My MR2 Background...
I purchased my 1988 MR2 in 2005 while working at a hot rod, kustoms, and industrial equipment repair shop down in Harlem, Georgia. I was in process of selling the world's highest wheel horsepower/torque Corvette Grandsport at the time and I was looking for a replacement vehicle. Initially I was looking for a second generation 93-95 MR2 but when I saw and drove my 1988 5 speed car I fell in love! I had been looking for something cheaper than the Corvettes and modified Mustangs I had been into for years, so I quickly jumped at the opportunity to buy a car that was Toyota reliable, but still fun and enjoyable to drive every day. I considered it a go cart on crack at the time. On my weekend test drive the car drove nearly identical to my friend's 1979 Dino GTB4 308 Ferrari, however the MR2 did not sit you down as low to the ground, we noted a several inch difference in seat position in relation to the road. We got the Grandsport sold to a fine fellow out in Indiana and I got out of debt for car-toys and we got to work on making the 88 MR2 mine! Started with 17 inch Tenzo R Sinko-R's and an HKS muffler. The Sinko-R's bit the dust (two of them) in two different incidents and were never the same (err... at least were never round again.). One was cracked and dented during an ill attempted drift on a road I didn't know... an incident that ended a 30 minute police chase. The other I split in half trying to avoid another pot hole and a car mid curve on a two lane... edge of the road (literally the white stripe) was missing and half the tire ran off the road splitting the rim around the center about 5 or 6 inches. Around that time my best friend and I had made a trip to Florida (Eglin AFB) to purchase a supercharged motor swap 88 MR2 5 speed. We trailered the car home using my grandfather's 2001 F150 and the supercharged car was AMAZING! Boost would max at less than 12 lbs when I first got the car, but with a few modifications and simple changes I got it up to 14.5 lbs max in late 3rd gear/mid 4th gear and on up. The car had many upgrades/modifications when I got it, but I started making some slight changes on this one as well, putting on a set of imported JDM Ray's Engineering Volk GR-C's in 16 inches with staggered fitment. For more info on supercharged and the 88 non-supercharged (N/A) please see the pages for those cars... 88 Supercharged, 88 N/A. I've done several other modifications to both cars over the years, but they're amazingly fun and get great gas mileage! They've also proved to be Toyota reliable aside from normal maintenance items like leaky gaskets and seals after 20+ years on the roads! The engines are fairly simple to work on and everything is pretty straight forward on these little cars. My Dad and I rebuilt an 85 MR2 as well and put a ton of time/work into that project. See the build pages and the page on that car... Build page 1, 85 MR2. This is a shot of the GrandSport on the Dyno at MORE Performance in Charlotte NC back in the early 2000's... 02 or 03 I'd guess.