Chances are whoever runs the Facebook account for MythBusters Jr., a teen-driven spinoff of the original Discovery Channel hit, thought they had themselves a nice piece of content when they posted a video of a car getting crushed by a giant domino in extreme slow motion recently. Unfortunately, the car in question is an old Toyota MR2—and now fans of the mid-engined classic are swarming the page to denounce its destruction. Premiering earlier this month on Science Channel, MythBusters Jr. pairs host Adam Savage with a crew of teens as they seek to tackle slightly-less-lethal versions of the old show's wild experiments. Last week, the team built a gigantic domino set that started with a normal-sized piece and ended with a 7,000-pound slab designed to crush a car. Not exactly a myth, but hey, the kids are having fun. Literally any car would have done in this scenario, but someone, somewhere made a deliberate decision to give the funky, wedge-shaped, first-generation Toyota MR2 a starring role. We reached out to the production company that makes MythBusters Jr. for details on how exactly they procured it; generally, as with any show like this, prop cars come from either private sales or junkyards. Hopefully it's the latter, because otherwise the following is not a pretty sight:

Cool as it is to see anything get destroyed in super slow motion, the footage was an immediate gut punch to fans of the AW11, as the mid-engined model is commonly known. First launched in 1984, the lightweight, rear-wheel-drive Toyota MR2 developed a cult following over the years as an Eighties icon and a temple of thrifty performance. And in 1988, a supercharged version of its 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine made its way to America. The comments on the video—of which there are over 700, more than ten times the usual activity on a typical post on the MythBusters page—are all from Toyota MR2 fans crying foul. "Destroying an MR2 is criminal." "I'm so disgusted and angry at the same time." "So you guys are onto pissing off car enthusiasts as well as previous fans of the series?" "Does Mythbusters just hate great cars or something?" "Of all the videos that Facebook should hide for offensive content, this is it." "OH MY GOD PLEASE CHOOSE A CAMRY NEXT TIME." And so on.

Facebook