An old friend of mine has made a name for himself with Turista Libre, a start-up business which offers day trips from San Diego to Tijuana and Northern Baja California. His instagram is chock-full of pictures of interesting sights from his various trips, and because he loves cars, they also feature heavily on the page. One of those which simply must be shared is this MR2. A great way to get around the occasional big potholes one sees in that part of Mexico is to put enormous tires on your car’s back wheels, but the owner of this Toyota decided to own the look, adding a brush guard and rally-inspired graphics to his car. It’s a successful look, even on what appear to be Saturn SL2 wheels. Look for more Baja California Outtakes in the future.
It goes perfectly with my favorite MR2 of all time.
Even though all I’d be able to use it for is commuting, I would COMMUTE THE /%$&* OUT OF THAT
You beat me to it! It’s a real shame that that car never got to turn a wheel in anger before group B was canned. Now we can only dream what a roadgoing homologation special (a la Pug 205 T16) might have been like.
Back to the car in question, I can’t tell whether it’s a pre or post facelift version without seeing the offside air intake, front or rear bumpers. Regardless, it looks in pretty good condition for a nearly thirty year old car that I suspect hasn’t had the easiest of lives! I feel like taking mine for a spin now. Good idea keeping the front tyres relatively small, as increasing tyre size can load up the unassisted steering pretty quickly.
I bet those rear fender flares aren’t just for show. The MkI MR2’s most notorious flaw is a tendency to rust along the rear wheelwells.
Otherwise looks like fun.
The pre-facelift model was much worse for that. The ’86+ cars have much better rust proofing (out of Japan at least)- I’ve not seen many rusty ones here and I suspect that other non-road-salting locales would be similar (Mexico? ).
Cool….
Lancia Stratos on a budget.
With reliably as a bonus!
Exactly my first thought.
It looks like a full-size Hot Wheels toy: The Monster Mister Two!