The Toyota MR2 Spyder has lent itself to many a successful tuning project over the years, but Pieter Zeelie, from South Africa, outperformed most of them by building an award-winning racer on the MR2 chassis.
In an interview with Cars.co.za, Zeelie points out that he always considered the stock engine lacking in raw performance. He swapped in a 3.5-liter single-turbo V6 in its place and dialed it all the way up to 850 PS (838 hp / 625 kW). He left the drive on the rear axle for transmission efficiency reasons.
The result did not disappoint: during the latest episode of Knysna Simola Hillclimb, Zeelie won the race marking the second time in history a 2WD vehicle made it. A painstakingly designed aero kit and perfectly level carbon/Kevlar bottom must have contributed to this result in some way, too.
The talented tuner is satisfied with the results thus far, but will be continuing his work on the project. This includes further modifications of the kit and the engine.