2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder in San Diego

No vehicle in recent memory has stirred up the dander at Automobile Magazine quite like our Four Seasons Toyota MR2 Spyder. Mom, apple pie, and baseball may be the most romanticized and defended icons of American life, but at this publication, it's Jean Jennings, my wife's molasses cookies, and the Mazda Miata's status as a perpetual All-Star.

Indeed, despite a host of came-and-wents, including the 1993-97 Honda Civic del Sol, the 1991-94 Mercury Capri, and the 1990-92 Lotus Elan, the Miata has been without a single real competitor since its debut in the fall of 1989.

In the spring of 2000, however, Toyota set out to give Mazda a mighty wedgie by reviving its MR2 name with a cheerful little mid-engined roadster that was, in size, specification, price, and performance, aimed dead smack at the Miata. (Recall, if you will, that Toyota gave Pontiac and its Fiero a similar wedgie in 1985 with the original MR2.)

The MR2 Spyder is the first car in the long history of the Toyota Motor Corporation to be imagined from the start as a two-seat convertible, and truly, it's a sensational effort. The MR2's all-aluminum DOHC in-line four displaces 1.8 liters and, with the aid of Toyota's VVT-i variable valve timing system, produces 138 horsepower and 125 pound-feet of torque--enough to prod our Four Seasons Spyder to 60 mph in 7.... Read full article