Celica gt4, how good are they!

EDManual · 19-05-2006, 12:20 AM

Just thinking about a cool car to burn around on dirt roads, as well as being a nice car for the weekdays for my wife to be. I came up with this:! I want to do autocross racing in it too. Should fly!

A 1994 Celica Gt Four Group A Rally.

Have an old wheels mag, 0-100 in 5.9 seconds, they seem to have fun on the dirt roads! Was around $85000 plus on roads, now you can find them for 22 to 25000 for Australian delivered ones, which doesnt seem too bad.

See here:

http://www.carsales.com.au/pls/carsales/!cs_content.private_vehicle?vehicle_id=2808772&cur rent_rec=14&used_rec=1&total_rec=23&sort_type=&tot al_rec=23&sort_type=&price_min=7500&make_id=8&mode l_id=31&keyword=TURBO&state_id=-1&search_distance=25

Then looking around, some people have imported similar cars and try to sell them for 20,000 but dont have leather seats etc. I looked and found this from a japan direct exporter, just $5400us + $us800 shipping. How cheap is that!
http://www.japan-partner.com/images/...b5100b5abc.jpg
http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/15...-for-sale.html

If it was that simple! Anyone know how to get one registered like some people have?! How much money are the importers making! I see those 300zx twin turbos that are sold for 14 - 20 grand here are being sold for only 1 to 3 thousand dollars! and thats with massive wheels etc!

Anyone had a gt4 celica or have driven one?

Doctor Sodways · 19-05-2006, 12:26 AM

Most of the cost comes from compliance when you import a car, some majorthings need to be done to some cars, such as side intrusion bars and so fourth, can be worth it, but costly, a lot of cars get brought oveer, then the new owner realises what needs to be done and palms them off to someone else.

But celica GT4, 4WD, cant go too wrong with it

plext · 19-05-2006, 12:29 AM

Never driven one, but be wary of the seemingly low prices.

When I returned to Australia last year from working in Europe for four years, I brought my E39 M5 with me. The cost to send it was £1500, which seemed a bargain, considering what they are worth here.

Not so nice was the $15 000 in import duty, even though it was a personal import and I had owned and driven it for three years, which lowers the rates.

Add another couple or three thousand for for customs and handling fees, it starts to get very ugly.

All up, it was a damned pain and I would not think about doing it again. Check the fine print first would be my advice.

LTDHO · 19-05-2006, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doctor Sodways

Most of the cost comes from compliance when you import a car, some majorthings need to be done to some cars, such as side intrusion bars and so fourth, can be worth it, but costly, a lot of cars get brought oveer, then the new owner realises what needs to be done and palms them off to someone else.

But celica GT4, 4WD, cant go too wrong with it

From 1990 to 1992 the Celica GT4 Turbo and the 1994 Celica GT 4 Group A Rallye Pack was sold in Australia. The '94 had more power from factory and had ABS, LSD, etc.
You can pick up a 90 - 92 for half the price of a 94!

tickin · 19-05-2006, 08:29 AM

Yeah, they are VERY good.... My brother has the '94 model (same as in your pictures) and its a great car. He bought it already imported, but i think it had been bought over from japan.
Before this he had a skyline, when he bought that it was still in japan, but the guy that imported it sorted everything out so i cant help with any details on importing costs etc...

**Polyal** · 19-05-2006, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plext

Never driven one, but be wary of the seemingly low prices.

When I returned to Australia last year from working in Europe for four years, I brought my E39 M5 with me. The cost to send it was £1500, which seemed a bargain, considering what they are worth here.

Not so nice was the $15 000 in import duty, even though it was a personal import and I had owned and driven it for three years, which lowers the rates.

Add another couple or three thousand for for customs and handling fees, it starts to get very ugly.

All up, it was a damned pain and I would not think about doing it again. Check the fine print first would be my advice.

yeah GT4's go alright!

but I am more interested in this M5...any pics mates?

turboute · 19-05-2006, 11:23 AM

They are a great car - the engines can take about 450hp stock unopenned - It's like a 2JZ with a couple of cylinders missing. That being said stock they have 185kW - more powerful than WRX's and their engines/ gearboxes are stronger. The downside - the std Diff ratio's are a bit high so takeoff isn't as quick as it could be and there seems to be limited support for the engine over here.

F6T · 19-05-2006, 11:57 AM

One of my best mates has a gt4 celica. He has a heap of fun in it. We are always cruising around in it. Plenty of stick....good looking road stance.

MRJUCY · 19-05-2006, 12:10 PM

They were a pretty nasty, rushed set up thing just so they coud get homologation to race rather then a properly thought out & engineered performance vehicle.

EDManual · 19-05-2006, 05:42 PM

So the older gt4s dont have an LSD, thats a good enough reason to go for the 1994 one! Have nice seats too!, I really want one...
There were only 80 1994 group A's sold in Oz.

Mr Jucy: what was nasty about them? were they raced as is?

Looks like a much better car than a WRX to me.

Des Flurane · 19-05-2006, 05:55 PM

Heavier than the Evo or the WRX so that blunts the performance somewhat.
A work colleague has a fully worked up example, I'll get him to post tomorrow to give the low down.

MRJUCY · 19-05-2006, 06:54 PM

The rally cars had a completely different set up, they basically raided the spare parts bin to make the GT4 all the mounting points, angles, distribution etc in the suspension & driveline is all wrong the Pulsar GTi-R is the same story cruising about the place it's probably fine but when you get up them it all goes a bit wonky.

Barry_v · 19-05-2006, 07:03 PM

I work in a toyota dealership and I've seen maybe two or three come in the last year. they're damn rare, which is a curse when you need spare parts. You will need spare parts too considering its 12+ years old now. The ones I've seen on the street arent overly quick either.

in the same vein as a sportivo turbo corolla, not a bad car, but not something you want to try and get parts for.

DDXR6T · 19-05-2006, 07:30 PM

As with most 4wd cars ... gearbox woes. Yes, WRX's and EVO have problems too, but try finding a 4WD GT4 box.

Plus they are too heavy ... dampening performance. A mate had a KH 4WD Turbo TX3 (FMIC, VF22, 15psi) and munched a GT4 (modded too) at 3 sets of consecutive traffic lights.

nb_351 · 19-05-2006, 10:39 PM

personally it think theyre overrated... nice looking car thogh, especially the four eyes model gt4... as said before, any ff origin 4wd will have box problems... and yes you dont want to attempt to find parts for it... theyre about as common as gtho originals... theyre out there, somewhere, but youll pay a mint fot them...

EDManual · 20-05-2006, 03:41 PM

The oldest and lightest 160kw WRX's are 1270kg, power to weight 8.125 kg per kw
by 2001 they were 1390, 8.7 kg per kw
and now 1395 8.25 kg per kw

The 1994 GT4 is 1388 and has a power to weight of 7.8 kg per kw and is still as quick as any of these. Can get for just over $20,000.

WRX's are at their cheapest and they really arent pretty, so plain and ugly....at $14000.
They really dont compare in the looks race...

hmmm.

But yes, spares would be a problem. Toyotas are meant to be reliable though, so maybe there would be no need? Does toyotas reliablity extend to these?

**ebxr8240** · 20-05-2006, 10:04 PM

Try replacing clutch in one of them...
Not a 1/2 day job!!!!

FRDXR6 · 21-05-2006, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDManual

Just thinking about a cool car to burn around on dirt roads, as well as being a nice car for the weekdays for my wife to be. I came up with this:! I want to do autocross racing in it too. Should fly!

A 1994 Celica Gt Four Group A Rally.

Then looking around, some people have imported similar cars and try to sell them for 20,000 but dont have leather seats etc. I looked and found this from a japan direct exporter, just $5400us + $us800 shipping. How cheap is that!
http://www.japan-partner.com/images/...b5100b5abc.jpg
http://www.japan-partner.com/Auto/15...-for-sale.html

If it was that simple! Anyone know how to get one registered like some people have?! How much money are the importers making! I see those 300zx twin turbos that are sold for 14 - 20 grand here are being sold for only 1 to 3 thousand dollars! and thats with massive wheels etc!

Anyone had a gt4 celica or have driven one?

If your paying $5400 US (603,169.20 JPY) then your looking at a rough figure of $18 000 AUS to have it landed and complied.

Fees when importing include shipping, customes and agent fees, import duty, GST, stamp duty, regestration, compliance, service fee etc

Import rules are fairly tight these days and are constantly changing as there has been a huge surge in grey imports from Japan over the past 5-6 years. There wouldnt be many places that comply GT4's i wouldnt think and compliance plates would be scarce and thus costly.

Best bet would be to find a local import broker who can do it all for you (paperwork etc) and who has an agent in Japan who inspects the cars before auction, they usually charge $500-1500 brokerage fee per car but you wouldn't be able to do it yourself unless you had a lot of spare time and knowledge concerning imports.

I think there awesome cars though and certainly something different, have a look around at the various importers and see what they can do for you.