Graham Fossard - MR2 Roadster

This I a little story of my love of cars, for over 40 years I have repaired, restored and built wonderful automobiles for everyone, at the tender age of 60 ish, I decided to do something that I could be proud of for myself with all the knowledge I had accumulated over those years. This super looking Mr2 Mk3 came up for sale and I very quickly fell head over heels for this motor. It came with a hardtop, ac and 60,000 miles so I had a great base to work from.
I had a picture in my head that I wanted to transfer to the car. I started by stripping it down, the engine was given a complete overhaul ( the engine was built but due to oil starvation it ruined the bottom end ) so, new conrods, bearings, pistons and seals fitted. Then a stage 2 JDM clutch with lightened flywheel, the car was then lowered 30 mm on napa springs, and new vented, drilled and grooved discs and pads fitted. The complete set of callipers were also stripped, cleaned and fully refurbished. The underneath from front to back was also braced with the full barbarian kit. Next, I fabricated the wiper arm to make it a single central full screen wiper (like the lotus’s). I bought the first set of headlight surrounds that were developed by an associate of mine and I put enclosed led headlights in them. The bonnet was my favourite fabrication, i cut and fibreglassed it to make the 6 vents, I had already had a half scoop on the roof so I just extended it with fibreglass and a gel coat, I bought and fitted the side C scoops, and rear twin pipe diffuser from Nigel at GlassFibre products.
The front splitter I got from eBay as it matched exactly the look I wanted for the front. Next I turned to the interior with new deep dish suede steering wheel, I painted the gear knob ,the dash cowling and the armrest’s with a new Orange lever cover. I fitted a gt 86 touchscreen entertainment system, a 600 watt powered slimline subwoofer behind the seats, and the footwell’s and rear of the seats have LED ambient adjustable lighting. It also has plasma new dials and heater surrounds and push buttons start finishing the inside just nice.
I had been looking for lightweight multi spoke wheels and opted for 16 “JR 11s in gunmetal grey to complement the paint scheme, they are wrapped in 225 rain sports on the rear and 205s on the fronts.
I wanted the Trd look to the back of the car with the wing, so I bought a Evo 6 rear wing and refaced it to fit the mr2 and I love the way this came out.
The turbo and kit were bought by my associate who is a mechanic and he helped on some parts just to give me advice as to the correct way to do the install, but all the work was done by myself. It has an intercooler and an oil cooler, two push fans and a larger pull fan in the engine cover, these are all controlled by an electronic temperature controller. The rear end was all refurbished and polybushed.
The wing mirrors are F1 style ( eBay spech haha ) the paint is Peugeot Orange fusion and mr2 sable grey which I always wanted on the car. So, nearly a year since I started the aesthetics are finally finished and I absolutely love it! There's a few more little details to iron out but hopefully a couple of weeks more work and I can’t wait to be out and about in the Gster. If you see me around give us a beep and come and have a chat…..
thanks, Graham