Suspension Overhaul!

As with many old 80's Toyotas, there are a lot of things left to be desired. After all, only 100whp? Really? But the first time I ever drove an MR2, the manual but lightweight steering, short wheelbase, and rear bias weight distribution made quite the impression on me as it did thousands of people. I'm not totally sure if the rumors I've heard are true, that Toyota hired engineers from Lotus to design the suspension system for MisterTwo, but I know one thing for certain and that is they have done an excellent job honing in the behavioral characteristics of the little car. Seriously, what other small 2 seater car from that era can deliver a similar size, weight, pop up headlights, power, fuel millage and is an absolute handling dream for the money?

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... AND IS A HARD TOP.

Quickly moving on, I obviously know better than the original Toyota/Lotus engineers, so why not change the suspension? Every rubber bushing has now been replaced with a minimum of race-red polyurethane variants, and in some cases solid spherical joints. In the front, the factory tension control rods (more like tension suggestion rods with the huge rubber 30 year old bushings) have been replace with nice units from Techno Toy Tuning (T3). They use a huge solid spherical joint in the front to replace the bushing, and is adjustable to dial in caster measurements. Plus, they are much sturdier than factory units, and look cool too! Now as par for the course, T3 released a new product right after I bought mine. A total set of front control arms and tension control rods. Now, if T3 wants to hook me up with a set of those anytime now, you know my phone number!

The rear is some of the same. I found someone on a forum who saw a need for rear tie rods in the MR2 community since there were no good replacement options, and got a set from him. They replace the inner bushing with a nice booted and sealed spherical unit, which is an OEM part from another Toyota (or Lexus). The rest is a simple remove and replace job, sand blasting and painting things in the process. MisterTwo is now 100% rubber-free from any suspension bushing (aside from strut tops I suppose).

Last but not least, front and rear sway bars from ST helps keep body roll in check.

Little by little, MisterTwo is being resurrected!