How Would You Modify This Toyota MR2?

3rd gen MR2 wheels, BFG KDW tires, koni sport shocks, your favorite steering wheel and shift knob.

I would update it with late model tail lights, rear wing and 16″ OEM wheels with some upgraded suspension and an exhaust. Then just enjoy the beautiful handling characteristics these are known for.

I’d track down original wheels, and maybe budget $1500 for small improvements (reflash ECU, head unit/speakers, spruce up interior with new carpets, etc) and call it a day. It’s almost impossible to find these things in good, unmolested shape on the East Coast anymore… 🙁

Lighter wheels, some non-intrusive suspension parts, perhaps an air intake, and maybe some bolt on cockpit mods (steering wheel, seats, to taste). Make sure you keep all your original parts though, because this thing will be worth serious money in stock configuration in a few years.

Beautiful! Just wheels, tires and suspension. Keep it unmolested, otherwise.

I think a stand alone ECU (I’ve used megasquirt on mine) and rising the boost to 16/17 psi are, may be, the best bang for the buck

Honestly, the stock horse power from the 3S-GTE is more than enough for your average car enthusiast. If you gave yourself a relatively small budget of $3000, I’m sure you could get some stiffer suspension, better brakes, and some new meat for those wheels. Even if you decide you don’t like the rims that are on the car, you could probably get some cheap, stock wheels for it as well.

Power isn’t everything, especially in the MR2. The car was so meticulously designed to be a nimble, agile car. Don’t ruin it with a 100mm turbo and 1000HP at the rear wheels that’ll have you spinning tires in 4th gear at 160km/hr. (I’m from Canada, eh, we use km/hr)

Enjoy the midship, my friend. You won’t regret your purchase.

Replace all of the rubber bushings on all suspension components with poly-urethane or a set of new rubber bushings (such as the TRD rubber bushings) if you can find them. twosrus.com sells the poly urethane. Replace all of the struts with Koni adjustables. Optionally, replace the springs with some kind of lowering spring. $1000 to $2500 is a decent estimate depending on if you do the labor yourself and if you go with springs too.

Do all of the routine maintenance for that mileage including timing belt, oil pump, water pump, valve stem seals, spark plugs, spark plug wires, coolant flush, clutch fluid flush, etc. Get a turbo rebuild. Optionally, get an upgraded turbo comparable to the CT27 sold by ATS. I would personally recommend going with a different outfit (maybe Garage CRW or have a local turbo shop duplicate the upgrades). Depending on how much of this you do yourself and if you go with the turbo upgrade, this might be something like $1500 to $3000. It’ll improve the handling and reliability significantly. A turbo upgrade will net about 20 whp or so.

For upgrades, install a manual boost controller such as the $50 one from twosrus.com and pump up the boost. It doesn’t make sense to go past about 17 psi with the stock turbo, even upgraded. Get a replacement intake, exhaust, and intercooler. About $700 for a decent exhaust (such as Berk Technology’s or KO Racing’s), about $150 to $200 for a decent intake (I recommend KO Racing), and about $600 for a decent intercooler kit (again, KO Racing). The intake and exhaust are necessary to allow the engine to flow enough to make the increased boost worth it and the intercooler is necessary to keep the intake charge cool enough to do more than one or two full-throttle runs without heat soaking. That’ll get you another 20 to 30 whp or so. It’s a good idea to vent the BPV to the intake. An oil catch can is a good idea too. Lastly, the Garage CRW clutch clevis, So you are looking at about another $1500 in parts … maybe about $2000 or so after labor.

At this point your car will be faster in a straight line (+ ~50 whp), will be OEM fresh, and will handle well. The last thing to tackle would be brakes. Upgrade to a set of 1993+ brake calipers and rotors (larger diameter and thicker rotors). Maybe go with the 1993+ master cylinder too (bigger bore). You can buy everything rebuilt from an outfit like rockauto.com. Make sure you buy a decent brand. I have heard that Centric is pretty good. Get some steel braided brake lines while you’re at it (KO Racing and twosrus.com both sell them I think) and do a full brake fluid flush. This’ll probably be around $1000 in parts … maybe about $2000 after labor.

Lastly, there are some little parts that improve the overall experience of driving the car that aren’t too expensive. Brass shifter bushings or the roller bearings that Garage CRW makes are a good idea. The roller bearing kit that Garage CRW makes to replace the little square brass busing on the shifter assembly on the trans is nice too. They also make a replacement clevis kit for the clutch pedal to beef it up and eliminate clutch pedal squeak.

Anyways, that’s all I can think of right now. All numbers are sourced from past experience and my ass. You’re talking about $9500 in parts and labor for all this. Maybe about half that if you do it all yourself (highly recommended … except for maybe the brake work). You’d have a pretty sweet little deuce if you do all that. I’d say it’d be in the top 10\% of MR2s on the road.