I'm hankering for another project car I can build into something trackable, as my E39 daily is doing it's job very well. I've been thinking about it, and although I love me some turbo boost, the cars I remember having the most fun with were all endowed with high-revving NA motors.
I got to thinking about the 5th/6th gen Celicas, which seem like a very under-rated platform; overseas the top-spec models seem to be ITR competitors, while in the US we got boned with the mediocre 5SFE motor. The Toyota scene is pretty rocking and rolling, so there are no shortage of plug and play wiring harnesses to drop a 200HP 3SGE Beams in one of these cars with minimal effort. It's also encouraging that these cars were built in Toyota's era of extraordinary build quality.
I know Swank had a 5th gen for a while, but does anyone else have experience with these cars? Even nice ones seem to be really cheap these days. Can you make them go around corners well?
You can definitely make them go around corners well, AND they'll swallow a LOT of rubber, which helps.
Are they Miatas? Nope.
I think the biggest question is: How much are you willing to do/spend to make it handle? I had some of Megan Racing's "high end" coilovers on my car. Rode like ass, handled like awesome.
Knowing what i know now, i'd probably buy the cheapest Taiwan coilovers i could find, then send them off to FEAL to have them work their magic. I'm not sure if anything super awesome has come out since i got rid of mine or last followed what was available.
Beyond that... they're SUPER solid and well-built cars. Brakes are very good, transmission plenty strong for any n/a motor you'd stand to chuck at it, though the later 6th gens have the S54, which is a little better than the earlier S53 that's in all the 5th gens.
Coupes are lightest and stiffest, hatches are sexiest.
The best 5th gens are 92-93, lots of little things that add up.
This was 16x8s wrapped in 245/45-16s. I DID have Alltrac/GTS fenders up front, but with a good roll, not necessary. I had room for more.
Maybe you'll know this: I see mentions of 6g cars with an optional "sport suspension". Some cursory browsing for parts seems to indicate that these models used different struts, as in they do not fit the same.
Is the "sport suspension" the US equivalent of the Super Strut system? Nobody seems to be able to confirm or deny this and I don't have a FSM/parts catalog handy to verify.
Get a non-turbo MR2 slick top and put the 3SGE in that. Such a car would be a riot.
SlickDizzy wrote:
Maybe you'll know this: I see mentions of 6g cars with an optional "sport suspension". Some cursory browsing for parts seems to indicate that these models used different struts, as in they do not fit the same.
Is the "sport suspension" the US equivalent of the Super Strut system? Nobody seems to be able to confirm or deny this and I don't have a FSM/parts catalog handy to verify.
We didn't get the SuperStrut or any variation of it here.
I wouldn't worry about any of it. Nothing critical will be different. All ST-chassis cars (which is what you want anyways, an "AT" chassis will make your swap needlessly complicated) of their same generation had the same uprights.
Also i still have those JDM y0 folding mirrors, i think some JDM vented tails, and clear bumper lights, if you end up with a 5th gen. Let me know if that stuff interests you.
Get a BEAMS and a J160 and put them in a 82-85 rwd Celica chassis....?????
In reply to oldeskewltoy:
Those cars don't exist in the Midwest anymore and that's far from a bolt-in swap...
I have not seen one of these in the north east in 10 years. I forgot how great they look.
I'm pretty sure all the remaining ones are in TN and NC for some reason. Every time i go down to Deal's Gap i see dozens and dozens of them and i don't know why.
There's a couple in the Midwest, but they all seem to be haggard base models. They all disappeared at once.
The junkyard by my house has one from that generation with a small front end accident, but other than that it looks amazing. The paint is still shiny! Everytime I go by it I think about stopping
In reply to Swank Force One:
What wheels are those? Every time you post that car I want to go looking for a 5th gen even though my heart is set on a childhood-nostalgia 4th.
And once again, I feel privileged to live in the PNW. That gen Celica (and every gen Celica for that matter) seem to thrive here. I personally own a third gen Celica. This thing is a hoot. So much fun! I've got ebay civic coilovers, kyb agx's, and mustang gt rear springs cut down a coil. It corners like my old 240z. Quick. And has torque. Maybe I'm biased, but this car has it all. Especially the low (but inflating!) price tag. Currently, you can score a mkIII for about 500$ in "repairable condition" I've spent maybe 800$ on mine, and am currently doing a ford 8.8 LSD swap. It's all the pros of an ae86, and none of the drift tax.
DO IT. I really wanted to swap a Beams into my 6th gen when I had it, would have been the perfect balance of power and handling. The only quality issues I had with mine were the drivers door started rusting from the inside, and the hatch started rattling. I shimmed the old rubber stoppers on the hatch and that stopped the rattle, and I just swapped the door with one I bought from the local pick-n-pull, same color and everything.
I prefer the 6th gen with it's Coke bottle shape. Here's a pick of my old one.
Fearesome maw that gen had. Like looking at a four eyed frog...
kanaric wrote:
Get a non-turbo MR2 slick top and put the 3SGE in that. Such a car would be a riot.
I agree, but you could probably find a cheap celica, import a 3SGE, install 3SGE, and drive it for a year before finding a decent slick top to swap into. 
In reply to clutchsmoke:
My thought exactly. A clean MR2 roller in WI is worth about $2k these days, slick top or not. If it moves under its own power, they start at $4k. That will get you a gorgeous Celica with enough cash left over to do the swap because there's no fanboy tax.
In reply to SlickDizzy: Plus people expect MR2s to be kinda quick. No one suspects the Celica 
Yes I love sleepers.
ssswitch wrote:
In reply to Swank Force One:
What wheels are those? Every time you post that car I want to go looking for a 5th gen even though my heart is set on a childhood-nostalgia 4th.
Those were Enkei RP01 Special Editions.
In reply to dean1484:
Down south, baby. Dime a dozen. I imagine out west is the same way. By the way, what a gorgeous, understated, and under-the-radar car!
In reply to Trackmouse:
First car was the '83 Celica/Supra. Red with black hatch, and that odd wing appendage on the hatch. So much fun. Learned how to drive sideways, never get stuck in snow (grew up in DC area), and even jumped it in the Airbus parking lot, besides Beech Mill Rd in Great Falls/Langly, but that was just a necessity of getting the best time possible on that road. Would I love another one day, with real power and such? God, can you tell?
In reply to Swank Force One:
Thanks!
I love Enkei.
