Photo: Mecum
Stretching things a bit, we could say Toyota is so large it stopped making more models than other carmakers have ever produced. The very long list of dead Toyotas includes famous nameplates like the Celica, Avensis, or MR2, but also lesser ones sold all over the globe.
Probably because it is so large, and its models have been made in vast quantities, very few of these dead machines have achieved collector status. Take the MR2, for instance. Made from 1984 to 2007 as a two-seat sports car, it isn’t exactly at the top of collectors' shopping lists.
But that does not stop people from taking their MR2s to the auction block in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Especially when the thing they’re trying to sell is no longer in stock condition.
What you’re looking at is an MR2 from 2002, in the Spyder configuration that was sold in the U.S. from 1999 until the line was dropped. It has been modified to cope with road driving but also the requirements of track adventures.
The car, still wearing the original paint it came in, has been gifted with Sparco seats, a Hard Dog roll bar at the rear, and a set of 949 racing wheels fitted at the end of a BC Racing coilover suspension system.
We are not being told if any modifications have been made to the engine. We assume it still uses the stock 1.8-liter, rated back in its day at 138 hp and 171 Nm (126 lb-ft) of torque. It works, just as it did back then, with a five-speed manual transmission.
The car is part of the so-called Route 66 collection and is listed for sale during the Mecum auction in Glendale later this month. It is going without reserve or an estimate on how much it is expected to fetch. For reference, Hagerty believes a concours-condition one to be worth $18,900.
But that does not stop people from taking their MR2s to the auction block in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Especially when the thing they’re trying to sell is no longer in stock condition.
What you’re looking at is an MR2 from 2002, in the Spyder configuration that was sold in the U.S. from 1999 until the line was dropped. It has been modified to cope with road driving but also the requirements of track adventures.
The car, still wearing the original paint it came in, has been gifted with Sparco seats, a Hard Dog roll bar at the rear, and a set of 949 racing wheels fitted at the end of a BC Racing coilover suspension system.
We are not being told if any modifications have been made to the engine. We assume it still uses the stock 1.8-liter, rated back in its day at 138 hp and 171 Nm (126 lb-ft) of torque. It works, just as it did back then, with a five-speed manual transmission.
The car is part of the so-called Route 66 collection and is listed for sale during the Mecum auction in Glendale later this month. It is going without reserve or an estimate on how much it is expected to fetch. For reference, Hagerty believes a concours-condition one to be worth $18,900.
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