I've always loved the MR2. The mid engine runabout for the common man. The story for me definitely started when I got my drivers license. I would frequent a local MR2 forum in the Netherlands for quite a few years as an enthusiast and potential buyer. It never ended up happening unfortunately. Via my YouTube channel I would find myself in an AW11 and in 2018 and I met my hero in the form of a 3SGTE swapped SW20 in 2019. Meeting your heroes can always backfire, but it didn't at all. It was everything I thought it would be.

Fast forward to 2021. I got no clue how it all came together. I think Jose, who owns the black MKIV Supra I reviewed a while back, knew Lance who has this MR2. A few messages later and we're shooting a review. This statement probably spoils the review but; It should have had a V6 from factory. MAJOR NSX vibes.

What do you guys think of the MR2? And which one is your favorite? For me it's definitely the SW20. I like the AW11 as well because it just oozes 80's. Never really liked the 3rd generation for some reason. Never driven one and I would love to. But I just can't get super exited by the way they look compared to the SW20!

What they wrote was the truth... From a certain point of view

Got to love the Obi Wan clause...

So 4 years ago, in 2017, I connected with Collin and reviewed his 1970 Deuce and a Half. That was a very cool experience and to date still the heaviest vehicle I have ever driven. About a month ago the phone rings and I pick up. I use the phone for work (outside YouTube) so every call gets answered. My old iPhone was replaced and I lost a bunch of contacts in the process, Collin's being one of them, so the number was just a number. Collin being a car guy he says "Hey, this is Collin, the guy who let you review his Deuce." We might not remember a name, but a car? Never!

We had a nice long conversation, but what it boiled down to was this: They were having a shakedown day for the vehicle / armor division of the Cavanaugh Flight Museum to drive all the vehicles and he thought it would be cool to film. The icing on the cake came in the form of climbing in and getting a ride on a tank (M50 Super Sherman, and also a M41 Walker Bulldog, but those are for a later video). There were 4 vehicles lined up, and instead of me filming them driving around it was more like: We need to work on the tank, so we'll get you set up on these 4 vehicles so you can drive them.

3 out of the 4 vehicles have unsynchronized manual transmissions. For those that don't know: That means you need to double clutch like you should and actually rev match every time by ear, every time and without fail. Got some double clutch rev match instruction in the M38a1 jeep and was then left to my own devices. There would be plenty of fail in the video, first time ever driving vehicles like that.

My favorite was without a doubt the M3a1 Scout Car. It is actually also the oldest vehicle I have driven to date. 1942. What better vehicle to take that crown than a cool one like that? There were and actually still are times where I want to quit this thing. But when you come across opportunities like this you start to realize that if you did quit you would have never had this experience.

Any of you ever drive a military vehicle?

Cavanaugh Flight Museum Website: https://cavflight.org/

It's always good when you see a Testarossa! As a kid from the 80's it shares the pedestal with the Countach. I've seen way more Testarossas though, I think it was the first supercar I ever saw as a kid. I just love the slats on the side, and the fact you have that gated shifter. Perfection. I spoke with the owner and we geeked out a bit. This one has over 90K miles by the way, original paint too. It's a driver! The owner said he put over 1000 miles on it the past month. Love that it gets driven!

The Jensen Interceptor will always be one of my favorites too. But, when my eye saw that M5 badge on an E34 wagon? Very rare, imported from Europe because the US never had them and all original looking. Loved it! Nearly made best of show if I am completely honest, but the way that Testarossa looked? Couldn't bump that car.

The Testa was naturally in the list of photos I showed my kids. But they went for something completely out of left field. The 2.5RS(ti). Classic looks, and STi swapped. It went like STINK and sounded AMAZING (can't recall the time stamp, but it's in the Asian car section).

Yeah, great show to end 2021 with. Now lets see what 2022 has in store!

You got to have balls to drive that in the snow given the low end torque on those is enough to slay those meats on dry pavement if you even look at the gas pedal wrong. I guess that is why a lot of people, at least initially, went: see? SEE!

The Toyota MR2, in particular the second generation (SW20) model, has always been a favorite of mine. So when I was invited by Lance, who's 2GR SW20 I reviewed, to film at MR2 Nationals the answer could only be yes.

I parked my Passat GT at the fringes of the show with all the other support vehicles and started shooting. It was very hot that day so I took plenty of breathers in between. It was also kind of odd shooting since I had no clue what to expect.

The community was very welcoming though, and when asked at the AutoX starting line if I could put some cameras on their cars while they did a lap they all just said yes.

So much fun hanging out with the MR2 crew and it just makes me want one more. I did commit to shooting MR2 nationals next year and weather depending I want to make all days. It would have been so cool to get footage of the dyno day, show, auto x, drag day AND track day. Would be even cooler if I could do it in my own MR... But that... Is going to be something that we'll have to wait and see!

Funny thing, it was my son's turn to pick the cover car. He is immediately drawn to the W30. I ask my daughter and she picks the AW11 which was the thumbnail of this topic. I am personally very hung up on the SW20, the AW11 is cool too and the W30? Last place. Although I have heard that out of the three the W30 is the best handling one of the bunch. More of a straight line person myself so the SW20 punches that ticket nicely, it has that impeccable 90's "supercar" styling and the 2GR swap... OOOOOOOOFFFFFFF!

If you remember a while ago I went to a vehicle day where I got to drive (4) classic military vehicles, of which the scout car was the oldest vehicle I have ever driven in my life. I went to a car show last Saturday but for the 4th of July I figured I should sit down and finish the M50 Super Sherman video that had been in the editing booth for a while.

OPPO Thread: Driving Classic Military Vehicles

That wasn't the only thing that was done that day. They had to shake down their M50 Super Sherman as well so I could do what any self respecting youtuber would do. Strap a camera to my head before getting inside it, look around, get a cold start on video and just capture the experience. First time ever riding in a tank.

They also took the M41 Walker Bulldog out, but that video is for another day (will also be shorter than this one, the main star attraction was definitely the M50 that day!)
Since this day (it was in 2021) I was invited over for a family and friends day where I shot a bunch of B roll just for the show. That video will have a ton of vehicle shots, some shots of a corsair they are working on (they are putting in a new engine which was completely exposed) a ride on the Sherman around the country side (super cool experience, on film probably not as much) and shooting a 105mm cannon (blanks, naturally). They also had a T34 which was cold started, did get a ride on that one as well but man... It was very hot that day and that one had been roasting in the sun. I had some action cams strapped to it so hopefully I got some rolling shots of that too because I was busy alternating position to not burn myself... Hahaha!

Honestly... I love being around those vehicles... More so than shooting car stuff...

Since most of the OPPOnauts are probably on PC (I like to think so anyway) I bet you can relate. The current GPU situation is insane. I had my heart set on the 6800xt but after striking out multiple times I downgraded to the one that seemed in stock almost every drop, the vanilla 6800. Then 2 weeks in a row I would see people in the chat say they got a card while the buy button did not show up for me. The solution was to join the likes of scalpers and utilize a script which was touted on the stream for a few weeks. First time I tried and boom, 6800 in the pocket. Not what I wanted, but with the crazy stuff that has been going on I am more than happy.

I am planning on building a new rig but my main plan was always to see how my vintage 2014 rig would take to the upgrade. I decided to shoot an unboxing and install video, and ran a simple cyberpunk bench I did last time with my R9 390 with the following results;

Any other OPPO's score a card or are you still looking? And talk about my future rig, I am likely getting an 5800x, 32 gigs of ram on a AsRock motherboard. For the case I am thinking the Lian Li Lancool II. I am simply going to grab the SSD's in my current PC and swapping them to the new PC which should work just fine. Still going to be stuck with my 1080p panel for a little while longer after that, it's all a budget thing. Money no object and I would have sprung for a 6900xt and 5950x no doubt.

I always love the affordable builds. They, in my book, embody the modern hot rod culture of doing as much as you can with the tools you got. eBay Turbo Civics seem to be the cornerstone. 320whp out of a boosted B20b stuffed in a civic which with driver and passenger doesn't even touch 3000#'s.

It was an extremely good day, I can tell you that! It also handily bused my VR6 Passat GT so that horsepower figure? No joke...

So someone offered up their 2004 Mustang GT for review and wondered if I would accept it because it was an automatic and had 172K miles on it. I don't judge when it comes down to transmissions, a car is either fun or not and a Mustang is always fun IMHO so the review was planned.

Always liked the New Edge over the previous SN95's "bubbly goodness" because the body styling just LEAPED forward.

It is hard to believe the New Edge is, at it's oldest, a 23 year old car now... 2 more years and the first ones hit classic status. I think they still look good though, not out of place at all with the current traffic.

I loved the Terminator Cobra I reviewed a while back but my all-time favorite has to be the Mach I which has eluded me. I really hope that one day I get to review one of those, with a manual transmission. That would be a good day too I think!

"California Love"

My brain went "Barkeeper", color my surprise when I saw the bee stuff. You say you don't have time for another hobby. Honey will provide the most excellent libation in the form of mead... Now you're keeping bees and making mead... That's two hobbies...

@RacinBob said in Hurricane Ian Check In Post:

@LimitedTimeOnly It must not have been comfortable with storm surge 6' under house and 100 mph winds.

I recall reading of a different storm up in the panhandle where someone had a concrete house on stilts and figured they had it made.

However doubts regarding the wisdom of riding it out in the house arose when the neighbors house floated off its foundation and rammed into theirs.

God... The mental image of that alone... We're good, water isn't getting high enough. House in the distance:

@dogisbadob never was a huge fan. But it is prime era for me. 15, high school in the Netherlands. Michelle Pfeiffer... Dangerous Minds... Gangsta's Paradise...

May he Rest in Peace!

@Demon-Xanth I am surprised insurers don't collectively pull out of that state or simply say: You want to live there? Fine. But we are not insuring your home against damage sustained by a hurricane. And if you are dumb enough to leave your McLaren P1 in your beach front property right next to your 400K rolls we're going to assume insurance fraud and won't pay out. It's not like there wasn't a warning to GTFO for days before landfall.

That 190e... OOOF...

@atfsgeoff eruption green is a beautiful color IMHO. Still hope to see one in person at a car show. 100% going to get some shots of that if the light hits it just right.

@Chariotoflove got an unhealthy obsession with big and / or roomy cars.

My first car was a Peugeot 305 in the Netherlands, pretty compact sedan really. When I got my 405 my mom instantly went to "why such a big car" and why more than 100hp? LOL.

Came to the states, 2005 Mustang GT (still got that one). Then a Grand Marquis and now a Passat GT. My wife looks at the trunk and goes "What is with you and cars with HUGE trunks?!"

So yeah... When you are stuck in that optic a smaller one just won't do. Got to get the big booty one!

EV's, if there truly would be mass adoption and banning of IC sales, would decimate the lower income people. All the talking points of things becoming cheaper to repair or replace are moot for a couple of reasons

Replacement: They would shoot themselves in the foot. They don't want you to replace that battery when the car runs out of warranty and there is a fault. They want you to toss away that appliance and buy a new one. Make the replacement of the battery 10-20K and no one will consider replacement. They will cut their losses and use that 10-20K for a new car.

Repair: Costs the equivalent of major work to an ICE and only patches the problem. It is not a lasting repair. They replace the busted cells and leave the ones that still work. A week, month or year later? Another few old cells decides to die and you're back.

Talk about batteries lasting longer with meaningful capacity is also a thing. And it is something else that won't happen because it again means Car Manufacturers would be shooting themselves in the foot. They want people to replace their cars quicker. They want that 12.x year us fleet average to come back down to single digits. The prospect of having to pay for battery replacements will have people trade them in quicker with little to no warranty left. Consumption rate of new vehicles goes up.

Those no warranty half bricked EV's will end up in the hands of people like me. There is no ICE option available anymore so you're stuck driving an out of warranty EV. Battery goes? Paperweight. I can't afford to replace the battery and any repair to the battery will not be a lasting repair. It is the single reason why I say EV's aren't it. They are only it if you are wealthy enough to be able to replace them before the battery warranty goes out.

You know there will be no such thing as a 20 year old EV with it's OG battery pack worth a damn. They'll be rotting in the yard way before that. HOPEFULLY with the battery pack removed and properly disposed of. Meanwhile every OPPO here probably loses count when it comes down to early 2000 era vehicles they encounter during their travels. I know I do.

@tophercrowder said in OPPOAfterDark...A day of car shopping.:

Too big for my wife

@tophercrowder or so I've read somewhere... LMAO

All seriousness, it probably is a little big. And that flat windshield is crack city too when a rock hits it.