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Some seek to convey wealth they don’t have by sticking AMG badges on their Mercedes-Benz C230s. Others take vanity a step further with unconvincing supercar replica body kits, desecrating innocent, mid-engined sports cars like the Pontiac Fiero or Toyota MR2 in the process. Such a fate befell one poor MR2 in the United Kingdom. Its owner electing to re-sculpt its body into something less Tumbler than Tumb and Tumbler.
In this poor car’s ebay listing, the owner insists repeatedly that their bodywork modifications have turned this compact sports coupe into a supercar. In the field meant for description of the car’s modifications, the owner only writes “Modified as a supercar,” reiterating themselves in the body type field, where they again put down “supercar.”
Maybe the car could back up its supercar claims if it had a performance as conspicuous as its looks, but its engine is just a 2.0-liter, naturally-aspirated 3S-GE four-cylinder that made 178 horsepower when it left the factory. Maybe it clawed back some of the power lost over its 121,000-mile life with the “custom built Spider [sic] exhaust manifold” but power hardly matters when its new body is rendered entirely from “unbreakable” steel plate, likely adding a couple hundred pounds.
Any practicality this MR2 may have once had is gone, too, because the trunk has been removed to accommodate tail lights from a Ford Transit Custom van, laid on their side. The MR2 came with dual-exit exhausts from the factory, so the only probable fake tip is the center, which looks like an aftermarket product for a motorcycle. Despite all the apparent venting, this car probably has cooling problems, as its puckered chicken wire grille likely restricts the passage of air through the front-mounted radiator.
Bothered though I may be at a fellow MR2 owner for creating such a hideous farce of a performance car, the wording suggests that the owner’s first language may not be English. That makes this punching down, doesn’t it?
But maybe this car was a learning experience, a project on which to cut their teeth before moving on to better things. As ugly as the polygonal, primer-grey body and the booger welds may be, the quality of work on the outside is reasonably good, and can’t be called noticeably asymmetrical. We’ve seen worse first attempts at car design, and this car’s creator can at least take pride in the fact that their so-called supercar at least exists. That’s more than can be said for some.
