Poor Marty…I’ve never met the dude, I’ve never spoken to him, never traded emails, nothing. But watching him put this Toyota MR2 together has caused me to feel a ton of empathy towards him, because every time I’ve seen any wrenching time spent on this rear-engined bit of Japanese sports car fun has resulted in more bleeped-out scenes than I’ve ever seen in any MCM work to date. I’ve felt his pain when he’s tried to wedge his arm into a space more adept for a toddler to undo a bolt. I’ve felt his rage when dealing with a fuel tank removal that borderlines on ridiculous. I’ve certainly been in his shoes when he was just sitting in a chair, staring at the car in genuine hatred, cold drink in one hand and a full-staff middle finger flexed out of the other. MCM usually is a cheerful good time watching two guys spin wrenches, but the MR2 is that does of reality show that isn’t toxic. The reality is that the car will fight back and you will fight the urge to start caving in body panels in reprisal. The end result will be a neat little car…I dig MR2s, especially this generation…but in order to get to the good times, you have to live through the bad.
As far as work goes, the MR2 is in the home stretch. Minor things like seats need to be fitted, and that’s where a Subaru BRZ comes in, donating it’s buckets to the cause. Then there’s the other great big monster looming…the wiring. I thought the wiring in the Imperial was frightening, and it was, but this MR2 looks like a solid runner-up in that category. We’re talking a full trace-out before you can even start properly pinning connectors. That’s schematic and multimeter time, and a good bit of it. It’s actually not too bad to do, but it’s time intensive and is as exciting as as David Attenborough explaining the mating habits of slugs in great detail. But with luck, once the crimpers get put up, we might get to hear the Toyota make some noise. Or maybe the fuel system dies again and Marty screams until the cops do a welfare check, one or the other.
