Descripción
1994 Toyota Celica gt-four ST205 WRC
WRC homologation car, 1 of 2500 WRC cars built, 1 of 2100 built for the Japanese market, non-sunroof model with no ABS. 3sgte 2. 0 Turbo AWD.
The car has had two UK keepers other than myself. The chap I bought it from, then the chap who originally imported it and who carried out most of the work on the car. Both of whom were avid members of the Gt-four owners club.
The car was originally imported from Japan as a mostly unmodified example, the original owner imported two gt-fours together, this one and a damaged high spec race car with loads of rare bits. He swapped the good bits from the race car to this and some more work to make it what it is. He also swapped rare bits from other Gt-fours he imported onto this car. The car was well know in the UK Gt-four owners club scene back in the 2000’s and is still recognised online.
The car was built in March 94, First registered in Japan in April 94, last registered in Japan in 13/ 12/ 2002, imported to the UK in 2003, first registered in the UK in 17/ 04/ 2003 and I took ownership in September 2020, though I’ve know the car and the previous owner since around 2015. MOT until 25/ 05/ 23 (8months) flew through the last two MOT’s while I’ve owned it. Theres 2 keys and two remote fobs.
The Mileage is displaying 60426 in miles, The mileage when I got the car was 59493. I believe the kilometres were converted to miles when imported although I don’t have documentation that I can see regarding the mileage, the drivers door jamb has some Japanese service history stickers, the last one is 72652km (45143 miles) so I assume this wasn’t far from when the car was imported. The MOT history goes back to 2006 when the mileage was 53, 384. I have a reasonable amount of service history however most of it is from my ownership. I didn’t receive much in the way of paperwork from the previous owner, as purchasing the vehicle from him was a bit unplanned and he didn’t have much time to prepare his paperwork and the dyno graphs.
The original owner had an import business and the paperwork he had to do with the car is packed in with all the other vehicles he imported at the time, so it’s not an easy task for him to go through it. He did forward me the import documents and invoice he had saved on his pc files which I’ve printed. I’ve just had a ‘carvx’ report done which is basically a Japanese HPI check in order to get together some more history on the car, which came back clear.
Please don’t message me before reading the entire description, as pretty much everything you need to know about the car is written here.
The Price is: £16495
Price wise I feel the asking price accurately represents the current condition of the car including its flaws, that being said there is some room for negotiation to a certain extent. Only I will be driving the car until I’ve been paid for it.
Walk around video:
- details above
I have loads more photos so please ask if there’s anything specific you’d like a photo of.
This is the spec list from the original owner:
Fully rebuilt Forged engine
ARP fastners
Uprated mains and shells
Balanced crank and rods
JE Pistons
TRD thermostat
Greddy Trust equal length manifold
TD06 20G L2 turbo MHI Mitsubishi (rebuilt)
Greddy Trust external wastegate, vented to atmosphere on a short downward screamer pipe
3" Fujitsubo Giken titanium mid and back box exhaust, the rest is 3” stainless.
(No catalytic converter)
Huge Greddy Trust front mount intercooler
Relocated gearbox cooler and second PS cooler
Custom alloy boost pipes
HKS intake on custom hard pipe (new filter)
HKS SSQ BOV
Water injection (Flojet pump)
Walbro 255l/ m fuel pump (recently replaced)
Most hoses replaced with silicone
Stand-alone Apexi Power FC ECU and boost control kit, with FC datalogit software with boost switch and anti-lag facility (which I’ve not used)
Fensport Twin plate Organic clutch
Blitz 850cc injectors
Did 11. 91 sec 1/ 4 mile at a GT4 challenge day, came second only to the fensport cars that year.
Highest spec TRD coilovers with pre-load and ride height adjustment as well as camber, damping adjustment and Pillow ball top mounts.
TRD brake pads
17” Forged Rays Volk SE37K alloys with centres, just been refurbished, no cracks or flat spots.
Brand new Michelin PS4’s on the front and good tread PS3’s on the rear.
Recaro SR front seats (drivers bolster worn)
Recaro front sliding seat rails
Rare option perforated leather rear seats
Rare option leather Toyota speaker 10 door cards
Mini disc player or CD player supplied
Blitz active auto turbo timer
Blitz dual - SBC boost controller
TRD short shift (rare and sought after)
Momo gear knob
Momo steering wheel, also comes with a padded leather 3 spoke oem steering wheel.
TOM's carbon fibre clock surround (Very rare)
UK speedo head
4X Greddy steppermotor memory/ warning guages (oil pressure, water temp, EGT & boost)
Innovate LC-1 wideband AFR
Water injection pressure gauge
Custom alloy water injection tank
FET sports Jdm front strut brace
GAB Jdm rear strut brace (I also have the oem)
Late spec rear light clusters
Clear side repeaters
Jap & UK rear number plate surround supplied
WRC rear spoiler
ABS removed and replaced with equal length solid pipe work.
Rare non-fog light front grill
Toad alarm system
Mishimoto radiator
Toyota Hyper sports floor mats
(Probably more I’m forgetting)
Recent work carried out:
Recent timing belt, tensioner pulley & hydraulic tensioner, idler pulley and water pump done at 59k miles in sept 2020.
Coolant replaced
I’ve done 3 oil and filter changes while I’ve had it using Millers CFS Nanodrive motorsport oil.
Rear diff oil replaced with millers hypoid GL5
Gear oil replaced with millers motorsport 75w90
New genuine valve stem oil seals
Recent fuel filter, Genuine HKS filter, HT leads, Rotar arm, and distributer cap.
Drive belt tensioner bearing
Genuine Toyota front brake flexi hoses
Brake fluid change
New wiper blades
New water injection inline filter
New boot strut dampers
Recent walbro 255 fuel pump
New PCV valve and grommet
Genuine Cam cover gasket, plug seals and washer seals.
Refurbished alternator inc new rectifier, brush pack, bearings and aqua blasted casing.
Alloys have just been refurbished inc new front Michelin pilot sport 4’s.
New genuine boot lid badges now discontinued
New Bosch o2 lambda sensor for the Wideband AFR
Recent drive belt and power steering belt
Recently replaced Yuasa battery
Exhaust gaskets
4x Brakes stripped and serviced inc new rear sliding pins & brake shoes adjusted.
Rear arb drop links
Fully resprayed in the oem 040 ‘super white’
Paint work flatted and detailed
(Probably more I’m forgetting)
Recently powder coated bits:
Wiper arms
Cam cover
Tank straps and brackets
Various engine bay brackets
Engine:
The original owner had the car mapped with standard internals, 360 BHP @ 1 bar and 397 BHP @ 1. 2 bar. The next owner then had 850cc injectors fitted, a new clutch and the mishimoto radiator done by YVS Performance, then tuned again with the forged internals. I didn’t get an exact figure from him, or a print out, but a touch over 400 was mentioned. I’ve been meaning to have a rolling road run done but I haven’t got round to it. It’s always been running 1. 2 bar while I’ve owned it and it’s never skipped a beat, the water injection wasn’t mapped in so there is more potential with the car, but I’ve always been happy with the power it has and the way it runs.
When it did the 11. 91 1/ 4 mile with the original owner it did have a different top end setup, at that time it had a ported head and HKS cams running 420bhp, but I can’t imagine the current setup would be much different. The current block is at an 87mm overbore, if you wanted to go any further with the bore size it would need sleeving. It’s running NGK BKR7EIX Iridium plugs. I switched the TRD thermostat for a new oem temp one as I’ve only used the car for street driving, but I’ve kept hold of it as a spare.
The engine does smoke when in boost when cold, it clears up when the engine is up to temp after about 10 mins of driving. I notice it as I only live a mile from my work and it’s all up hill on the way home so it can be difficult in that situation to keep it below 3k rpm when cold and the engine doesn’t get chance to get up to temp. In most driving scenarios it’s not noticed, especially if kept in vacuum while cold and once it’s up to temp it’s pretty sweet.
I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination but this problem does seem to be improving, the last owner left the engine for relatively long periods of time between runs and didn’t drive the vehicle for a fairly long stretch before I bought it. I was thinking it could be perhaps a sticking control ring which might explain why it seems to be improving with runs, in an ideal world it could probably do with re-ringing even though it is perfectly drivable as it is, I changed the stem seals with genuine Toyota ones thinking it could be the cause, but they didn’t make a difference. Either way it’s a highly modified race spec engine in a 90’s Japanese car. It’s perfectly useable as it is, it just helps to be fully up to temp before it hits boost. I may be being a tad overly critical with this, but I prefer to be honest, I can take videos if requested and the vehicle can be viewed with the engine cold.
I had to helicoil the thread for the bolt that the belt tensioner pivots on, turns out it’s very common for the thread to strip out when removing the bolt from the head and I learnt the hard way. I’ve done good mileage with the helicoil and a good few hour motorway run, it’s been fine so I’m not overly concerned about it.
All the air conditioning components are still intact, it doesn’t blow cold air although I suspect it will most likely just need a re-gas, it’s one of the jobs on my to do list. The turbo is sweet, there’s next to no play in the compressor wheel and does not pass any oil into the cold or hot side, the original owner also had the turbo reconditioned costing £600. All cylinders have good compression 170-180psi last time I checked. I’ve run it mostly on V-power and occasionally on Momentum. Some of the unnecessary ‘WRC’ engine bay bits were removed when some of the modifications were carried out, I can get a specific list of what’s still there and not there if required.
Bodywork:
The car clearly has never been welded and does not need it, the car has its original sills and arches and they are near mint. All the oem spot welds are still factory fresh, I can provide numerous pictures from before the respray to show the condition of the body work inc the arches etc. I didn’t originally intended on fully respraying the car, my paint tech friend and I went over the paintwork and more or less decided ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’. It wasn’t done to cover any nasties, it was only done because of the faded, aged paintwork and to make the car look it’s best again.
The paintwork is to a good standard but not perfect, there are some imperfections but nothing overly noticeable, the bodywork gets a lot of compliments and I am naturally quite critical.
When it was imported it had a C-one spoiler fitted, the original UK owner removed it and fitted the WRC spoiler (fibreglass riser blocks), the riser blocks were body coloured and I had them done in black out of preference.
It came from Japan with the black rectangle rear number plate surround, but the car does come with the choice of both. The front grill is an original non fog light grill which if you know gt4’s then you’ll know they’re very hard to find and are sought after. The rear fog light works in the offside tail light cluster as a normal fog light should. The power folding mirrors don’t fold in properly, theres a common problem with the plastic gears stripping the teeth, I have one replacement mirror and I’ve been meaning to order another, they’re only £30 used. The engine bay could do with a detail, I’ll see if I can get round to it. I recently replaced some heat wrap on the down pipe but it’d help tidy up the engine bay if more of the older wrap was replaced.
Drivetrain, under body & chassis:
The exhaust is surprisingly quiet and I imagine it will pass most track day tests, the titanium mid and backbox are a proper work of art.
The front arms are in good condition, doesn’t have the common expensive figure of 8 or Superstrut issues that these cars often suffer with, there’s no play in the wheels or ball joints and no dreaded knocking noises from the front end.
The clutch hasn’t done many miles, it isn’t too heavy like a lot of twin plates and holds the torque perfectly. It does have a little rattle which can be heard only when the pedal is fully depressed, apparently this is normal with this type twin plate clutch setup.
There is a problem I recently experienced for the first time in 2 years of ownership, during it’s first motorway journey I noticed that between 55-65mph if you let off the throttle harshly there is a drivetrain noise while on overrun, which goes away when the clutch is depressed. From my experience I believe it is probably the main shaft bearing causing it. It didn’t do it when I eased off the accelerator. I’ve not noticed this before or since, it would appear there needs to be quite specific circumstances to be able to hear it.
The fuel tank was removed and fully stripped, upol epoxy primed and coated in black upol raptor then refitted with the powder coated straps etc. The underbody of the car isn’t one of those where you can eat your dinner off of it, I can provide pictures and videos of the underbody or of any specific areas requested.
If you wanted it to be mint underneath, it would be nice to have the subframes powder coated and the under body treated, but it’s not really necessary. At least the underbody hasn’t been covered up and had gremlins hidden with underbody sealer like most 90’s jap cars, the new owner can see the true underbody condition for them selves and have the job done properly if they choose. When I had the fuel tank off the car I prepped the rear under body area under the tank, from the rear axle back, it was coated in upol epoxy primer and tintable upol raptor with body colour mixed in. My intention was to make my way forwards and eventually do the rest of the underbody but I haven’t gotten round to it. I have many pictures of the before and after, so in summary 2/ 3 of the underbody still has its original finish (albeit with an aged appearance) and the rear most 1/ 3 is treated and body coloured.
The TRD coilovers have been fitted to the car for a long time and you can tell by looking at them, although they do work very well and aren’t a particularly stiff ride like you often get with Jdm coilovers. There is a rattling noise from the rear end that I’ve been struggling to pin point, I suspected it to be the rear pillow ball top mounts. I stripped the offside rear strut and couldn’t find any play in the top mount or any issue with the damper, so it requires further investigation, it doesn’t do it all the time and when it does it’s usually over small bumps and uneven road surfaces. The TRD short shift provides a very precise feel to the gear change. One of the next jobs on my list is to clear cavity wax the sill cavity’s as a preventative measure, I may get round to this before the car sells.
Interior:
The front seats are Sr2 Recaros, fitted to sought after genuine recaro sliding rails, the passengers seat is very clean and good condition, the drivers seat is showing a fair amount of wear as they often are, the car was imported with these already fitted.
The car comes with perforated leather rear seats, currently they’re not fitted due to the water injection tank being fitted in there place, Ive been meaning to have a new tank made to fit in the spare wheel well so the rear seats etc can be refitted, but I haven’t got to that yet. Most of the bits are there for the rear interior including the seat belts, parcel shelf etc, I don’t have the passenger side rear 1/ 4 interior trim but they’re ten a penny.
The door cards are the swanky optional extra leather speaker 10 ones with the extra mid speaker and the tweeters in the mirror triangles. The car has the full Hyper sports mats, the drivers mat is a little worn but not too bad.
The AFR gauge hasn’t worked while I’ve owned the car, it flashes code 8 for overheated o2 sensor, I replaced the sensor with a genuine Bosch replacement but it still has the same code. I did some research and apparently they flash that code when they need a firmware update, I ordered the cables to update it and that’s as far as I got until now. The oil pressure gauge used to work fine but it’s been playing up for awhile, I believe it needs a new sensor. The egt gauge has been playing up a bit too. I checked all the wiring for the gauges and re did the solder connections etc but it didn’t solve it, fixing the gauges is on my to do list.
Other bits:
The alarm system isn’t bad but could do with a new module and siren. The siren doesn’t sound, the central locking and the immobiliser works fine though, it doesn’t go off on its own regard like some aftermarket alarms.
The rear screen wash pump isn’t working I think it just needs a new pump, the front works fine though.
Growing up this was my dream car, it was my oldest brothers st185 that first got me interested in Japanese cars so Gt-fours hold a dear place. Let’s not forget this is a 28+ year old highly modified car, although the car does run and perform well, most of the modifications have been on the car for 18+ years so there should be some level of sympathy towards the issues I’ve brought up, I prefer to be 100% honest when listing a car.
I am not selling the car for the money but in order to retain my own sanity. I’ve 6 project cars on the go, a daily driver and the Celica. I’ve been a mechanic since I was 17 and all I ever do in my day time and spare time is work on cars, it takes up so much of my spare time that I’m getting tired of it and beginning to resent working on the projects. So I made the decision to begin rehoming the herd, the Celica is the most saleable car at the moment being that it’s fully road worthy, so unfortunately it will be the first to go, but I’m not in a hurry to shift it on.
Finally the car is located in Leeds West Yorkshire. Please get in touch for viewings, thanks for reading.
My mobile is the details below
