January 21, 2014 • 29 mins
Believe it or not, Toyota didn't set out to build a sports car when it first began work on what would become the MR2. Join Scott and Ben as they take a closer look at the origin of the MR2, its stats and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff works dot com. I have
a buddy. Welcome to the podcast on Scott Benchman, as
I am Ben Bullen. We're gonna tackle a topic today
that I think is um long overdue, long overdue. I
(00:22):
agree with you, Scott. This is a car that is
close to both of us. You know, we have it
in our past. Yeah, we have. We have experiences with
this car. I mean, you know, one way or the other,
and we'll talk about that, I promise. But this is
a topic that I think, man, I think a lot
of listeners have wanted to hear about this. We've got
a couple of emails here from people recently have written
in if there were some lost in that that distant
(00:46):
car stuff or even high speed stuff email box. I've
been kind of searching through that recently to find some old,
old suggestions, as you remember in that last podcast. But
so today we're talking about the m R two and
I think this is one that you know, listeners have
I wanted to hear about. We've got a few at
least from recent you know, recent emails, and uh, this
is maybe not including everybody from that that old high
(01:07):
Speed stuff email folder that you know, I've been digging
through to get some of the topics recently, UM making
good on promises from five years ago. But anyways, this
is one that UM. I think these last two listeners
that wrote in had a really good point. UM one
word in and just kind of a sort of a request,
and then we'll get the other one that's an actual
request about that. The sort of request came about in
a roundabout way like this. UM. It was a tall guy.
(01:30):
He said he was six ft three, what's his name?
Johnny six ft three says that he's mostly legs and
never really fit into Miata, but he owned m R
two an emplenty of leg room thanks to you know,
the fact that the engine was behind him and UM
mentions that, you know, it's kind of an impractical thing
for him to have. Now he's in an I think
a Toyota four Runner UM at least with the time being,
(01:50):
but he doesn't want to get back into kind of
a small sports cars wondering if we could do a
small affordable sports car podcast that would kind of meet
his needs. You know, someone who's really tall, someone who
wants something that's kind of fun and sporting. But something's
not gonna break the bank either, right, And we meant
he has a list of a couple of cars as
UM nominees for this and uh, I think we had
(02:12):
mentioned this email in a previous episode. Well guess what, Johnny,
Today is the day. Yeah, that's right, so we're getting
to this one. Yeah. He mentioned I think the the Miata,
the of course, the m R two and the porship
Boxer I think was another one. He mentioned the Lotus
a lease, but that maybe a little of his budget,
he said, um, and understandable. That's an expensive car. So Johnny,
we're gonna get to that stuff, I promise, um m
(02:32):
R two at least today. And that's not the only
the The other email is the more direct request, and
this is one UM from a guy named Spencer, and
Spencer says, well, first of all, thank you for making
these entertaining and informative podcast I'm gonna throw in a
couple of the complimentary listen. He always looks forward to
the next one, and he's working his way through all
of our podcasts and keeps finding more and more gems
(02:54):
of automotive entertainment. Not bad, that's pretty nice. Yeah, that's
why I'm reading it good, Okay, so he says, he
makes that we make his boring workday more entertaining. But
he would love to hear a podcast concerning mid engine
layouts and people think of these as being race cars
or exotics. Um, cars that you know are very very
expensive out of it, you know, typical budget. I guess,
(03:16):
you know, people can't really afford those type of things,
But there have been a lot of attempts to make
some mid engine relatively affordable sports cars. Um, you know,
the prices that people can really afford, like the Pontiac Fuerro,
the Toyota MR two or the m R s as
he says, uh, the Reno Cleo V six. You know,
those are some of the ones that come to mind.
I think maybe he mentioned that the least here too,
(03:36):
I'm not sure. He says, there are also some serious
pros and cons with each one, you know, with that
type of engineering choice, you know, with the mid engine layout.
So he says that, Um, he's also guessing that both
you and I have experienced that some kind with a
with an m R two in our past, and he's right,
but you know, neither neither one of us have owned
an m R two or a Fuerro even own a Fuerro,
have you, okay me, which he says, all petrol heads
(04:00):
should have the pleasure of experiencing one of these pieces
of automotive history at some point in their history. So
Spencer and uh and Johnny, we're gonna talk about the
m R two today because there's a lot of fascinating
history involved in this thing. Yes, now, I'm gonna start,
unless you want to go further back, I'm gonna start
in nineteen seventy six, Okay, all right, here's why. In
(04:21):
nineteen seventy six, Toyota launched this design project that wanted
to tackle a couple of things. They wanted to make
a car that you would enjoy driving and still be
able to get a decent fuel economy from. Now, what's
what's interesting about that because that means that in the
very beginning, what would become the m R two was
(04:42):
not meant to be a sports car. Yeah, that's that's
strange because and also the date also is confusing to me, Ben,
because you mentioned seventy six, and we'll find out that
the first generation m R two didn't debut until four.
So we're talking about an eight year lag in time. Now,
I also found that design work on this whole thing
you mentioned seventy six. Design work didn't start until right
(05:06):
when Akio Yoshida, right from Toyota's testing department, started to
look at different alternatives for engine engine placement. And that's
this is where it gets really interesting, because so they
start out with this idea they just want a car
that's that's an enjoyable ride, but also it's not going
(05:27):
to break the banquet petrol. And then they start asking
for some out of the box or innovations. You know. See,
Initially it sounds perfectly pedestrian, you know, like it's it's
just business as usual a Toyota, right, and but they
do say they want something unusual, they want something different,
and and it shifts at some point, you know, it
shifts that the design direction goes into this, uh, this
(05:50):
engine that's mounted transversely in the middle of the car.
I know, this is so strange. And the first prototype
of this whole thing, which is called the essay X
right looks like sacks Um was one. So two years
after the design work started, that's when we saw this
this initial um concept vehicle like right, and that uh,
(06:12):
that prototype essay. Dash X was designed by a guy
named Yamuchi Um and I apologized course for by horrid
pronunciation of Japanese. That's perfectly understandable, ben I, I think
you do your best. Hey, thanks man. You know, I
don't even tackle it myself. I just let you handle
the names and I skate free that way. Um. All right,
(06:34):
so let's let's talk a little bit about Um. I
don't want to gloss over this part too much. Well,
you know, we needed to say though, and I'm I
think I said that the concept and that was really
just a prototype at night. That's a good point because
it wasn't public. Now know, the concept doesn't come about
for another couple of years still, and it's and it's
not really public yet. And and the thing is that
(06:54):
there they're intensely they're they're scrutinizing this design because it's
something so unused all for Toyota to do at the time,
because you know, think about the cars that Toyota is producing.
Then you look at the Corolla and vehicles like that
that you know, we're just again we said pedestrian, but
they're not risky. No, they're not risky. That's the best
way to put it, maybe, Ben, is that you know
they're they're just uh and I hate to see the
(07:15):
kind of run of the mill, but they're getting the
job done. I mean that the sales numbers are big.
People like the vehicles. Of course, you know, they do
what they do well, but they're taking a leap of
faith here on this one and saying, man, we're gonna
do this, uh this unusual design and uh, well you've
really taken it to the extreme here, right. So even
even before they get the full prototype in eight one,
(07:37):
they're testing stuff from seventy nine to past eight one
is we're gonna find out in just a second. We
say testing, we don't mean just a wind tunnel. These
are tests. These are prototypes in Japan and California and
Scott they're racing at actual race circuits, I know. And
this is awesome. I find this really interesting because and
(08:00):
I'll let you say who it was, Ben, but they
were they were testing at some big name race circuits
here in the United States, in California with big name racers, right, Yeah,
most notably Formula One driver Dan Gurney tested it out
in Willow Springs. Yeah, which is exciting to me. I mean,
that's really cool to think that he had his hand
in his car in some way. That Toyota went to
(08:20):
Dan Gurney and said, tell us what you think. Take
this out on the track and just beat the hell
out of it and and see what you think. Really
give it, you know, once over, and give us your
impression and then tell us what to do to make
it better. And they did just that. So you know,
this thing has racing in its blood right from the
very beginning, from prototype on. Yeah, because it started evolving
through an actual sports car. And it also makes you
(08:41):
wonder who in the racing world might be driving a
secret prototype today, which is really cool to think. I think, yeah,
I think that's inside. And you've also got to think
about competitors at the time, because they were they were
working on different vehicles and not just Toyota. Of course,
Toyota was doing its own thing with the m R two,
but there were there were competitors from Japan, Germany, Italy,
the United States, and they were creating cars like the
(09:03):
Honda c RX, the Masamiata. Nissan had a vehicle called
the e x A, which I'm not really familiar with.
Volkswagen heads the Chiraco, which is a fantastic performance car
at a time. Uh, the Fiat X one nine, UM
X nineteen. I heard people call that the X nineteen
X one nine. I would say X one nine. Pontiac
Fire of course that we mentioned and even Ford Ford
had that XP vehicle, which is kind of a strange thing.
(09:25):
I kind of a I don't know, we that's almost
like another podcast topic right there. I think we should
strongly consider maybe anyways, but they had some some stiff
competition in that day in that arena, So you know,
Toyota wants to get this out there and they want
to get it done right right, and they finally decide
that we are ready to dip our toes in the water.
(09:49):
I'll say, they don't commit to a production car. They
make a concept car public in three at the Japan
Motor Show and they call this the s V three
s V DASH three. Um. This this car was scheduled
to launch in four in the Japanese market. UM. So
(10:12):
one thing that is different is they showed off the
concept car, but they kind of already committed to making
it a production car. Yeah, they knew what they were doing,
and that's unusual, right, Scott. Yeah, I think that's pretty unusual.
They were there, you know, at the time, they would
more wait for public opinion and then they would they
would you know, take it back and do some scrutinary
(10:32):
and over the whole thing and decide what they like,
what they don't like, what people like, what people didn't
like into the public versus what the automotive press said
about it. Uh, there'll be a lot of back and
forth in the design studio and it would take a
little longer for it to come to production. But this
is one that and this this happens more and more
often now than it did in the past. But um,
at the time, you know, in in the early eighties,
(10:53):
it was not really all that all that common for
them to come out with a concept vehicle that they
knew they were going to produce very soon afterwards. Yeah,
and they did. I really enjoy the phrase you scrutineering.
They did some scrutineering on the s V DASH three
and then boom fo, the m R two hits Japan
(11:14):
and it is the first mass produced mid engine car
to come from any Japanese manufacturer, So it's already revolutionary
in that way. But um, and that's and that's exactly
where the m R two. You know, a lot of
people say where the m R two name come from?
Like what is what is MR two? A lot of
people say MR two and they've got, you know, a
lot of you get a lot of uh um ideas
(11:34):
or theories that they kind of float out there about
where m R two comes from. It's really actually pretty simple.
It's just the layout of the vehicle. It's the it's
it's from mid engine, rear wheel drive, two seater, so
mid engine, real world drive, two seater. That's m R two.
And that's that's what I stood for all along from
the very beginning. Now we should also, uh talk a
little bit about the oh wait, the other companies, the rumors.
(11:58):
You want to talk about the rumors. Let's talk out
some of the rumors. Sure, before we do. You've heard
of a little company called Lotus. Yes, you're talking about
the Lotus rumor. Now, I kind of wonder where you're
going with that, And uh I, I do have some
information about about Lotus. They said that early on they
were thinking that because of the similarities between some of
(12:18):
the Lotus designs and the m R two. At the time,
they were saying, well, there's got to be some kind
of some kind of connection here that Lotus designers car
for Toyota. Yeah. I've got a couple of rumors about this.
I can go into a little bit of detail here. Um.
One rumor is that the MR two was designed in
house at Toyota by Lotus engineers, by specifically Lotus suspension
(12:42):
engineer named Roger Becker. So they went so far as
to name a specific person at Lotus. That's the official
rum all right. Well, now, apparently early on there was
some kind of influence that was probably exerted by Lotus
on you know, Toyot engineers, because they're working with Lotus.
I can't see how that would not affect you to
make a small, lightweight vehicle that's very powerful. I can
understand that. I think everybody can get that. But later
(13:04):
on you'll find that, you know, the design drifted a
little bit away from what Lotus would normally do. Yeah.
Do you want to hear the other rumor? I do? Okay,
good U. The other rumor is that the m R two,
let's get this scot an abandoned Lotus design. Do you
ever hear this one? No? I did not that it
was possibly the M ninety or the X one. Well really,
now wait, that's the okay, the M nine year X
(13:26):
is a Lotus design. Yeah, so you're saying that it's
something that was like an earlier design for one of
those vehicles. It was a bandis so you're saying that
Lotus trashed it, and then Toyota went in and said, oh,
we kind of like that through the dust bed. Well
this is this is according to Doc Bundy, who is
a Lotus Sport Spirit driver. Um, he said that the
(13:47):
m R two is actually a version of the X
one hundred. Okay, well, you know, I can understand that,
and there's a there's a good reason behind some of this.
And now, at the time, you gotta remember, Toyota, along
with the Chapman family were majority shareholders in Lotus at
the time. I can't remember that. But then soon after
that in nine, General Motors acquired the majority control of Lotus.
And I don't think a lot of people know that
that that General Motors was owner of Lotus Motor Cars
(14:10):
or I'm sorry, Lotus Cars Limited from until about nine.
And I don't think a lot of people really even
even know that in their history. But our listeners know this,
you guys have you guys have heard some of the the
Lotus's story if you've checked out our earlier episodes on
that where we do talk about there. They have a
fascinating history Lotus as a brand, as a company, and
(14:33):
it's worth your time to check out the whole stuff
on their philosophy really behind Lotus. I mean, it's an
amazing it's amazing story. It's really cool. That's a great
way to say it's a philosophy driven company. Well, let's
talk a little bit more about this rumor if it's
okay with all right. So we do know, as you said, Scott,
that Lotus did quite a bit of work in Japan
with Toyota, especially on suspension on ride and handling r
(14:55):
and they did set up some m R two prototypes
for them. It's been it's been said that it was
almost like a chain training program, um because it's almost
as though the Lotus engineers were training the folks in
Toyota because Lotus had more experience with mid engine sports cars,
(15:15):
and then the student becomes the master. Is that what
you're saying, Grasshopper, Yes, yeah, I understand what you're saying.
So they taught them, they learned their lesson, they went on,
they went on, they developed their own system for this vehicle, right,
because there were you know, there were um some cross
pollination moments like different components maybe, but I think what
really happened. I think what's really happening here is that
(15:39):
the Lotus team is teaching principles that are later translating
to the car fully understandable. I mean when you think
about Lotus as a company and what they do and
what they've done and uh, and I can totally understand
that teaching and and kind of guiding them in the
right way and saying this is the proper chassis set
up for a vehicle like this, um, and we're gonna
show you how to do it here and then you
can kind of work on this and you're, you know,
(16:01):
by your own and figure out what works best for
the m R two. I got one more thing. I'm
sorry that Okay, of course it's different, alright, A little
bit of myth busting here. Fiarro, right, g M Fiarro,
I know the fuer So you know, there have been
people who say Toyota ripped off the m R two
design from the g M Fiarro. Okay, as near as
(16:23):
we can find, here's what happened. They were concurrently inventing
these things, and both teams found out about the other
project while they were in the design phase. So I
think from how it sounds, unless somebody can prove me
wrong or point me in the right direction, and this,
I think what happened is that they were already on
the way, They had already invested enough of their time,
(16:45):
and they got to the point where they couldn't turn back.
Neither one of them wants to back down. No one
wants to back down. You can't. You can't find out
that somebody else is doing something similar to your vehicle
and then say no, we're not gonna play anymore. And
you know what I think in the case of the
FURO and the m R two, and they came out
and I understand that they were very close and release,
I know that. Uh. I think that if you're working
on something instead that's dramatically different. Um, even if you're
(17:08):
not going to be the first one to market, if
you're gonna lose out by a couple of months, you know,
in the showrooms or whatever, I think you still come
out with that product because it's revolutionary for your your
your brand, your make absolutely all right. So we when
we get to the m R two it actually comes
out in Japan, people are going nuts over this car. Yeah,
the press loved it. The the I mean the public
(17:30):
loved it. Everybody loved this thing. Of course, they loved
the concept vehicle that came out in what was it
night three I think we said eighty three at the
Tokyo Motor Show. Um So, people thought it was a
great car and it sold well. I mean it's a
two seat, mid engine Reubal dress sports car. Um Man.
It was a long production run. I mean it went
from all the way through July of two thousand seven
(17:52):
when production finally stopped in Japan. What four generations? Three generations,
but there were, but there were some variants of both.
So I can see where I can see where four
You could think there was four, but it's it's actually
three generations total. Uh, if you want to block those out,
it's nine nine. And that's when I had the kind
of that angular um they call it Oregami like lines
(18:13):
in the article that I've read, But um, I can
I can see that. But that's a real sharp creased
type vehicle. Uh, the one that they smoothed everything out
was and that had stylated a lot of people compared
to the Ferrari sports cars the day. So that's pretty
incredible comparison really when you think about it. And then
there was the two thousand to two thousand seven version,
(18:33):
which completely resembled the portrait Boxer. I mean it did
have a very similar look, smaller but but very much
like the Boxer. And did we mention the stats for
speed yet? We should know we have none? Okay, So
the m R two when it first comes out Gen
one top speed twenty four mile per hour. Uh, it's
zero to sixty is eight point two seconds. Not bad,
(18:55):
not not fantastic. Not that doesn't sound all that great
because you know, we're looking at it, and we're looking
at a vehicle that was that that's all been. That's
thirty years now. It was thirty years ago. I can't
believe it either, thirty years old. So thirty years ago,
you know, a zero sixty times of about eight seconds,
(19:15):
it was moving along pretty good. Um, if you can
get closer to six seconds, that was really going fast, right,
But again, this is supposed to be an affordable car,
so how much more will people paid to shape two seconds?
I guess it still gets Japan's Car of the Year.
Oh that's true. Yeah, it didn't win a lot of
War of awards. Um. In fact, it h it got
a lot a lot of awards in that first for
(19:37):
the first generation m R two. Um, there's a road
and track and Car and Driver both chose the m
R two on the list of ten best cars, which again,
oh Man included cars like the Ferrari Tester Rosa Ben
which we've heard that name a couple of times now
in the past. I mean with with cars beating it
that you wouldn't guess, like the Cyclone beating that. Um,
the m R two on the same list as a
(19:59):
Ferrari test Rosa. It's just hard to believe when you
look back, but you know, I guess so. Um Yeah,
jim one also wins Motor Trend Import Car of the Year. Yeah.
And that's when we need to kind of add an
asterisk to now Import Car of the Year for five.
You got to note that it was not eligible for
the Car of the Year award, which is the United
States version of that award, because imports weren't eligible until
(20:22):
n so it was you know, another fifteen years before
an import would be able to win just the outright
Car of the Year award. It had to be kind
of categorized into that import Car of the Year category
and that was five one one that um no, you
know what. And there's one other side note to that.
There's kind of an interesting exception that I read about.
If you look at the at the Motor Trends Car
(20:43):
the Year award we mentioned, we just said that, you know,
imports weren't eligible into If you look at the nineteen
eighty five winner, it was the Volkswagen g T I.
Now you might think that's a German car, right, that's
a German car, right it could ben Yeah, well it
turns out it was that car was produced in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania,
and kind of skirts it on a technicality that you know,
(21:05):
of course its parent company is is a German company,
but it was produced in Pennsylvania right here in the
United States. So that's kind of an interesting side note
on the whole thing. Um, Australian press, there was a
Wheels magazine. Wheels Magazine is the name of a publication there,
and they chose the m R two is its favorite
sports car, which is a pretty big honor. Um Car
and Driver's ten Best list from nineteen eighty seven and
(21:27):
in two thousand four, sports Car International ranked the m
R two number eight on its list of top sports
cars in nineteen eighties. So that's a pretty prestigious honor.
Let's skipping ahead a couple of generations. But no, actually,
you know it's not. And we're talking about two thousand
four went back and named the nineteen eighties vehicles of
the time, So, um, you know, went back twenty five
years exactly. It said, you know, what were our favorite
(21:49):
cars two decades ago? Now at this point, let's see,
I don't know, Scott, should we make this a two parter?
Oh man, Ben, you know what, we're just scratching the surface.
We're just now getting into the Jet one stuff. I
think that's a good move. Um. You know what I
would like to do, though, is just maybe quickly, I
mean quickly talk about our experiences with m R two.
Is because we do have you know, separate, two separate experiences.
(22:12):
Okay years you've talked about recently right with your friend
who on one? Yeah, I just touched on um, I
just touched on this in an earlier podcast. One of
my very close friends, uh who did give the permission
to use his name in the podcast. His full name, yeah,
Nathan bo hall Um, longtime friend of mine. He had
(22:33):
a m R two that was I believe third gen
and um, we'll probably talk about the gens in a
later podcast. But and we first mentioned this when we
recently did our podcast on how to Avoid a Speeding
ticket and something about this guy in Atlanta with is
m R two. He got speeding tickets. I'm not speeding.
(22:55):
He got parking tickets of lots of parking, parking one place, well,
tickets to the to the extent that this is what
was the demise of that vehicle for him, right, well,
this was this was one of them. This was one
of the demises. He regularly railed against the City of
Atlanta's parking. Um, I guess their approach or the parking
(23:19):
regime he called at one time. And you know when
somebody calls something a regime, they're serious. Yeah, they're out together.
But that car was such a fun thing. I I
didn't get to drive it because he was a little
protective of it, which I understand understandable, But he babied it,
and he took great care of it. Oh man, it
(23:40):
was like a darkish it was. It was like a
darkish blue black. And it was always it's always clean inside.
And I kept thinking for a while. I kept thinking,
you know, one day he's gonna owe me enough to
let me borrow this car, and my entire life will
change because it has such a it has such an
(24:03):
amazing and relatively unique in comparison to other vehicles you're
likely to see relatively unique layout. Um that just as
a machine and as a ride, it's probably gonna stay
with me as one of my favorite cars that I've
never got to drive, No kidding, it's that it was
that cool. Huh, No, you haven't experienced too. I do.
(24:23):
Mind goes back a lot farther, though yours does go
back uh much further, and yours, uh, let's see, did
you get to drive it? I did? This is the
This is the shocking part about this is and I'll
keep it brief because I think I've mentioned this in
a long long time ago and several other podcasts. But
my aunt owned an m R two. Actually, my aunt
and my uncle owned an m R two at one time.
(24:44):
It was the very first generation, the very angular looking one,
but it had the full wing on it. And I'm
gonna say it, Ben, and I don't. I don't recall
this specifics because I wasn't really focused on them at
the time. I was just turning, you know, seventeen eighteen
something like that at the time. Um, I think they
had the Supercharge version. And thing about this is that
my aunt and uncle were together, you know, married, couple
of the time. This is kind of leads into what's
(25:05):
going on. They were very couple of the time. I
bought this black and silver Mr two, which was gorgeous,
beautiful car. I believe, like I said, Supercharge was really cool,
and admired it from Afar, you know, as they drove
in and drove out my grandparents house where we would visit.
And then my aunt nuncle got divorced and my aunt,
who I'm still you know, in contact with, she's like
the blood relative, she bought an identical Mr two And
(25:28):
I think it was just a spite move, you know,
like just to spite her husband, you know, her now
ex husband. And and Ben, this is like this must
be Thanksgiving. When I was there to visit, it was
kind of like it wasn't snow, snow on the ground
or anything but cold ice cold. It was like flurries
and that type of thing. She lets she throws me
the keys to this brand new Mr two. Yeah, and
we both took it out and we went out, and
(25:48):
I thought it was just gonna be going around the block. Right, Well,
she kind of this is Indiana, northern Indiana. She kind
of points me out towards the country. So we go
out and all these these country roads and we're out
for a long time, like forty five minutes something like that. Right,
we're out on these country roads and she's telling me
to push it, like just feel how how awesome this
car is? So here, I am seventeen, eighteen years old,
brand new Mr two Supercharge, Like I think it is.
(26:11):
I think it was strong. Either way. This is the
first car I ever drove over one hundred miles an hour.
And it was on a on just a two lane
country road that had bumps and hills and turns and everything.
It was dangerous as hell, but so much fun. I mean,
I can't. I'm it's like it's almost like an adrenaline rush.
Just talking about it. A couple of questions. One did
she get the supercharged version as well. She Yeah, it
(26:33):
was an identical car, exactly identical black with the silver
trim was beautiful. So I think the supercharge engine gets
introduced to the US, and that's uh, you know that
that would just be about right. I would have been.
I would have been seventeen or eighteen at that time.
Last question, Yes, did uh did the shifter freak you out?
The shifter? We can't. We didn't talk about the shifter.
That shifter is so cool, and you and I were
(26:55):
mentioning that, yeah, it's so different. It is is completely
different on the MR two. And this will be the
last thing in the world, okay, and we'll go into
part two later. But um, the shifter in an m
R two at least the first gen, and I don't
know if it if it translates into second third gin.
It was really just a wrist flick shifter. I mean
they shoold like a little joisted. They say a short
throw shifter. They mean short throw shifter. In this thing,
(27:15):
you put your arm on an arm rest and then
it's really just a wrist movement to shift the first, second, third,
it's it's the most fun thing in the world. It's
like it's almost like a video game you're playing. It's
really really very smooth transit. It is, and it's it's
very very tough to get a grasp that because I
wanted to really, you know, jam it in the first
and pull it back into second. She said, no, just
just it's just a wrist flick, that's it, And it's
(27:35):
tough to get used to. But once I did, Oh man,
was that thing fun to drive? Yeah? Well, one of
my friends has called it a it's like it's like
going to play a game of ping pong when you've
been growing up playing tennis. That's a that's a good
way to put it. Yeah, you've gotta have a gentle
touch with it. But um, and I don't mean gently.
(27:56):
You can't really you know, jam it in a gear.
But but it's really you don't use your whole arm.
You don't have to. Yeah, it's a different You don't
use your shoulder or your elbow. It's just your wrist.
It's it's really a smooth motion. Well, we hope you
have enjoyed the origin story of the m R Two. Scott.
You and I are going to return in our next
episode to follow up on some of this stuff. Right now,
(28:17):
we're gonna have to talk about a little bit more
about Gen one. We'll get through general two and three,
and then maybe even talk about some motorsport applications. So sure,
there's definitely some racing going on there. There might be
some variants that find their way into this episode, all right,
So in the meantime, check out our website car Stuff
Show dot com for more information. Also, if you're on iTunes,
(28:38):
help us out, give us a rating and review. We'd
love to hear what you think. You can tell us
what you think on Facebook and on Twitter where car
stuff hs W at both of them. You can write
an email to us. We will probably answer you. It
may take us a few years. We're gonna try. We'll
do our best. Our email address is car stuff at
Discovery dot com. For more on this in thousands of
(29:02):
other topics, is that how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast
at how stuff works dot com. M
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff works dot com. I have
a buddy. Welcome to the podcast on Scott Benchman, as
I am Ben Bullen. We're gonna tackle a topic today
that I think is um long overdue, long overdue. I
(00:22):
agree with you, Scott. This is a car that is
close to both of us. You know, we have it
in our past. Yeah, we have. We have experiences with
this car. I mean, you know, one way or the other,
and we'll talk about that, I promise. But this is
a topic that I think, man, I think a lot
of listeners have wanted to hear about this. We've got
a couple of emails here from people recently have written
in if there were some lost in that that distant
(00:46):
car stuff or even high speed stuff email box. I've
been kind of searching through that recently to find some old,
old suggestions, as you remember in that last podcast. But
so today we're talking about the m R two and
I think this is one that you know, listeners have
I wanted to hear about. We've got a few at
least from recent you know, recent emails, and uh, this
is maybe not including everybody from that that old high
(01:07):
Speed stuff email folder that you know, I've been digging
through to get some of the topics recently, UM making
good on promises from five years ago. But anyways, this
is one that UM. I think these last two listeners
that wrote in had a really good point. UM one
word in and just kind of a sort of a request,
and then we'll get the other one that's an actual
request about that. The sort of request came about in
a roundabout way like this. UM. It was a tall guy.
(01:30):
He said he was six ft three, what's his name?
Johnny six ft three says that he's mostly legs and
never really fit into Miata, but he owned m R
two an emplenty of leg room thanks to you know,
the fact that the engine was behind him and UM
mentions that, you know, it's kind of an impractical thing
for him to have. Now he's in an I think
a Toyota four Runner UM at least with the time being,
(01:50):
but he doesn't want to get back into kind of
a small sports cars wondering if we could do a
small affordable sports car podcast that would kind of meet
his needs. You know, someone who's really tall, someone who
wants something that's kind of fun and sporting. But something's
not gonna break the bank either, right, And we meant
he has a list of a couple of cars as
UM nominees for this and uh, I think we had
(02:12):
mentioned this email in a previous episode. Well guess what, Johnny,
Today is the day. Yeah, that's right, so we're getting
to this one. Yeah. He mentioned I think the the Miata,
the of course, the m R two and the porship
Boxer I think was another one. He mentioned the Lotus
a lease, but that maybe a little of his budget,
he said, um, and understandable. That's an expensive car. So Johnny,
we're gonna get to that stuff, I promise, um m
(02:32):
R two at least today. And that's not the only
the The other email is the more direct request, and
this is one UM from a guy named Spencer, and
Spencer says, well, first of all, thank you for making
these entertaining and informative podcast I'm gonna throw in a
couple of the complimentary listen. He always looks forward to
the next one, and he's working his way through all
of our podcasts and keeps finding more and more gems
(02:54):
of automotive entertainment. Not bad, that's pretty nice. Yeah, that's
why I'm reading it good, Okay, so he says, he
makes that we make his boring workday more entertaining. But
he would love to hear a podcast concerning mid engine
layouts and people think of these as being race cars
or exotics. Um, cars that you know are very very
expensive out of it, you know, typical budget. I guess,
(03:16):
you know, people can't really afford those type of things,
But there have been a lot of attempts to make
some mid engine relatively affordable sports cars. Um, you know,
the prices that people can really afford, like the Pontiac Fuerro,
the Toyota MR two or the m R s as
he says, uh, the Reno Cleo V six. You know,
those are some of the ones that come to mind.
I think maybe he mentioned that the least here too,
(03:36):
I'm not sure. He says, there are also some serious
pros and cons with each one, you know, with that
type of engineering choice, you know, with the mid engine layout.
So he says that, Um, he's also guessing that both
you and I have experienced that some kind with a
with an m R two in our past, and he's right,
but you know, neither neither one of us have owned
an m R two or a Fuerro even own a Fuerro,
have you, okay me, which he says, all petrol heads
(04:00):
should have the pleasure of experiencing one of these pieces
of automotive history at some point in their history. So
Spencer and uh and Johnny, we're gonna talk about the
m R two today because there's a lot of fascinating
history involved in this thing. Yes, now, I'm gonna start,
unless you want to go further back, I'm gonna start
in nineteen seventy six, Okay, all right, here's why. In
(04:21):
nineteen seventy six, Toyota launched this design project that wanted
to tackle a couple of things. They wanted to make
a car that you would enjoy driving and still be
able to get a decent fuel economy from. Now, what's
what's interesting about that because that means that in the
very beginning, what would become the m R two was
(04:42):
not meant to be a sports car. Yeah, that's that's
strange because and also the date also is confusing to me, Ben,
because you mentioned seventy six, and we'll find out that
the first generation m R two didn't debut until four.
So we're talking about an eight year lag in time. Now,
I also found that design work on this whole thing
you mentioned seventy six. Design work didn't start until right
(05:06):
when Akio Yoshida, right from Toyota's testing department, started to
look at different alternatives for engine engine placement. And that's
this is where it gets really interesting, because so they
start out with this idea they just want a car
that's that's an enjoyable ride, but also it's not going
(05:27):
to break the banquet petrol. And then they start asking
for some out of the box or innovations. You know. See,
Initially it sounds perfectly pedestrian, you know, like it's it's
just business as usual a Toyota, right, and but they
do say they want something unusual, they want something different,
and and it shifts at some point, you know, it
shifts that the design direction goes into this, uh, this
(05:50):
engine that's mounted transversely in the middle of the car.
I know, this is so strange. And the first prototype
of this whole thing, which is called the essay X
right looks like sacks Um was one. So two years
after the design work started, that's when we saw this
this initial um concept vehicle like right, and that uh,
(06:12):
that prototype essay. Dash X was designed by a guy
named Yamuchi Um and I apologized course for by horrid
pronunciation of Japanese. That's perfectly understandable, ben I, I think
you do your best. Hey, thanks man. You know, I
don't even tackle it myself. I just let you handle
the names and I skate free that way. Um. All right,
(06:34):
so let's let's talk a little bit about Um. I
don't want to gloss over this part too much. Well,
you know, we needed to say though, and I'm I
think I said that the concept and that was really
just a prototype at night. That's a good point because
it wasn't public. Now know, the concept doesn't come about
for another couple of years still, and it's and it's
not really public yet. And and the thing is that
(06:54):
there they're intensely they're they're scrutinizing this design because it's
something so unused all for Toyota to do at the time,
because you know, think about the cars that Toyota is producing.
Then you look at the Corolla and vehicles like that
that you know, we're just again we said pedestrian, but
they're not risky. No, they're not risky. That's the best
way to put it, maybe, Ben, is that you know
they're they're just uh and I hate to see the
(07:15):
kind of run of the mill, but they're getting the
job done. I mean that the sales numbers are big.
People like the vehicles. Of course, you know, they do
what they do well, but they're taking a leap of
faith here on this one and saying, man, we're gonna
do this, uh this unusual design and uh, well you've
really taken it to the extreme here, right. So even
even before they get the full prototype in eight one,
(07:37):
they're testing stuff from seventy nine to past eight one
is we're gonna find out in just a second. We
say testing, we don't mean just a wind tunnel. These
are tests. These are prototypes in Japan and California and
Scott they're racing at actual race circuits, I know. And
this is awesome. I find this really interesting because and
(08:00):
I'll let you say who it was, Ben, but they
were they were testing at some big name race circuits
here in the United States, in California with big name racers, right, Yeah,
most notably Formula One driver Dan Gurney tested it out
in Willow Springs. Yeah, which is exciting to me. I mean,
that's really cool to think that he had his hand
in his car in some way. That Toyota went to
(08:20):
Dan Gurney and said, tell us what you think. Take
this out on the track and just beat the hell
out of it and and see what you think. Really
give it, you know, once over, and give us your
impression and then tell us what to do to make
it better. And they did just that. So you know,
this thing has racing in its blood right from the
very beginning, from prototype on. Yeah, because it started evolving
through an actual sports car. And it also makes you
(08:41):
wonder who in the racing world might be driving a
secret prototype today, which is really cool to think. I think, yeah,
I think that's inside. And you've also got to think
about competitors at the time, because they were they were
working on different vehicles and not just Toyota. Of course,
Toyota was doing its own thing with the m R two,
but there were there were competitors from Japan, Germany, Italy,
the United States, and they were creating cars like the
(09:03):
Honda c RX, the Masamiata. Nissan had a vehicle called
the e x A, which I'm not really familiar with.
Volkswagen heads the Chiraco, which is a fantastic performance car
at a time. Uh, the Fiat X one nine, UM
X nineteen. I heard people call that the X nineteen
X one nine. I would say X one nine. Pontiac
Fire of course that we mentioned and even Ford Ford
had that XP vehicle, which is kind of a strange thing.
(09:25):
I kind of a I don't know, we that's almost
like another podcast topic right there. I think we should
strongly consider maybe anyways, but they had some some stiff
competition in that day in that arena, So you know,
Toyota wants to get this out there and they want
to get it done right right, and they finally decide
that we are ready to dip our toes in the water.
(09:49):
I'll say, they don't commit to a production car. They
make a concept car public in three at the Japan
Motor Show and they call this the s V three
s V DASH three. Um. This this car was scheduled
to launch in four in the Japanese market. UM. So
(10:12):
one thing that is different is they showed off the
concept car, but they kind of already committed to making
it a production car. Yeah, they knew what they were doing,
and that's unusual, right, Scott. Yeah, I think that's pretty unusual.
They were there, you know, at the time, they would
more wait for public opinion and then they would they
would you know, take it back and do some scrutinary
(10:32):
and over the whole thing and decide what they like,
what they don't like, what people like, what people didn't
like into the public versus what the automotive press said
about it. Uh, there'll be a lot of back and
forth in the design studio and it would take a
little longer for it to come to production. But this
is one that and this this happens more and more
often now than it did in the past. But um,
at the time, you know, in in the early eighties,
(10:53):
it was not really all that all that common for
them to come out with a concept vehicle that they
knew they were going to produce very soon afterwards. Yeah,
and they did. I really enjoy the phrase you scrutineering.
They did some scrutineering on the s V DASH three
and then boom fo, the m R two hits Japan
(11:14):
and it is the first mass produced mid engine car
to come from any Japanese manufacturer, So it's already revolutionary
in that way. But um, and that's and that's exactly
where the m R two. You know, a lot of
people say where the m R two name come from?
Like what is what is MR two? A lot of
people say MR two and they've got, you know, a
lot of you get a lot of uh um ideas
(11:34):
or theories that they kind of float out there about
where m R two comes from. It's really actually pretty simple.
It's just the layout of the vehicle. It's the it's
it's from mid engine, rear wheel drive, two seater, so
mid engine, real world drive, two seater. That's m R two.
And that's that's what I stood for all along from
the very beginning. Now we should also, uh talk a
little bit about the oh wait, the other companies, the rumors.
(11:58):
You want to talk about the rumors. Let's talk out
some of the rumors. Sure, before we do. You've heard
of a little company called Lotus. Yes, you're talking about
the Lotus rumor. Now, I kind of wonder where you're
going with that, And uh I, I do have some
information about about Lotus. They said that early on they
were thinking that because of the similarities between some of
(12:18):
the Lotus designs and the m R two. At the time,
they were saying, well, there's got to be some kind
of some kind of connection here that Lotus designers car
for Toyota. Yeah. I've got a couple of rumors about this.
I can go into a little bit of detail here. Um.
One rumor is that the MR two was designed in
house at Toyota by Lotus engineers, by specifically Lotus suspension
(12:42):
engineer named Roger Becker. So they went so far as
to name a specific person at Lotus. That's the official
rum all right. Well, now, apparently early on there was
some kind of influence that was probably exerted by Lotus
on you know, Toyot engineers, because they're working with Lotus.
I can't see how that would not affect you to
make a small, lightweight vehicle that's very powerful. I can
understand that. I think everybody can get that. But later
(13:04):
on you'll find that, you know, the design drifted a
little bit away from what Lotus would normally do. Yeah.
Do you want to hear the other rumor? I do? Okay,
good U. The other rumor is that the m R two,
let's get this scot an abandoned Lotus design. Do you
ever hear this one? No? I did not that it
was possibly the M ninety or the X one. Well really,
now wait, that's the okay, the M nine year X
(13:26):
is a Lotus design. Yeah, so you're saying that it's
something that was like an earlier design for one of
those vehicles. It was a bandis so you're saying that
Lotus trashed it, and then Toyota went in and said, oh,
we kind of like that through the dust bed. Well
this is this is according to Doc Bundy, who is
a Lotus Sport Spirit driver. Um, he said that the
(13:47):
m R two is actually a version of the X
one hundred. Okay, well, you know, I can understand that,
and there's a there's a good reason behind some of this.
And now, at the time, you gotta remember, Toyota, along
with the Chapman family were majority shareholders in Lotus at
the time. I can't remember that. But then soon after
that in nine, General Motors acquired the majority control of Lotus.
And I don't think a lot of people know that
that that General Motors was owner of Lotus Motor Cars
(14:10):
or I'm sorry, Lotus Cars Limited from until about nine.
And I don't think a lot of people really even
even know that in their history. But our listeners know this,
you guys have you guys have heard some of the the
Lotus's story if you've checked out our earlier episodes on
that where we do talk about there. They have a
fascinating history Lotus as a brand, as a company, and
(14:33):
it's worth your time to check out the whole stuff
on their philosophy really behind Lotus. I mean, it's an
amazing it's amazing story. It's really cool. That's a great
way to say it's a philosophy driven company. Well, let's
talk a little bit more about this rumor if it's
okay with all right. So we do know, as you said, Scott,
that Lotus did quite a bit of work in Japan
with Toyota, especially on suspension on ride and handling r
(14:55):
and they did set up some m R two prototypes
for them. It's been it's been said that it was
almost like a chain training program, um because it's almost
as though the Lotus engineers were training the folks in
Toyota because Lotus had more experience with mid engine sports cars,
(15:15):
and then the student becomes the master. Is that what
you're saying, Grasshopper, Yes, yeah, I understand what you're saying.
So they taught them, they learned their lesson, they went on,
they went on, they developed their own system for this vehicle, right,
because there were you know, there were um some cross
pollination moments like different components maybe, but I think what
really happened. I think what's really happening here is that
(15:39):
the Lotus team is teaching principles that are later translating
to the car fully understandable. I mean when you think
about Lotus as a company and what they do and
what they've done and uh, and I can totally understand
that teaching and and kind of guiding them in the
right way and saying this is the proper chassis set
up for a vehicle like this, um, and we're gonna
show you how to do it here and then you
can kind of work on this and you're, you know,
(16:01):
by your own and figure out what works best for
the m R two. I got one more thing. I'm
sorry that Okay, of course it's different, alright, A little
bit of myth busting here. Fiarro, right, g M Fiarro,
I know the fuer So you know, there have been
people who say Toyota ripped off the m R two
design from the g M Fiarro. Okay, as near as
(16:23):
we can find, here's what happened. They were concurrently inventing
these things, and both teams found out about the other
project while they were in the design phase. So I
think from how it sounds, unless somebody can prove me
wrong or point me in the right direction, and this,
I think what happened is that they were already on
the way, They had already invested enough of their time,
(16:45):
and they got to the point where they couldn't turn back.
Neither one of them wants to back down. No one
wants to back down. You can't. You can't find out
that somebody else is doing something similar to your vehicle
and then say no, we're not gonna play anymore. And
you know what I think in the case of the
FURO and the m R two, and they came out
and I understand that they were very close and release,
I know that. Uh. I think that if you're working
on something instead that's dramatically different. Um, even if you're
(17:08):
not going to be the first one to market, if
you're gonna lose out by a couple of months, you know,
in the showrooms or whatever, I think you still come
out with that product because it's revolutionary for your your
your brand, your make absolutely all right. So we when
we get to the m R two it actually comes
out in Japan, people are going nuts over this car. Yeah,
the press loved it. The the I mean the public
(17:30):
loved it. Everybody loved this thing. Of course, they loved
the concept vehicle that came out in what was it
night three I think we said eighty three at the
Tokyo Motor Show. Um So, people thought it was a
great car and it sold well. I mean it's a
two seat, mid engine Reubal dress sports car. Um Man.
It was a long production run. I mean it went
from all the way through July of two thousand seven
(17:52):
when production finally stopped in Japan. What four generations? Three generations,
but there were, but there were some variants of both.
So I can see where I can see where four
You could think there was four, but it's it's actually
three generations total. Uh, if you want to block those out,
it's nine nine. And that's when I had the kind
of that angular um they call it Oregami like lines
(18:13):
in the article that I've read, But um, I can
I can see that. But that's a real sharp creased
type vehicle. Uh, the one that they smoothed everything out
was and that had stylated a lot of people compared
to the Ferrari sports cars the day. So that's pretty
incredible comparison really when you think about it. And then
there was the two thousand to two thousand seven version,
(18:33):
which completely resembled the portrait Boxer. I mean it did
have a very similar look, smaller but but very much
like the Boxer. And did we mention the stats for
speed yet? We should know we have none? Okay, So
the m R two when it first comes out Gen
one top speed twenty four mile per hour. Uh, it's
zero to sixty is eight point two seconds. Not bad,
(18:55):
not not fantastic. Not that doesn't sound all that great
because you know, we're looking at it, and we're looking
at a vehicle that was that that's all been. That's
thirty years now. It was thirty years ago. I can't
believe it either, thirty years old. So thirty years ago,
you know, a zero sixty times of about eight seconds,
(19:15):
it was moving along pretty good. Um, if you can
get closer to six seconds, that was really going fast, right,
But again, this is supposed to be an affordable car,
so how much more will people paid to shape two seconds?
I guess it still gets Japan's Car of the Year.
Oh that's true. Yeah, it didn't win a lot of
War of awards. Um. In fact, it h it got
a lot a lot of awards in that first for
(19:37):
the first generation m R two. Um, there's a road
and track and Car and Driver both chose the m
R two on the list of ten best cars, which again,
oh Man included cars like the Ferrari Tester Rosa Ben
which we've heard that name a couple of times now
in the past. I mean with with cars beating it
that you wouldn't guess, like the Cyclone beating that. Um,
the m R two on the same list as a
(19:59):
Ferrari test Rosa. It's just hard to believe when you
look back, but you know, I guess so. Um Yeah,
jim one also wins Motor Trend Import Car of the Year. Yeah.
And that's when we need to kind of add an
asterisk to now Import Car of the Year for five.
You got to note that it was not eligible for
the Car of the Year award, which is the United
States version of that award, because imports weren't eligible until
(20:22):
n so it was you know, another fifteen years before
an import would be able to win just the outright
Car of the Year award. It had to be kind
of categorized into that import Car of the Year category
and that was five one one that um no, you
know what. And there's one other side note to that.
There's kind of an interesting exception that I read about.
If you look at the at the Motor Trends Car
(20:43):
the Year award we mentioned, we just said that, you know,
imports weren't eligible into If you look at the nineteen
eighty five winner, it was the Volkswagen g T I.
Now you might think that's a German car, right, that's
a German car, right it could ben Yeah, well it
turns out it was that car was produced in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania,
and kind of skirts it on a technicality that you know,
(21:05):
of course its parent company is is a German company,
but it was produced in Pennsylvania right here in the
United States. So that's kind of an interesting side note
on the whole thing. Um, Australian press, there was a
Wheels magazine. Wheels Magazine is the name of a publication there,
and they chose the m R two is its favorite
sports car, which is a pretty big honor. Um Car
and Driver's ten Best list from nineteen eighty seven and
(21:27):
in two thousand four, sports Car International ranked the m
R two number eight on its list of top sports
cars in nineteen eighties. So that's a pretty prestigious honor.
Let's skipping ahead a couple of generations. But no, actually,
you know it's not. And we're talking about two thousand
four went back and named the nineteen eighties vehicles of
the time, So, um, you know, went back twenty five
years exactly. It said, you know, what were our favorite
(21:49):
cars two decades ago? Now at this point, let's see,
I don't know, Scott, should we make this a two parter?
Oh man, Ben, you know what, we're just scratching the surface.
We're just now getting into the Jet one stuff. I
think that's a good move. Um. You know what I
would like to do, though, is just maybe quickly, I
mean quickly talk about our experiences with m R two.
Is because we do have you know, separate, two separate experiences.
(22:12):
Okay years you've talked about recently right with your friend
who on one? Yeah, I just touched on um, I
just touched on this in an earlier podcast. One of
my very close friends, uh who did give the permission
to use his name in the podcast. His full name, yeah,
Nathan bo hall Um, longtime friend of mine. He had
(22:33):
a m R two that was I believe third gen
and um, we'll probably talk about the gens in a
later podcast. But and we first mentioned this when we
recently did our podcast on how to Avoid a Speeding
ticket and something about this guy in Atlanta with is
m R two. He got speeding tickets. I'm not speeding.
(22:55):
He got parking tickets of lots of parking, parking one place, well,
tickets to the to the extent that this is what
was the demise of that vehicle for him, right, well,
this was this was one of them. This was one
of the demises. He regularly railed against the City of
Atlanta's parking. Um, I guess their approach or the parking
(23:19):
regime he called at one time. And you know when
somebody calls something a regime, they're serious. Yeah, they're out together.
But that car was such a fun thing. I I
didn't get to drive it because he was a little
protective of it, which I understand understandable, But he babied it,
and he took great care of it. Oh man, it
(23:40):
was like a darkish it was. It was like a
darkish blue black. And it was always it's always clean inside.
And I kept thinking for a while. I kept thinking,
you know, one day he's gonna owe me enough to
let me borrow this car, and my entire life will
change because it has such a it has such an
(24:03):
amazing and relatively unique in comparison to other vehicles you're
likely to see relatively unique layout. Um that just as
a machine and as a ride, it's probably gonna stay
with me as one of my favorite cars that I've
never got to drive, No kidding, it's that it was
that cool. Huh, No, you haven't experienced too. I do.
(24:23):
Mind goes back a lot farther, though yours does go
back uh much further, and yours, uh, let's see, did
you get to drive it? I did? This is the
This is the shocking part about this is and I'll
keep it brief because I think I've mentioned this in
a long long time ago and several other podcasts. But
my aunt owned an m R two. Actually, my aunt
and my uncle owned an m R two at one time.
(24:44):
It was the very first generation, the very angular looking one,
but it had the full wing on it. And I'm
gonna say it, Ben, and I don't. I don't recall
this specifics because I wasn't really focused on them at
the time. I was just turning, you know, seventeen eighteen
something like that at the time. Um, I think they
had the Supercharge version. And thing about this is that
my aunt and uncle were together, you know, married, couple
of the time. This is kind of leads into what's
(25:05):
going on. They were very couple of the time. I
bought this black and silver Mr two, which was gorgeous,
beautiful car. I believe, like I said, Supercharge was really cool,
and admired it from Afar, you know, as they drove
in and drove out my grandparents house where we would visit.
And then my aunt nuncle got divorced and my aunt,
who I'm still you know, in contact with, she's like
the blood relative, she bought an identical Mr two And
(25:28):
I think it was just a spite move, you know,
like just to spite her husband, you know, her now
ex husband. And and Ben, this is like this must
be Thanksgiving. When I was there to visit, it was
kind of like it wasn't snow, snow on the ground
or anything but cold ice cold. It was like flurries
and that type of thing. She lets she throws me
the keys to this brand new Mr two. Yeah, and
we both took it out and we went out, and
(25:48):
I thought it was just gonna be going around the block. Right, Well,
she kind of this is Indiana, northern Indiana. She kind
of points me out towards the country. So we go
out and all these these country roads and we're out
for a long time, like forty five minutes something like that. Right,
we're out on these country roads and she's telling me
to push it, like just feel how how awesome this
car is? So here, I am seventeen, eighteen years old,
brand new Mr two Supercharge, Like I think it is.
(26:11):
I think it was strong. Either way. This is the
first car I ever drove over one hundred miles an hour.
And it was on a on just a two lane
country road that had bumps and hills and turns and everything.
It was dangerous as hell, but so much fun. I mean,
I can't. I'm it's like it's almost like an adrenaline rush.
Just talking about it. A couple of questions. One did
she get the supercharged version as well. She Yeah, it
(26:33):
was an identical car, exactly identical black with the silver
trim was beautiful. So I think the supercharge engine gets
introduced to the US, and that's uh, you know that
that would just be about right. I would have been.
I would have been seventeen or eighteen at that time.
Last question, Yes, did uh did the shifter freak you out?
The shifter? We can't. We didn't talk about the shifter.
That shifter is so cool, and you and I were
(26:55):
mentioning that, yeah, it's so different. It is is completely
different on the MR two. And this will be the
last thing in the world, okay, and we'll go into
part two later. But um, the shifter in an m
R two at least the first gen, and I don't
know if it if it translates into second third gin.
It was really just a wrist flick shifter. I mean
they shoold like a little joisted. They say a short
throw shifter. They mean short throw shifter. In this thing,
(27:15):
you put your arm on an arm rest and then
it's really just a wrist movement to shift the first, second, third,
it's it's the most fun thing in the world. It's
like it's almost like a video game you're playing. It's
really really very smooth transit. It is, and it's it's
very very tough to get a grasp that because I
wanted to really, you know, jam it in the first
and pull it back into second. She said, no, just
just it's just a wrist flick, that's it, And it's
(27:35):
tough to get used to. But once I did, Oh man,
was that thing fun to drive? Yeah? Well, one of
my friends has called it a it's like it's like
going to play a game of ping pong when you've
been growing up playing tennis. That's a that's a good
way to put it. Yeah, you've gotta have a gentle
touch with it. But um, and I don't mean gently.
(27:56):
You can't really you know, jam it in a gear.
But but it's really you don't use your whole arm.
You don't have to. Yeah, it's a different You don't
use your shoulder or your elbow. It's just your wrist.
It's it's really a smooth motion. Well, we hope you
have enjoyed the origin story of the m R Two. Scott.
You and I are going to return in our next
episode to follow up on some of this stuff. Right now,
(28:17):
we're gonna have to talk about a little bit more
about Gen one. We'll get through general two and three,
and then maybe even talk about some motorsport applications. So sure,
there's definitely some racing going on there. There might be
some variants that find their way into this episode, all right,
So in the meantime, check out our website car Stuff
Show dot com for more information. Also, if you're on iTunes,
(28:38):
help us out, give us a rating and review. We'd
love to hear what you think. You can tell us
what you think on Facebook and on Twitter where car
stuff hs W at both of them. You can write
an email to us. We will probably answer you. It
may take us a few years. We're gonna try. We'll
do our best. Our email address is car stuff at
Discovery dot com. For more on this in thousands of
(29:02):
other topics, is that how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think. Send an email to podcast
at how stuff works dot com. M
CarStuff News
Hosts And Creators
Scott Benjamin
Ben Bowlin
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