jarringly disappointing dose of turbo lag

Unfortunately I don’t know how much the cost was, but looking in the engine bay, most of the obvious custom work (apart from wiring) involved:

Alas, I didn’t do the swap myself (my username is what it is for a reason). Somebody on MR2OC put together a pretty comprehensive list of what you need to do though.

Come to Boston. I have a 1988 MR2 with a 2002 Celica GT-S drivetrain that makes this car feel like a grand tourer, relatively speaking.

Noted. I already have a Mk1 so I’ll keep the speed out of the danger zone.

The V6 MR2 swap has been around for almost as long as the Boxster has, so there’s really no super tricky stuff compared to any other stock to stock swap.

As opposed to the Boxster that the original article mentioned.

You’d probably be cutting it close with the four-figure limit, but I’ve seen a few that barely slot in.

I was also thinking a 6-cylinder mid-engined sports car, but I’d rather go for a well-sorted V6-swapped MR2. Less to go wrong mechanically and a much prettier wrapper.

Some of them might do what I did and fetch non-rusty examples from farther south and west, so with luck there’ll be enough around. Or we could just have a variation called “Rustwood”.

We have garage queens too.

The east coast cries out for its own Radwood.

Sounds about right; I was reading about a Vickers VC-10 that was being used for engine testing, using different pairs of engines on each side of the plane, and then they discovered that the entire airframe was getting warped from the differential thrust. Oops.

Yeah those testing rigs are nuts.

Also this sleek British number and its long-retired livery.

F-14 Tomcats performing willfully foolish stunts

No, I read your comment correctly; I’m giving an example of a car whose 1984 incarnation was better than the present one.

The Jaguar XJ.

I bet a million fanboys will now chime in with

See? Even modern Subarus have fragile interior plastics!