Car of the Week: ST200 Celica (GT-Four)

So this week I was poking around the internet and I came across a couple picture of some GT-Four Celicas. Now I have always been a fan of turbo AWD cars, which would include the GT-Four. Seeing as America never got them though kind of led me away from them, but they have once again come back up in my head this week.

The GT-Four is just like any other turbo AWD car that has ever really been on the market ever. Two front seats, 1/2 of a back seat, aggressive front end, a nice rear and a gigantic spoiler that no one can tell you is unneeded because it was stock. But seriously.. all turbo AWD cars have that… the Impreza WRX STi (all gens), the Evo (all gens), the 3000GT, hell even the Escort Cosworth RS had these features. Clearly it’s something that a lot of people like and I am no exception.

I guess the point I am really trying to get at is that I want to buy a 6th gen Celica shell and then buy a cut in half GT-Four from Canada and swap all the bits over. Would make for a super fun and unique car. Would also be a super fun project and wouldn’t cost too much.

I don’t know much about the car however, and I am not sure that all the GT-Four stuff would bolt up to the shells we have here in America, so please if you know anything about this, SEND ME A MESSAGE! Forums and the internet can only give me so much information and I only have so much time and patience to dig through them.

Toyota GT-One Race Car

This week’s Race Car of The Week is the Toyota GT-One Race Car.

The GT One first started racing in 1998 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and only did 2 races after that due to rule changes in the certain race classes, as well as failures in engineering of the car.

During it’s era in racing the main competitors for this GT One were Mercedes’ CLK-GTR, as well as Nissans R390. Just as the GT One the other cars were eventually dropped from racing because of class changes and failures in engineering.

The GT One was powered by a 3.6L Twin Turbo V8 that produced 600hp. The car went from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds and 0-100 in just 5.9 seconds, which was very fast for the era. The car topped the Le Mans speed trap doing 217mph, however if it didn’t have the down force “package” on it, Toyota engineers say it has done 236mph.

I feel like many of us would have liked to see this car, and its competitors still racing today, because the car was absolutely amazing. I still remember seeing it on my TV when i was about 6 years old racing in Le Mans and i remember driving it in Gran Turismo 2 as a kid. Hopefully Toyota is smart enough to put this amount of passion and soul in to ANY kind of car in the near future.

FT-86 Brochure Leaked

It seems like the FT-86 has been one of the most anticipated cars as of late, and Toyota and Subaru have really kept quite a bit of information about the car on the down low. Well, somehow someone found the brochure for the FT-86 and has leaked it on the web. Because Toyota and Subaru kept the way the car was gonna look pretty quiet, the car on the brochure seems to be what the final production will look like, and it looks a little something like this:

 

Now, we all saw the power ratings for the car. Somewhere around 200bhp and weighing under 3000lbs. That all sounds good, especially with the car market for car people you like you and I. But, as a car enthusiast you know that power isn’t the ONLY thing you guy a car for. It never is, and never will be.

These leaked pictures of the FT-86 sure make it look really nice, and I guess what the point of me making this post was to give you my first impressions on the final design of the car.

As far as the exterior, I definitely see some 370z in it as well as some Genesis Coupe. Pretty much the exterior looks about as nice (or bland.. yes. Bland.) as most new age sports cars look today. Overall I am not overly impressed, however it could be a lot worse. The front looks far too much like a 370z for my liking, even though I really like the way the 370z looks. The rear looks way too big compared to the rear wheels from a side profile, however I do like the back end quite a bit.

I am sure that aftermarket companies will be all over making new body panels to really make the car stand out, look ridiculously bad, as well as ridiculously good. I am sure that other people feel the same way as I do about this, and are somewhat okay with it.

On to the interior. My first impressions are that it is absolutely fantastic. Doesn’t seem to have the bulgy climate control and radio panels that most new cars have these days that I find very unattractive. Gauges look to be minimalistic (is that even a word?), yet futuristic which is a great medium. The seats and shifter trim look amazing as well. You can really see traces of Ver. 5-6 STi in the seats and shifter trim which of course I like. Everything seems to blend together and be a good middle ground between flashy and classy, which a sports car like this should be.

I cannot wait to see the aftermarket made for this car, as well as what the owners will do to them as far as power. Maybe a nice AWD system from Subaru (even though they have said it will be RWD) and and STi variant, although America will probably not see it. 

My overall first impression on the looks of this car are really quite good, and hopefully Toyota gets the message from this car and stops making bland econoboxes with no soul, or at least make an AWD or RWD version of a Corolla as they seem to be fastish nowadays.

But yeah. FT-86. Come out already!