes during its 10 years of production, grouped in four different periods:.

When improper steering inputs were made attempting to correct this non-power-on oversteer, the rear of the Toyota MR2 would swing one way, then wildly the other—thus the term "snap" oversteer.

Toyota MR2 claimed that the changes were made "for drivers whose reflexes were not those of Formula One drivers".

In 1998, Toyota Racing Development offered an official kit body conversion and tuning program for MR2 owners to transform their existing SW20 MR2 into a wide-body TRD2000GT replica car.

Apart from Toyota Racing Development, TOM'S released official body kits and a variety of tuning parts for the MR2.

Toyota MR2 decided against putting its name or logo on these cars as a result of its desire to distance itself from cars that featured leaky roofs.

The Phoenix Power Toyota MR2 featured a large rear wing reminiscent of the 911 GT2 for massive downforce at high speeds, and a reworked suspension set up with Ohlins equipment, all of this turned the SW20 into a "street" monster that can feel equally at home on the track.

The 1999 sequel Gran Turismo 2 introduced other variants of the Toyota MR2, including the TOM'S T020, the TRD2000GT, and the MOMOCORSE Toyota MR2 JGTC.

Unlike the experimental MC8-R, the Toyota MR2 JGTC shared more qualities chassis wise to the road-going production car, though it had a lower ride height than the standard SW20s, was wider, featured advanced aerodynamics and Brembo racing brakes.

Also known as the Midship Runabout-Sports, the newest Toyota MR2 took a different approach than its predecessor, most obviously becoming a convertible and receiving the 'Spyder' marketing nomenclature.

In July 2004, Toyota announced that sales of the MR2, as well as the Celica, would be discontinued in the US at the end of the 2005 model year because of lower sales numbers.