Toyota’s MR2 is zooty, zany, zesty – but not zippy! That’s about to change – Toyota has unveiled a 212 kW F1-inspired MR2 Turbo to raise public awareness of the marque’s motorsport pedigree ahead of its debut in Formula One next year.
Toyota’s MR2 is zooty, zany, zesty – but not zippy! That’s about to change – Toyota has unveiled a 212 kW F1-inspired MR2 Turbo to raise public awareness of the marque’s motorsport pedigree ahead of its debut in Formula One next year.
The Japanese manufacturer will join the Formula One circus next year with the help of the biggest budget of all the teams in the sport.
Toyota has achieved success on the world rally circuit, Indycars, the Le Mans 24-hour race and even in some touring car championships, but not in Formula One. According to AutoExpress, this outrageous Toyota MR2 turbo is the first demonstration of Toyota’s F1 intentions.
Styled and built by race engineers, it made its debut on the Toyota Team Europe stand at the Essen Motor Show. Its 1,8-litre turbo engine is a development of the VVTi unit taken from the standard MR2, but a powerful turbo lifts power output to an impressive 212 kW. The car is reportedly capable of sprinting from zero to 100 km/h in less than five seconds and reaching a top speed of 250 km/h.
Toyota’s engineers have fine-tuned the car’s aerodynamics by adding a deeper front spoiler and huge air intakes at the rear to help cool the engine. To improve safety, there are new roll bars behind the seats, while the cabin has been redesigned to offer a more sporting driving position, AutoExpress reported this week.
New-look alloy wheels, complete with high-grip tyres, finish off the package and help to conceal a more robust braking system. The discs and calipers are retained from the standard MR2, but the pads have been uprated.
Toyota has no firm plans to put this one-off high-performance model into volume production. However, if it did, the MR2 Turbo would cost about R1,62 million. Ouch!