Wikipedia will tell you that Toyota got its Celica name from the Latin word 'coelica' which means 'heavenly'. If you were looking at the gen-7 T-Sport 190 VVTL-i, one of which we had in here around three years ago, it was an appropriate word for the amount of revving you had to dial in to get them up the road.
The 190 power and torque peaks didn't arrive until 7,600 and 6,800rpm respectively, with the VVTL-i's 'lift' not popping up until 6,200rpm. Obviously, once you got the engine up to those levels it was just a matter of keeping it there, but poorly-chosen ratios for the bottom three gears didn't help you in that endeavour and stratospheric revs weren't always practical when driving to the library or to a funeral.
Like today's shed, that 190 we ran in 2017 was a 2004 facelift model in the same lovely shade of blue, but today's car is a straight 1.8 140 VVT-i. That might sound like a rubbishy option, but when you read the ad you might well take the same view as Shed and come down in favour of today's car.
For general use the 140 was perfectly useable. Admittedly there was only 140hp and 125lb ft to play with, but the power peak arrived at 6,400rpm and max torque came in a lot lower than the 190's at 4,200rpm. Factoring in the 140's non-lardy 1,185kg weight meant that enjoying even the low-power Celica experience was a simple matter of setting your expectations at the right level.
Sonically, they weren't the most inspiring cars in the world, the reined-in straining of the engine competing with the rattling of the trim as you pursued its 8.7sec 0-62 time. There was always that feeling that the stiff chassis needed more grunt but upping the power on non-turbo cars was always more of a faff. The strict factory settings on Celicas led more than one 190 owner straight to the whirry world of Blitz or GReddy supercharging, where up to 400hp was possible. We don't know how much more grunt our unsupercharged shed has over the standard 140, but you can see yourself from the ad that it's been put through a pleasure-enrichment programme. Looking at the very clean condition of the car it's easy to believe the current owner's assertions that both he and the previous custodian have lavished plenty of love on it.
We're told that there is no rust. That's a biggie. The MOT test promised for the car has actually just been carried out and it has indeed zoomed through with no comments from the tester, quite something for a 16-year old Toyota that you'd normally expect to have at least a bit of biscuityness in its metalwork. But no, there it is, an advisory-free, low-mileage Celica with a full 12 month ticket and a well-chosen bundle of tuning bits that's probably worth the car's asking price on their own.
The engines on early gen-7s can be a bit thirsty for oil. Our facelifter should be OK in that respect. The five-speed gearshift was quick and neat as standard: this car has a short-shifter kit. You'd like to think that the suspension changes will have gone some way towards sharpening the Celica's already tidy handling, combining with the intake and exhaust mods to shave off any traces of understeer and to tame the tendency for rowdiness over bumpy roads. Lowering these cars does make a positive difference to the way they go along.
The 2018 test man did have something to say about the missing driver's airbag. The MOT regs are poorly worded in regards to the fitment of aftermarket non-bagged steering wheels, but as PHer McSam pointed out in another unrelated thread there is an exemption to allow the removal of original-fit safety equipment if the car is extensively modified for rallying. The definition of 'extensive modification' seems to depend on the tester. Another PHer noted on the same McSam thread that his regularly rallied and sprinted Clio 172 went through the test no problem despite the only mods being a bagless wheel and some new springs. Bottom line appears to be, find a motorsport-friendly MOT tester - as the owner of our shed clearly has - and you shouldn't have a problem.
Generically, Celica boot struts eventually get fed up with heaving up the big hatch, especially in cold weather, the long doors can be a liability in tight car parks, and although the seats are mounted low, tall drivers might still struggle with visibility issues. Brake calipers stick, a common Japanese thing. On the plus side the Celica does have two seats in the back to smooth the family man's purchasing path - although having deployed that fact to facilitate the buy you might then find it a bit of a swine getting the kiddie seats in there. Just blame it on Shed and rest easy in the knowledge that nobody reads this feature.
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