Photo: screenshot from Youtube/edited by autoevolution
Back in the day, you’ve seen Toyota competing in rallies with Celicas and Corollas, but they also had this beefed-up MR2 at one point.
Yeah, at some point, Toyota realized that its twincam turbo Celica couldn’t be used outside African rally series and started working on a new contender which got materialized in this mean-looking MR2 Group S rally car. The engineers codenamed it the 222D and it was developed for Group S and B.
Pretty much built from the ground up, the outer shell got to be bolted on a custom tube chassis and there were three units ever built. One had its engine mounted transversely in the middle with power going to the rear and two had the mid engine mounted longitudinally with power being sent only to the back in one version and the other one having an all-wheel-drive using a custom Xtrac transmission.
One of them was built for tarmac while the other one was more gravel oriented but all of them used turbocharged 2-liter engines, probably type 4T-GTE or 503E, but that is still a mystery.
The one you see here it’s the transversely-mounted engine one and it makes around 600 hp. Loud noise and flame-shooting exhaust are guaranteed even from the very start of the engine as you will see in the video bellow.
One of them was built for tarmac while the other one was more gravel oriented but all of them used turbocharged 2-liter engines, probably type 4T-GTE or 503E, but that is still a mystery.
Google News