So, I really had a thing for 1987 cars for a while there… Guess it was just a good year.
This was a very impulsive acquisition. I’ve always (and still do) had a thing for MR2s; the AW11 and SW20. When I saw this sitting in the back of a dealers yard, once again and unprepared trade-in, I went on the hunt to find the current owner. Turns out one of the sales kids there purchased the trade-in for himself but lost interest and it sat for a bit. After some discussion, I proposed a trade, my Familia for the MR2. The Familia had started to show its age, with a notchy gearbox and multiple holes in its exhaust system (which I quickly slapped some exhaust repair tape on to keep the gasses in). He accepted, and the rest is history.
It was both a fun little car, and a diabolical death trap. Made all the right noises, and the 4AGE is a cool engine… but the auto made knowing when the power would come on a bit of a guessing game, and well, being so light it also had an issue with locking the brakes up in the wet, causing me to slide half way into an intersection one day. Not so much fun.
I did have no end of issues with the engine in this though, the best guess I could come up with was that the cam timing was one tooth out, but I never confirmed that before I sold the car to another MR2 owner for parts. The body was also very rough, doubt there was a good panel on it really. Structurally sound, but dented, faded and a bit rusty.
1987
1.6L 4AGE
Automagic
Sweet red primer patches
TRD steering wheel
A phat poddy bro
Update 8/3/20 – Unfortunately it appears this car met its end due to an expired registration exemption, which lapsed 10 years ago.