I had wanted one for the longest time. During an apprenticeship in high school, I would constantly drool over a bronze AW11 (MR2, 84-89) that sat in the corner of the shop’s lot. It was such a peculiar thing, being nearly the same bronze as the E30 my father had, having the same engine as the AE86 in Initial D, and generally being a Toyota that seemed so far removed from the rest of their product line.
I had forgotten the car when I was re-introduced by someone I’d later become great friends with. The most important part of his car however was the engine. Many engines are spoken of in hushed tones in the enthusiast world, but when it comes to Japanese engines, the 4A-GE is one of the most revered. The one belonging to my future friend was a step beyond, being the 20-valve 4A-GE found in late-model FWD cars that never saw American soil.
I may not have mentioned it yet, but I’m more of an engine person than I am chassis, and the experience of hearing a quartet of throttle bodies feed five valves per cylinder immediately behind my head, up to and past 8000RPM is not something I’ll ever properly put into words. More likely just grunts and moans of pleasure. In fact, after driving that 20V AW11, I opened the door, dropped to the ground, and just fire-drill rolled through the parking lot blathering in tongues; it was a revelation.
All that said, there’s what you dream about, and then what you get. In my haste to find a car, I ended up with one of the most worn examples out there. The shocks had probably clocked out before I finished 7th grade, it burned oil as if it was courting a rotary, and I spent the first month of ownership push starting it; the starter gave out as an ice breaker.
More annoying than all that was how difficult it was to find parts. The dealer informed me that regular maintenance stuff was NLA, and few shops wanted to touch it because it was mid-engined. I literally had a shop tell me, “Oh that’s right! We don’t work on those, sorry.” The availability of aftermarket hop-up parts was also pretty dry compared to the unlimited choices I’d experienced in the Miata and BMW worlds.
As glorious as the 1.6L 16V engine sounded at high RPM, I had become too snooty about suspension to think about buying anything that wasn’t AwesomeSauceOMGRacecarBBQ level. Shame really, as I liked how the car drove. Period reviews of the car complain about its snappy handling, but I learned to stay on top of it. The second day I had it, I took it to an autocross and spent all my laps doing intentionally dumb stuff to try and spin it. Full throttle, load up the outside, and then abrupt throttle off. It rotated for sure, but I never got the sense that it really wanted to spin.
Even in the rain, it showed itself to be hugely communicative. My only complaint was how slow the steering ratio was. For my frustration with finding parts however, I ended up selling it to a friend. Unfortunately for that car, barrel rolls are not part of its list of features, so it wasn’t rolling around too long thereafter…on its wheels anyways.