Over the past couple weeks, I've taken a bit of interest in late model Toyota Celicas. For some reason you don't see many of them being fixed up these days, but when done right they can be very appealing.
It just so happens that Speedhunters reader Matthew Saatchi captured this very clean looking black Celica at a meet in the Bay Area over the weekend.
Anyone else think these cars offer a lot of potential for the buck?
-Mike Garrett
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That's probably the best looking celica i've seen in a while
It's one of the cleanest celicas I've seen by far. Nico has put a lot of work into this celica, and it has certainly paid off!
The 7Gen Celica is hard to get right. I might be a bit biased since I own one, but the 6Gen GT-Four model is the best of the Celicas for a quick and good looking car. I used to own a 5Gen GT-Four as well, which is available in North America as the All-Trac, and that was also a fantastic car... Until the 4th gear synchro shredded.
@94GT-Four
Yeah I'd agree that the 7th gen Celica is way easy to go wrong. Doesn't help that most of the mods available in Malaysia is inclined towards rice.
Overcome the dead synchro by double clutching!
great - another reason to think about this car again - thought I purged those ideas years ago
Oh yea! Celica is the way to go! i have a 2000 Toyota Celica Gts and have been saving up to slam out that beauty!
it's rare that you see late gen celicas executed with such attention to detail. Any more pictures?
This Celica also caught my attention http://ivyleagueeast.com/2010/12/02/nardicles-rollin/
Im impressed, looks very clean. Anymore picture of this beauty?
Hell yes! I think that the Celica is such a great car. It definitely doesn't get a great rep though. Sometimes I often forget that it is almost like the "other side of the moon" for the Supra.
Thats so weird because I'm almost certain I went to high school with matt saatchi, drove an accord at cal high?
There is a really nice celica driving around Perth, WA at the moment,
supercharged, white with a black roof, fully stanced, Plates are NOOGSTAR
Looks the goods
It's one of the cleanest celicas I've seen by far. Nico has put a lot of work into this celica, and it has certainly paid off!
this one looks the part.. yeah my friend had a UK spec T-Sport VVTLi which was quite hard to find , a lot of people thought they had this particular model but in reality they were few and far between. his was a flying machine - gotta respect the Celica in all its guises really!
These were pretty popular when I went to high school, but mostly with the girls. It really was a tie between Celicas and Jettas, and just like Jettas, Celicas will always be a "girl's car" for me because of that. They're ok, I'd just rather get an RSX. I still dig the yellow drifting Celica seen at Ebisu. http://ll.dev.speedhunters.com/u/f/eagames/NFS/dev.speedhunters.com/Images/Dino%20Dalle%20Carbonare/2010/May%202010/SDM10-P3/IMG_0325.jpg
"Anyone else think these cars offer a lot of potential for the buck?"
nope. this version was fugly as hell and expensive.
I have always thought this gen of the Celica has a very nice shape that has good potential. Unfortunatley they always seem to land in the hands of someone who rices them up (atleast in NZ anyway). Would probably be a different story if there had been a proper GT4 model like the oler gens.
NB. This one is good tho
So sexy!
Anyone have a link to a few more pictures?
i own a 96 gt4 ST205 great car to drive. 7th gen was very much underpowered. where as the gt4 can go bumper to bumper with sti and evo of the time, the 7th gen was more or less pitted against integras and the FTO. nevertheless when done right it can be very good. but that's the same for any car, with enough resources. the 2zz or 1zz engine is very hard to work with. even some mr-s swapped out for K20A engine.
I agree with GT-Four, but the car kind of already looks pleasing to the eye stock.. Just a drop and some nice rims are needed to top off to appearance.. I just wish they provided an AWD version of it with the good ol 3SGTE..
Nicely done...IMO, most to me look like girly cars (one of my cars is a NA Miata) but this is pretty close to complete (exterior wise). So what's in the engine bay?
Check out this site for more pics...
http://www.newcelica.org/forums/showthread.php?t=325235&page=5
Anyone got more info on this car? kit, wheels? A project page perhaps?
Anyone got more info on this? Kit? Wheels? Projectpage/build?
Its funny to finally see a new post anywhere on the 7thgen Celica, my mate has just gotten one. He's talking about a Veilside kit etc.... Been trying to find images to show him just how stanced these cars can get! What's the name of that front bumper? Been trying to persuade to go deepdish 3piece wheels too...
whoa! thanks for putting my car on the site. i've been a fan of s/h for a while and when someone told me they saw my car on here, i didnt believe them. a couple more pics can be found below taken by Anthony Lezada from canibeat.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alezada/5529374973/in/set-72157626148454785/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alezada/5529356871/in/set-72157626148454785/
wow this thing looks familiar, i definitely love the hellaflush/stance scene but i swear this is the same car, its one thing to be low but its another to not know how to drive it low
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6WlvuAkNjQ
I wonder each time I see this car why the design was wasted on a FF model. It had such potential. If toyota had kept it's FR platform around longer, they'd have a much larger fan base.
I think an AWD version with the 3SGTE in it would've been so killer for this gen!!
shoot they did on canibeat of it before the new front bumper was added http://www.canibeat.com/2010/12/nicos-fitted-7th-gen/ the guys name is nico. hes a friend of mine
i love this car. it has a lot of potential, like most celicas
I like it N/A best
A freind had an '05 Celica GTS with the "Action Package" it was alot of crap attached to the car. But, I drove the thing home from Palm Springs after he drank too mach, and damn, that thing was a screamer! Solid, high revving, rode stiff and handled well. I like those things! The engines make sweet japanese music. I don't love FWD Cars, but that was cool. They hold their value too.
Why can't the FT86 concepts look 1% this good?
Is this the "famous" hellafail Celica? Sorry, but these cars are useless. Celica is great, but not this way.
only this one
http://www.japanesesportcars.com/galleries/data/media/67/gt300Celica.jpg
its tiring to hear that its a "chick" car. too much haterade. they're missing out on a helluva FWD car. GT-S can play with MINIs all day. Lookin fresh nico.
heres the link to the canibeat article if any of you were interested
http://www.canibeat.com/2010/12/nicos-fitted-7th-gen/
2zz-ge FTW. 2zz is great engine too bad its not as popular out there you can easily make 400whp with just low comp. forged pistons and a turbo. some can push it to 300whp with just stock pistons which are 11:5.1
Looks great! So clean, uncluttered, great stance and wheels... ah, I wish more people modified cars in a simpler way. The ZZT230/231 looks good when it's properly modified.
doesnt this car have a youtube video of it stuck going down a curb?
all trac 1986-89. Any other celica after that. Boooooooo. Oh my bad, anyone remember that 7th gen that they made into an all-trac. now other than that boooo. And i own the all trac 88.
WOW! Just too bad that Celica's are slow... with bad handling.
Looks nice though.
Haha this looks just like my celica. Greddy front lip, TRD sides and rear. Idk if you're running a spoiler but I have Brashboy's installed. Only thing is my celica isn't slammed on ksports anymore. I had to raise it back up because it's my daily driven car and the potholes are mad crazy out here and was tearing up my underneath.
I'm kind of regretting not submitting pictures of my celica now because I could've gotten a feature lol.
Anyway, nice 7th gen celica man! These haters are just hating because they're all fanboys. Get off the bandwagon haters.
Having my own 282bhp sc 7th Gen celica, I still love the shape and looks it gets. Great car, very reliable and very easy to mod. Why oh why no rwd though....
Thats the same car on the vid...they say his name over and over. Can I ask why the hell were you up there anyways...I'm guessing a photo shoot? And about the girly comment I made, no harm no foul as I drive a Miata half the week.
you probably don't see many celica's done up these days because they're fwd. nowa days it's all about going sideways
ive wanted one of these for quite a while....that one is beautiful.
nice. greddy front doing it right.
I have recently been looking into possibly putting one of these on the track. I am curious to hear the pro and con sides of doing this.