This ‘80s sports car is just my cup of coffee

According to reviewers of the early 1980s, the boot in the rear-mid-engined Mk1 Toyota MR2 was barely big enough for a couple of soft bags. So how come MR2 owner Sere Zhang has managed to install coffee-making facilities in hers?

- Sere Zhang

As I try to interview her about the car, we're interrupted by people reaching into the boot for a disposable cup before asking for a coffee from the large, pump-action Thermos balanced on a box wedged in by 20kg of coffee beans. Sere is unfazed. After all, it’s why she’s at this car meet: to show off her MR2 and to promote her coffee business.

But back to the car. As if Mk1 MR2s weren't rare enough, this one is rarer still, first by looking to be in remarkably good condition and second by being finished in ‘Sherwood Toning’. This two-tone Sherwood Green over champagne livery - with matching interior - was offered only from 1985-1986.

Sere loves the car and considers herself very lucky to own it: “I had decided that my first car would be a Mk1 MR2. I saw this one advertised by Fairmont Sports and Classics in Brentwood. However, when I visited them, they had just sold it. I was very disappointed - but then 12 months later, I saw they were advertising it again! This time I didn’t hesitate and bought it for just less than £18,000.”

Our cars

BY ILLYA VERPRAET

Whose car alarm is that going off? Is that my Mini's? I had better check. And just as I was coming down the stairs, I was greeted by an apologetic Sainsbury's delivery driver who had reversed his van into the side of my car as he was threading it down the narrow lane on which I lived at the time.