Long long ago before the turn of the century I made a rash promise to my wife that was 'When you're 40 I'll buy you a 2 seater sports car' at the time she didn't have a license so I figured I was on safe ground. Anyway roll on about 16 years & I ask what she wanted for her 40th birthday to get a reply of 'I thought I was getting a 2 seater sports car' Oops I'd forgotten about that At the time we had 2 teenage kids so clearly it was very practical. Anyway with my usual Yorkshire splashing the cash around, I went & bought a MR2 MK1 with an engine problem, then went out & bought another to rob some parts off it, swapped over the engine loom & we had a nice little runaround. This was in the early days of Fleecebay 2002, I made a tidy sum on parting out the remaining bits, this was the start of my love affair with these cars. Over hte last 16 years I think we've had 7 of them in various states of repair. The only issue with them is they lack grunt, so after about a year we sold the MK1 & we bought a MK2 Turbo, which was an awesome car
But the desire was to have the MK2 2.0L Turbo engine in the MK1 chassis so along came this beauty
I spent a fortune getting the bodywork up to standard, to take it for an MOT to find it was as rotten as a peach underneath, I'd already bought a 2.1L stroker Turbo engine for it, but I was so devastated I sold everything & vowed not to buy another one.
So roll on 2 years in the meantime we bought & sold a MR2 MK3 (didn't like it) although I did buy a Celica 190 2ZZ engine to put in it, bought & sold a Saxo VTS we used on the track, then one day whilst on the twobrutal forum somebody put up a for sale for a MK1 that already had a V6 Camry engine fitted, but there was a problem with the gearbox. It was & I suppose still is the 2nd V6 converted MK1 in the UK, it was being converted in Manchester at the same time as the 1st one that was being done at the famous Woodsport in Durham, it again was & still is the 1st road legal V6 MK1 in the UK.
So I contacted JB who built & owned it, went over to look at it, put my hand in my pocket & bought it, I can tell you I had some sleepless nights, buying a car that had not been on the road for 8 years, can't hear the engine running, gearbox doesn't work because the driveshafts don't fit. JB had got the car on the road & in 2006 was backing from JAE the big Jap show & on the way back the diff seized, he could still drive but the car tried to push forward & not turn. It had an early turbo gearbox fitted so JB replaced it with a later model turbo gearbox with LSD, at the time it was thought that only the E153 turbo gearbox could handle the power, now it's known that the standard E53 gearbox is also suitable & because of the ratios a better gearbox.
To Be Continued
But the desire was to have the MK2 2.0L Turbo engine in the MK1 chassis so along came this beauty
I spent a fortune getting the bodywork up to standard, to take it for an MOT to find it was as rotten as a peach underneath, I'd already bought a 2.1L stroker Turbo engine for it, but I was so devastated I sold everything & vowed not to buy another one.
So roll on 2 years in the meantime we bought & sold a MR2 MK3 (didn't like it) although I did buy a Celica 190 2ZZ engine to put in it, bought & sold a Saxo VTS we used on the track, then one day whilst on the twobrutal forum somebody put up a for sale for a MK1 that already had a V6 Camry engine fitted, but there was a problem with the gearbox. It was & I suppose still is the 2nd V6 converted MK1 in the UK, it was being converted in Manchester at the same time as the 1st one that was being done at the famous Woodsport in Durham, it again was & still is the 1st road legal V6 MK1 in the UK.
So I contacted JB who built & owned it, went over to look at it, put my hand in my pocket & bought it, I can tell you I had some sleepless nights, buying a car that had not been on the road for 8 years, can't hear the engine running, gearbox doesn't work because the driveshafts don't fit. JB had got the car on the road & in 2006 was backing from JAE the big Jap show & on the way back the diff seized, he could still drive but the car tried to push forward & not turn. It had an early turbo gearbox fitted so JB replaced it with a later model turbo gearbox with LSD, at the time it was thought that only the E153 turbo gearbox could handle the power, now it's known that the standard E53 gearbox is also suitable & because of the ratios a better gearbox.
To Be Continued