Why Toyota's MR2 sports car lost its number in French-speaking countries
Say "MR2" aloud in French and it comes out sounding like "merde". So in French-speaking markets Toyota quietly sold its little mid-engined sports car as simply the MR. The name elsewhere stood for mid-ship run-about two-seater, and the car was Japan's first production model with its engine behind the driver.
It did not start life as a sports car at all. The project began in 1976 with a modest brief: something enjoyable to drive that still sipped fuel. In 1979 Akio Yoshida of Toyota's testing department began comparing engine layouts and settled on mounting the engine sideways, just ahead of the rear axle. A 1981 prototype followed, and as testing moved to tracks in Japan and the United States, including Willow Springs with former Formula One driver Dan Gurney at the wheel, the concept sharpened into a proper sports car.
Lotus helped. Engineer Roger Becker assisted with the suspension and handling, and the first-generation car, launched in 1984, owes a visible debt to Lotus models of the 1960s and 1970s. It used the twin-cam 1.6-litre engine from the Corolla, weighed as little as 950 kg in Japan, and won Car of the Year Japan in its debut year. Road tests put it well ahead of the four-cylinder Pontiac Fiero and Fiat X1/9.
A supercharged version arrived in 1986, reaching 100 km/h in 6.5 to 7.0 seconds. Its supercharger ran through an electromagnetic clutch so it only engaged when needed, saving fuel. Of the two raised vents on its engine cover, only one actually worked, and the model was officially sold only in Japan and North America.
Toyota built the MR2 across three generations from 1984 to 2007, all sized to fit Japanese rules on exterior dimensions and engine displacement. The first carried a distinctive eagle badge, which disappeared with the second generation and came back, redesigned, on the later MR-S.
Source: Toyota MR2
