With recent features of the Pontiac Fiero and Honda CRX, it was only appropriate that a Toyota MR2 be featured here as well. While the CRX seems to have cribbed its design from the Alfa Romeo Junior Zagato, the MR2 and Fiero seem to have used the Fiat X1/9 and Lancia Scorpion/Montecarlo as their reference point. The wedgy, mid-engine layout is very 1980s, but also still good-looking. You can find this 1985 Toyota MR2 with bidding at $1891 and about 3 days left to go in Eccles, WV.
Here’s another mid-engined car that’s captured my fascination. Yes, it’s Japanese, and yes, it’s relatively modern, and yes, it did with the X1/9 what the Miata did with the Elan, but that makes it no less of a candidate for budget fun on wheels. When I was 19, I had been in my Alfa for 3 years and looked down on most Japanese cars. That is, until I started working part-time as an office assistant for a local tech journalist who had a spare early light-metallic blue AW11 MR2, which I got to use from time to time to run errands for her. And that’s around the time I learned this car, with its Yamaha-designed 4-cylinder 112hp 16v twincam four and fantastic tossability was more than I’d ever expected.
So that brings us to today’s subject, a red 1986 in Lakewood, CA for $2000:
Rusty But Trusty 