In person, this Celica is a dream machine. Yeah, I said it, dream machine. I actually appreciate Toyota Celicas, so long as they aren’t front-wheel-drive. The original first-gen machines were obvious Mustang-inspired attempts by Toyota to crack the hard nut that had been the American market at the time. We got four-cylinder, peppy little coupes and hatchbacks and Toyota got a pretty stout foot in the door with a younger crowd who wasn’t about Crowns or Hilux trucks. This one is a V8 swap, and it’s hunkered down, and it’s wearing Edelbrock livery with some retro Toyota color slashes. How could we possibly hate this car?
At this point, it’s fashionable to hate the LS in just about anything that didn’t come with it from the factory. Would we love to hear a snotty Toyota four from the day with Webers? Yep. Would a Toyota 1UZ V8 have fit as well? Maybe. But will an LS make this little coupe move? Abso-freaking-lutely. There isn’t a part of this car we don’t like. We can even tolerate the Mustang II-ish front suspension design with it’s shock towers because you now get the beautiful headers. Every little detail you can spot on this car or that Larry Chen shows you is spot-on.
More of this, please. Much more of this.
I had two of these, a ’75 and ’76 long time ago. Fun car to drive but even at less than 10 yrs old, rust started taken there toll on them. Trying to find one today is a struggle.
Changed the image of Jap cars froever, I’d reckon. I loved these little bombs, and the second gen’s, too!
I’d love to have the resources to build one. Nothing crazy. They already have good looks and a very attractive interior. Very Ferrari derivative, actually. Change the hubs up to 5-bolts, add discs in the rear, and put a nice 250-300 horse Toyota four between the fenders. That’d get you easy 13’s, a solid 140-145 top end, and the ability to knock down 30+ mpg. In a great looking car. Make it a very 70’s light metallic green.