Toyota has something of a history with sports cars, beginning in the 1960s with the 2000GT and continuing the following decade via models like the Celica and Supra. It was in the late ’70s, however, that the company embarked upon an exciting new project, culminating in the SV-3 concept that finally appeared at the 1983 Tokyo Motor Show. The almostunchanged production version made its debut in ’84, badged as the MR2 (for ‘Mid-Ship Runabout 2-seater’).
The MR2 arrived in the UK the following year with a price tag of around £9000, and the combination of punchy performance and sweet handling soon had it amassing plenty of plaudits from the motoring press. Seiichi Yamauchi’s sharp design was certainly eye-catching, its combination of angular lines and pop-up headlamps perfectly capturing the ’80s zeitgeist and finding instant favour with those after a two-seater sports car that could blend driving thrills with typical Japanese reliability.
With 44/56 weight distribution and weighing a little under a tonne, the MR2 was light and agile, and while some drivers found it a little too easy to exceed the handling limits – a trait that would be tamed at the 1987 facelift – there was plenty of fun to be had. That racing driver Dan Gurney was involved in development, while Lotus had a hand in the design of the suspension, gives some idea of how serious Toyota was about its new sports car; and once you’d sampled the end result, it was clear that all of the time and engineering effort had certainly paid off.
