2001 Toyota TTE Roadster

A radical two-seat sportscar with a Toyota badge, a mid-mounted 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, and striking F1 styling. Pinch yourself if you like, but this car is real. Based around the critically acclaimed underpinnings of the MR2, the Street Affair is the proof that Toyota's bold decision to seek glory in the cut-and-thrust of F1 is already propelling its designers and engineers to new heights. Created at Toyota Motorsport's workshop in Cologne, Germany, the low-slung car made its world debut at the Essen Motor Show back in November. The way the Street Affair immediately turned heads is quite amazing. The idea was first hatched last May. The plan was to show that the interest being generated by the F1 project right throughout Toyota could be reflected in its future model line-up.

Toyota Motorsport, which is masterminding the F1 assault, was also keen to show that there was very real scope for the cutting edge technology used in F1 to be successfully applied to road cars. Its designers have gone to a great deal of trouble to provide the Street Affair with a genuine F1 appeal, right on down to its distinctive red-and-white livery. In place of the standard MR2 body is a uniquely styled glassfibre shell that screams aggression from any angle. It is at the front where the F1 clues are at their most obvious. Running down the center of the bonnet is a tapered bulge echoing the nosecone shape on Toyota's TF102 racing car. This feeds back through a cutdown windscreen into the top of the center console.

A full-width wing further enhances the F1 look that's mounted close to the ground, complete with upturned endplates. There are no doors. At least, not in the conventional sense. Instead, the upper body sides hinge skywards to provide access to a snug two-seat interior. You sit low in the car, the high sides conveying an impressive sense of security despite the lack of side protection. The specially developed engine is a heady 258bhp - some 120bhp more than the standard MR2. The Toyota Street Affair fires on the first turn of its key. I tell you this because, unlike so many concept cars, this one has a real engine lurking beneath its wild exterior.

But will the Street Affair become road-going reality? Officially, Toyota Motorsport says it has no concrete plans to develop its latest concept car to meet all the various regulations needed to see it go from show stand to the street, but it doesn't rule out preparing a limited run. "There is some idea to use the Street Affair as the basis for a one-make series, though for the moment our hands are full with getting the F1 program off the ground," says Gassen. That said, a few days after One Aim got our hands on it, Toyota officials from Japan were flying in to give it the once over. Pinch yourself - maybe this Affair has a chance of becoming long-term.