Tag: toyota celica (Page 1 of 5)

Toyota Celica ZZT231 bass player [Car spotting]

May 16, 2017 / banpei / 0 Comments

On my way walking to the hospital I encountered this parked Toyota Celica ZZT231. From the rear it stood out with that big fat exhaust pipe and the bass player sticker indicates what the driver does for a hobby. ;)

Toyota Celica ZZT231

The bassplayer is a 2001 Toyota Celica GT-S ZZT231, so that means it is powered by the more desirable 2ZZ-GE engine. The 2ZZ-GE engine is often called the successor of the final generation of the 20 valve 4A-GE (blacktop) where it advances the technology used in the 4A-GE blacktop. The VVTL-i is the successor of the VVT used in the blacktop, where the L denotes the dual camshaft profile.

German Cross

On the inside there was a weird gearshifter knob: it had the shape of a German cross. See it in the video below: Continue reading

Breaking the Celica AA63: the big move

July 30, 2015 / banpei / 1 Comment

This happened today:

I moved the Toyota Celica AA63 to another place that is only 12 minutes away from my home. Much saner than the 1 hour 20 minutes it was now. ;)

I was surprised the 4AGE fired up immediately after not being used for almost a year. Usually when I start the Carina after a month not using it takes a few starts, but then again the Celica AA63 has a fuelpump and injectors while the Carina has a mechanical pump and is carbed. Continue reading

Brilliant: collection of Showa scale model cars

February 4, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

Now this was a big jaw-dropper: two videos of a Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 literally covered in Showa scale model cars. This must be the largest personal collection of scale model cars I’ve seen!

Now if you look carefully enough you can see that each and every scale model car has its own special paint job (mostly kaido racer, race car livery or kyusha kai) and set of (rare) JDM rims! If you count the number of hours it took to make them look this way alone it already is an amazing job!

Now the list of cars, mainly from the late Showa-era, is going to be a lengthy one, but I’ll try to sum up the most important ones:

Toyota Mark II Grande GX71 (duh)
Toyota Soarer GZ10/MZ11/MZ12 (including the Shakotan Boogie Soarer twice)
Numerous Toyota Celica XX GA61
Toyota Celica GT RA45
Toyota Corolla Levin TE27
Toyota Corolla Levin TE71 four door sedan
Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 hatchback
Toyota Corsa AL11
Numerous Nissan Skylines C10, C110, C210, R30
Numerous Nissan Cedric/Gloria 230, 330, 430
Numerous Nissan Fairlady S30
Nissan EXA
Hasemi Skyline KDR30 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Nissan Silvia S110 Super Silhouette kaido racer replica
Isuzu Bellet GT-R
Mazda RX-3

And the list could go on for another 20 or 30 models that I overlooked…

Watch video number one: Continue reading

Family Album Treasures: The Toyota Celica TA22 Family

Family Album Treasures: The Toyota Celica GT family

January 7, 2015 / banpei / 0 Comments

In 1970 Toyota launched the all new Celica family with the high performance 2T-G engine and this car was also better known as the Toyota Celica GT.

Only in 1972 the GT lineup got extended with the “light weight” GTV (Gran Turismo Veloce) and the 18R-G powered 2 litre GT.

Todays Family Album Treasure is actually one of the first 2T-G powered GT models (so a Celica TA22) and you can recognize it by the location of the fuel filler location: Continue reading

Down on the Street: Toyota Celica GTi AT160

October 1, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

If you would have asked me if I would post a Toyota Celica GTi AT160 on my blog I probably would have given you a definite no. But as five years have past since I did the first Down on the Street a lot has changed: cars have become older and some models even have gone almost extinct, just like the Celica T160 series:

Even if the car is the first front wheel drive Toyota Celica it certainly aged very beautifully.

According to the Dutch car register this originally Dutch Celica is a GTi model and is powered by a 1587cc engine, so it must be the 4A-GE powered AT160 model as we only got the 4A-GE powered Toyota Celica GT AT160 and the 3S-GE powered Toyota Celica GT/GT-four ST162. Continue reading

Japanese Rustoseums: the very rare junkyard

August 23, 2014 / banpei / 0 Comments

From various sources (like WasabiCars) I understood that finding a junkyard in Japan is very rare. There are some private yards that are mostly owned by garage owners and use the cars in the yard as spare parts. When I saw this photo of a real junkyard on a Japanese blog I couldn’t believe what I saw:

In this big pile of rust I detected: a Mercury Cougar, a four door Toyota Chaser X30, a Mitsubishi Galant Λ (aka the Mitsubishi/Plymouth Sapporo and Dodge Challenger), a Toyota Celica A60 (maybe an XX?), a Nissan Skyline C210, a Toyota Corona T130, a Toyota Crown MS50 and the nicest of them all: a Toyota Publica van.

More photos of this junkyard can be found here: route0030