Since I have Celicas on the brain this week, how about a decidedly non-stock version? Sure, it looks mostly normal, (save the racing stripes) but as I recall this 1975-77 model has either a Ford or Chevrolet small-block V8. Note the side-exiting exhaust; I believe it also has a nitrous system installed. Yes, this Celica owner likes to go fast!
This vintage of Toyota–Celica or otherwise–is very, very thin on the ground here in the Midwest. I wish I had gotten a picture of the engine. It is a regular to the Coralville cruise-ins, though, so I will report back here the next time I see it.
I don’t usually like hot rods, but this one appeals to me–much more than the space-alien Toyota Mark II David Saunders recently shared with us, at any rate! And turning it into a street rod might well have saved it from the crusher. Cool car!
I like the Pinto next to the Celica. Any photos of it to share someday please?
Way ahead of you–I featured that on Pinto Day–it is actually a Mercury Bobcat: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cruise-night-outtake-runs-like-a-scalded-well-you-know/
I really thought these were good looking cars. Small, underpowered maybe, but good looking.
Looks like it has a tall cowl scope on the hood.
yeah it looks like it has a tunnel ram or some kind of high-rise intake
I like the pre-5mph bumper versions of those cars but I think that one needs to lose the Chevy SS stripes and those wheels don’t belong on anything other than a truck. But its got potential.
No doubt this machine has something under the hood…I always wanted to swap the aluminum Buick 215 V8 I also had in high school into my ’70 Corona Mark II, with the low first gear Vega Saginaw 4 speed I also had then….sigh….but back in the early ’80’s, there were more poor kids than rich ones, and i wasn’t rich. And before anyone asks, I did have the manual transmission bellhousing that is unique to the 215/pre ’64 V6 too
The car my mom was driving when I was born (1985) was a ’77 Celica ST coupe in the same color as this car. Her’s had a trunk rack on it and was the 4 speed manual. My grandmother’s Delta 88 was broken and my mom had to drive herself to the hospital while having labor pains with me, with my grandmother riding shotgun because my grandmother never learned to drive a manual.
My mom loved that car and still talks about it.
It looks like a shot from a custom car magazine circa 1980I can hear AC/DC from the cassette player,it’s a whole lot better built than most of the home brewed cars of the period.Can you change the bumpers for earlier ones or is it a mechanical/legal requirement to have those horrible 5 mph things fitted if fitted from new?
This post just reinforced my suspicion that a mid 70’s Celica would be a great little runner with a SBC in it. Maybe go find one of those Crowns in the other post and make a wicked little sleeper…
Back in 70’s a guy at our local dragstrip had a Datsun B210 with a small block Ford (302 I think) in it. He had it all beefed up with a roll cage, subframe ties and a Ford rear end. It was quite the project and damned fast, too.
I’m pretty sure it is a ’75. The next couple of years shed some of the scrunched-up-Mustang look (very slightly), and the tail lights look familiar. I kept my ’75 until 1984, a hair under 100K miles (needed a truck at that time). If the hood was original, the chrome bits in the vents went away after ’75, in favor of plain louvers.
Mine would get a bit squirrelly on the interstate above 80 mph. I’d hope the tuner did some suspension work…
Not sure how easy it would be to retrofit the older style of bumpers. There was a lot of body change, especially in the back. Better to start with a 73 or 74, if you could find one.