With an interesting development history, the MR-S serves the need of the more discerning driver. But the dashing looks do justice for the image as well. Turbo or not, the MR-S is simply thrilling.

From my observation, there is probably a new underground secret society for the rest of us to take note of. Not because they are any dangerous to society, but because of the cars they drive. You see, my theory is that the members of this gang has one consistent trait, which is they are all driving yellow colored Japanese sports cars.

It's not a large society as I've only seen a few. We featured a Greddy Toyota Celica VVTL-I (Kumz the owner is one of us at Hypertune) a bunch of issue back while the other is an S2000 you'll be seeing quite a lot of here when the time comes. But in all seriousness, the car seems to die for after looking at the specifications on paper. And I'm talking about a stock standard version. The tuned MR-S you see featured here is another playing field altogether.

If there is one pleasure I derive in writing any article is the researching process. Since there is no way in the world my brain can retain all the detailed information off all cars from all manufacturers in the world, the internet is a tool I use with great addiction. Considering the long history of the car, what you see today is after decades of interesting and colorful developments from Toyota.

Interestingly, not just Toyota mind you. When the company's designer Seiichi Yamauchi was appointed as head of planning for the MR2 (codenamed SV3, after the first prototype SA-X), it was decided that it will be a small two-seater commuter car with a mid-engined rear wheel layout. And a little help was roped in during the design phase, from Lotus in fact to help in the ride and handling characteristics. That pretty much reveals why the car drives the way it does. But the British car maker was not involved in the final production specification though.

(The rest of the article can be found in Hypertune Vol. 55)

Text: Cimatt
Photo: Victor Chen

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