Japanese MR2 turbo information: specifications
Engine
1998 cc, straight 4 cylinder, twin cam, 16 valve, EFI, intercooled, twin
entry turbo.
Power
Revision 1 & 2: 220 BHP. Revision 3 onwards: 240 BHP.
The 240 Brake Horse Power figure is sourced from a '245 PS' figure in a
Japanese 1998 Toyota brochure.
Spread of power is very broad thanks to the turbo, max torque being at 3200 rpm
for rev 1 & 2, 4000 rpm for rev 3.
Weight
1260 Kg (source: 'Japanese Performance' magazine, Jan 2000).
Curb weight of the american MR2 turbo T-bar car is listed in an american 1994
and 1995 Toyota brochure as 2888 lbs; that's 1310 Kg. Hardtop car should
be very slightly lighter though. 'Curb weight' probably means full tank of fuel
and spare wheel and jack, so 1260 Kg could easily be dry weight of a hardtop.
U.S. brochure also lists coefficient of drag (Cd) as 0.31
Top speed
About 150 MPH. (160 MPH if you want to exaggerate). Speed limiter @ 119 MPH
is often removed as soon as cars hit UK soil as part of speedo conversion.
A genuine 155 MPH is quite possible in uncontrolled conditions (wind, gradient,
etc). Speedometers on MR2s (and a lot of other cars) are designed to read
between 4% and 8.5% over, so 155 MPH would read as about 165 MPH. Gearing
prevents the car going much faster than 155 MPH, which is about 6850 RPM in
fifth with standard size tyres, well beyond the peak power at 6000 RPM.
Heat saturation of the intercooler from the prolonged wide open throttle is
probably also an issue.
Acceleration
1/4 mile time is about 14 seconds, this coincidentally is also the 0-100 mph
time. 0-60 is about five and a half seconds (bit of a stupid benchmark for
such a car). I have a Japanese TV clip that seems to show a standard
'245 ps' MR2 GT hardtop doing a quarter mile in 13.668 seconds (I don't
understand Japanese and can't be 100% sure its a quarter mile and not
a shorter metric equivalent or something though).
Fuel consumption
I get about 15 MPG but thats with the throttle to the floor as much as possible,
which isn't that bad if you consider the amount of power being put out.
Something like 24 MPG might be more typical. Some might claim as much as
30 MPG, but I think you're looking at a lot of motorway miles at 70 mph
to get that, which perhaps isn't an appropriate use for such a car.
