Customer Reviews

Toyota MR2 1984-97 Gold Portfolio

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First, this is a very valuable book for the MR2 enthusiast and/or proud owner. It compiles many of the magazine articles, reviews, and comparisons that were published as the cars were released. It serves as a wonderful reference as to what the automotive press believed to be important, desireable, and "cool" at a specific point in time. Perspectives do change over time, and this is an excellent respository of thoughts that will serve as a baseline.

However, I have been searching for a tome of information on the MR2 that rivals what is available for the Mazda MX-5 Miata, similar to Garret's "Miata Handbook", or any of Tanner's "Fix it. Trick it." series of publications. Specifically, I am interested in the engineering of the MR2, Do-It-Yourself guidelines, Do's and Dont's, Living with your MR2 type of stories. While the "MR2 Gold Portfolio" has SOME of these elements tucked inside it, it is not the comprehensive information source that I hoped it would be.

I've long been a sports car enthusiast but, years ago, sold a Porsche to help raise down payment funds for my first house. Since then I've been primarily driving `commutemobiles,' but have recently returned to an economic situation which allowed me to also include a sport scar for dedicated recreational pursuits. After much consideration, evaluation and comparison of the initial purchase price, performance, esthetics, maintenance, reliability, parts availability, modification potential and cost for a number of potential cars, I finally decided on, and obtained a 1993 Toyota MR2 Turbo. Other cars considered included the Honda S2000, Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX, Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, BMW Z4, and the MR2 Mk III Spyder.

I've recently obtained the two Brooklands books, "Toyota MR2 Takes on the Competition," and "Toyota MR2 Gold Portfolio." Both books are excellent additions to any MR2 enthusiast's library but, in particular, I really like the latter. The former focuses more on comparisons of the MR2 MkI normally aspirated and Supercharged, and the MR2 MkII normally aspirated models to competing models. The latter has more on the design considerations and characteristics of the turbocharged models. While I'm now happy to have both books in my collection, "Toyota MR2 Gold Portfolio" is my favorite and may have sped up my decision to purchase my '93 MR2 Turbo.

Toyota MR2 1984-97 Gold Portfolio

Toyota MR2: Takes on the Competition (Takes on the Competition S.)