6G Celicas Forums

I know this is about the 7th Gen celica but they would'nt be so reliable if it wasn't for their babies. It was about a 24hr race in Austrailia.

Crelica...



Unstoppable Celicas First And Second In Class At Bathurst

25/11/2003:
Two near-standard Toyota Celicas have finished first and second in their class in the grueling Bathurst 24 Hour race last weekend.

The 1.8-litre Celicas beat cars with engines as much as three times larger, due to superior handling, braking and reliability.

The winning Celica took out Class E by more than nine laps.

Both road-registered Celicas were driven to Bathurst and then back to Sydney after the race on Monday, none the worse for wear.

In 24 hours of racing at maximum revs, the Celicas’ twin-cam engines used only 250ml (a quarter of a litre) of oil each.

The Celicas used the same brake pads throughout the race and needed just two replacement front tyres each to complete the round the clock marathon.

Car owner Colin Osborne, who shared the winning Celica SX with John Roecken and Trevor Keene, said the cars required little more than refueling during the race while their rivals replaced components regularly.
The class-winning Celica completed a total of 2708.87km – the distance between Melbourne and the Cape York Peninsula – in the course of a single day.

It completed 436 laps of the daunting Mount Panorama circuit at an average speed of 112.62km/h.
Apart from mandatory safety equipment, the Celicas only differ from those on the showroom floor in having minor suspension and exhaust modifications. They also use racing brake pads.

“The cars are close to standard and we basically didn’t touch them during the race,” said Mr Osborne, who won last year’s Australian Production Car Championship outright driving the same Toyota Celica SX.

“The Celica was one of the smallest capacity cars in the race so we lost a bit of ground to the big V8s going up the hill, but we were blowing the other cars away in the twisty stuff across the top of the mountain.

“It’s just amazing to use only a quarter of a litre of oil in such a demanding race and we finished without a scratch, so the car is basically ready to do another 24 hours.”

Osborne Motorsport is an amateur team, using only volunteer helpers to prepare the Celicas and tend them at race meetings.

Thats sweet!

Most people don't understand how hard a race that long is. Its insanely hard on the cars, the drivers and the crew. Even if the car prep is perfect you can still have a lot of bad luck in a race that long. Just finishing is a HUGE accomplishment. I just got back from the 25 hours of Thunderhill, the longest roadrace in north america. It was insane. We were running our spec miata which is a mostly stock miata with suspension and a cage. We finished, but not without problems. We had one driver that was particularly hard on parts and broke a differential and a radiator as the result of several off-course excursions. Despite our troubles we ended up 33 out of 75 overall and 12th in class. We were happy with that, but mostly, we were just glad to get to sleep!!

How do you get involved in something like that? When did you first start doing that kind of thing, and how did you get started?

I always believed that the Celica and Toyota in general are probably the best. Now i have proof.

now just imagine if there were any 6gc GT4's in that race. or even any 6gc with a 3SGE engine.

/*Life story mode on

I've been involved in racing since I was about 13. At 15 I was the part time crew chief and engine builder for my familys 11sec drag car. I started autocrossing when I was 18. I've been to the National Championship 3 times and have consistently finished just out of the trophies several times (I was one cone away from a 12 place the last time I was there). I ran some of the Pro Solo National series a couple years ago and trophied once and won the Bonus Challenge Round once (all the autox was on a college student budget). While I was autoxing I was going to Kansas State University and I just graduated last may with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. I knew I wanted to work in racing and thats all I even looked for. I turned down several other job offers making more money so I could do this. I now work for Wheels America Racing in Dallas as a Crew Chief and Team Engineer. We primarily run the Speed World Challenge Series in the Touring class. Check out www.speedvisionwc.com for more info. We have 2 complete BMW 325Ci World Challenge Cars and are currently constructing 2 more. In our spare time (haha, funny joke!) we run a Spec Miata (this is what we ran in the 25 hour) and an ITA 240SX.

Its a fun job but its a LOT of work. Its rare that I acutally work a 40 hour week, usually its more than 60. I get to travel a LOT. I'm gone like almost half the time. I've been in something like 25 different airports this year.

Anyway, sorry for the novel

/*life story mode off