There are levels to engine swaps. I’d consider the simplest type of swap to be putting an engine into a car that came from the factory—say, swapping out an original Mustang’s straight-six for a 289-cubic-inch V8. That car was designed to accept that engine from the factory, so it doesn’t take many modifications to make it happen.
Then there are more serious swaps, where an engine is shoehorned into a chassis that was never designed to hold it. I’d put cars like V8-swapped Miatas and Caymans into this category. While there are many modifications needed beneath the skin, you can get the car running without changing its exterior appearance if you know what you’re doing.
Then there’s the crazy swaps—the stuff that needs some serious chassis modifications to pull off. In that category. I’d place this Toyota MR2, which, over the course of almost a decade, has had its body stretched by nearly a foot to accommodate a supercharged Audi V8. Despite the serious changes to the design, it looks incredibly cool—like a Toyota-badged NSX fighter that never was. And best of all, it’s for sale.
A Near-Decade-Old Project
This unique MR2 is the brainchild of Marty Sweatt, a retired airline mechanic. Back in March 2017, he published his first video to YouTube, documenting his endeavor to swap a 4.2-liter Audi V8 ripped out of a 2004 Allroad into a second-generation Toyota MR2.
Though his videos never really took off in popularity, Sweatt kept at it, filming his journey to get this V8 longitudinally mounted behind the cabin of the MR2. For some context, the MR2 certainly cannot accommodate an engine this large from the factory. These cars only ever came with four-cylinder powerplants, transversely mounted to the body to keep the wheelbase nice and short.
That didn’t matter to Sweatt, who had no qualms about making space where there previously was none. He sliced the car in half, adding 10.5 inches of metal and bodywork behind the passenger cell to physically stretch the car to fit. He also widened the rear by six inches to add more tire. You’d think that would immediately throw off the MR2’s iconic design, but honestly, the car looks just as cool as it did before, if not better. Here’s what it looked like in February 2021, when most of the bodywork was stock, aside from the stretched wheelbase:
Looks pretty well done, right? Aside from the vented hood and air scoop, you’d think this were a totally stock MR2 that left the factory after being stretched a bit, ready and waiting to go head-to-head in a Best Motoring track battle against an NSX.
Since that part of the project, Sweatt made a handful of cosmetic changes, including a splitter up front, some side skirts, new wheels with Lamborghini center caps, and new side scoops for pumping more air into the engine bay. The top half of the car has also been painted black.
Though I think I would’ve preferred if Sweatt kept the car as stock-looking as possible, I don’t mind its current appearance, either. It reminds me of something you’d see out of the early 2000s JDM scene, a sports car with some flashy mods that has the power to back them up.
A Parts Mashup Extravaganza
Though the engine started off naturally aspirated, Sweatt eventually added an Eaton M90 supercharger to the top of the intake. Anyone familiar with the world of low-budget horsepower will know you can find these superchargers for cheap, as they were used on General Motors’ wildly popular 3800-series V6. The exhaust is mostly custom, but the muffler is lifted from another GM product: a Buick Grand National.
Sweatt originally planned to use the Allroad’s five-speed automatic, but he eventually swapped to a three-speed from an Audi 5000 sedan. Keeping everything cool are three radiators—two on the side, and a third up front lifted from an NSX (ironic, isn’t it?). The hydraulically assisted power steering has been deleted in favor of an electronically assisted system that can be switched on or off with a toggle in the cabin.
The parts-bin specialness continues on the inside. There’s an aftermarket GPS-based speedometer powering the OEM Toyota speedo, an Android head unit, and a separate Garmin GPS sticking out of the dashboard. The transmission is controlled via an electronic push-button pad where the shifter would normally be, and the seats are straight out of a Nissan 350Z. Here’s a walkaround and driving video of the car as it sits today:
If you’d rather not hear about how the car is built and just want to hear how it rips down the road, I recommend skipping to the 8:15 mark. Please be sure to turn up the volume.
All Yours, For a Price
After nearly a decade of building and tinkering, Sweatt has decided to part ways with the elongated MR2, which he’s dubbed “Typhoon.” It’s listed for sale right now on eBay Motors with an asking price of $60,000 or best offer.
Like any project car, this one has its quirks. The tachometer doesn’t work, nor does the aftermarket electronically powered air conditioning system installed in the nose area. Sweatt says the supercharger makes seven pounds of boost, but the setup still needs to be tuned.
Sweatt says there isn’t an MR2 quite like this, but the truly MR2-obsessed will be familiar with the SARD MC8-R, a one-off, twin-turbo V8-powered MR2 built in the mid-1990s to go racing. From Road & Track:
SARD, short for Sigma Advanced Racing Development, is a Japanese tuner and race team that was aligned with Toyota. The MC8-R was a heavily modified MR2 with a twin-turbo 4.0 liter V8 under the hood. It had 600 horsepower and looked the part, but in 1995 and 1996 it was up against some of the toughest competition Le Mans had ever seen.
Like Sweatt’s car, the MC8-R had its body lengthened and rear end widened to accommodate the V8 and extra power, and featured heavily modified bodywork. But unlike Sweatt’s car, the SARD has the provenance of an ultra-rare homologation special. So it’s tough to pin down a true value.
Whether you think this stretched MR2 is worth $60,000 will depend on your perspective. Sure, you could easily buy a Porsche Cayman or a Lotus Evora that’s quicker and likely more fun to drive. That’s probably what I’d do if I had the cash. But I could totally see someone buying this car just to appreciate all of the work and the engineering that’s gone into it. I could also see someone who’s mechanically savvy swapping out the three-speed auto for a manual Porsche transaxle to liven up the experience.
No matter who buys this car and what they do with it, I hope they keep posting about it online. I’ve been following this build for years, so I’m invested regardless of its fate.
Top graphic image: Marty Sweatt / eBay
3-speed? Supercharger “needs to be tuned”? No tach or actual speedo. No A/C.
All this for 60K.
This belongs on shitbox showdown where it may break records for greatest loss.
I mean, not really but maybe? From an objective standpoint you have an SW20 MR2 chassis that has been irrevocably modified, an undesirable Audi engine with a (to be fair nice) supercharger slapped on it, and a 3-speed slushbox. You have, at best, 10-15k worth of parts value slapped into a package that has no tachometer, AC, and isn’t even tuned. Couple that with a chassis that was hacked apart by some dude in a shed and welded back together into a category known as “automatically denied insurance claim”.
Sure it has had hundreds of hours of labor sunk into it, but it’s just that, sunk cost. Just because it would have cost someone an absurd amount of money to replicate, does not mean that value was added. Just look at every JK Wrangler for sale on marketplace with 25k in suspension and the tackiest cosmetic mods known to mankind, it’s not worth much if any more than a stock example, and they haven’t even been cut in half.
This car has been mechanically totaled out and the guy wants someone to give him 60k for the privilege? Yeah, I think it’s all ok to publicly laugh about the price.
Reminds me of the Hoffman–skillfully executed, but every design choice was wrong.
I definitely appreciate the amount of work that went into doing that but the parts choices seem…odd. One of the most unreliable and difficult to fix V8s ever made, supercharged and untuned, mated to a 3-speed slushbox? For 60k?
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
I get doing something unique, but I feel like he regressed. He went from a bulletproof engine, elegant but mostly understated bodywork, and a 5-speed to an amazing- sounding but pretty unreliable Audi engine with a 3-speed auto and hideous bodywork?
Why?
Why not a Lexus V8? These engines were garbage, he added a supercharger to said garbage engine and is driving it around without being tuned, he mated it to an automatic—a 3-speed from an ancient car with currently very limited availability that made nowhere near the potential power of this abomination, stretched it out and added a bunch of rear weight to who knows what end for handling (not that it matters with an automatic), and can’t even take a picture without his fingers over half the f’n lens. No airbag also means it won’t pass inspection in a lot of states and probably would get denied by insurance if anything happens and you happen to survive. At least he did a great job on the bodywork and I like the color, but I hope this is the dumbest thing I see today.
Everything you said is what I was thinking.
If he wanted a V8 MR2…why not a UZ family V8 (as you mentioned)? Hell, he could probably have had a much easier time (somehow) fitting a complete LS4 engine/4T65E-HD and had a better outcome.
I’m not sure which is dumber, the car or the asking price…
Look what they did to my boy.
I’d rather have a bone stock one rather than one that’s going to try and kill me like a Viper with less modern crash structure/home build special when my ego inevitably writes a check my body can’t cash.
$60K for that thing made less reliable with an Audi V8 and less safe with the airbag delete?
Also, non-functional tachometer and air conditioning?
And equipped with a THREE-FUCKING-SPEED slushbox?
Crack Pipe.
Unless it’s an old classic that never had these features or if it’s a track-focused car, for $60K it had better have a functional air bag, tachometer and A/C… as well as something better than a 3 speed slushbox.
And for something like a MR-2, I expect it to have a manual transmission if I’m spending that much money.
To me, considering the stuff that doesn’t work and the STUPID slushbox, this is a $5,000 car to me at most.
In my view, this MR2 has been RUINED and is worth FAR LESS than a stock one with a manual.
CP today.
Damn. I’m mostly impressed by the February 2021 photo that shows it stretched but mostly stock. I’m not very familiar with MR2s so I had to compare it to a photo of an unmodified example to see where the extra length was added. It is cool to see well-executed home builds like this.
I don’t know if it is any good drive and I don’t know or care what a fair price is for this vehicle, but it is extremely cool. Well done, sir!
I mean for $10k more…
Yeah, I dollar for dollar, why wouldn’t you consider the R8?
I get the idea of building this MR2 yourself, and it becomes a unique build project, but this falls firmly into “buying someone else’s problems”
How about a gated manual R8 V10 for an extra $1,000? If we are going to talk about what you can get for the same money, it seems like this one might be the best deal.
https://privateauto.com/listing/2012-audi-r8-vwdfzsdoxge?utm_source=autotempest&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=autotempest_listings
It has a branded title due to a lemon law buyback in 2016, at least according to an add from a previous sale that was over 10k miles ago (https://www.chicagomotorcars.com/2012-audi-r8-5.2-quattro-v10-6-speed-manual-transmission-c-5882). It doesn’t appear it was flooded or smashed to bits, so this one seems like a very good deal for the money.
“But moooom, I want a Pantera!”
“No Billy, we have a Pantera at home.”
The Pantera at home
I dunno, not much can beat this MR2 engine swap:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15361887/how-to-get-a-24-hours-of-lemons-budget-exemption-stuff-a-radial-aircraft-engine-in-a-toyota-mr2/
Did he just have this V8 laying around and decide to go for it? Is he an Audi Allroad superfan?
I get that “LS everything” is overplayed and variety is the spice of life, but my goodness when this kind of structural work is involved, compactness seems like a virtue above all else, and it’s not like the Audi engine is a paragon of either power or reliability.
And to think he coulda had a V10.
Dang. I am a sucker for side scoops, and to me this looks good. But I don’t think our car seat can fit in this
This is cool as hell, but also completely worthless. Who is going to pay used 911 money for an unfinished project car (albeit a very unique one)?
I know a few mechanics, and their project cars are always really interesting, but only fathomable to them. Coupled with the fact this has had major structural modifications of unknown provenance, this will be a nightmare for someone not intimately familiar with the project to figure out.
Incongruity, thy name is That Guy/This Car.
I like it but 60 grand is way too high for someone’s project.
Has SARD MC8 energy, if skinnier than the literal Le Mans homologation machine. That also used a 1UZ rather than an Audi. Gotta love a garage built supercar, though.