Watch This K20 Swapped Toyota MR2 Annihilate An Autocross Course
By Paulo Acoba
What happens when you mate one of the best Toyota chassis’s ever made and combine it with what many consider an excellent naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine? You have at your disposal one of the fastest autocross combinations in motoring history.
Reddit user “HeelToe” recently finished swapping in a K20A2 (found in the Acura RSX Type S and Honda Civic Type R from overseas) into his 2002 Toyota MR2 and took it out to Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia for one of the many rounds of Autocross conducted by SCCA every couple of weeks.
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What results is one of the fastest autocross runs run by a Toyota MR2. At first glance, the video is a dizzying array of cones and turns with his initial run done in less than a minute. Watch it a few times and you begin to appreciate how well the motor revs up to speed, hitting VTEC at every turn and how nimble the Toyota MR2 chassis handles the road.
According to HeelToe, “This was my fastest run at a 52.579 and the only one in STM, but there’s a possibility I got a cone.”
On the Reddit discussion where this video originated, it looks like HeelToe was loving the power increase over the stock Toyota engine.
"I’m at an estimated 215whp with a stock engine, which is in-line with a moderately built 2ZZ. I wanted that option in case I felt 200whp and wanted more. Right now, I’m just enjoying it and re-learning the car, but more power might be in my future eventually…"
Also linked on the thread was this little number. Supposedly if you throw enough boost at a K20 engine, you can make upwards of 900 plus horsepower. Engine reliability is another question, but it’s no denying that the K20 engine is a potent weapon in the right chassis.
For now, most K20 engines are stuck in FWD configuration. While there’s nothing wrong with that, good stuff usually happens when that naturally aspirated power is routed to the rear wheels.