Winter comes to California sporadically. Most days are filled with nothing but sunshine and temperatures in the mid-'70s. As Californians, we take this fair weather for granted. It's not until huge El Nio-esque storm systems roll in that we start appreciating what a good life we live on the West Coast. So what's our punishment for such a sinful act? A weather forecast of heavy rain and flooding for the entire week we planned on shooting a project car that could soon be owned by one of you readers. The entire staff waited patiently for the storm to pass because not only did we have to shoot the car, but people in California drive like morons when it's raining.
Luckily for us, the meteorological forecast wasn't entirely accurate as inclement weather was only in effect for the first two days of the week. On Wednesday afternoon, the El Nio effect hastily made its way to out of Los Angeles and to another part of the world. Those dark, ugly globs of clouds scattered to reveal the ultimate giveaway car-our Toyota MR2 Spyder. The deep tangerine light coming from the sunset complemented the brilliant bodywork done by Superior PV Autobody. An 11-piece VeilSide Model Fortune '01 widebody kit found itself replacing the majority of the factory sheetmetal. VeilSide is known for its extravagant, very functional, and extremely expensive body kits and this one is no different. Start saving your stamp money and auctioning off your Jenteal DVDs because this kit retails at more than $7,000. If it's quality that you want, then it's quality that you pay for. Don't forget the fact that it's a special order item since VeilSide USA doesn't stock something this unique for no reason. Once the hand-laid fiberglass kit was pre-fitted, prepped, and installed onto the car, a lustrous candy orange paint was applied over the entire car. "This paint had so many flakes in it that it clogged up our brand new filter in the paint booth," John from Superior PV tells us. Now that's the paint that's rough, rugged, and can probably kick your ass. Once the paint dried and got the extreme color sand treatment, TG Race Designs applied an orange-metallic roll call that can only be seen up close. And if there's any car worth getting up close for, this is it.
There was no way that a car with such an immense body kit could be seen in public with stock wheels. A quick call to RO_JA took care of that situation. Now fitted with 18x9 and 18x10 GTM wheels in a custom offset, our Spyder was just about ready to roll. But, of course, not before a set of high performance BFGoodrich g-Force KD tires wrapped themselves onto the wheels in a 225/40R18 and 285/30R18 manner. Come on now, it's a BFG car so it's gotta have BFGs. Duh! Driving around in such a sick ride requires big brakes for two different reasons. First, when you see a fine looking specimen walking down the street, you need to stop right away and offer a ride. Second, when you're driving at high speeds, you need to stop-sometimes very quickly. For these two reasons, Rotora Big Brake kit was an important addition to the Spyder. Stiffening up the chassis and allowing us to play with ride height are a set of Tanabe Pro Street coilovers and front and rear carbon-fiber strut bars from JIC.
Sadly, the Spyder does have an Achilles' heel-the engine. Due to a bunch of legal jargon, the Spyder must remain street- and smog-legal in order for BFG to raffle it off. That means that engine upgrades were kept at a minimum. No crazy ball-bearing turbo kit lurks under the hood, unless of course you want to install it yourself after you win it. But don't rail against The Man just yet-this Spyder's Power Enterprises air cleaner from IPN Industries and stainless steel VeilSide dual tip exhaust make the sluggish factory Sequential Manual Transmission more fun to drive.