Richee3's Progress thread., Wilwood BBK installed. Options

[navseal345]

I demand some AWD snow fun videos.

[richee3]

very nice improvements. a little love goes a long way.
that thing is just begging for a c-one lip.

Good thing I have a buffer and plenty of compounds! The interior barely needed anything. Malek took good care of it.

and the fun $$$ begins.

It’s not fun spending that much money on such short notice but it’s not every day a GT4 pops up for sale 45 minutes away from you either.

You owe yourself some fanfare, that is ridiculous.

As long as fanfare is free, because I’m broke now.

that Por15 says "For professional use only."

Looks awesome man! It was a pleasure meeting you and Bridgette along with the Supra. Good people with cool cars!

Those wipers always annoyed me. Now I get to watch you do all the things I wanted to do lol enjoy it!

It was great meeting you as well! The POR15 turned out a little glossier than I would like, so I may have to try something different. At this point the plan is to enjoy it. Taking it up to Fort Collins tomorrow.

I demand some AWD snow fun videos.

I’m debating whether I want to or not. Those pictures would be awesome but I’m also paranoid about driving it in the snow.

[navseal345]

I mean, I could do it for you if you are scared. LMAO

[SwissFerdi]

Auto dreams > money

[narly_charley]

Auto dreams > money

Wish I could live that life...

[SwissFerdi]

I mean, it's generally a question of for how long...unless it's not. I sold the Celica because I couldn't justify three. The bike is so cheap it almost doesn't count.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Dec 27, 2018 - 9:26 PM

[bloodMoney]

Get some more info up on those wheel and tire specs. They look awesome.

[richee3]

Auto dreams > money

Wish I could live that life...

I mean, it's generally a question of for how long...unless it's not. I sold the Celica because I couldn't justify three. The bike is so cheap it almost doesn't count.

Perks of being a DINK- double income, no kids. It’s a terrible decision financially, but we did it anyway.

Get some more info up on those wheel and tire specs. They look awesome.

The only think I know about them is that they are Lehrmeister Type 3 wheels, and they look like legit 3 piece wheels. Specs are unknown, 17x8, maybe? They have 215/45/17 tires that have a slight stretch so I think they are 8”.

[punkxrckprincess]

I cannot wait to see this in person.

[slavie]

I know where those projector headlights on exactly that GT-Four came from

Nice buy.

[richee3]

Haven’t had as much time as I’d like to work on the cars lately but I’ve got a little bit done. October 2017, I replaced the fuel tank on the white car. December 2018, I walk into the garage one day and smell gas. Of course the new fuel tank is leaking. Had to run the car pretty low on gas, sand the tank down, and put some Quicksteel on it. People of the internets say it works decently well but I suspect I’ll be replacing the fuel tank again soon. I spent part of my day today putting new battery terminals in the car (the ones I bought when I did my battery relocation didn’t tighten down on the Optima tight enough but oddly they were great on the Interstate battery I had before) and hooking up a backup camera. The backup camera really isn’t necessary but it didn’t cost me anything and the wife likes it. Ran into one small issue but otherwise a pretty easy install and it works great.





In GT-Four related news, I spent part of last weekend putting the stock downpipe back on so the car will pass emissions to get it registered. Turns out as of January 1st, Colorado requires a new form for RHD cars to go through emissions so now I get to jump through those hoops just to get the paperwork. I replaced the bulbs in the gauge cluster and key ring light with white LED’s since I’ve never been a fan of the stock green, and replaced the license plate bulbs as well. That’s when I found out that someone has done the independent fog light mod on this car. Not something I’ve ever been interested in doing myself but it’s nice to see that it’s done.




I also spent a little time tidying up some small things, nothing really worth mentioning, but I did disable the T-VSV so the car will run full boost in first gear. But I also turned the boost down when I was cleaning things up, so I honestly don’t even know what the boost is set at right now. No sense in even trying to dial it in with the stock downpipe on. We’ve decided that the Greddy boost gauge in the car has to go too. No sense in looking at a boost gauge that reads in BAR and trying to do the conversion in your head while doing a WOT pull, so we picked up a new Prosport Evo boost gauge. It’s 52mm where the Greddy gauge is 60 mm, so a new gauge pod is in order too. We haven’t ordered one yet but we’ll be getting a wideband soon so we ordered a cheap A-pillar pod for now and we’re eventually going to switch to one of the nicer dash mounted pods.

The Greddy gauge and Greddy pod:






The new Prosport gauge and pod with a sad, empty hole in it that needs a wideband:






Not the nicest boost gauge ever but it reads in PSI and does the job. Took one of the wheels off to test the Superstrut with a pry bar and snapped a picture of the wheel specs while I had it off. Needs scrubbed pretty bad...



17x8 as far as I can tell, which is what I had guessed they were. +35 offset with what looked like 20mm spacers but I didn’t take the time to measure them. Thanks to Alex, I keep looking at Gram Light 57CR’s... gotta do a lot of other things first though. Good news is that the front brake pads still have some life left in them and the Superstrut passed the pry bar test with no play at all.


We took the twins to a Cars and Coffee this morning. Didn’t bother taking great pictures but here’s what I got.











After owning the car for a couple of weeks, I’ve found a few things. First and foremost, when you turn, this car turns. It changes direction much better than our FWD car. The tradeoff seems to be suspension composure. The GT4 isn’t rough or overly stiff but the suspension is easily upset over bumps compared to a Macpherson equipped Celica. A Macpherson strut Celica can hit a bump or several back to back and keep going, where the Superstrut tends to get upset over moderate or multiple bumps. It rides just as smooth if not smoother than our white car on Sportlines so I doubt if it’s bad struts or springs, just more like the reason why the rally cars switched back to Macpherson. Other differences are minor but after owning USDM Celicas, it’s just unusual to see the differences. No dimmer for the gauge cluster, the lights don’t automatically shut off after you shut the car off and open the door, windows won’t still roll up after shutting the key off, the driver window is auto up in addition to auto down, no electric lock switch on the passenger door, and who knows what else I haven’t found yet.

[navseal345]

And then?

[punkxrckprincess]

How many people thought the GT4 was a Supra at this one?
You guys are the coolest haha. I thought we were cool with our pair of twins but your pair of twins are way better

This post has been edited by punkxrckprincess: Jan 6, 2019 - 11:36 AM

[BonzaiCelica]

im sure you getting the feedback from suspension in the steering wheel, but still not an apples to apples comparison. you need a fwd only superstrut car with exact suspension to compare honestly. anyway. nice pics.

[enderswift]

Looks good bro, cant wait to see it in person. I can tell you from first hand experience that the extra unsprung weight is likely what's causing the suspension upset. Its a small price to pay for the stellar gains in handling otherwise. SS is a weapon on smooth twisty tarmac

[richee3]

I know where those projector headlights on exactly that GT-Four came from

Nice buy.

A much-needed addition to the car! I for one am grateful that this car already has them. You don't happen to have a spare ST205 front lip laying around, do you?

And then?

And then *poof* money disappears from my bank account.

How many people thought the GT4 was a Supra at this one?
You guys are the coolest haha. I thought we were cool with our pair of twins but your pair of twins are way better

Two that I heard. Potentially a third if you consider the douche that started telling his friends about how Toyota took a Lexus and turbocharged the engine to make these cars, then got all butthurt when I told him he was thinking of the Supra and that these are Celicas, so he ran off. And your twins are awesome!

im sure you getting the feedback from suspension in the steering wheel, but still not an apples to apples comparison. you need a fwd only superstrut car with exact suspension to compare honestly. anyway. nice pics.

I would LOVE to feel a Superstrut equipped FWD Celica for comparison. The GT-Four changes directions quickly and easily compared to our GT and I really haven't even pushed it yet. Hopefully this summer I'll take it up in the mountains a few times to see how it really handles.

Looks good bro, cant wait to see it in person. I can tell you from first hand experience that the extra unsprung weight is likely what's causing the suspension upset. Its a small price to pay for the stellar gains in handling otherwise. SS is a weapon on smooth twisty tarmac

Interesting... you're building a case for the Gram Lights. I'd love to have a set but they aren't an ideal size for the car at 17x9. Better options in 18" but I don't know if I want to put 18's on it.

[NgoFcukinWay]

do the 57CRs. I'm on the fence about 17s or 18s as well, but after looking at the sizes in 18s, I'm not sure how they'll fit. If you do the 5X114.5 conversion, you can run the square set-up of 18x8.5 +37 because the 18X8.5 +45 in 5x100 would give you sunken wheels and you'd wanna run a spacer to get them to set close to flush.

[Tigawoods]

dont you dare put CRs on that.

anything less than 6 spokes or 5 spoke split and you are basically celica hitler.

[cheela]

don't listen to ^that guy.
He's always doing extra things to be extra.

remember, less is more. Go 3 spoke.

[richee3]

do the 57CRs. I'm on the fence about 17s or 18s as well, but after looking at the sizes in 18s, I'm not sure how they'll fit. If you do the 5X114.5 conversion, you can run the square set-up of 18x8.5 +37 because the 18X8.5 +45 in 5x100 would give you sunken wheels and you'd wanna run a spacer to get them to set close to flush.

I’ve already got small spacers but if I spend the money for new wheels, and thats a big if, I’d prefer not go run spacers at all. I don’t know how the 5x114.3 conversion would go with AWD. I assume an AWD Rav4 hub would work but I don’t know for sure.

dont you dare put CRs on that.

anything less than 6 spokes or 5 spoke split and you are basically celica hitler.

OZ Chronos are 5 spoke. ‘nuff said. Plus YOU’RE NOT MY DAD!

don't listen to ^that guy.
He's always doing extra things to be extra.

remember, less is more. Go 3 spoke.

No spokes. Gonna put some sawblades on it.


Today I got the car to pass CO emissions. Took three tries because Colorado now requires a form for RHD gray market cars that Malek didn’t need to have, so I couldn’t get it tested on the first try. I had to take it by an inspection center to get it inspected and get the form, then we tried to test it again and the testing center threw a fit about the low profile tires so we had to go to a third place. They tested the car just fine, passed it, and now I can get the car registered. Got insurance on it last week and I won’t disclose how much it costs but let me just say.... damn. You’d guess wrong. Anyway, pikchars.




Rolled over 90k miles shortly after leaving the testing station. It’s getting old, time to sell it.



Got the new key in today as well. They definitely aren’t the same quality they used to be.



We also may have picked a color to vinyl wrap it to hide the paint imperfections.