Re: Toyota Celica GT4 - any good?

That might be me.

Best place in the UK Interweb doobrie, for GT4's is

You can sign upto the forums for advice before buying the car, then get club mebership, get access to other parts of the site/forums, and club discounts.

And they are very friendly bunch too.

quick one though.

ST165, generation 4 squarish Celica body with popups, liquid charge cooler, lowest power but easier tuned, crap brakes. ST185, Generation 5 Celica with either a hood scoop for the air to air IC, or a hood vent for the liquid charge cooler on the LTD Carlos Sainz cars. Fairly heavy, more sluggish than a Scoob/Evo/Integrale/Coupe Quattro (remember 89/90->93 so a comparison to both the old and new cars is valid), and pretty thirsty, but can be easily tuned. 300bhp at the flywheel is available easily, anymore and you are in headgasket teritory, and will need a stronger clutch. Transmission and engine block is supposedly good for 600BHP, and mahoosive torque/big boost levels, without additional bracing, but will need lightening of the crank, and forged pistons and rods, metal headgasket, and a humogous turbo that will lag so much to achieve that. ST205, lighter, more powerful, faster, but a lot more expensive. Front suspension a lot more complicated and expensive to sort wear and tear. Has the liquid chargecooler as standard and that is good for 400BHP cooling efficiency, some models come with a Recaro interior as standard. Different specs avaiable for the ST185 and ST205 Jap import models.

If you don't mind the image then they're not a bad car. Not very fast compared to other similar cars but fairly reliable. Quote from recent Top Gear "Just what message are you sending the world when you climb out of a Calibra or a Probe or even a Celica, not good."

LOL. It was good enough for Carlos Sainz :)

But I agree with the Probe or the Calibra, before I bought the GT4, I was dead set on a Prelude VTEC manual BB4, import in Black or Red. Couldn't find one in decent nick with anything like any UK history since it came over, and all the spec I wanted, so was looking at my other lesser choices, either a 924 if I could convince the missus that anything "that old" (her words, even though I was selling a 1984 Saab turbo that went like stink) could be reliable, an early MX5 (wind in hair for a change, while I still have some), or an MX6 coupr. Strangley, even though the MX6 and the 24 valve Probe are essentaially the same car, I not only never thought of looking at one, I actively discounted it from the list. Why is it when Ford an Mazda release parallel products, the Mazda almost always looks better.

So, 206's are cool because they were good enough for Gronholm :) ?

Awesome.

But they had to pay him to drive it :-)

i like the celica GT4 a lot! i almost went for an ST205 before deciding on the MR2 turbo as the 4WD and extra £1k on the price put me off a bit. the GT4 for me is the thinking mans escort cosworth :)

Change the missus. The day she tells me what car I can or can't have is the day I pack my bags.

Yeah, but didn't he also drive a Toyota Corolla? ;)

I think his was a bit closer to the Fensport one, than your grannies though.

Look up the Fensport Corolla (the current one they use for TOTB etc).

in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Sleeker GT Phwoar slurred :

Except the fiesta/121 thing. Why did mazda put the stupid great wodge of plastic across the back?

You mean the drifters favourite, the AE86? :) Not many of them about.

Nope, the 3S-GTE engined Corolla WRC

Same reason as I guess Saab and Toyota did (if you refer to the decor panel that joins up the tail lights on both sides)

To stop it looking like a Fester !

They failed :)