SARD MC8-R

The Sard MC8-R was a modified and lengthened version of the Toyota MR2 (SW20) built for GT racing by Toyota's SARD (Sigma Advanced Research Development) works team.

SARD MC8-R - Alain Ferte, Pascal Fabre & Mauro Martini in the Esses at the 1996 Le Mans.

SARD heavily modified the original MR2 frontal chassis deriving with custom rear chassis in order to fit a twin-turbo version of the 4.0-liter 1UZ-FE V8 producing 600 bhp (447 kW).[1] This is the first car which only using the frontal chassis of production car was effectively a purpose-built semi-sports-prototype that successfully got GT1 homologation. The MC8-R lacked pace and was very unreliable which made it often finish at the bottom of the race. Competitors such as the McLaren F1 and Ferrari F40 outperformed it along with the GT1 Toyota Supra that was also constructed under Toyota Team SARD.

Since the custom rear chassis and numerous dedicated components will lead to significant differences from the original MR2, a homologation car was constructed in order to compete. SARD built one MC8 road car in order to meet homologation requirements. This car disappeared from the public eye within a year of its construction, but resurfaced again on the Japanese collector car website SEiyaa in 2015, two decades after its disappearance.[2] The car is currently in possession of a private collector, who has registered the car for road use in Japan.[3][4]