WE’RE A PAIR OF CAR ENTHUSIASTS FROM THE MIDLANDS IN THE UK, HERE TO SHARE OUR PASSION FOR JOYFUL DRIVING AND TOYOTA CARS…
TOM
I’ve been obsessing over Toyota’s since I first drove that black MA70 Supra from GranTurismo on the original playstation. When I finally got my hands on some real Aichi steel, I never looked back - owning nothing but Toyota’s for the past decade.
My desire to uncover all the ingredience in the Toyota special sauce had made me a self proclaimed “Toyota Hipster”, owning the lesser popular models where realisticly my budget could allow. An XV20 Camry, UCF20 LS400, EL54 Paseo and an ACR30 Previa to name a few of my favourites. The stars even aligned for me to own a GZG50 Century which I cherish as owning my dream car.
Since teaming up with Fraser, the hobby has become a real passion. In all aspects; we’ve jumped in with both feet with our ZZW30 MR2 projects, committing wholeheartedly to the joy of driving these machines and understanding them in everything we do.
Fraser
I have always had a love for cars, particularly in Japanese models. My second car was a Z33 350Z, Nissan’s last sports car before Renault ruined it all. I also owned a C5 Audi RS6, the ownership experience of which was similar to holding a stick of dynamite with a lit fuse….
After turning the 350Z into a brutal drift spec car and the ongoing issues with the “daily” RS6 still haunting me, I wanted something straight forward that could stand up to track driving.
This is where Tom’s constant Toyota waffle started to make some sense. Experiencing the 2ZZ-GE in Tom’s ZZW30 MR2 after completing his swap convinced me. Not a month after the RS6 was gone I had started my own MR2 swap project. Following suit; the 350Z was swapped for a GRS190 Lexus GS300 - before I knew it, Tom had corrupted me.
THE CARS
The SPEC II is a 2001 ZZW30 MR2, bought lightly modified with 110,000 miles and a strong smell of aftershave.
The SPEC II car was built on a much more solid underpinnings, having been resprayed previously, being relatively rust free and now sporting new performance parts, it is the faster of the two cars.
This is the one we always got right first time….
The SPEC I is a 2001 ZZW30 MR2, bought almost completely stock in 2021 with 140,000 miles and plenty of faults.
Being the slightly cheaper of both cars, there’s not a lot that hasn’t needed replacement on SPEC I, and despite starting as quite a rough example, a lot of effort has gone to making the best out of hand picked used parts and making up the expense to restore lost chassis performance.
The original project that got us both into these cars in a big way.
