6G Celicas Forums

Thought I would put a short post up about my ST205, always open to comments and ideas on what to do next as I am a tinkerer at heart!

I sold my R33 Skyline 4 years ago, previous to that I had a VX220 and a 350z so was enjoying switching cars every year or so. I was really after a 300zx TT with targa top but one that wasn't a certified rot box was proving difficult to find. I saw an ad pop up just 45 mins drive from me for something called an ST205 Celica GT-Four. Now, I grew up in the eighties, I played sega rally - but never really thought of buying a rally car! I thought what the heck went for a look and was genuinely blown away by how many boxes the car ticks without becoming completely compromised in some of the key areas such as performance and handling. I had a 3 year old son at the time, and to be able to throw all his stuff in the boot along with child seat in the back and missus riding shotgun it worked really well!

Anyway, it started off looking like this when I bought the car



I tinkered with a few bits on the interior which was pretty bland and dark inside. I was lucky enough to have a sunroof with the car which helped but wanted to brighten it up a bit and make it a nicer place to be. Sprayed the interior plastics with some pastidip, changed the gear stick and handbrake over, added some chrome sills (super rare option I found second hand) added a double din head unit, new speakers all round, some base in the boot etc. Also added in some LED dash lights and chrome rings to the dials.







There were other touches as well, adding dash cam, wiring up the car so I could add devices/chargers cables for iPhone etc. New car mats (Nicomats) full clean inside leather clean down etc. Changing the rear speakers was a pain, had to remove the seats and everything!

I guess next step was to check the car in at a dyno, recorded a healthy 281bhp



It has a decat and straight through 3 inch exhaust which helps! Otherwise the car is pretty much standard. Under the bonnet I didnt have many concerns as the previous owner had kept it in good condition.




I then addressed two things that were bothering me at the time, which was the ride height and wheel choice! Was not a fan of the hundreds of spokes on the Team Dynamics so switched out for some 5 spokes with a diamond cut lip and some depth to them and also added some Tein springs to drop the ride height around 15mm. Was also a good time to add new rubber so on went some Vredestein Vorti's.



With new wheels comes new geo, so off to get that done, generally it turned out a good tune to the handling



So why not go off to meet ST205 friends!



It was here I fell in love with the look of the silver one in the foreground, more on that later

Also time to do some driving across the country on a road trip to Scotland!



And make it into a UK Jap Car mag



I then looked at the roof, I wanted something that flowed a bit more front to back, the sunroof was black, the visor also (rare OEM Toyota optional extra) so decided to go for a roof wrap



So, the silver car I mentioned earlier, one thing that I didnt quite like with the car was with the skirts and spats the nose looked a bit too 'pointy' for my liking. But I lvoed the flatter more modern look of the silver car with the C-One bumper. So I took a leap and switched it over ending up with this - some people like it some vilified me for ruining the car, ultimately, its my car, I like it, end of story!



So off to the annual Ace Cafe GT-Four meet, 60 fours turn up, in the category of ST205 mine came in second! Gutted, but the winning car had something like £30k thrown at it with custom bodywork, forged engine etc so I was not really in with a chance. And his is white, everyone prefers white maybe haha



So there we have it...I have a machine polisher and do all my own work on maintaining the finish, its a red and stored outside so very aware of colour damage so its always well looked after. It has a web page here even Celica Site

Crazy thing is I usually keep my cars for about 18 months and move to the next, this I have now had for nearly 4 years! Lets see how we go...

Col

Looks good! Your exterior mods seems to be all in the works so I think if anything... MORE POWER!
Once thing I would say is spacers for the wheels. Not sure how the front is but getting some in the back
should let it sit out nicely flushed w/ the car.

which dash cam is that?

It has 5mm spacers all round, the wheels are 35 offset to fronts are about flush rears slightly in, if I wanted the rears further out it would need hubcentric spacers, new bolts etc. as the ones on the car wouldn't have enough length on them. Dash cam is some ebay jobbie from China, I just put it in there but then replaced it with a better brand later on down the line.

I have a quite extensive parts list of mods to the car, in summary what I have done is...

HKS blow off valve
K&N panel filter
Full red Samco hose set - air and water
RTP three point strut brace
'GT-Four' custom aluminium battery stay
Slam panels wrapped in chrome black
Sprayed all cap lids and dipstick in red
Painted the turbo heat shield satin black
Painted the turbo and alternator aluminium
GT-Four vent plate
Shortened throttle cable
Drift oil cap, HKS rad and charge cooler caps
Replaced gear linkage bushes
Japspeed 3 inch stainless steel exhaust
Decat turbo downpipe
Replaced with Fensport: AC belt, PAS belt, Cambelt kit, Water Pump, Thermostat, Rotor Arm & Distribution Cap
Magnecor Silicon Lead set
Replaced all seats with leather seats
Custom GT-Four billeted aluminium gear knob
Leather sports steering wheel
Sparco aluminium handbrake cover
Black leather gear and handbrake gaiters
Chrome dial rings
Ice Blue dash LEDs
JVC double din head unit with BT and hands free
Pioneer 8inch three way speakers 2013i (80RMS)
Alpine 6.5inch two way speakers G-Series (50RMS)
Alpine SWE-815 active subwoofer and enclosure
Custom GT4 car mats
Toyota Genuine Chrome kick plates
Door latch chrome covers
TRD rear spats with TRD side skirts
C-One replacement front bumper
Riser blocks from the WRC model for the rear spoiler
Genuine Toyota rear sun visor
Clear lenses/indicators all round
Face lift rear lights
Gloss black wrapped roof
Black GT-Four decals on riser blocks
KYB shocks
Tein lowered springs
Replacement OEM top mounts front struts
Braided brake hoses
Fully refurbished brake callipers
Replaced Camber Control Links
Replaced ARB Links (Fig 8s)
Rota GTR wheels 18x8 35 offset
Vredestein Vorti tyres
Neo Chrome nuts and caps
Geo set-up at Wheels in Motion
Evora slotted Discs
Red Stuff EBC Pads

More power? I think I am going to sit on it for now, more power even though its safe to run up to around 330bhp on these engines will ultimately shorten the engine life. It has about 92k miles on it at the moment and to be honest its got plenty of poke at the moment. When it comes to sale time I like to think it will be sold as a stock engined car which has been meticulously looked after!

Muy guapo, aun que yo dejaría puesto el paragolpes delantero de origen.

Un saludo

Thanks, gracias! The bumper is a polarising thing, people either love it or hate it. With the side skirts and rear spats the front looks odd in my view, its too high, too long and makes the car look out of proportion even the front spats didnt really change that. If you have the side skirts you do need to add at the least a lower lip to make the bottom lines of the car run clean around the car. Anyway that was my thinking, it looked a bit 'pointy' otherwise the replacement makes it look more modern. But hey its all subjective.

Got a new knob for it at the weekend, custom all aluminium 300g, have ordered some suede and am going to make my own gaiter to go with it too.

Ah I see, I ran 20mm hubcentric spacers in the back at one point and it was good.
I'd still say that's something to go w/. I forgot the brand of mine but it's good quality.
The only problem is to make sure your wheels have the gap in the back or else you're going to have to go the spacer + longer studs route.

What about the headlights? The JDM HID one's would be a good upgrade.

And mmmm that knob looks good, where'd you get it?

This post has been edited by TimeslideZ: Oct 1, 2018 - 12:29 PM

I have the car lowered so a little concerned about arch rub, maybe could stick the wheels out further but maybe a project for next year. The projector headlights are a minimum £400 used which seems a little rich to replace some headlights I have at the moment that work fine, I hardly ever drive in the dark anyway so it would be a bit of a vanity purchase more than anything. £400 could be better spent elsewhere.

Knob was done by a trader on ebay called m-tech, I always use them. You basically ask them what you want and send them a design and they will make it for you, that was £40 and its threaded on not held on with cheap pins that you pin in from the sides.