Bug eye Beauty: 1995 St202 Toyota Celica
The Celica is, despite the immense popularity of Toyota's venerable Supra, is one of the best selling sports cars from the Japanese giant. The fact that first generation Supra was called the Supra-Celica and was based on the Celica platform itself should tell you how important the Celica name is.
Undergoing a permanent shift to front wheel drive powertrains at the dawn of the 90's which remained till the opinion-dividing 7th gen model, the modern Celicas sort of dwindled into less focused, less pure street machines with only a dabble of power, but with low weight and very stable handling. The performance variants of these front-wheel drive Celicas were rare and expensive to buy/maintain, and as a result, you won't see any of the high-performance four-wheel drive variants of the early to mid-90s Celicas in Dhaka. So what do you do if you want to own one? You try and convert a regular Celica, obviously.
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For many, the last great Celica is the ST20x generation, an example of which you see here today. Tanvir Hassan's red beauty is a very well maintained, tastefully modified bug-eye Celica with a handful of parts from the car's virulent older brother, the Celica GT-Four. The crown jewel of the parts list? The 2.0 liter turbocharged 3SGTE, a majestic powerplant on display to the world (but only because the GT-Four hood with the hood scoop that Tanvir ordered has not yet arrived).
Other goodies from the GT-Four parts bin includes the full suspension setup and brakes, rounding off the basis for a GT-Four conversion. Tanvir is already sourcing a rear axle for his prized Celica, so that he can go the full nine yards in his quest to convert it to a GT-Four. The parts list doesn't stop there, however. A handful of smartly picked aftermarket parts complement the OEM GT-Four parts, such as lightweight pulleys, Apexi air intake, custom 2.5 inch exhaust, among others. The gear shifting duties fall on a 5 speed manual gearbox sourced from the SW20 MR2, coupled with aftermarket stage one ACT clutch and pressure plates, while the power is transmitted through a lightweight ACT flywheel. The GT-Four suspension is made stiffer (and the car lowered) by a set of Tien springs, while Ultra Racing front and rear strut bars tighten up the handling. For braking duties, the only necessary upgrade was a set of Project Mu brake pads.
The rally bred GT-Four suspension allows the lowered Celica to go over bumps, rough roads and uneven terrain with the kind of ease you would usually associate with full-fledged SUVs, not a small sports car. It's surprising how easily it could be maneuvered over the unfinished, gravelly and bumpy roads of Uttara as we made our way to the photoshoot location. When there was an empty stretch of pavement though, a downshift and a press of the accelerator pedal resulted in a whoosh from the blow-off valve, and we're off to triple digit speeds in the blink of an eye. It's the best way to experience the power of the 3SGTE at full boost, with the uncovered engine sitting less than a foot ahead of the cabin, grunting and whistling away.
Outside, its quite the looker. The only exterior modification is the ST205 front headlights, but, while my editor vehemently disagrees with me, I find this generation of the Celica to be the prettiest, aside from the first gen TA22 Celica of course. That rear end, a faint mimicry of the Aston Martin DB7, is to die for (something we've extensively debated a bit at the office, for all of two minutes. What do you think? - Editor)
We're eagerly waiting to see what Tanvir does in the future with the already cool project car he has built. The full GT-Four conversion, complete with body parts and four-wheel drive, would be a brilliant sight to see. Look for an update on Shift when the project is completed.
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