In 1998, Toyota Racing Development [1] offered an official kit body conversion and tuning programme for Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) owners to transform their existing SW20 MR2 into a widebody TRD2000GT kit replica car. This was to pay homage to the wins by their TRD2000GTs in the GT-C Japanese racing series, the TRD2000GT racing series cars were based on the SW20 floorpan. Toyota also did the same with their Supra Twin Turbo model, offering a conversion service to transform these cars into a TRD3000GT[2].
In order to ensure exclusivity, a high price tag was charged and total of just 35 factory car conversions where completed by Toyota Technocraft Ltd. Each official car converted was made using lightweight fibreglass components (in place of heavy steel original parts, front wings/fenders, boot lid, rear quarter panels, front and rear bumpers, etc.) and re-classified as completely new cars (with their own specially numbered TRD vin plate rivited to the body to indicate their authenticity and rarity).
All official TRD2000GT's had a 60 mm (2.4 in) wider front and rear track which improved handling considerably over the original suspension design. Virtually every car converted also had other TRD parts fitted too including extensive changes to both the suspension and engine. Some cars left the factory boasting up to 500 PS (493 hp/368 kW) and less than 1100 kg (2425 lb) for a very impressive power to weight ratio. TRD Japan never sold body parts for third-party conversion separately (except rear wing), they transformed complete cars.
Only 3 complete cars are known to have been shipped into Europe with only 10 complete kit conversions allocated to TRD USA for the entire American market. This makes these officially built TRD2000GTs the rarest of all MR2s and ultimately the most sought after and difficult to find. It is unknown how many original (non factory replica) cars still exist today. In many respects the extended body can be compared to that of a Porsche Turbo widebody. The car track width is extended and body dimensions dramatically changing the cars overall visuals, giving the car a "supercar" look, and also better handling and weight reduction. Very little is known about these cars outside of Japan.[3]