The whole idea of a sleeper is to hide in plain sight with the giant hammer hidden behind your back. The problem with putting a Q-ship together is that you have to start with a car that few would ever suspect…and when the car is older than 20 years old, suspicion kicks in just because it’s still around. This is where you need to get creative with your choice of vehicle, and that’s where this 1983 Toyota Celica notchback wins so hard. This was the last generation of rear-wheel-drive Celica, so that is going for it, but in lieu of a turbo motor or a highly-strung four-banger, there is the 1UZ-FE 4.0L V8 from a Lexus sitting in the engine bay, hooked up to the Celica’s five-speed. On the outside, you’d never know it…the worn red paint and the cool split-four Toyota wheels look perfect. The seller claims that the Celica will still pass California emissions, which if true, makes this little Toyota just that much more badass! They are neat little cars and the power package ought to make this work wonders…for $5,500, we could stretch the budget to take it. The cost to duplicate it would be quite a bit more than that!
Craigslist Link: 1983 Toyota Celica GTS Coupe
That’s more like it!
A builder who stays faithful to the original manufacturer’s range of powerplants and isn’t an oil-burning LS junky. Top marks for imagination and originality..
Did I make a wrong turn into Tuners? if so, we need to know whether or not this will stance right. Did they get the right BOV? does it have a swirl port on the intake? I like that you’re embracing your feminine side with the pink car, calling it “faded” is nice to try to cover up your love of pink.
To the car – do you honestly believe that the cute, little Aisin 5 speed and/or the rear differential is going to hold 400 hp even once? While it’s a neat idea to stuff a big motor in a small car, if you do nothing to make it last it’s nothing more than a curiosity…. an import curiosity.
Work on one of those LS400 V-8’s and get back to me. You’ll be thanking me from here to eternity.
It’s funny how they call it a “LS”400!
They aren’t bad at all. Starter under the intake is a pita if it fails otherwise its not bad. A good friend of mine has a stock valve cover-pan long block with twin 62mm precision turbos on it, with a t56 manual behind it in his 72 Toyota Celica. Makes 630 at the tire on 15psi. Hes assembling a forged bottom end for it as we speak with dreams of 1000hp on high boost. Its a pretty epic build.
TYPICAL Craigslist ad: no shots of the engine bay, no interior shots and all shots badly framed.
ALSO: according to the text, the LS400 donor transmission is also installed, not the stock 5-speed that the Celica originally had. While I could Google whether this car ever had a LSD, I won’t as I’m pretty sure that it didn’t which would lead to some epic one-wheeled burnouts. If it does have a limited slip I would expect rapid diff failure when the slicks hook up.
Yet … I still totally want this.
My theory behind this post is it’s well known that McSasquatch loves his Mopars; Mopars are imports; and now that he’s acknowledge his love of imports this is the natural result. All he needs to do is feature a German car and his entire life will be the Axis of Evil.
I take offense, sir. I’ve always maintained that I love pretty much any car that isn’t a Ford Granada-based vehicle. And you’re right in that I love imports…let me find the keys to a Ferrari 288GTO one time and I promise you, the felony charges I’d rack up would be oh, so worth it. Even you couldn’t spring me on a technicality!