I'm not quite done with my Garage Boso features yet, here's one more Boso-built car you guys might be interested in. The RA21 Celica above is owned by Option Magazine and Tokyo Auto Salon founder Daijiro Inada – a very well known personality both in Japan and abroad. Dai spends a lot of time in LA visiting his brother and taking part in the automotive culture here, so he decided to build a car to enjoy in sunny SoCal. After picking up the project, Dai brought the car over to Garage Boso where the guys got to work on transforming it into a modern kyuu-sha hot rod.
Garage Boso did all the work on the car, from the engine swap and suspension to the paint and bodywork. Some might scoff at the large modern rims and cross-maker engine swap on a classic Toyota, but Dai has never been one to go "by the book".
The engine is a mostly stock SR20DET with a 5-speed transmission. It obviously makes more than enough power to haul the little Celica to "Dai Inada-like" speeds.
The engine isn't the only Silvia part on the car. Dai also wanted complete S13 front suspension up front, including coilovers and five-lug wheel hubs. 17" Gramlights wheels and Advan Neova tires complete the package.
The cockpit remains nearly original, with the exception of a Bride retro style bucket seat, and a Car Make T&E steering wheel. I have a feeling the founder of the biggest tuning magazine in Japan gets some pretty nice hookups on this stuff!
The rear suspension is all original Celica stuff, but Dai wants to find a way to get a complete S13 rear subframe under there. I don't doubt Ross and Frank's ability to do it…
Again, the purists might not be on board with this car, but who cares? This is Daijiro Inada we're talking about here.
If you're in SoCal, keep an eye out for this Celica sliding around at a local drift event or cruising through traffic on one of our packed freeways!
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Those wheels look like comlete crap on that car. I would of atleast kept it toyota going with a 3S-GTE instead of an SR,
Overall I really dont like the car, I'd like it more if it was stock or more original than some flashy wheels and an SR swap. Its not a 240!
Looks great, as a Rotory Purist I can understand how some people may get tweaked. Keep up the good work Daijiro.
2nd and 6th pics down, the negative front camber and the titanium lip meeting the front fender looks pretty cool. I'm an NA guy, so an SR20 with ITB's would be good enough for me. Hope to see Daijiro cruising SoCal in his RA21 Celica.
Dude, sweet ride! I saw Dai at Bonneville during Speedweek in August. He was probably weirded out that a random dude was watching his every move while he was in the 200 Club booth picking up some gear (new red hat, mug, etc.). I dig the classic tin with modern drivetrain. Wish the fitment was better. Wheels are a little big and dont' quite fit the car, but like you said, its Dai.
Awesome.
People who build crazy cars just to piss purists off make me smile.
Love it... lost those rims and fit something smaller and MUCH wider and it would be hot!
I don't mind the SR in the car but the rims spoil the look of the car IMO. I just don't think it suits but each to their own!
nice old celica, and turbo'ed, although its a nissan motor. the rims look kinda big, maybe 16's? smaller and wider someone said, nice one!
Wheels look crap, otherwise mint car!
Beautiful car destroyed by the WRONG wheels
......Wich results very strange being who he is
Wouldn't pitch a fit if Alessandra Ambrosio was wearing stripper heels. Um just happy to see more old school/70's Toyotas! TK. ,~/
I will say Dai has enough respect anywhere that he can do whatever he wishes with his cars, and ain't nobody gonna say crap to him. Including me. All I know is, it makes me yearn for my first car, 1978 Celica...beat that poor thing into the ground, but lemme tell ya it was an absolute blast to drive. Especially in the East SD mountains on dirt roads!! Wish I still had it...RIP
Beams Blacktop and 16" rims with lower offset and this car would be WIN.
Love everything but the wheels, which look like shit.
The wheels are nice....not on a car like that though.
Same thing with the engine. The SR is a great engine....but I would have opted for a classic ITB'ed engine.
Dai is known to have shops building him cars that don't match. The orange 180SX with the 350Z front end is an example, and the newest 180SX with the 370Z front end is another example. Really ugly cars.
Whatever floats Dai's boat I guess......to each his own, right?
How about a mad-turbocharger with the intakes coming out through the hood? Eventually with throttle flaps? I think that and some more bodywork and a lower ride-height would make it a killer machine:)))
I agree with Alex 'bout the wheels. 15's would be nicer.
Dai is awesome. I love this car.
Your wheels are wrong.
awesome car. if the ride height was a little lower it'd be awsome. Loving new motor in old celica ides theres one on the retrorides forum in the uk aswell it can be found here:
http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=36533&page=9
I wonder if daijiro will drift it.
Can Daijiro drift?! I remember seing some videos of him trying to drift and he sucked at it biiiiig time!:))))
That would be a first, to see him actually drift anything:))) No diss to the man, I admire him, but absolutely not as a drifter that he is not! :))) If I'm wrong, would someone point me to some relevant videos of Daijiro drifting? I'd love to see that one!:)))
bride histrix! jealous
top secrets ra21 is sooo much cleaner
Iwow its a beautiful car but those wheels are toooo biiiig for the car.
Wow I hate myself for not visiting the BOSO shop when I was living down their:-(o well,next time
Iwow its a beautiful car but those wheels are toooo biiiig for the car.
Wow I hate myself for not visiting the BOSO shop when I was living down their:-(o well,next time
Smokey's celica is so much cooler in most aspects.
This is far from a bad interpretation though.
this car is crap IMO, but creative idea with transplant and all... but not my cup of tea. and those seats are funny looking., wheels also are good, but dont really fit in with the car etc. could be better
That car looks like crap.
Wheels don't match it, otherwise it's nice. I'd rather see a 3S-GTE in there than the SR20 though.
wow those whools are HIDEOUS on that car. totally ruins it for me, but I'm all for the engine swap, nice work and interesting he wants to get so much S13 suspension in there. would be 100x better with some really custom wheels and not off-the-shelf high-priced fancy-schmancy look-at-me 17's.
i called garage boso to ask about an engine swap. they said they weren't accepting customers at the time. i guess they only accept customers who can promote them in magazines.
This thing looks awful. They ruined a beautiful RA21. The wheel choice is awful, intercooler install is rough and dirty, fender rolling is shoddy, and the jacked up hood looks stupid. It could also use some upgraded brakes and some coilovers or at least some lowering springs/dampers. These cars look AMAZING done properly. This is honestly the ugliest RA21 Celica I've ever seen. After seeing what they've done here I wouldn't let Garage Boso do an oil change on my car (if I didn't do all my own maintenance).
I wouldn't say I'm a purist, but if you're going to mod it, do it right. Good stance, wheels that work with the look of the car, brake and suspension upgrades, drivetrain upgrades to take the power, maybe a bigger single turbo, cleaner installation of the intercooler, Just more attention to detail and less hack-job.
love the car just feeling the rims on it...but hey its his car not mine.
It looks like the front guards have been hacked off by a 5 year old with a pair of tin snips, looks crap. There was plenty of room to hide an intercooler behind the grill in my Celica. I think an ugly piece of metal hanging down at front ruin the beautiful shape of these cars. For the wheels, don't get me started....
i am doing a 14 sr20det swap in a ra21 (73 celica) i love toyota's and would love to do a 3sgte swap but bang for buck and ease of swap you cant beat the sr20det 220hp for $2000.....a little work on the cross member and custom motor mounts....driveshaft....efi fuel pump....lsd...and you have high 12's and 25 mpg....the wheels would look good on a mk3 supra...but big wheels on a 1stgen celica are not for me, 14's or 15's as big as i would go.....
Though I would have gone with a Toyota power plant, the engine swap looks good.
Too bad with those hideous oversized wheels, it make this an EPIC FAIL!!!!
I saw this car before it was done at one of his drift events in july. It has come a long way...and for all the clowns on here banging on the workmanship, you should have seen the condition of this thing before all of the work was done.
and with most things car related, it looks way better in person.
this car is nice. dang everyone loves to clown on cars that they think isnt a purist car, or an ideal car. probably most of your cars will never come close to how nice this celica is. everyone sounds like girls, talking bout hideous, wheels, wrong fitment, too big, epic fail, sound like a bunch of little girls man. tough shiet, have you seen the cars that dai has driven? this car is unique, its what most people dont have today, uniquness. one guy says fail, everyone says fail, fail, epic fail. just shut up and admire it for what it is. yall didnt work on it, and its not your car so eat it! thank you come again.
The engine swap looks nice and tidy but the exterior lets it down that's all. I mean the hood doesn't even look like it can sit flush. I would have thought that if you were going to all the effort, why finish up with a second rate job?
like the engine swap
love the bride seat
but wheels???? not my cup of tea, some old skool 14 or 15 will sure do IMO
thsoe wheels only wider and 16" would look awsome i love the car overall needs some flares!
This is failure because the wheels are completely diproportionate; the lines of the car don't flow with these rims at all (save them for a Lexus). Otherwise, I like the intercooler on the front ,and the engine swap is fine. I'm not sure what the plans are for the body, but a boso-style body kit MIGHT swallow those wheels and change my opinion. It just seems a shame to waste the power on wheels that just suck all the power away.
NIce car, but would have gone lower , with smaller diameter wheels....
SR20DET powered 1stGenCelica...... I had a red 72 powered by an S14 black top eight years ago and I must say it's quite impressive. Yes, I agree with everyone that the car looks like crap but .... it's a project, all work in progress looks like crap! At one time or another my F20C Celica looked like crap, as a matter of fact all the Celica's I've ever own look like crap! Most wouldn't say it looks like crap after the completion of the project back in May 2005 though. Form just looking at the pictures, this guy is going for a bad ass, smog exempt, street Celica that will eventually look very nice!
SR20DET...........................12.5..............And close to 30,MPG.........Drooling for that swap myself .Probley-after a yr or so. I bet he will....// Fix the neg camber, those monster-17"s,... and im sure he will after he reads all theis haten the S14 bling.rims comments...lol.................IMHO. T3 full suspensions,big brake kits,hide the I/C
and TSI Rims I think their 16x9 r and 16x7.5 fronts....Wide body it,like that gray TA22 In beleize , call it done/
Wheels look fugly on there and the "sticks out like a sore thumb" intercooler is tacky. But to each his own. I would've put a 4G63 in it..... oh wait I already did, nvrmnd.
boso "the clown" garage...