Venice, Italy 2015

Venice, Italy 2015

Venice, Italy 2015

Venice, Italy 2015

Venice, Italy 2015

Slovenia 2015

Adriatic Sea

North End of Mahai'ula Beach at Kekaha Kai State Park

Green Sand Beach

Hilo Bay

Kekaha Kai Beach Park

Hilo Bay

South Pointaka Ka Lae Point

Drive on Kalapana Kapoho Rd City of Pahoa

The Point in front of Kalani Honua

View from Seaview

Coqui Frog

Famous Green Sand Beach

The isolated and idyllic Makalawena Beach

Green Sand Beach

Makalawena Beach

Route 200

Mauna Kea Resort Beach aka Kauna'oa Beach.

Kua Bay

Isaac Hale Beach Park, aka Pohoiki

Camping at Hilina Pali Overlook

Volcano National Park, Big Island Hawai'i

Volcano National Park Big Island Hawai'i

Red Road

One of the most spectacular & hauntingly beautiful places on the Big Island is Pololū Valley Beach. You can take in the visual splendor from the lookout above or get your heart rate up by taking a 20 minute hike down to the beach and then you're in for a real treat.

Venice, Italy 2015

Polulu Valley

Slovenia 2015

Red Road

Girl at the Point

Venice, Italy 2015

Girl at Hilina Pali Overlook

Kona Sunset

Couple Moon Gazing at Ho'okena Beach Park

Ho'okena Beach Park

Venice, Italy 2015

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THE STORY

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I was looking for a seventh-generation Toyota Celica when I came across a surprisingly clean 1991 MR2. It was a base model with the naturally aspirated 5S-FE, an automatic transmission and a blue cloth interior. I hadn't really considered an MR2 before, but finding that car sent me down the rabbit hole.

The more I learned about the SW20, the more interesting it became. Toyota had built a mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car in the 90s, offered it from the factory with a turbocharged 3S-GTE and gave it all the things I loved about cars from that era … pop-up headlights, simple analog controls and a driving experience that still felt mechanical. Coming from Toyota, a brand I already respected for reliability, the whole package really appealed to me.

Though I liked the general shape and design of the MR2, I thought there was a lot of room for improvement. I started imagining what the car could look and feel like if I kept everything I liked about the original design and updated the areas I thought could be improved.

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That became the direction for pHa2e:

modernize it, personalize it and beautify it without losing what made a '90s MR2 so special.

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The build grew from there. The original 5S-FE was upgraded to a Gen 4 3S-GTE, the suspension and brakes were completely reworked, the blue interior eventually became black, and the exterior changed piece by piece as I figured out exactly how I wanted the car to look.

Some of those decisions took years. Some came from finding the right part at the right time, and others involved making something new because what I wanted didn't exist. The car we have today wasn't something I had completely mapped out when I bought it. My taste changed over time and the car changed with it, and each version influenced what came next.

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ENGINE & DRIVETRAIN

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One of the biggest changes came when the original 5S-FE and automatic transmission were removed and the car was converted to a turbocharged manual setup.

I chose Toyota's fourth-generation 3S-GTE, an engine that felt appropriate for the car because it kept the build within the Toyota family while giving the MR2 the performance I wanted. The engine currently uses a CT15B turbo upgraded with a billet compressor wheel and runs up to approximately 18 psi. The setup makes roughly 320 horsepower at the wheels, which is plenty in a car this size and weight.

The automatic was replaced with Toyota's E153 five-speed manual transmission, paired with an ACT XACT Prolite flywheel and Clutch Masters Stage 3 FX300 clutch. Boost is controlled through a GReddy Profec electronic boost controller.

I've intentionally kept the engine setup relatively straightforward. The goal has been a responsive street car that I can actually drive and enjoy rather than chasing a dyno number.

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SUSPENSION, WHEELS & BRAKES

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Once the car had substantially more power, I wanted the rest of the chassis to feel equally sorted.

The suspension uses Fortune Auto 500 Series coilovers with 5K front and 7K rear spring rates, along with Whiteline front and rear sway bars. I also added a Stanceparts AirCup system, which gives the front of the car roughly two inches of temporary lift.

The AirCups have probably been one of the most useful modifications I've made. The car can sit at the height I want without making every driveway, speed bump or steep entrance in Los Angeles an event.

The wheels I chose are the OG RAYS Volk Racing TE37V, 17×8 +25 in the front and 17×9.5 +30 in the rear. Ironically, even though wheels are one of the easiest parts to physically install, they were probably one of the most difficult decisions of the entire build.

I wanted something with a deep-dish look and polished lip that suited a car from this era, but I also wanted a wheel that was lightweight and functional. Finding that balance between form and function took some time, especially because getting the sizing and offsets right was important to me. Wheels and tires are expensive, and I didn't want to make a costly mistake by investing in a setup only to realize afterward that the fitment wasn't right.

The TE37V checked all of those boxes. It has the classic stepped-lip design I was looking for while still being a genuine performance wheel, and the staggered sizing gave the MR2 the stance and proportions I had envisioned without sacrificing function.

Braking was upgraded with a StopTech ST43 big brake kit and Wilwood rotors. With a mid-engine car making considerably more power than it did when it left the factory, I wanted the braking and suspension to receive the same attention as the engine.

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EXTERIOR

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The exterior took the second longest for me to figure out because I wanted to change the appearance of the car without losing the basic SW20 shape that attracted me to it.

The front end eventually came together around an Office Kei front bumper. The design originated in Japan, and was hand-finished in California. It changed the proportions of the front dramatically and finally gave me the cleaner more sculpted appearance I had envisioned for the car.

The front also uses carbon-fiber fenders by MR2 Heaven and GReddy style side rockers by Shine Auto. The pop-up headlights stayed because they're such an important part of the MR2's personality, but the lighting itself was modernized with Morimoto sealed-beam LEDs.

One of my favorite small details is the fog-light setup. The housings were custom designed around Morimoto XB 70mm lights and 3D printed to fit the Office Kei bumper. Details like that became increasingly important as the build progressed because I wanted the finished pieces to look integrated rather than improvised.

There's also a stainless-steel radiator air-diversion panel behind the front end to help direct airflow through the radiator, while the frunk houses the AirCup tank, compressor and valves along with the factory sunroof storage.

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REAR END

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The rear was another area I kept revisiting. I always felt the original rear bumper ended too abruptly and that the car could use a little more visual weight in the back.

I eventually converted the car to a Revision 3 trunk lid and spoiler, sourced from a donor MR2 in the United Kingdom. The original 1991 taillights were replaced with OEM Kouki lights, which were then converted to clear lenses with LEDs and a blacked-out center section.

The rear bumper uses Border add-ons to extend the lower body line, and the spoiler has a POON SW20 carbon-fiber rear add-on that came from Thailand. The exhaust exits through a pair of TCS high-flow mufflers, which helped give the rear the symmetry I wanted.

This part of the car was influenced by years of looking at newer performance cars as well. My experience around Mercedes-AMG and Chevrolet Performance cars gave me an appreciation for wider, fuller rear proportions, and some of that thinking found its way into how I approached the MR2.

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INTERIOR

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The interior has probably gone through one of the most dramatic transformations because the car started with a very basic blue cloth interior and manual roll-up windows.

For a long time I worked with the blue interior, but I always felt a black interior would better suit where the rest of the car was heading. Eventually I came across another MR2 with a complete black interior that was destined for the scrapyard.

We removed the blue interior from pHa2e while it was still in good condition, restored the black pieces and transferred them into the car. I love the fact that we took an MR2 that was heading to the scrap yard, restored the usable parts and gave the car a new home.

The seats were reupholstered in genuine leather and Alcantara by an MR2 specialist in the UK. The steering setup combines Works Bell, MOMO and GReddy components, including a quick-release and locking system.

I also wanted modern conveniences without completely changing the character of the cabin. A Pioneer 4600NEX provides wireless Apple CarPlay, a JL Audio W6v3 10-inch subwoofer sits behind the passenger seat, the GReddy Boost Controller sits right below the ignition and the car has a Viper 5906V security system along with front and rear BlackVue cameras.

I still wanted to sit inside and immediately know I was driving a car designed in 1990. I just wanted the things I interact with every day to feel more modern.

I also sourced a JDM electronic gauge cluster to complement the E153 manual transmission and its electronic speed sensor. While updating the cluster, I redesigned the speedometer dials and integrated a 45mm Omori boost gauge into the factory boost/battery gauge location to monitor the turbocharged 3S-GTE.

The Omori gauge fit the direction of the interior particularly well. Its size and analog appearance feel appropriate for a Japanese sports car from this era, and placing it within the factory cluster gave me a functional boost gauge without adding a separate gauge pod or changing the original layout of the dashboard.

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pHa2e & LS2026🥀

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As the build developed, pHa2e also became connected to my work as a filmmaker.

I'm currently developing LS2026🥀, a feature film set primarily in Los Angeles, and the MR2 will be used as one of the main character's car.

I've always paid attention to the cars filmmakers choose for their characters because the right car can quietly tell you something about the person driving it. For LS2026🥀, I wanted that relationship to feel authentic, and using a car I've actually built over the years gives me an opportunity to bring some of that real history into the film.

The MR2 also fits naturally into the visual world I'm creating for the movie. It's distinctly Japanese and unmistakably from another era, yet this particular car has been updated enough that it doesn't feel trapped in the past. That combination works well with the character and with some of the larger ideas in the story.

pHa2e will eventually make the transition from a car I've built and documented in real life to one that becomes part of a fictional story on screen.

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WEKFEST LOS ANGELES 2026

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Being able to bring pHa2e to Wekfest Los Angeles is especially meaningful when I look back at what the car looked like when I first found it.

I bought a base N/A automatic MR2 while searching for a Celica. Years later, that same chassis has a turbocharged 3S-GTE, manual transmission, upgraded brakes and suspension, a completely different interior and an exterior that has been shaped around my own interpretation of the SW20.

A lot happened between those two versions of the car, and Wekfest gives me an opportunity to put the finished result in front of people who appreciate the details that went into getting it here.

If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to learn more about pHa2e. I'll leave you with this feature by OhShift, who did an incredible job capturing the car, the build and the story behind it. Enjoy.