1984. It’s the near mid-point of a decade still fondly remembered today in everything from pop-culture to the arts to apparel. James Cameron’s The Terminator has taken cinema by storm, the Olympic Games are underway in Los Angeles and there’s unrest in the middle east. A world away, in Japan, Toyota is making good on the SV3 concept glimpsed at the 1983 Tokyo Motor Show under intense interest from the press and audience guests.
In May, the Japanese car market is due to be cornered by the first mass-produced mid-engine car of its time. Several rumours persist around a name, but Toyota is ahead of the game. The Midship Runabout 2-seater launches to much fanfare and later gained worldwide fame in motoring circles by a far more recognisable title; the MR2.
The Toyota MR2 began life in meetings around the mid-1970’s. A proposed fuel-efficient vehicle to be driven by passionate motoring enthusiasts, the eventual idea of a mid-engine sports car is still a time away and delayed further by the global energy crises. In 1980 Testing Department Designer Akio Yoshida successfully suggests the mid-engine layout and finds himself appointed Head of Planning. Under development as the SV3 and designed primarily as a commuter car for the individual rather than family, Yoshida takes the mantra of commuting with 1 or 2 people as an experience made fun. He later gains the title of ‘Father of the MR2’.
On launch, demand outpaces supply in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. Australia is forced to wait a period of two years with the model arriving in 1987. A bonafide success, it gains accolades such as “Car of the Year” from the UK’s What Car in 1986 and is quickly named one of the “10 best cars in the world” by Road and Track in the US. Australia’s Wheels magazine supplies praise as a “mid-engine jewel” and their favourite sports car of 1988. The first MR2 model, the AW11, proves worthy of these awards and sells over 163,000 units worldwide in a short period. Its four-cylinder Twin Cam 1.6-liter 16-valve engine (4AGE) remains popular in racing for its reliability, while historians note the AW11 can trace some of its influence to Lotus and Dan Gurney for its precise handling.
Australia’s sprawling roads, from the mountains to the coast, prove a worthy testing ground for audience’s keen on a sporty two-seater with a low centre of gravity and quick nature. Perhaps piping Mazda’s incoming MX5 Miata, October of 1989 sees Toyota look to the next MR2 iteration with the SW20 embodying a curvier appearance and a more Italian design. As Australian sales beckon in 1990, the final months of the 1980’s see the AW11 take a bow with at least one finding an enthusiast home in suburban Adelaide.
Lindsay and the MR2.
It’s September in the nation’s capital. The Carlective have gathered in Canberra’s city centre on a cold snap Sunday evening for their very first evening shoot. Odgers Lane, the recently revamped thoroughfare of the Melbourne Building, is tonight hosting Lindsay and her 1989 AW11 Toyota MR2. A set of overhead LED lights bounce balls of light off the black bodywork as a projection installation dances pastels over the interior dash of purples, blue and yellow.
Lindsay’s family are born and bred Toyota, from the mountain ranges surrounding south-east Canberra. Her parents have courted a Toyota HiAce, Camry and Land Cruiser. All have been reliable and great cars with minimal problems, delivering on the A to B. The MR2 is one of two Toyota vehicles in Lindsay’s collection, with the daily a 2001 Mark II JZX110 Fortuna.
Lindsay is almost a missing piece of the car. Often sporting the same black and purple colour pallette by way of attire and a signature hair streak, she is a recent veteran of the Canberra car scene at home with her mixed JDM group, MazdACT or simply cruising alone. Car meets in the nation’s capital are aplenty with something for everyone, and it’s here that her story begins.
“Basically, I went to a car meet with an old friend and saw how cool it was and how fun it was and went, I need to get something. So, I went home and I looked up Toyota with pop-ups because I’m just a big Toyota fan and the MR2 came up. The Wikipedia page showed the SW20 first and I was like, oh yeah, it’s alright, it’s cool!”
Lindsay’s love for a boxy car instead gives way to honing her sights on the A-dub (AW11). It looks like a Dorito chip, and she wants it. On the hunt across the country for six months, she places a ‘want to buy’ advertisement online before a gentleman named John in Adelaide calls to reward her efforts. Unable to get in and out of the vehicle due to age, he sells to Lindsay and soon the A-dub is on the back of a truck bound for Canberra. It arrives in a week.
In Japan the MR2 was initially sold in three grades and with two engine options, the highlight being the iconic 122bhp 1.6-litre DOHC 16v 4A-GE engine later used in the Corolla GT (otherwise known as the AE86). Options were later expanded to include a T-bar roof panel and new headline powerplant with a 145bhp supercharged 4A-GZE. With a 124 mph top speed and ability to sprint to 60 mph in just 8.2 seconds, the naturally aspirated MR2 was faster than much of its competition at the time.
So for a 35-year-old vehicle, it would surprise no one that Lindsay has not touched the engine; ever the reliable instrument that Yoshida designed it to be all those years ago. But in a desire to make the car her own, she buys seats (and this before she even purchased the vehicle!). The SR4 Recaros make their way from Malaysia with a special touch, reupholstered in purple suede. This is followed by a purple carbon fibre steering wheel and Arizona Grapeade Ice T shift knob.
One of her best mates makes a little shift boot in purple and blue. It’s followed by changes to the floor mats and wheels. The repaint to Malbec Black adds a look of stealth and timeless impression. The Toyota auto cover fog lights, perhaps the most expensive of the car’s modifications, are coupled with a wink mod so Linds can operate the headlights at will. Custom number plates, banners and stickers follow with the culmination of a name; Vixen, for cuteness and sex appeal.
Appeal is something that has followed Vixen in her travels across the territory region. She finds her home in a group of likeminded JDM enthusiasts, forging new friendships and lasting memories en route. Even in transit to this story, a pair of gentlemen in a parallel vehicle pull up at the traffic lights in admiration, nodding and laughing in acknowledgement at the winking headlights. Public perception is not lost on Lindsay, which helps to embrace her passion with unending love.
“I just recently did the Camp Quality Cruise for Kids with Cancer and I was so excited because with the wink mod and everything, I’m like, they’re gonna love it. And they did! I remember rolling into Questacon and there was such a huge crowd and I just started winking and everyone was screaming, oh my God, look at that car! It’s winking at me!”
It’s not a quirk that’s gone unnoticed. The MR2 Club of Australia, a national body of passionate enthusiasts and drivers united in a passion for their own Vixens, held the 40th Anniversary MR2 Nationals event at Sandown International Raceway in 2023. Urged to attend by ACT MR2 Owners Club Representative Anthony Oh, Vixen found herself on a trailer for 8 hours headed south to Melbourne for the largest gathering of the vehicles in the southern hemisphere, totaling 153 cars and featuring representations as diverse as Vixen to a rare SW20 Spyder.
The event celebrates the best of the AW11, SW20 and ZZW30 ( and the Spyder). Awards are numerous including the President’s Award and People’s Choice Award. Notably, for the People’s Choice Award, every entrant is given a goodie bag from Shannon’s and an invitation to write down the car they most like. After years of a self-driven passion to enjoy the car she wanted from the outset, Lindsay suddenly finds herself the unexpected winner of the People’s Choice Award.
“I got a little trophy and it was just very heartwarming. I got to chat to so many people that day from all over Australia. It was just so wholesome and made me want to go to more events like that”
With the MR2 Nationals held every two years, Lindsay and Vixen have plans afoot to pursue that ideal aesthetic look for 2026. This includes work on the roof liner and side door cards. All are likely to benefit from further fluffy material applications, which we are told will appear in a light purple, dark purple and white fabric for the roof liner and a dark fluffy purple for the door cards. At this point, one has to draw attention to the lingering question. Why purple?
“I don’t know. It’s just always been my favourite colour. I used to like blue when I was younger, but I’ve always liked purple. It’s very versatile. You can go darker shades, lighter shades, pastel. I’ve just always loved it and I think it looks really good with black as well, which is why I’ve gone for the black and purple”
2024. The forty years that have elapsed since the MR2 so successfully graced the car market may well have been in some sort of paradox loop. Terminator Zero is receiving high praise as an animated series after several disappointing cinematic entries, Los Angeles has been announced as the home of the Olympic Games in 2028 and conflict has again inflamed the middle east.
In these intervening decades, the AW11 is followed by the second generation SW20 in 1990. It retains the same mid-engine layout but is far more powerful with a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution, T-bar body design and a later suspension revision in 1992. It is made available in a three-engine line-up that includes a 2.0-litre 16v power plant: a base 119bhp unit from the Carina (UK only), the naturally aspirated 3S-GE with 165bhp and a turbocharged 3S-GTE with 225bhp (Japan only and shared with the Celica GT4 as designed by Yamaha).
In 1999, the ZZW30 Spyder open-top marks the third iteration of the MR2. The same engine layout is retained but designers see fit to return to the original AW11 design with a lighter, smaller engine. A 1.8-liter VVTi engine pushes 960 kg of two-seater fun across the globe in a soft-top variant after some experimenting by Toyota in 1996. Worldwide sales of this version remain strong, but the early 21st century unwinds this progress with a sharp downturn scuttling plans for another entry. At least, as the internet rumours, until a resurrection in 2026 after a prototype glimpse in Japan.
Sales conclude in the US and Australia at the end of 2005 while production continues in Japan, Mexico and Europe until a complete cessation in 2007. It’s a little runabout that now lives on in owners like Lindsay, sharing the legacy of the late Yoshida with so many new faces in the national capital region and at commemorative events such as the MR2 Nationals.
Locally, MR2 ownership and upkeep has become challenging and expensive. Knowledge, skills and parts are getting rare and there is now less visibility on the streets. As owners point out to the team – it’s financially illogical to own one, so you do so for the love of it. Clubs such as MR2 Australia help to connect like minded people and to support each other, to counter the challenges, prolong the legacy and enjoy the nostalgia. As Lindsay herself notes;
“It brings me a lot of joy. I’ve actually made a lot of friends through the car and it’s just been a really nice journey. I love driving it. Every now and then I lose motivation until I get in the car and drive it and I go, yeah, this is why I have it. This is why I keep it. This is why I spend the money. Yeah. I love it!”
Linds concludes her story with a public service announcement, to urge readers and enthusiasts to fill that empty garage space or next car journey with an MR2. Specifically, an AW. She highlights it would be great due to their rarity in Canberra or, at all, and that it would be nice to have another AW11 friend. In the meantime, the team urges readers to say hi to Lindsay and Vixen at meets or special events where the pair are at home bringing joy to the community through a lifelong appreciation of all things Toyota.
Oh, what a feeling… You know the rest.
Photographed at Odgers Lane, the Melbourne Building and 7/11 Jerrabomberra, by Tyler Parrott of Tyler P. Media featuring Lindsay’s 1989 AW11 Toyota MR2 (Vixen). Article and video hosted by Kevin Ha at StreetScene. Additional photos by Anthony Oh at AO_Graphics. Words, research and story by Author Justin Bush for MazdACT Stories, September 2024.
The Author wishes to acknowledge citation and extracts for this story from the following sources;
- Toyota MR2: a Mid-Ship Runabout 2-seater history by Joe Clifford for Toyota UK Magazine (various citations, 2015)
- A Classic of the Modern Era: The Toyota MR2 (History of MR2 extract) by Brian Long from the book MR2 Coupes and Spyders (various citations, Veloce Publishing Ltd, 2017)
- Toyota MR2, Wikipedia (various citations, last revised 2024)
For more great content, photography and related articles make sure to check out:
Tyler P. Media
StreetScene
MazdACT
MR2 Owners Club of Australia