Toyota Celica GT-Four
The owner’s silly rally car. The ST185 Celica became something of a legend in WRC competition in the early 1990s, driven by such legends as Carlos Sainz, and like the Supra was one of the many unique creation to come out of Toyota during the golden age of their sports car programs.
This particular example was daily driven for several years by the founder of Panthera Racing, and as such became something of an infamous staple at exotic car runs throughout the tri-state area in the early 2000s, surprising most with its ability to keep up with the latest offerings from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. It features a fully built 3S-GTE engine chucking out around 400 horsepower, big brakes, a Pectel ECU, rally coilover suspension, and many other tweaks that came about in an attempt to create something between a street and rally car. It has also been used as a testbed for many Panthera-developed systems and products.
Eventually, the decision was made to turn it into a full on race car, a project that is likely to be completed once its owner has more than twelve minutes at a time to work on his own projects. Look for it at various hill climb and rally events… eventually.
This particular example was daily driven for several years by the founder of Panthera Racing, and as such became something of an infamous staple at exotic car runs throughout the tri-state area in the early 2000s, surprising most with its ability to keep up with the latest offerings from Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini. It features a fully built 3S-GTE engine chucking out around 400 horsepower, big brakes, a Pectel ECU, rally coilover suspension, and many other tweaks that came about in an attempt to create something between a street and rally car. It has also been used as a testbed for many Panthera-developed systems and products.
Eventually, the decision was made to turn it into a full on race car, a project that is likely to be completed once its owner has more than twelve minutes at a time to work on his own projects. Look for it at various hill climb and rally events… eventually.