AS SCREAMER headlines went ‘HOW TOYOTA SPOILT THE MR2’ is right up there. Accompanied by a series of pictures of an SW20 MR2 spinning on track, the cover of CAR magazine’s May 1990 edition stuck the knife into Toyota’s box-fresh sportster with 100-point all caps. In today’s torrent of clickbait, such a headline would barely raise an eyebrow. It’d likely elicit a Jeff Lebowski shrug of ‘that’s just your opinion, man’ before scrolling on. Back then it was enough to permanently cast a shadow over the SW20 MR2’s legacy. But was there any truth to it?
Toyota reacted. Stung by the criticism, it brought a Revision 2 version of the MR2 to market in January 1992. The suspension was altered, wider tyres were specified and JDM models got the option of traction control and, for the Turbo, a viscous LSD.
The turbocharged version was never officially imported to Australia. We had to make do with the atmo 3S-GE 2.0-litre four that had previously seen duty in the Celica SX. Subtly altered valve timing and compression had squeaked a few more kilowatts
