Bathurst help - your car could be famous

G'day Nigel.
While this is not an actual Bathurst model however................
I don't know if you are aware of a very special MR2 now based in Tasmania that was used by Toyota as a prototype for the Bathurst Models, and owned by Tim Johnson.
You may see on the list of drivers names, one Juan Manuel Fangio as as well as many well known locals.
The MR2 Owners Club recently discovered this car on our recent MR2 Nationals event while touring Tasmania last year.
Below I have included a page from our club newsletter with some details.
The original PDF of that page is a bit large to PM so if you want a better quality copy you would have to PM me with your email so I could send it to you.
I don't have Tim Johnson's contact details at the moment, however I could possibly obtain them for you if required.
 
   

"I thought the Bathurst car was an official Toyota 'works' entry"
I believe that is correct.
The Bathurst models were raced succesfully, notably at the Mount Panorama track at Bathurst, from which they got their model name.
The pic shows Colin Osbourne's Team Toyota SW20 Bathurst no 13.
I think the pic would have been taken about the mid/late 90's
 
I'm not sure exactly how many Bathurst models were sold in Australia but they are quite common here.
 
Just to clarify further, Tim Johnson's car is a 1991 model with the early type spoiler and the Gen2 motor.
As has been mentioned earlier, it had considerable racing sucess, and it was used by Toyota to develop the later Bathurst models (post 1994) that of course had the Gen 3 motor.
For a 20+YO race car, Tim's car is still fully functioning, with a full roll cage and is still taken to the track ocasionally. 
Looking into the engine bay I couldn't notice anything different to other early model SW20's, but I believe Tim said that it had some engine tuning, however he didn't know specifically what was done.
 
 
 
  

The concept Bathurst MR2 was built on the success of the MR2 at the Bathurst 12 hour as "Reddtarga" explained.  However there was another reason for introducing the Bathurst model.  At the time, around 1994, the Australian Govt. introduced a "luxury tax" on imported vehicles.  This bumped up the price of an MR2 (only one spec MR2 for Australia) to over $60,000.  To meet the market demand and to come in under the luxury tax Toyota Australia introduced the Bathurst model.  It was a stripped MR2 with 38kgs taken out to lighten it and 12% increase in engine output.  The first Bathurst MR2s came out with no radio, no ABS, no air conditioninf (even though air con was an option extra on all MR2s) no centre consol.  After the initial release, later versions had most options fitted.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Also some more information on:
http://www.mr2.com/Racing.html
 
There's an email from "David Scott" detailing the bathurst races and how well the MR2 went which might be of value to you.

Hi, just came across this old post, I actually drove one of those MR2's at Bathurst in 2000, I first the first driver. 
 
I don't know if you ended up publishing anything or if you got the information you were after but I'd love to see anything you found. 
 
Also, if there's anything you'd like to know about the car, feel free to ask.
 
Vern