A 1992 MR2 Turbo that reads deeper and wetter than cars a third its age. Icon Rocklear, our permanent paint protection coating, becomes part of your paint and pulls this red into a mirror finish, so it's holding the shape of every light overhead instead of scattering it. Under the studio rig the pop up nose and those long rear haunches carry one unbroken reflection.

The SW20's a genuinely awkward car to shoot and a harder one to finish well. It's mid engined, so the body's broken into short segments: a low stubby nose with pop up headlights, deep side intakes feeding the engine behind the doors, then haunches that rise over the rear wheels. Nothing runs the length of the car, which means the reflection has to pick itself back up cleanly at every one of those breaks. The side intake and vent frames are where you'll see that.

On a car this age the protection matters as much as the look does, and it's the half nobody photographs. Thirty year old red's the paint most people have watched go chalky and pink, and a coated finish resists the UV fade and the dulling that cause it. Rocklear doesn't yellow, it never has to come off, and the depth it's got in these frames isn't coming from wax or from an annual inspection. If it ever does wear, the factory clear coat underneath is untouched.

Eighteen photos: front three quarter, straight on front and rear, side profile, a raised rear three quarter, and close work on the pop up headlight, the door and mirror, the side intake, and the wheels and fenders. If you've got an old car with tired red on it, read this before you do anything else.