It's true, I am a car nut.

I would like to think of a point when I saw a car and said "yea, this really interests me" but in truth I can't. Seemingly, I have always been a car nut. I remember playing with my hot wheels (I had hundreds, if not thousands of these) throughout childhood. I would crash them into each other, race them down boards and throw them at my sister. Cars were just cool to me.

Lucky for me, I don't have to be limited to the fun of Hot Wheels and other toy cars anymore. I am an adult, and I can play with adult toys. (not that kind of adult toy, get your mind out of the gutter)

The above picture is my toy, a 1989 Supercharged MR2 (one of only a handful left in existence and running)

The First Generation MR2 is a two-seat, mid-engined, rear wheel drive sports car produced by Central Motors (A division of Toyota), from 1984 until 1989 when production stopped. There are three different generations of the MR2: 1984–1989, with angular, origami-like lines, 1990–1999, which had styling that some compared to Ferrari sports cars, and 2000–2007, which somewhat resembled the Porsche Boxster.

It was designed to be small, with an economical powerplant, but sporty in style and handling. Basic design elements, such as McPherson strut front and rear suspensions and transverse-mounted inline-four engines, are common to all three generations of MR2, though each generation differs greatly from the next in particulars.

The MR2's life began in 1976 when Toyota launched a design project with the goal of producing a car which would be enjoyable to drive, yet still provide decent fuel economy. Initially, the purpose of the project was not a sports car. The actual design work began in 1979 when Akio Yoshida from Toyota's testing department started to evaluate different alternatives for engine placement and drive method. It was finally decided to place the engine transversely in the middle of the car. The result was the first prototype in 1981, dubbed the SA-X. From its base design, the car began evolving into an actual sports car, and further prototypes were tested intensely both in Japan and in California. A significant amount of testing was performed on actual race circuits such as Willow Springs, where former Formula One driver Dan Gurney tested the car.

Toyota made its SV-3 concept car public in October 1983 at the Tokyo Motor Show, gathering a huge amount of publicity both from the press and the audience. The car, scheduled to be launched in the second quarter of 1984 in the Japanese market under the name MR2 (which stands for "midship runabout two-seater"), was to become the first mass-produced mid-engined car to come from a Japanese manufacturer.

The press received the AW11 with open arms and praised its innovation, great feeling, and responsive engine. American car magazines Road & Track and Car and Driver both chose the MR2 on their lists of ten best cars which included some tough competition, such as the Ferrari Testarossa. The Australian Wheels magazine chose the 1988 MR2 as its favourite sports car. The MR2 was Motor Trend's Import Car of the Year for 1985. (It is worth noting that the MR2 was not eligible for the Car of the Year award, since only vehicles produced in the US were eligible until 1999. The 1985 winner, the Volkswagen GTI, was produced in Pennsylvania at the time.) The MR2 was also on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 1986 and 1987. In 2004, Sports Car International named the MR2 number eight on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1980s.

In 1989, the supercharged MR2 was the fastest production car 0-40 that a person could buy. Mine is a color called "Ice Blue Pearl" the rarest color choice for an MR2 and only available in the 1989 model year. Hopefully this is just the beginning of my collection.