New 1998 MR2

Taken from Netherlands MR2 Club WWW Page - www.mister2.demon.nl

"Here’s the first ’98 model who entered the Netherlands. It’s in a new colour, called rusty colour? Or shall we name it brown? The ideas about this colour differ a lot.. U love it, or hate it..

On February 15th, in Brabant, in a little village called Volkel, there was a big invasion of 60 MR2’s. Goal: The technical day of the MR2 club Netherland at MR2-specialist shop Hermans. At this meeting, clubmember Marco Gansekoele (works for a Toyota-dealer Oostendorp in the neighbour village Uden), had the opportunity, to show the just arrived ’98 model.

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This version was introduced in Japan in October 1997. First things noticed at a quick look are the new rims and the new tail-wing. The new wing looks more aggressive then the older one, and is 6 grades movable (before people ask: Nope, not automatically, it must be done by hand with some screws). We already knew the white light-units in the front (called the clear lenses), they are standard in the 1998 version. In the cockpit we see the black leather, with red sewing coming back in the seats, steering wheel and gear-lever. The big steering wheel with flop-bag from the ’97 version is replaced by a more sporty and smaller version. Also the dials in the instrument panel changed colour and the radiator is standard aluminium.

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The chassis also slightly changed and Bilstein shocks come standard. The car is provided with traction control. Because of the variable valve-timing, the japanese turbo-version produces now 245 HP (that used to be 225 HP) at 6000 rpm, and the GT 200 HP (used to be 175 HP) at 7000 rpm.

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If you wanna buy one, just move to Japan, it doesn’t look like this version wil ever come to the Netherlands. The dutch version, will be less interesting, but still worth buying. For the real two-freaks, the part-number of the new spoiler is 76870-17010. The part-number of the strenghtened hinge of the hood, is 64550-17042."

Note from Ed: From owning a facelift December 1993 Turbo, we believe the following information is correct (and therefore ‘corrections’ to the above article). The bilsteins, traction control and 245hp turbo engine were features of the October 1993 facelift. The turbo engine does not have VVT, but is just a new engine with improved design. But, please note, figuring out what options came with which years car in Japan is sometimes difficult. See the next newsletter for more information.