Raising the roof
2000 Toyota MR2 Roadster
Owned by Sam Dawson (sam.dawson@ bauermedia.co.uk)
Time owned Two and a half years
Latest/total costs £600/£2655
Latest/total mileage 1176/91,676
Previously Considered swapping it for a Celica
Having decided to keep the MR2, but also admitted to myself that money needed spending on aesthetics, putting it on show seems like an odd move, but there were good reasons. Car Girl Culture, the club that my partner Kayla helps to run, had a show stand at Japfest, Silverstone’s celebration of Japanese cars classic and modern. However, her own show-worthy cars are French so my Honda Civic Sport got drafted in for events shelter lugging duty. Then another member dropped out, leaving another space on the stand, so the MR2 got the go-ahead, too. We convoyed across Northamptonshire and my scruffy daily-driver and equally scruffy weekend fun car stood looking rather bashful among some of the shiniest, most beautifully kept examples of Japanese performance icons imaginable. I gave the MR2 a quick scrub down after Honda Integra Type-r owner Charlotte took pity on it and loaned me a crate of Auto-glym cleaning products, but it was never in concours contention.
However, an alert pinged on my phone as I browsed the rows of glorious restored Datsun Zs, rally-spec Subaru Imprezas, wonderful oddball Kei-cars and rare Japanese special editions. Someone on Gumtree was selling a scarce MR2 hardtop. And they only wanted £600 for it.
The seller, Jason, admitted that it was red and faded with some crazing here and there but that was beside the point – it was half the price of some I’d seen. I wasn’t even bothered about the colour discrepancy really and spent the rest of the afternoon Googling Toyota Group C liveries to see if I could get away with accessorising the combination of Absolutely Red and Liquid Silver Metallic with some tape stripes, perhaps emulating the Denso or STP liveries that some 88Cs ran in (look at an 88C and you’ll see where the Roadster draws styling inspiration from). I agreed to buy it and pick it up before anyone else had time to get their mitts on it.
Surprised at my enthusiasm for it, Jason asked, ‘You do know where I’m based, don’t you?’ Perhaps one of the reasons why he hadn’t been inundated with interest was because he was in Carew, Pembrokeshire. Not far from the westernmost tip of Wales.
I considered hiring a van or borrowing an estate but then I looked at the map. In between me and the hardtop lay the Brecon Beacons and some of the finest driving roads in the country, including some classic sections of the RAC Rally. Decision made – I’d go in the MR2, and it would return home as a coupé.