94 Toyota Celica Gt4 For Sale
Our Cars: 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four
4 July 2013: Latest arrival: Toyota Celica GT-Four WRC Edition
Like my Lancia Delta Integrale, the Toyota Celica GT-Four was bought on a whim. And just like the Italian car, this Japanese homologation special was bought from Warner Lewis. Clearly the man knows what I like! Maybe, but in all reality, I shouldn't have this car at all, as it certainly wasn't what I was looking for. But isn't that always the way?
My road to GT-Four ownershup started with an innocent Facebook conversation. I'd posted a picture of a Honda Accord Type-R, which was on offer not a million miles from my place for considerably less than £2000. I said that this looked like excellent value for money, for what promised to be a great driver's car that offered a good combination of dynamics, performance, and most importantly, reliability. He posted a response that read something like, 'yes, you could have that, but wouldn't you prefer this?'
'This' being his 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four WRC Edition, which he just so happened to have up for sale.
Now, given that I was thinking in terms of reliabile runabout with a little bit of performance, I should have just said no - but instead I began to seriously think about this car, and what it offered me. And as well as that, admire its good looks, which seem to have improved considerably with age - especially the GT-Four, with all of its intakes, slats and spoilers.
And I continued to think - and soon began to deeply consider. The values today of these cars appear to be on the floor. And I do wonder what that is all about. Of course, all classic car values are based on demand, supply, desirability and fashion, so they pretty much follow a formula - and in the case of the Celica, it's probably so cheap to buy one now, because they're relatively plentiful (damn that reliability and build quality!) and thanks to Toyota being thrown out of WRC for cheating, the ST205 has no motor sport kudos to speak of.
And when they went on sale, these cars were seriously expensive. At least £10,000 more to buy than the Lancia Delta Integrale Evo, Subaru Impreza or Ford Escort RS Cosworth - and although with around 250bhp on tap, the GT-Four promised to be quicker, many testers at the time concluded that it just wasn't worth the extra money. But the Celica was a much better engineered car than these rivals (aside, perhaps, from the Impreza), and that additional money was well-spent.
So, I thought, I thought, and I thought, and decided I'd go and have a look. What could I possibly lose?
Well, the inevitable happened, and after a brief road test conducted at Warp Factor nine, I bought the car. I decided to half-purchase it with family member Matthew Hayward, who at 23 years old, and saddled with a job on a well-known performance car magazine, is perfectly placed to enjoy this brute's finer qualities. Besides, I know these cars cost a fortune to put right if the wrong part goes pop, so sharing the burden seemed like a rather good idea to me.
Being a WRC Edition, our GT-Four is a bit special. This Japanese market model features some of the performance bits that the rally cars featured, such as water injection and anti-lag for the turbo - albeit disabled - under the bonnet. And although power is quoted at 250bhp, my bum dynometer tells me it's considerably more than this. Not that I'm complaining - I'm no averse to a quick one, especially if it has a chassis set-up to match.
As it happened, the drive home in the GT-Four proved very interesting indeed. On the test drive, the whoosh of the turbo, and the huge noise from the enormous exhaust system were amusing enough to raise a chuckle, on the drive back from Warner's place in Gloucestershire, it soon began to get wearing. And as it was more than 30 degrees outside, and I was running the ice-cold air conditioning system (could you imagine that working in your Escort?) there was no chance to open the window to ease the harmonics.
Never mind, it was not a problem - because the car's brilliant handling and excellent steering more than made up for this. In corners, it's truly stable, although the two-way diff allows the flamboyant to kick the tail out on a whim - not that I'd condone sucjh behaviour. As for the acceleration - once the turbo is boosting, the thing is savagely quick. It doen't just fly, but it really FLIES. If the power output figure doesn't start with a three, then my name is Betty Boo.
But it's not perfect, and there are going to be jobs to do. The tyres need replacing as a matter of urgency, and the driver's door seal has perished - so there's far too much wind noise. And as for that exhaust - it just has to go at the earliest possible opportunity.
Then we'll be free to enjoy what is undoubtedly one of the absolute performance car bargains of our age. I'm looking forward to the coming months in this car - and you should too. Buy one now before everyone catches on.
Later: Tyred and emotional »
Updates
The Celica GT-Four gets its MoT for 2014 - but not without a bit of a scare beforehand...
You know we said we needed new tyres? Guess what happened...
4 July 2013: Latest arrival: Toyota Celica GT-Four WRC Edition
With 239bhp on tap and its power delivered through a very clever four-wheel drive system, the Celica GT-Four promises to be an Integrale without the pain...
Source: https://classics.honestjohn.co.uk/our-classic-cars/1994-toyota-celica-gt-four/latest-arrival-toyota-celica-gt-four-wrc-edition/
