The Toyota 222D

Here is the MR2 that Toyota built for rally racing. Even for a race car this is one of the wildest looking cars Toyota has ever built. The interior looks like a copckpit of a stunt plane.

from wikipedia:

While Toyota’s front-engine, rear-drive Celica rally cars proved dominant in the African Group B rallies of the 1980s, they were at a disadvantage on the twistier European stages. Thus, in 1985 Toyota Team Europe started a rally project codenamed “222D” based on the MR2, for competition in Group S and potentially Group B as well. Though somewhat similar on the outside, it’s clear that it shared very little with the production car. Little is known about this project because it never competed. With Group B cancelled in 1986, the proposed Group S regulations suffered the same fate, and the car was reduced to a museum piece.

During a surprise appearance at the 2006 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Toyota drove and displayed a black 222D. The race-ready car weighed around 750 kilograms (1,650 lb) and its transverse-mounted, four-cylinder, turbocharged engine (what appears to be a 503E race engine, though other prototypes may have used the 4T-GTE) was reported to produce as much as 750 horsepower (560 kW).^[17][18] A V6-powered prototype was also rumored to exist, but has never been seen in public.

Toyota is back in rally racing, so what better time than now to celebrate one of its more exotic rally cars?

The Japanese automaker will be competing in various rally racing events this year with its Yaris and GT86 CS-R3 rally cars. Since Toyota Motorsports is back in the rally spotlight, the company decided to share photos of its classic Toyota MR2 Group S from Toyota Team Europe (TTE). Boasting a 600-hp powerplant, a total of three MR2 Group S rally vehicles were built, one designed for tarmac rallies while the other two were developed for gravel rallies.

With 600 hp and all-wheel drive, the MR2 Group S essentially resembled the MR2 in appearance only since it was a tube chassis race car. Either way, it’s one of the crazier race cars to ever come from Toyota and you can enjoy some photos of the “black monster” below.

Original post HERE.

More pics below:

http://thestrangestbrew.com/