1991 Mr2 Turbo Rare Signal Yellow Ct27 Daily Driver Clean No Problems 5-speed on 2040-cars

 It wasn't the how or why, it was the when.  When was I going to find a car on our road trip back from Ft. Lauderdale FL. Disclaimer now, if you just want to see the specs/details on the car scroll down, pics are even further down, this is a no reserve auction!  I will leave the buyer up to fate just like I was when I found it.  I used to let Ebay host my pics but their new system is weak, up at the top left.  I posted a few up there but the real pics are all below. If you are here to be part of my story read on.

I was approached with the idea of a bachelor party, seemed simple enough, fly down to southern Florida and drive back.  But I don't go far away and come back with nothing new.  If they were renting cars to race back, I was buying a car to beat them back.  So I started searching ebay and craigslist for anything of interest to no avail.  Which you'd think there would be a ton of stuff in South Florida, and there is, but it is either overpriced, or part of the humidity.  So I joined in on team left hand, and some how our car was the fastest being a base model Malibu.  I mean it was so base model it didn't even say LT on it. Three teams of 3, the other teams had a Cruze LT (1.4L turbo) and a (somehow they got this unlucky) 4 cylinder Dodge Journey.  Thought for sure they had the V6 and were just sand bagging us.  But when I popped the hood to pull a fuel injector clip there were only 4 of them (yes the pranks began within the first hour).  We pulled the air filter out of the Malibu for that extra seat of the pants noise and hope.  And it decimated all, slow races are the best.  That night we camped in the everglades and managed not to get eaten by a rock python.  Only to awaken to the most untimely rooster I've ever heard, this thing started crowing at 2am....2am.  And went off non stop into our departure at 9am, the first thing I heard when I came out of my on and off slumber was "Anyone want rooster for breakfast?".  I was legitimately angry that we didn't encounter a python by that point because I feel like even a pissed off hybrid snake (that Florida has a cash prize for killing) would have done the right thing and snuffed that damn rooster out.  The rooster's own voice box was trying to commit suicide, by 7am it was clearly horse missing several important portions of its crow, but much like the time we tried to lazer our dog's voice box it just kept barking like a drunk turkey. 

Enough about that, we started driving.  Straight to the air boat rides, 2x 500 cubic inch Cadillac engines with propellers later we kept driving.  This trip will forever be known as the humid food crawl, because we ate a minimum of 4 times a day with snacks in between, and I'm pretty sure we sampled everything except pizza which I'm ok with because that's all I eat in normal life.  You may think hey that's nice you guys got to try a lot of good restaurants...........wrong, we ate crap fast food.  You're missing the even greater benefit to all this food.......we had more shit to throw at the other cars than we should have. We successfully nailed the Cruze and Journey with a Frappe, Jelly Doughnut, Burrito, Smarties, Gummie Bears, mustard packets, ketchup packets, some green sauce packets, and a lemonade that was more on me than the other teams face.  That night we camped at the Daytona infield for free, just because we showed up at the right time I guess.  I lost horribly at a go kart race, which is sad because I used to be the skinniest person most of my life.  Not enough food thrown at other cars is all I could guess, so to make myself feel better I pulled a coil pack plug off the journey.  The next day pranks escalated, at some point an air horn and catfish stink bait got involved.  We got the other teams with the air horn (which we later threw at the Malibu itself), they managed to get some stink bait under our seats.  Funny thing about stink bait, it doesn't smell at all unless you get it wet idiots.  We found it anyways in about 5 minutes thanks to our teammate being extremely paranoid that they actually had a good prank on us.  So we devised the greatest prank of the night.  I pulled up alldatapro and figured out where the window and blower motor fuses were on the cruze.  We were going to do a 9 man Chinese fire drill, get in their car, roll the windows down and pull the fuses!  Going back into NC in Jan with no windows and heat woulda been brutal.  Sadly they wouldn't get out of their car, so we bum rushed it anyways and grabbed some relays.  We took off, they said their car wouldn't start, oh well we weren't stopping.  They lied.  After awhile they wanted their wipers to work again, so we said we'd meet them at a best buy.  As we watched them get off the exit we sped by it and they waited for 10 minutes before they figured out we weren't coming, instead we were waiting on the bridge ahead waving at them pass underneath us on the interstate.  Remember that catfish stink bait?  It also got stuffed under their hood next to the exhaust.

Then the greatest part of all, the Signal Yellow MR2.  I didn't need a car, hence why I'm passing it on to the next adventurer, but at the time it was the principal of the thing.  I was on this trip to buy a darn car, just to prove that I could find something that would make it back to NC on a whim.  Toyota was the only option.  Let's get started.  The guy I paid a pretty penny for this to had owned it for 7 years.  It started life as a straight clean virgin rare color N/A chassis.  He just wanted a unique color, and found this Signal Yellow car.  Signal Yellow is a fairly rare color, obviously there were more 91's than the later 94-95 cars but aside from the yellows only the Nautical Blue cars were rarer.  The steel mist gray really isn't that rare.  It got a JDM Gen2 93' 3S-GTE swap with a E153 trans, axles etc...  With all the stock stuff, JDM stock turbo exhaust, intake, intercooler etc.. That engine let go randomly, so he put a brand new Toyota short block in it.  Every single part he bought, he bought from the Toyota Dealer which blew my mind.  Below I have a picture of every single receipt for every part he put into the car minus the tires.  This car is tasteful and legit.  He built it solely to be a nice daily driver compliment to his heavily modified Red turbo MR2.  But it still had to have a Turbo, this car is a perfect daily driver, so smooth and comfortable.  Just fun to drive, no annoying problems.  Shifter has a ton of positive engagement, just fun to shift, steer, clutch, stop, gas, look, stare etc...  Let me spread out the details for you. 

Interior:  Interior wise it is as clean as it looks in pics, no trickery here.  Even smells clean, has the original floor mats and the T-Top shades.  Shift boot is in great shape as is the dash.  Everything works like it should, haven't had a chance to test the A/C but he told me it works (too cold), the Heat works great!  Radio and all speakers are all good, no warning lights on the dash, all the lights work, power windows and door locks work, the cruise is all there just not hooked up.  Seats are very comfortable and adjust fine, the drivers window switches don't fit the door panel perfect just missing a clip.  Other than that it's basically perfect, no stains, no cracks, no tears, just a great black cloth interior (no leather to get brittle).  Oh and there is the boost gauge, feel free to move it if you want.  Has the factory volt gauge swapped in which is much nicer to have than the inaccurate factory boost gauge.  No water leaks whatsoever, has new T-Top seals from Toyota along with the eccentric cam adjusters for the tops to tighten them down if you want. 

Exterior:  Well most importantly it is an original Signal Yellow car, no repaint here, and no evidence of any wrecks.  All original body with no signs of body work as far as I can tell.  It is 23 years old, a few paint bubbles/chips, but I mean, just look at the thing.  Can you tell it wasn't cheap hah?  Even the front bumper and the rubber splitter at the bottom is in perfect alignment.  Usually somebody would have curbed the bottom of the bumper by now, but not with this one.  It is riding on Z32 TT wheels, staggered of course, with Eibach lowering springs, Koni yellow adjustable shocks, and a good alignment.  All the lights work like they should, all the handles, struts, panels, everything opens and closes perfect.  The wheels are clean, the underbody is clean (no rust), I had to try to find issues with it.  There is a ding in the drivers door, and a rust spot on the passenger side skirt.  The rust spot is hard to see because it is on the black but it is about 3" big and could easily be patched.  Oddly enough that and the passenger quarter lip are the only spots, zero on the underbody where the Toyota care package undercoating protected the car. It's barely worth noting but in all honestly there you go.  Let's get on to the fun stuff!

Mechanical:  Ok look at the engine bay, then look at yourself, now back to the engine bay......and yourself again.  You're not that clean.  Go take a shower.  Now that you're back let's talk about this thing mechanically.  Here is a list of the parts/work it has had so far with the costs from Toyota:

• New Battery $72.94
• ATS Racing CT27 Turbo $990.00
• 47743-14040 Springs $12.12
• 47748-14050 Springs $12.12
• Fuel filter $27.84
• Turbo gasket $5.11
• Turbo oil pipe $53.81
• Nuts $14.16
• Nuts $35.62
• Stud $3.11
• Oil Filter $4.22
• Distributor Cap $47.15
• Rotor assy $7.38
• Cord set $91.32
• Oil Filters $16.88
• Hood support, clips, water hose, suspension cover $119.76
• T-Top weatherstripping, air hose, connector $424.19
• Brake pads, wiper blade, air filter $102.92
• Cylinder kit $28.28
• Power switch assy, cylinder kits, hood clamp $151.25
• Timing belt, oil pump, water pump, gasket kit, water hose, o-ring, clip, idler pulley, oil cooler, thermostat, etc... $1,159.95
• Speedometer cable $23.33
• 4 wheel alignment $79.99
• KYB Strut bellows $101.22
• Koni sport adjustable strut inserts 4x $580.00
• Brass shifter bushings $26.00
• Manual boost controller $50.00
• OEM Short Block Assembly $1,678.30
• Exedy Stage 1 Clutch $223.00
• Eibach Springs Free
• Z32 TT wheels Free
• BF Goodrich KDW Flame Petal and Azensis tires Free
• Fram Paper Filter - Paid to take

Now this of course doesn't count the JDM Gen2 93' 3S-GTE swap that was originally done which includes all the electronics and turbo related hardware.  This car drives perfect, starts perfect, and stops perfect.  It has zero vibrations, zero clunks, zero pops, zero issues as far as I can tell.  It starts right up in  sub 20 degree weather (its been VERY cold here lately) and warms up just fine, idles right around 800-900 when warm.  Never overheats, doesn't even touch half on the gauge, no knocks, no valve noise, no bad noises of any kind.  Just turbo noises and a nice quiet exhaust with a good tone.  The shifter feels amazing with the short shifter and brass bushings, really adds to the driving feel.  The brakes are solid, bled well, no pulsations of any sort.  Steering wheel is straight, tracks perfect, and handles GREAT.  This is just an all around well sorted daily driver.  The car is very quiet which is an unusual change for me.  But don't forget it can still go up to 14.5psi if you want, and this isn't on the stock turbo!  The original CT26 blew out the seals, so instead of rebuilding it he just bought a CT27 turbo from ATS Racing which is bigger than the stock injectors can max.  It pulls amazing for a stock intake/exhaust car.  And since it doesn't look like a turbo MR2, this is a true sleeper.  Thanks to the bigger turbo it has an inherent advantage over any other stock turbo MR2.  It has had very regular oil changes always using 10w40 Mobil 1 full synthetic fluid in the engine, and Mobil 1 transmission fluid.  He even sent the oil off for analysis to watch the break in materials to judge oil change intervals!  I don't know what else good I can say about the car, I don't have anything bad to say about it.

Thanks for looking and reading, if you have any questions don't hesitate to send them to me or call/txt 704-576-5004.  I'll add more info if I remember something I left out.  Enjoy, and keep the road trips alive.  Not every country can enjoy that kind of hooliganism and cars like this!